RadarScope vs Wx for iPhone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RadarScope
Visualize professional-grade weather radar data with advanced tools for meteorologists, storm spotters, and enthusiasts. Access real-time radar information, severe weather alerts, and historical data with optional subscription tiers for enhanced capabilities.
- Single-site radar data visualization
- Severe weather alerts and warnings
- NWS-generated storm tracks
- Historical radar data archive
- GOES satellite products
- Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor products
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RadarScope is an AMS-award-winning weather visualization tool that empowers meteorologists, public safety officials, storm spotters, and weather enthusiasts to view a full suite of single-site radar data and related severe weather products. Your initial purchase provides professional radar visualization in a fully native app, free from distracting and invasive practices, with optional subscription packages to add even more capabilities. Whether you’re scanning for a mesocyclone’s tell-tale hook echo, pinpointing the landfall of a hurricane’s eye wall, or identifying velocity couplet, hail spike, or debris ball signatures, RadarScope displays native radar data in its original radial format. You see what the radar sees almost as soon as the radar sees it, with automatic updates every two to ten minutes depending on the radar’s scanning strategy. Your initial app purchase includes the following: • Full suite of single-site radar products for the US, Canada, Guam, Denmark, Finland, and Germany • 10-frame radar loops • Two built-in providers for radar data • Tornado, thunderstorm, flash flood, marine, snow squall, extreme wind, tropical, and other warnings in the US • Selected severe weather warnings in Canada and Australia • Severe weather watches in the US and Canada • NWS-generated storm tracks with hail, TVS, and mesocyclone attributes • Inspector and distance tools • Color palette options for radar data • Weather Pulse data plan integration • Spotter Network integration for storm and location reporting • mPING integration for submitting weather reports to NSSL • Bundled maps with political borders, water bodies, and highways, optimized for low-bandwidth use • Support for widgets and complications • Universal app for Apple platforms, including Apple Watch, and Apple TV • CarPlay support • Family Sharing support RadarScope Pro Tier One is an optional annual subscription that adds more features for tracking severe weather: • 30-frame radar loops • Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes • Special weather statements in the US and Canada • Mesoscale convective and precipitation discussions • SPC convective, tornado, hail, wind, and fire outlooks • WPC excessive rainfall outlooks in the US • Local storm reports in the US • Custom color palette support • Multi-pane display (2 on phones; 4 on larger devices) • Family Sharing support RadarScope Pro Tier Two is an optional annual or monthly subscription that transforms RadarScope into a more complete visualization tool for a larger suite of weather products, including: • Everything in Pro Tier One • 50-frame radar loops • A third provider for US radar data • 30-year archive of NEXRAD Level II radar data • 6-year archive of NEXRAD Level III data • 30-day archive of super-res and non-US radar data • 20-year archive of NWS bulletins • GOES satellite data • Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) data • Real-Time Mesoscale Assimilation (RTMA) data • GFS, ECMWF, HRRR, HRW, NAM, and RRFS model data • Surface observations • ProbSevere layer • Atmospheric soundings in the US • Hail size, hail probability, and azimuthal shear contours with a 30-day archive • More detailed transportation and satellite imagery maps • Custom color palette support for GOES, MRMS, RTMA, and forecast products • Server-sent events for radar and warning updates • Cross-platform subscription sharing on up to 5 devices If you choose to buy a RadarScope Pro subscription, it will be charged to your App Store account. The subscription will be auto-renewed within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period at the same price you originally paid. Subscriptions may be managed and auto-renewal disabled via your App Store account settings after the purchase. Once purchased, the subscription cannot be canceled during the active subscription period. DTN is committed to safeguarding your privacy online. Our privacy policy is available for review at https://www.dtn.com/privacy-policy/ Please visit our web site for more information.
Wx for iPhone
This app provides detailed U.S. weather information, including current conditions, forecasts, alerts, and radar data. It offers customizable forecasts with extensive meteorological data and the ability to load personal weather maps.
- Current U.S. weather conditions
- 7-day point and pro forecasts
- Detailed forecast graphs (temp, humidity, wind, precipitation)
- NWS observation site data
- NEXRAD radar data
- NWS alerts and warnings
- Customizable weather maps
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The venerable U.S. weather app Wx, named a Mac Gem by Macworld magazine, is now available for iPhone! Wx displays current conditions, forecasts, alerts, and radar for U.S. locations using high fidelity XML data from the U.S. National Weather Service. The app is designed for two specific types of customers: serious weather watchers who want detailed information and facts with no fuss, and casual users who want a fast, clean, and functional weather app that has low memory overhead and low CPU/battery usage. Wx lets you choose your location on an embedded map, and uses that to setup custom forecasts based on the latitude and longitude of the location. Forecasts include a 7-day summary "point" forecast, and a 7-day “pro” forecast that graphs temperature (actual and apparent), dew point, relative humidity, cloud cover, wind speed, wind direction, gust speed, 12-hour probability of precipitation, 6-hour liquid precipitation amount, and 6-hour snow amount. These forecasts are about as good as it gets if you need to plan work, sports, hobbies, and outdoor activities based on upcoming weather. With their high spatial resolution, the point and pro forecasts are especially useful in coastal and mountainous regions, where typical zone forecasts can be inaccurate. Wx also lets you receive current conditions data from nearby NWS observation sites (over 1700 available in the U.S. and its territories), get radar data from nearby NEXRAD radar sites, and receive warnings from nearby city- and county-based alert zones. Wx lets you bookmark and setup weather maps for quick reference. Choose from some default NWS maps and images, or provide the URL for any map of your choice and load it right in the app! If you have preferred weather providers, you can load your favorite maps and images right in Wx and keep them handy. Wx is crafted with attention to detail by a professional software developer with 29 years of experience, 15 years focused on developing weather software for OS X and 12 years writing apps for iOS devices. Wx has multiple levels of redundancy to handle severe weather events that can strain NWS servers, and even offers network settings for both Wi-Fi and cellular operation so that you can fine tune the app’s performance and bandwidth needs. Wx is also available for the iPad and OS X. See hrtapps.com for more info. ***NOTE*** If you need support or help, or have feedback, suggestions, or feature requests, please contact us via the support link (above) or on our website at hrtapps.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Wx for iPhone at none against RadarScope's 4. Wx for iPhone also leads on price ($2.99 vs $9.99) and review sentiment (76% vs 51%). RadarScope's advantage is ratings volume (2.8K vs 27) and update cadence (monthly vs every 5 months). On rating and ads 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
RadarScope costs $9.99 and Wx for iPhone $2.99 up front. RadarScope sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Wx for iPhone asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for RadarScope against 4.3 for Wx for iPhone. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RadarScope has 2.8K ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 51% of RadarScope's written reviews are positive against 76% of Wx for iPhone's.
RadarScope ships an update monthly, Wx for iPhone every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RadarScope | Wx for iPhone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.2 (2.8K ratings) | 4.3 (27 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 51.3% of reviews | 76.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.8K — better | 27 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #1 — better | #108 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 11.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 310 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Base Velocity, LLC | Craig Hunter |
Customer experience
RadarScope
Wx for iPhone
Bugs and requests
RadarScope
Reported bugs
3 issues- Subscription issues and failed purchases
- Inconsistent radar updates and connectivity problems
- Apple Watch app limitations and bugs
Requested features
5 requests- Winter weather advisories and precipitation coloring
- Ability to view multiple radars simultaneously
- More detailed road maps
- Archived radar data access
- Customizable alert colors and notifications
Wx for iPhone
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
RadarScope
- Pro Tier 1$9.991 Year
- Pro Tier 2$14.991 Month
- Pro Tier 2$99.991 Year
- RadarScope Pro Subscription$9.99
Wx for iPhone
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is RadarScope free?
Is Wx for iPhone free?
Which has better reviews, RadarScope or Wx for iPhone?
Do RadarScope or Wx for iPhone have ads?
Which is updated more often, RadarScope or Wx for iPhone?
Which is more popular, RadarScope or Wx for iPhone?
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