Hurricane Track vs VortexWeather
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hurricane Track
Track hurricanes and tropical storms with advanced radar, forecasts, and detailed storm information. Features global and local radar views, projected paths, and sea temperature data. Stay informed about potential cyclone formations and weather hazards.
- 18 World Radars
- Customizable Local Radar (NEXRAD)
- Projected Tropical Storm Paths
- Forecast and Hazard Warnings
- Lightning Intensity Radars
- Interactive 3D Earth Map
- Sea Surface Temperatures
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Hurricane Track 3.0 is the most advanced, modern, and easiest to use Hurricane Tracking and Radar application! Hurricane Track 3.0 features incredible new features such as 18 World Radars featuring the newly launched GOES-19 Satellite, a new customizable dynamic Local Radar using NEXRAD "next-generation radar" technology, Forecast and Hazard warnings, future projected tropical cyclone paths, Lightning Intensity Radars, Sea Temperatures, Cloud Formations that can potentially turn into tropical cyclones, Maps, an interactive 3D Earth, detailed tropical storm information and discussion, and much much more! Hurricane Track 3.0 brings the most advanced hurricane tracking technology to your fingertips, and the best part is Hurricane Track is Free! Innovative Features! - 300+ World Radars: 18 Radar Locations around the globe with 17 Radars per Location - Customizable Advanced Local Radar using NEXRAD technology (U.S. only) - Projected Tropical Storm paths: Future tropical storm paths for the next five days - Forecast and Hazards give you detailed forecasts for different periods of the day, and hazards that you should look out for (Tornado Watch, Flood Warning, High Tide, etc.) (U.S. only, Updated hourly) - Innovative Lightning Intensity Radars - Interactive Map with Tropical Cyclones, Live Clouds, and Earthquakes - Sea Surface Temperatures for the past two months - Graphical outlines of cloud formations that can turn into potential Tropical Storms - 3D Earth with Live Clouds, Tropical Storms, and Earthquakes - Tropical Storm and Weather Information, Summaries, Discussions, and Outlooks 8 World Radars for 12 different Locations around the Globe! - Visible - Unenhanced visible imagery that transitions to IR2 overnight - Shortwave - Channel 2 Shortwave Infrared imagery - Shortwave, sometimes considered "night visible" - Water Vapor - IR Channel 3 - Aviation - Aviation color enhancement - Dvorak - Used for tropical classifications with the Dvorak technique - JSL - Used to bring out low level and high level clouds in tropical cyclones - Funktop - Higlights intense areas of precipitation - Rainbow - Rainbow enhancement curve, colorful enhancement
VortexWeather
Access detailed weather data including hurricanes, radar, satellite, and forecast models. Offers free basic features and paid subscriptions for advanced capabilities like 3D viewers and extended forecast data.
- Live storm tracks and forecast cones
- NEXRAD radar and satellite imagery
- Forecast radar and satellite animation
- Numerical forecast models (GFS, ECMWF)
- Real-time lightning detection
- 3D hurricane and radar viewers (Pro)
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VortexWeather turns raw NOAA data into fast, interactive weather maps — hurricanes, radar, satellite, lightning, and full numerical models, all in one app. Free to download and use. Features marked (Basic) or (Pro) require a paid auto-renewable subscription — see Subscriptions below. Available in English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) and Thai. TROPICAL & HURRICANES • Live storm tracks and forecast cones from the National Hurricane Center • Wind radii and tropical watches/warnings • Spaghetti plots from 35+ forecast models (Basic) • Historical storm tracks (Basic) • Storm wind and precipitation animation with max wind swath and rain totals (Pro) • GPU-accelerated 3D hurricane viewer with wind particle animations and isosurfaces (Pro) RADAR & SATELLITE • National and single-site NEXRAD radar (reflectivity & velocity) • Forecast radar: loops continue into the HRRR model's forecast (Basic) • 3D NEXRAD volume scan viewer with cross sections, cell isolation, and tornado rotation tools (Pro) • GOES and Himawari satellite imagery • Satellite animation (Basic) • Real-time lightning FORECAST MODELS • GFS and ECMWF surface temperature, dewpoint, pressure, humidity, and wind — free with a VortexWeather account • Animated surface wind particle flow — free with a VortexWeather account • Upper-air heights and winds, CAPE, precipitation, cloud cover, and more (Basic) • High-resolution HRRR model and animated wind barbs (Basic) SEVERE, AVIATION & MORE • SPC outlooks, WPC forecasts, and live NWS alerts (Basic) • Aviation hazards: SIGMET/AIRMET/PIREP and METARs (Basic) • USGS earthquakes SUBSCRIPTIONS VortexWeather is free to download, with ads. A paid subscription removes ads and unlocks the features marked above: • VortexWeather Basic — $4.99 per month or $50.90 per year • VortexWeather Pro — $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year; includes everything in Basic plus the features marked (Pro) Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Terms of Service: https://vortexweather.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://vortexweather.com/privacy VortexWeather is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Always rely on official sources such as the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center for life-safety decisions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: VortexWeather at 5.0 against Hurricane Track's 4.5. VortexWeather also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months). Hurricane Track's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. VortexWeather sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Hurricane Track asks for nothing beyond the download.
VortexWeather holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 2 respectively.
Hurricane Track ships an update every 4 months, VortexWeather fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hurricane Track | VortexWeather |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 26.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 66 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mach Software Design | VORTEXWEATHER LLC |
Customer experience
Hurricane Track
VortexWeather
Bugs and requests
Hurricane Track
Reported bugs
12 issues- App crashes when opening forecast/projected path sections
- Loading screen hangs indefinitely before crashing
- Arrow navigation buttons cause app to crash
- Radar views display blank/white screens
- Lightning tab causes app to close
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- App only loads 3 out of 10 times
- Maps load 30-50 images unnecessarily on each view
- Geographic coverage cuts off at certain latitudes
- Text displays on single line, unreadable
- Satellite imagery fails to update or refresh
- Location permission requirement causes issues
- Incompatibility with specific iOS versions (5.1, etc.)
Requested features
13 requests- Ad-free paid version option
- Zoom functionality for maps and images
- Help menu and icon explanations
- Ability to pin/select specific hurricanes of interest
- Expanded geographic coverage (Australia, New Zealand, Asia)
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- Speed control for satellite loop animations
- Better text formatting for advisories and forecasts
- Offline mode capability
- Improved color contrast for map overlays
- Archive access for historical storm data
- Selective data loading (load only desired maps)
- World Sea Surface Temperature map restoration
- Caribbean radar coverage restoration
VortexWeather
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Hurricane Track
No in-app purchases
VortexWeather
- Basic Monthly$4.991 Month
- Pro Monthly$9.991 Month
- Basic Annual$50.901 Year
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- Pro Annual$99.991 Year
Questions
Is Hurricane Track free?
Is VortexWeather free?
Which has better reviews, Hurricane Track or VortexWeather?
Do Hurricane Track or VortexWeather have ads?
Which is updated more often, Hurricane Track or VortexWeather?
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