Comparison

Boating Weather vs FD Viewer

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

Head to head
About

Boating Weather

Get detailed marine weather forecasts for coastal zones in the United States. View wind speed, wave height, surf conditions, and small craft advisories. Perfect for planning boating trips, fishing, or sailing.

Highlights
  • National Weather Service forecasts
  • Wind speed, wave height, surf forecast
  • Small craft advisories
  • Favorites for easy location switching
  • Default location setting
  • Intuitive and quick design
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Need to know what the marine forecast is before you go boating or during your boating trip? The Boating Weather App for iPhone and iPod Touch is the answer. This intuitive app will show you the wind speed, surf and wave height for your coastal zone in the United States. Marine weather data is provided by the National Weather Service (NOAA). Features: - One touch National Weather Service forecast for today, tonight and this week. - Shows wind speed, seas wave height and surf forecast. - Add a location to Favorites for easy reference when switching between zones - Shows small craft advisories. - Set your default location to show your local boat weather forecast. - Simple, intuitive design, quick loading Whether you want to go on a boating trip, out fishing or for a quick sail, the Boating Weather iPhone App will tell you in a snap what the seas are doing! Thank you for choosing our marine weather application. We understand that some users have encountered issues due to recent changes in the NOAA API endpoint. Our team has worked diligently to resolve these issues and has updated the application accordingly. To benefit from these changes, we kindly request that you update or re-install the application. Should you continue to experience difficulties, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@bluewhaleapps.com. Our team is committed to assisting you promptly.

About

FD Viewer

Access and read detailed text weather products from the National Weather Service. This app reformats Area Forecast Discussions into a user-friendly interface, allowing easy navigation through sections and offices.

Highlights
  • Read Area Forecast Discussions (AFDs)
  • View NWS offices on a map
  • List offices by distance or alphabetically
  • Paginated section navigation
  • User-friendly reformatting of weather data
Features
Read full description

Area Forecast Discussions (AFDs) are a text weather product released by the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices to inform and elaborate on the public forecast. FD Viewer presents each office on a map and also displays a list of offices sorted by distance or alphabetically. Selecting an office will display the latest Forecast Discussion paginated by section. Swipe right or left to navigate through each section. This app merely reformats the web-based AFD information in a user-friendly format. All credit for the forecast information goes to all the hardworking people at the NWS. TBD: I plan to support in-app glossary popups that will describe some of the more arcane acronyms and phrases used in the forecast text.

Screenshots

Boating Weather3 screens
FD Viewer3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: FD Viewer at Free against Boating Weather's $1.99. FD Viewer also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Boating Weather's advantage is ratings volume (3.4K vs 1) and chart position (#91 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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

FD Viewer is free to download; Boating Weather costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

FD Viewer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Boating Weather has 3.4K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Boating Weather ships an update every 6 weeks, FD Viewer every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and June 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Boating Weather versus FD Viewer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBoating WeatherFD Viewer
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (3.4K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews65.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings3.4K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#91 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBlue Whale Apps IncNeil Cormia

Customer experience

Boating Weather

All ratings3,398 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews67 reviews
Positive65.7%
Neutral6.0%
Negative28.4%

FD Viewer

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Boating Weather

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Forecast data stuck on old dates
  • App freezing or not loading properly
  • Location detection issues

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more geographic areas
  • Provide longer-range weather forecasts
  • Implement a widget for quick weather access
  • Include NOAA marine area forecasts
  • Improve app performance and stability

FD Viewer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Boating Weather

No in-app purchases

None

FD Viewer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Boating Weather free?
Boating Weather costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is FD Viewer free?
FD Viewer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Boating Weather or FD Viewer?
FD Viewer is rated higher. Boating Weather averages 4.8 out of 5 from 3.4K ratings, while FD Viewer averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Boating Weather or FD Viewer have ads?
Neither Boating Weather nor FD Viewer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Boating Weather or FD Viewer?
Boating Weather ships an update every 6 weeks, and FD Viewer every 2 weeks. Most recently, Boating Weather was updated on September 29, 2026 and FD Viewer on June 5, 2026.

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