Beachsafe vs Compass School Manager
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.
Compass School Manager
This app offers a centralized platform for school-related information, including news, events, and assignments. It serves as a communication tool for staff, students, and parents, streamlining access to important school updates.
- School news and events
- Assignment tracking
- Communication platform
- Access for staff, students, and parents
- Centralized information hub
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Compass School Manager provides access to school news, events, upcoming assignments and more. This application is designed for staff, students and parents.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Compass School Manager at every 3 weeks against Beachsafe's every 6 months. Compass School Manager also leads on ratings volume (164 vs 3). Beachsafe's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and review sentiment (46% vs 37%). 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 holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Compass School Manager has 164 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of Beachsafe's written reviews are positive against 37% of Compass School Manager's.
Beachsafe ships an update every 6 months, Compass School Manager every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on November 13, 2026.
| Parameter | Beachsafe | Compass School Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.7 (164 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 46.5% of reviews — better | 36.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 164 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 100 MB | 143 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Surf Life Saving Australia Ltd. | Compass Operations Pty Ltd |
Customer experience
Beachsafe
Compass School Manager
User reviews
Beachsafe
From 3 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great info on beach conditions
- 👍 Useful for planning beach days
- 👍 Provides vital safety information
- 👍 Comprehensive beach details
- 👍 Good for discovering new beaches
Room to improve
- 🐛 App frequently fails to load
- 🐛 Information is often inaccurate/outdated
- 🐛 Search functionality is poor
- 🐛 Updates have made the app worse
- 🐛 Requires account creation for basic features
Compass School Manager
From 164 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to navigate
- 👍 Convenient for school management
- 🚀 Helpful for students and parents
- 🚀 Reliable and efficient
- 👍 Great app for school information
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔑 Login issues and session expiration
- 🤔 Confusing and cluttered UI
- 🤖 Compatibility issues on Mac devices
- 🙄 Constant need to update the app
Bugs and requests
Beachsafe
Reported bugs
15 issues- App stuck on loading screen
- Algal bloom report button does nothing
- Photo quality makes beaches look clean
- Search no longer works correctly
- Beach closure information incorrect
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- App fails to load anything
- App stays on loading screen forever
- Favorite beaches disappear
- App crashes on opening screen
- Swell forecast not updating
- Location is incorrect
- Water temp inaccurate
- App changes beach selection automatically
- Favorites wiped by updates
- Login button not functional
Requested features
16 requests- Integrate beachwatch pollution data
- Add Face ID authentication
- Improve photo quality
- Fix algal bloom report button
- Provide reasons for beach closures
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Add tide times
- Integrate with BOM for weather warnings
- Add advice on dog-friendly beaches
- Add details on rips and water safety
- Link to clubbie/surf sports events
- Add webcams
- Add water temperature
- Allow offline caching of data
- Improve search engine sophistication
- Add a downloadable database
- Make learning about rips mandatory
Compass School Manager
Reported bugs
5 issues- Unable to log in or search for school
- Notifications not working as expected
- Learning tasks page layout issues
- Landscape mode not functioning properly
- Inconsistent behavior across devices
Requested features
5 requests- Add dark mode option
- Improve navigation and organization
- Allow students to remove submissions
- Show class rosters within each class
- Provide more customization options
In-app purchases
Beachsafe
No in-app purchases
Compass School Manager
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Beachsafe free?
Is Compass School Manager free?
Which has better reviews, Beachsafe or Compass School Manager?
Do Beachsafe or Compass School Manager have ads?
Which is updated more often, Beachsafe or Compass School Manager?
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