AyeTides XL vs Coastal Explorer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AyeTides XL
Access tide and current data for over 12,500 global locations without an internet connection. View daily events in tabular or graphical formats, find stations by map or name, and save favorites. Designed for iPad, it offers accurate, ad-free planning for marine activities.
- Offline tide and current data
- 12,500+ global locations
- Interactive tide graphs
- Calendar view
- Station search by map, name, or location
- Favorite stations
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Never be without the tides again! You too can carry the tides with you as you walk along the shore, fly into a harbor, or sail off into the sunset. AyeTides XL displays tides and/or currents for over 12,500 locations worldwide. and unlike many other tide apps it does not require a network connection. With AyeTides XL you will never see those annoying ads or be asked to pay for additional features! Sailors, harbor pilots, beachcombers, nature photographers, and more use AyeTides to plan their outings on or around the world's oceans. And there are NO ads and NO subscriptions! Here are some of the things people are saying about AyeTides... "AyeTides is a quality professional product” "Your support has been the best I have experienced!" “As a harbor pilot in New York I’ve been using your excellent tide and current app” "I really appreciate the effort that you put into making AyeTides as accurate as it can be. It is a great program that has been very useful to us. I think we have 60 pilots using iPhones and iNavX and your app links in so well." "I am a ships Pilot in BC and use Aye Tides a lot and it has become invaluable.” You can see the day’s events in tabular form with an interactive graph, or you can rotate the phone for an calendar view. Tapping on a day brings up additional information for that day. You can find a station on a map, by name, based on your current location, or set a favorite station and always have it handy. AyeTides XL is updated regularly and stations are added whenever we find new data. We encourage our customers to contact us if you hare having any issues with the program. This app is designed to run on your iPad. It does not run on an iPhone or iPod Touch. If you have multiple devices, you may want to consider our bundle. Get both apps for a discounted price! This is the only place to install AyeTides. Other websites may look like they have AyeTides, but they do not. We only support iOS, any other version of AyeTides is not ours.
Coastal Explorer
Plan and log your cruises with detailed nautical charts and weather forecasts. Enhance your experience with a subscription for offline access, real-time navigation, and integration with marine electronics.
- View NOAA and USACE nautical charts
- Create routes and waypoints
- Cloud synchronization
- ActiveCaptain points of interest
- US Coast Pilot information
- Marine weather forecasts
- Tide and current predictions
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Coastal Explorer™ is a sophisticated, full-featured, easy-to-use cruise planning and logging tool designed specifically for the pleasure boater. And it becomes a complete navigation system with the purchase of a chart subscription. The free Coastal Explorer app provides these great planning features: * View NOAA and USACE nautical charts for the US in vector format * Create routes, waypoints, boundaries, and other navigation objects * Cloud-synchronization of your navigation objects * ActiveCaptain points of interest * US Coast Pilot information * Marine weather forecasts and observations for the US * Tide and current predictions for the US Purchasing a chart subscription turns Coastal Explorer into a complete navigation system that includes: * Downloadable charts, tide and current predictions, Coast Pilot, and ActiveCaptain places for offline use * Interfacing with compatible networked marine electronics devices, including GPS, compass, depth sounder, anemometer, AIS, autopilot, and more * Customizable instrument panels * Route following with cross-track error, distance and time to go, estimated time of arrival, etc * Track and event recording * Integrated blogging Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. See our Terms of Service at https://www.rosepoint.com/legal/terms_of_service.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: AyeTides XL at 76% against Coastal Explorer's 11%. AyeTides XL also leads on rating (4.8 vs 2.8) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Coastal Explorer's advantage is price (Free vs $7.99) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 weeks). On 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
Coastal Explorer is free to download; AyeTides XL costs $7.99 up front. Coastal Explorer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. AyeTides XL asks for nothing beyond the download.
AyeTides XL holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AyeTides XL has 1.3K ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of AyeTides XL's written reviews are positive against 11% of Coastal Explorer's.
AyeTides XL ships an update every 3 weeks, Coastal Explorer every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | AyeTides XL | Coastal Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (1.3K ratings) — better | 2.8 (16 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.2% of reviews — better | 11.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.3K — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 81 MB | 54 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hahn Software LLC | Rose Point Navigation Systems, Inc |
Customer experience
AyeTides XL
Coastal Explorer
Bugs and requests
AyeTides XL
Reported bugs
2 issues- Scrambled date display when scrolling calendar
- Fewer tide stations than advertised
Requested features
4 requests- Display lunar phases on tidal calendar
- Improve navigation and menus
- Display current direction and speed arrows on chart
- Add more European/UK tide and current data
Coastal Explorer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
AyeTides XL
No in-app purchases
Coastal Explorer
- Monthly Subscription$19.991 Month
- Yearly Subscription$49.991 Year







