Comparison

VNL Weather vs Windy.com

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

VNL Weather

Get hyper-local weather updates with high-resolution radar and satellite imagery. Receive daily and hourly forecasts, severe weather alerts, and personalized location tracking. Stay informed and safe with real-time weather information.

Highlights
  • 250 meter radar
  • Future radar
  • High resolution satellite imagery
  • Current weather updates
  • Daily and hourly forecasts
  • Favorite locations
  • Severe weather alerts
Read full description

Valley News Live , is proud to announce a full featured weather app for the iPhone and iPad platforms. Features • Access to station content specifically for our mobile users • 250 meter radar, the highest resolution available • Future radar to see where severe weather is headed • High resolution satellite cloud imagery • Current weather updated multiple times per hour • Daily and Hourly forecasts updated hourly from our computer models • Ability to add and save your favorite locations • A fully integrated GPS for current location awareness • Severe weather alerts from the National Weather Service • Opt-in push alerts to keep you safe in severe weather

About

Windy.com

This app offers advanced weather forecasting with over 50 detailed maps and 15 weather models, including live radar, satellite imagery, and hurricane tracking. It provides customizable alerts for storms, wind, and snow, making it ideal for outdoor activities and aviation.

Highlights
  • Live weather radar & satellite
  • Over 50 weather maps
  • 15+ weather models
  • Hurricane tracker
  • Customizable weather alerts
  • Aviation-specific forecasts
  • Air quality index
Features
Read full description

A UNIQUE WEATHER FORECAST VISUALISATION While most weather forecasting apps rely solely on free global models, Windy has gone a step further by investing heavily in the most accurate weather models available, always at the highest possible resolution, to deliver you the most accurate forecasts in the world. LIVE WEATHER APP - WEATHER RADAR & SATELLITE (Now with Precipitation Type & Lightning tracker) Radar is a highly valued tool for weather forecasting. To provide you with the most accurate radar imagery, we constantly expand our resources so that rain, snow, and storms don't catch you by surprise. Trusted radar sources include NOAA, Met Office, Météo France, DWD, JMA, IMD, BoM & more. The global satellite composite is created from NOAA, EUMETSAT & Himawari data. MORE THAN 50 WEATHER MAPS - Rain radar, Satellite and a unique combined layer of Radar & Satellite images (blue, infrared, visible) - Hurricane tracker, Weather warnings & Extreme forecast - Wind forecast: Wind speed, Wind gusts & Accumulation, models comparison, data from live Weather stations - Temperature: Humidity, Pressure, Dew point, live data from Weather stations - Rain: Thunder & storms, Rain accumulation, Thunderstorms, Precipitation type, CAPE-index - Aviation: Clouds, Cloud tops, Cloud base, Visibility (LIFR, IFR, MVFR, VFR), Fog, Icing, Clear air turbulence, Thermals, Freezing altitude - Marine Forecast: Waves, Swell, Wave power, Tide forecast, Currents, Sea temperature - Solar activity: Solar power, UV index, Wet-bulb temperature - Snow: Snow depth, New snow, Snow density - Air Quality: Air Quality Index (AQI) with Pollen (CAMS), NO2, PM 2.5, Aerosol, SO2, Ozone layer, Surface ozone, CO concentration, Dust mass - Soil moisture, Moisture anomaly, Drought intensity, Fire Danger, Fuel moisture MORE THAN 15 WEATHER MODELS Global weather models: - meteoblue - AI forecast - ECMWF - GFS by NOAA - ICON by DWD Local weather models: - HRRR by NOAA - NAM by NOAA - HRDPS by MSC - ICON-EU by DWD - ICON-D2 by DWD - UKV by Met Office - AROME-HD by Météo France - ALADIN by CHMI - NEMS by meteoblue - MSM by JMA - ACCESS-C by BoM LIVE RAIN, STORM ALERTS & CUSTOM WEATHER ALERTS Want to know before the storm hits near you while you hike, bike or spend time outdoors? You can now access live weather alerts or set up your custom weather alert for wind, sunshine, or new snow. HURRICANE TRACKER FOR STORM TRACKING With Windy's hurricane tracker, you can track the past and projected path of a hurricane or a storm. Windy doesn't rely on just one hurricane model, but will give you all the forecasts available for a storm or hurricane. WINDY MADE FOR PILOTS - 16 altitude levels from the surface to 13.5km/FL450 - 50k+ Airports searchable by ICAO and IATA, including runway info, decoded & raw METAR, TAF & NOTAMs - Detailed Airgram and Meteogram: temperature and dew point, wind speed and wind gusts, pressure, precipitation, altitude cloud cover, freezing altitude - Thermals forecast - Route planner WINDY MADE FOR OUTDOOR SPORTS, SURF & BOATING - 67K+ global webcams - Summer & winter outdoor topographic maps by Mapy.com - 4.5K+ Surfing spots - 12.1K+ Paragliding spots - 4.3K+ Kiting spots - Boating tide forecast - Sun & Moon tracker - Plugins with buoy data WINDY AS A WEATHER WIDGET ON YOUR DEVICE Get the weather now on your iPhone, MacOS, iPad, CarPlay & Apple Watch, from forecast, Radar, METAR, Weather stations & Wind, ready for your travels and outdoor sports. WINDY PREMIUM — FORECAST LIKE A PRO - 1-hour & 15-day outlook with 4–6× daily updates - Radar/Satellite 24h loops & 1-year archives - More maps (Tide Forecast) - Model comparison to find the best model Terms of Use: https://account.windy.com/agreements/windy-terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://account.windy.com/agreements/windy-privacy-policy GET IN TOUCH Join us on social media or at community.windy.com to discuss weather-related topics, report bugs, or suggest a new feature. Contact us directly at info@windy.com.

Screenshots

VNL Weather4 screens
Windy.com4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Windy.com at 89% against VNL Weather's 36%. Windy.com also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (4.8 vs 4.6). VNL Weather's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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

Both are free to download. Windy.com sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. VNL Weather asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Windy.com holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Windy.com has 79K ratings behind it against 8.7K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 36% of VNL Weather's written reviews are positive against 89% of Windy.com's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

VNL Weather ships an update every 2 months, Windy.com every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
VNL Weather versus Windy.com: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVNL WeatherWindy.com
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (8.7K ratings)4.8 (79K ratings) — better
Positive reviews36.0% of reviews89.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings8.7K79K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#4 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size242 MB172 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGray Television Group, Inc.Windyty, SE

Customer experience

VNL Weather

All ratings8,567 ratings
Positive90.3%
Neutral5.3%
Negative4.4%
Written reviews89 reviews
Positive36.0%
Neutral9.0%
Negative55.1%

Windy.com

All ratings78,968 ratings
Positive96.7%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.6%
Written reviews3,744 reviews
Positive89.0%
Neutral3.0%
Negative8.0%

User reviews

VNL Weather

From 8.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Necessary for storms and floods and hurricanes
  • 👍 Excellent
  • 👍 Everything is very accurate
  • 👍 Great
  • 👍 Awesome

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Notifications
  • 🐛 Weather radar
  • 🐛 Don't doomsday weather and app ad me
  • 🔋 Too many ads
  • 🐛 VNL weather tracker

Windy.com

From 79K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌊 Accurate weather forecasts
  • 🌍 Comprehensive global coverage
  • 🔍 Detailed weather data and models
  • 🛥️ Useful for marine/sailing activities
  • 🛫 Valuable for aviation planning

Room to improve

  • 🤯 Overwhelming number of features and options
  • 🔍 Small text and cluttered interface on mobile
  • 🤖 Occasional app crashes or stability issues
  • 💰 Paywall for some advanced features
  • 🌐 Lack of offline functionality

Bugs and requests

VNL Weather

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Login screen freezes
  • Incompatible with older devices
  • Radar doesn't update
  • Radar twitches and scrolling malfunctions

Requested features

4 requests
  • Localize the weather alerts
  • More details on daily like rain amount
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

Windy.com

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Map dragging issues on newer iPhone models
  • Inconsistent temperature display units
  • Premium features not always working as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add weather front data on isobar charts
  • Improve font size and layout for better readability
  • Provide option to hide webcams or certain layers
  • Implement weather warning notifications
  • Add support for Apple Watch and other wearables

In-app purchases

None

VNL Weather

No in-app purchases

9 purchases

Windy.com

Subscriptions4
  • Donate 3 EUR/USD a month$2.991 Month
  • Windy Premium$2.991 Month
  • Donate 6 EUR/USD a month$5.491 Month
Show 1 more
  • Windy Premium2 variants$24.991 Year
One-time5
  • Donate approx 5 EUR/USD$4.99
  • Donate approx 10 EUR/USD$9.99
  • Donate approx 20 EUR/USD$19.99
Show 2 more
  • Windy Premium$29.99
  • Donate approx 50 EUR/USD$49.99

Questions

Is VNL Weather free?
VNL Weather is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Windy.com free?
Windy.com is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, VNL Weather or Windy.com?
Windy.com is rated higher. VNL Weather averages 4.6 out of 5 from 8.7K ratings, while Windy.com averages 4.8 from 79K ratings.
Do VNL Weather or Windy.com have ads?
VNL Weather shows ads; Windy.com does not.
Which is updated more often, VNL Weather or Windy.com?
VNL Weather ships an update every 2 months, and Windy.com every 3 weeks. Most recently, VNL Weather was updated on September 24, 2026 and Windy.com on September 25, 2026.

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