Alert Diver vs Subsurface
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Alert Diver
Explore dive industry insights, research, and safety information. Discover underwater photography, travel destinations, and marine environmental topics. This app provides valuable content for divers and enthusiasts.
- Dive industry research
- Medical information
- Dive safety guidelines
- Underwater photography
- Dive travel guides
- Marine environmental topics
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Alert Diver magazine, the dive industry’s leading publication, features DAN’s core content of research, education, medical information and dive safety. In addition, Alert Diver showcases underwater photography, dive travel and marine environmental topics. Divers Alert Network (DAN) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) dive safety organization. DAN's mission is to help divers in need of emergency medical assistance and to promote dive safety through research, education, products and services. Published quarterly, Alert Diver is a benefit to members of DAN; its companion website, AlertDiver.com, is available to all. If you are a current DAN member (DAN America region), everything offered in this app is included in your membership and free to you!
Subsurface
This application allows divers to manage their dive logs on their mobile devices. It supports editing dive data and downloading new information from compatible dive computers. Optional cloud synchronization is available for seamless data transfer with desktop versions.
- Mobile dive log management
- Edit dive data
- Download from Bluetooth LE dive computers
- Optional cloud synchronization
- Open-source and free
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Subsurface-mobile is an iOS dive log application based on Subsurface, the best free open source dive log application available on Windows, Mac and Linux. Subsurface-mobile allows you to access your dive log on your tablet or phone, edit the data and even download new dive information from many Bluetooth LE enabled dive computers. Using a free Subsurface Cloud Storage account you can synchronize your dive data with the Subsurface desktop application (while significantly increasing the usefulness, the cloud account is not required to use Subsurface-mobile). To get support from the developers, please use the in-app menu entry "Ask for support" Please check out the Subsurface-mobile user manual: https://subsurface-divelog.org/documentation/subsurface-mobile-v3-user-manual (also available from within the app) Subsurface-mobile is free and open source. No ads, no commercial anything. And it comes with free cloud storage (if you decide to use that - it's optional). Your data aren't used for anything, nothing gets monetized.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Subsurface at 63% against Alert Diver's 25%. Subsurface also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.0) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Alert Diver's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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.
Subsurface holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Subsurface has 48 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of Alert Diver's written reviews are positive against 63% of Subsurface's.
Alert Diver ships an update every 6 months, Subsurface every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on June 9, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Alert Diver | Subsurface |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (4 ratings) | 4.5 (48 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 25.0% of reviews | 63.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 48 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 17 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 92 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Divers Alert Network | Dirk Hohndel |
Customer experience
Alert Diver
Subsurface
In-app purchases
Alert Diver
No in-app purchases
Subsurface
No in-app purchases
