Comparison

TideApp vs Tide Guide

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

TideApp

Access real-time tidal charts and data for over 4,000 locations globally. Plan trips with future tide information and view daily highs, lows, and sun/moon cycles.

Highlights
  • Global tidal charts
  • Daily tide highs and lows
  • Sun and moon cycles
  • Future tide graphs
  • Trip planning tool
  • Updated interface
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

TideApp turns your phone into a tide table for 3,486 NOAA stations across the United States — the 1,251 reference stations NOAA publishes full harmonic data for, plus 2,235 subordinate stations derived from them. Drag the chart and the water follows your finger. Predictions are computed on your device from NOAA's published harmonic constants, so once the app has loaded, no signal or connection is needed to read the tide. FREE • Today's tide at any station, with sunrise, sunset and the day's moon • Conditions above the chart — the sky, the temperature, and the day's high and low • Nearest-station lookup from your location, or find any of the 3,486 by name or on the map • Switch between stations any time — starred stations are free, not a Pro feature PRO • Every day, not just today — drag the chart and the day strip as far as you like • Wind and gusts on a compass, pressure and which way it's going, visibility, and the chance of rain • Apple Watch app and complications • Widgets on your home screen • Alerts for high and low tides as well as thresholds The weather needs a connection. The tide does not — it is computed on your phone, so an outage takes the sky off the screen and leaves the water exactly where it was. TideApp Pro is a 4.99 USD/month or 49.99 USD/year auto-renewing subscription with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at purchase confirmation; the subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your Apple ID account settings. See Terms of Use and Privacy Policy below. Predictions are computed from published NOAA CO-OPS harmonic constants. They are not official NOAA products, are not endorsed by NOAA, and are not a substitute for official navigational sources — they exclude storm surge, wind, and other weather effects and should not be relied on for navigation. Weather data provided by Apple Weather. Terms of Use: https://tideapp.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://tideapp.com/privacy.html

About

Tide Guide

Access detailed tide and marine weather forecasts worldwide. Visualize conditions with beautiful charts and customize your experience with widgets and Live Activities. Plan your next outdoor adventure with confidence.

Highlights
  • Worldwide tide and marine weather data
  • Full-screen dynamic charts
  • Monthly and yearly tide tables
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Live Activities for current conditions
  • Siri and Shortcuts integration
  • Lunar phase calendar
Features
Read full description

The award winning tide app for Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad and Mac. Never miss a tide, sunset, or beautiful day on the water. Tide Guide features tide and marine weather conditions from trusted data providers worldwide. It's beautiful, powerful, and provides easy access to thousands of different tide stations around the world. # Apple Design Award & App Store App of the Year Finalist # Built for Apple Watch Gorgeous full screen charts provide detailed tide and weather conditions. Each chart is dynamic and can switch between other conditions and views with just a tap. # Monthly & Yearly Tide Tables View detailed forecasts for 10 days, and tide tables for the next 12 months. Various display options allow for powerful layout customizations. # Home and Lock Screen Widgets Add beautiful and powerful widgets to your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Tide Guide features an extensive set of widgets, with powerful customization options allow for endless combinations of marine and tide conditions. # Live Activities Use Live Activities to follow the current tide or sunset. There are different options for various “island activities.” Track the current tide, wind direction, solar progress, or lunar phase. # Summary Shortcuts Use Siri or the Shortcuts app to view different summaries of the tide, surf conditions, upcoming forecasts, and more. Ask Siri “Tide Guide Surf Report” to never miss the next swell. # Lunar Calendar Easily track the current lunar phase with a beautiful lunar phase calendar. Explore the altitude and elevation of the moon throughout the day, and view detailed solunar times like nautical dawn, dusk, and more. # Pro Features Many features in the app are free to use, and certain availability varies by region. Widgets, complications, detailed charts, and future table data require an active Pro subscription. Privacy & Terms: https://tideguide.com/privacy https://tideguide.com/terms

Screenshots

TideApp4 screens
Tide Guide4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: TideApp at free against Tide Guide's freemium. TideApp also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). Tide Guide's advantage is ratings volume (10K vs 21) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. TideApp sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Tide Guide sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for TideApp against 4.7 for Tide Guide. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tide Guide has 10K ratings behind it against 21, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 40% of TideApp's written reviews are positive against 55% of Tide Guide's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TideApp ships an update every 2 weeks, Tide Guide every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
TideApp versus Tide Guide: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTideAppTide Guide
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (21 ratings)4.7 (10K ratings) — better
Positive reviews40.0% of reviews54.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2110K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
Best chart rank#195#42 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS16.4 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB275 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperForrest GrantCondor Digital

Customer experience

TideApp

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews55 reviews
Positive40.0%
Neutral12.7%
Negative47.3%

Tide Guide

All ratings10,226 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral2.8%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews380 reviews
Positive54.7%
Neutral11.6%
Negative33.7%

User reviews

TideApp

From 21 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Used to be great
  • 👍 Phenomenal for timing slack tides
  • 👍 Useful for planning activities
  • 👍 Good free app
  • 👍 Comprehensive location listings

Room to improve

  • 😞 App is dead
  • 😞 Stopped working
  • 😞 Startup ad issues
  • 😞 Now terrible
  • 😞 Full screen ads

Tide Guide

From 10K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Accurate data
  • 👍 Informative and varied data presentations
  • 👍 Intuitive UI
  • 👍 Integration with Apple Watch
  • 👍 Beautiful UI and design

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent freezing or crashing
  • 🐛 Widgets and complications not always reliable or synced
  • 🐛 Slow loading times and refresh rates
  • 🐛 Incompatibility issues with certain locations (e.g. Canada, Australia)
  • 💰 Expensive subscription or lifetime pricing

Bugs and requests

TideApp

Reported bugs

41 issues
  • Startup ad forces browser launch
  • Cannot get past opening ad
  • Full screen ads that can't be closed
  • Ads fill entire screen
  • Full screen adds one after the other
Show 36 more
  • Screen to install a game that can't be bypassed
  • Update ruined app
  • Deleted useful functionality
  • Blank colored screen or lock up when working with favorites
  • App needs to be forced quit
  • Tide waveform does not allow scrolling
  • Full screen ad on opening blocks tide info
  • Ad can't be closed without downloading something unrelated
  • Cannot drag line on tide graph
  • New version doesn't list things in order
  • Doesn't tell next high or low tide
  • Screens don't move to reveal information
  • App does not get past opening ad
  • Not possible to scroll down graph
  • Does not load
  • Previous version opened in an ad that could not be closed
  • No way of seeing data for any day other than current
  • Changing a date does nothing
  • Crashed frequently
  • App crashes
  • Graph part of application quit, immediately closing the app
  • White banner and a black screen
  • Dates back on track (temporary glitch)
  • App crashes when surfing other locations
  • Freezing
  • Washington, D.C. sites listed under Washington state
  • Tolerable work-around needed for launch
  • App can be launched when no network connection is available
  • Latest app deleted, old version synced back
  • App takes too much memory
  • Advertisement needs WiFi connection sometimes
  • App says it needs WiFi, cellular is fine other times
  • Totally failed
  • Undo the upgrade and give back old version
  • No time zone correction for tides
  • Base time zone appears to be US Eastern Time Zone

Requested features

21 requests
  • Make a version I can buy and go ad free
  • Bring back scrolling through chart waveform
  • Bring back future date chart view
  • Bring back ability to scroll waveform
  • Add tide time offset feature
Show 16 more
  • Add option to offset time for specific location
  • Add moonphase percentage to moon rise
  • Add a black (or red) line at 0 ft mark in chart mode
  • See chart for one week at a time
  • Get favorites loaded offline
  • Include CURRENTS
  • Date picker in calendar format
  • Graph scrollable for 7 days
  • Support switching to landscape
  • Search for minus tides
  • Add option to use GPS location to find tide stations nearby
  • List locations under actual geographic state
  • Update icon to match other apps
  • Add bookmarks/default to often-used locations
  • Go straight to last port viewed when opened
  • Add time zone correction

Tide Guide

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Keyboard not appearing in location search
  • Tide data inaccuracies compared to other sources
  • Widgets and complications disappearing or not updating
  • App crashing when switching between locations or opening certain features

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to view more than a few days at a time
  • Display of current and historical tide heights
  • Integration of swell height and direction data
  • Offsets for tide times and heights
  • Map view for selecting locations
Show 1 more
  • Family sharing support

In-app purchases

2 purchases

TideApp

Subscriptions2
  • TideApp Pro Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • TideApp Pro Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
10 purchases

Tide Guide

Subscriptions9
  • Tide Guide Pro (1 Month)$3.991 Month
  • Tide Guide Pro (1 Month)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Tide Guide Pro$4.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Tide Guide Pro (1 Month)$4.991 Month
  • Tide Guide Pro (12 Months)3 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Tide Guide Pro (12 Months)7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Tide Guide Pro (12 Months)$29.991 Year
  • Tide Guide Pro (12 Months)7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Tide Guide Pro7 Days trial$40.001 Year
One-time1
  • Tide Guide Pro (Lifetime)$150.00

Questions

Is TideApp free?
TideApp is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tide Guide free?
Tide Guide is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, TideApp or Tide Guide?
Tide Guide is rated higher. TideApp averages 4.7 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while Tide Guide averages 4.7 from 10K ratings.
Do TideApp or Tide Guide have ads?
Neither TideApp nor Tide Guide shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TideApp or Tide Guide?
TideApp ships an update every 2 weeks, and Tide Guide every 3 days. Most recently, TideApp was updated on October 31, 2026 and Tide Guide on November 6, 2026.
Which is more popular, TideApp or Tide Guide?
TideApp currently peaks at #195 in the App Store charts, and Tide Guide at #42. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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