Comparison

Boating Weather vs Good Buoy

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

Good Buoy

This app provides a comprehensive boating dashboard with real-time weather conditions, live buoy camera feeds, and nautical chart overlays. It also records trips, tracks water roughness, and monitors your body's response to motion, helping you plan better days on the water.

Highlights
  • Conditions dashboard (wave height, wind, temp, pressure)
  • Live buoy camera feeds
  • Nautical chart overlay
  • GPS trip recording with roughness gradient
  • Motion and stress sensing
  • Color-coded condition ratings
Features
Read full description

Good Buoy is a new kind of boating app — one built around the experience of being on the water, not just getting there. We bring together buoy, phone, and watch data into a clean, glanceable dashboard so you can plan smarter days and capture the ones worth remembering. Conditions dashboard Four metrics that matter — wave height, wind speed, water temperature, and air pressure — each with trend charts and instant, color-coded ratings. Know before you go. Buoy cameras Numbers describe the ocean. Cameras show it. Browse live imagery from offshore NOAA buoy cams for visual context on sea state, visibility, and the conditions data alone can't convey. Nautical chart overlay Chart data and navigational marks, layered cleanly over Apple Maps. Trip recording Turn your iPhone into a trip recorder. GPS routes with distance, speed, and a roughness-colored gradient trail that shows where the ride got bumpy. Motion & stress sensing Numbers fade. The memory of a rough ride doesn't. Your iPhone measures how rough the water felt, while your Apple Watch tracks how your body responded to it. Every trip ends with a picture of how the day really felt — so you can look back, learn, and plan smarter ones ahead. Spend less time checking apps. Spend more time on the water.

Screenshots

Boating Weather3 screens
Good Buoy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Good Buoy at Free against Boating Weather's $1.99. Good Buoy also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Boating Weather's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (3.4K vs 4). On in-app purchases 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

Good Buoy 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

Good Buoy 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 4, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Boating Weather ships an update every 6 weeks, Good Buoy weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Boating Weather versus Good Buoy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBoating WeatherGood Buoy
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (3.4K ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings3.4K — better4
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
Best chart rank#76 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBlue Whale Apps IncGOOD BUOY LLC

Customer experience

Boating Weather

All ratings3,398 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews68 reviews
Positive66.2%
Neutral5.9%
Negative27.9%

Good Buoy

All ratings4 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

Good Buoy

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Boating Weather

No in-app purchases

None

Good Buoy

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Boating Weather free?
Boating Weather costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Good Buoy free?
Good Buoy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Boating Weather or Good Buoy?
Good Buoy is rated higher. Boating Weather averages 4.8 out of 5 from 3.4K ratings, while Good Buoy averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Boating Weather or Good Buoy have ads?
Good Buoy shows ads; Boating Weather does not.
Which is updated more often, Boating Weather or Good Buoy?
Boating Weather ships an update every 6 weeks, and Good Buoy weekly. Most recently, Boating Weather was updated on October 31, 2026 and Good Buoy on October 31, 2026.

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