Beachsafe vs UQ Maps
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.
UQ Maps
Navigate UQ campuses with detailed indoor and outdoor maps. Find specific locations like classes, food, and study spots with turn-by-turn directions. Access real-time availability for parking and computers, and view well-lit paths for safe nighttime travel.
- Indoor and outdoor campus maps
- Turn-by-turn wayfinding
- Find food, retail, and amenities
- Live parking and computer availability
- Library occupancy information
- Well-lit paths view
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Find everything you need on UQ campuses using UQ Maps. UQ Maps helps get you where you need to go, with outdoor and indoor maps and navigation across UQ campuses. Turn-by-turn wayfinding allows you to navigate directly to your next class, meeting, meal or study spot. - Find food & beverage, retail, microwaves, toilets and showers - Easily locate a parking space or open-access computers with live availability insights - Decide where to study using live library occupancy information - Travel safely at night with the well-lit paths view UQ Maps will continue to be updated with new categories and features. Leave feedback in the app to tell us what new capabilities you’d like to see in the future!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: UQ Maps at 60% against Beachsafe's 46%. UQ Maps also leads on update cadence (every 3 months vs every 6 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 ships an update every 6 months, UQ Maps every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 3, 2026.
| Parameter | Beachsafe | UQ Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 46.5% of reviews | 59.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 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 | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Surf Life Saving Australia Ltd. | The University of Queensland |
Customer experience
Beachsafe
UQ Maps
In-app purchases
Beachsafe
No in-app purchases
UQ Maps
No in-app purchases









