Beachsafe vs QWildlife
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Beachsafe
Discover Australian beaches with real-time information on surf conditions, weather, hazards, and lifesaving services. Find patrolled beaches, learn about safety, and get expert advice on rip currents and marine life.
- Find nearby beaches with GPS
- View surf, weather, and tide forecasts
- Check patrol service information
- Identify beach hazards and warnings
- Access surf safety advice
- Save favorite beaches
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Taking a road trip up the coast? On holiday? Or just looking for the right beach for you? Find your nearest beaches in seconds. Brought to you by Surf Life Saving Australia, the Beachsafe app includes the location, weather, surf conditions and hazards plus the local facilities for all Australian beaches. Importantly, the current lifesaving service for each beach is listed to help you find the nearest patrolled beach. Beachsafe also provides expert advice about rip currents, flags and signs, waves, marine creatures, surf skills and more. SLSA recommends swimming at patrolled beaches, between the red and yellow flags. App Features Find a beach • Find beaches near you with your device’s GPS • Use the map view to quickly locate beaches near you • Search for a town, city, region or beach • Save your favourite beaches Patrol service information • Quickly and easily see if a beach is patrolled by surf lifesavers or lifeguards • Find out when a beach will be patrolled using the future search function Conditions • View detailed weather forecasts • See the tide information • Check the swell and wind forecast • Push notifications - Beach closures and major hazard alerts for Beaches that you follow Hazards • Review a beach’s hazard rating • Read detailed summaries of each beach written by coastal safety experts • See hazard information about a patrolled beach including rip currents, stingers and sharks when these have been entered by surf lifesavers or lifeguards Surf Safety • How to identify and escape rip currents • Lifeguard’s top tips • Read about flags and signs • Waves and weather • Surf skills • Marine creatures • Stingers • First aid advice • And more… The Beachsafe app was produced in conjunction with SLSA's beach safety website beachsafe.org.au. If you find this app useful and you wish to help support Surf Life Saving Australia and our 160,000 volunteers, please visit https://sls.com.au. Be safe at the beach, get Beachsafe.
QWildlife
Report sightings of native Queensland wildlife, including crocodiles, koalas, and cassowaries. Submit details, attach photos, and explore an interactive map of recent observations. Learn about local fauna and safety tips for exploring their habitats.
- Submit wildlife sighting details
- Attach photos to reports
- Interactive map of recent sightings
- Learn about native wildlife
- Offline reporting capability
- Supports conservation efforts
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Report wildlife sightings in QWildlife! QWildlife is the Queensland Government's official online reporting platform for crocodile, koala, cassowary, and marine wildlife sightings. It's a simple and easy way to let us know if you've seen these species in the wild. -- Key Features -- - Submit sighting details including time, date, location, and behaviour of the animal. - Attach photographs to support your sighting (optional). - Explore an interactive map of recent sightings and the Queensland Government’s response to them (certain species only). - Learn about Queensland’s native wildlife and how to stay safe while exploring their ecosystems. - Sightings can be recorded even if you are offline – the app will automatically submit them next time it is launched with an internet connection. -- What happens when I make a sighting report? -- This data helps support important research, conservation, and management actions in Queensland. The department takes all reports seriously and investigates each report it receives. Any actions taken in response to a reported sighting are guided by current policy, which can be viewed on the department’s website. Users are encouraged to supply contact details and photos with animal sighting reports, but this is optional. Personal details are not required by Wildlife app to submit a sighting report. Any personal information you provide will be stored in accordance with our privacy policy. See the Privacy page within the app for more details.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Beachsafe at 5.0 against QWildlife's 2.0. Beachsafe also leads on review sentiment (46% vs 25%) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Beachsafe holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of Beachsafe's written reviews are positive against 25% of QWildlife's.
Beachsafe ships an update every 6 months, QWildlife every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Beachsafe | QWildlife |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 2.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 46.5% of reviews — better | 25.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 100 MB | 180 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Surf Life Saving Australia Ltd. | DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT, TOURISM, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION |
Customer experience
Beachsafe
QWildlife
In-app purchases
Beachsafe
No in-app purchases
QWildlife
No in-app purchases









