Comparison

RainAware vs Rain Radar App

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

Head to head
About

RainAware

Get precise rain timing and severe weather alerts for your location. Visualize weather data with interactive graphs and maps, and customize notifications to stay informed about changing conditions.

Highlights
  • Rain Clock with precise timing
  • Customizable rain and severe weather notifications
  • Interactive temperature and wind graphs
  • Weather map overlays with watches and warnings
  • Satellite and radar imagery
  • Forecast clock for 8-day outlook
  • Site lists for nearby locations
Read full description

Know exactly when rain will start and stop at your location. RainAware, the original hyperlocal rain app with RainClock, push alerts, live radar, satellite, lightning & storm tracking. ***** INCLUDED IN THE STANDARD VERSION ***** • Rain Clock See rain timing for your location up to 3 hours ahead. Example: “Rain starts in 1 hr 30 min and ends at 4:30 PM.” Background images match the weather outside. • Alerts & notifications Get notified when rain is coming or ending, or when severe weather threatens. Customize alert timing, rain-duration thresholds, proximity settings, and alert frequency. • Regional radar, satellite, and 1-hour precipitation View live weather imagery over a regional domain, then move the domain anywhere to inspect weather there. • Watches, warnings, and advisories View active hazards including severe storms, floods, winter weather, wind, fire, marine alerts, and more. • Weather map overlays Analyze the map with overlays for surface observations, lightning, hurricane tracks, storm reports, moving ship observations, and more. • Landscape mode & fast looping Use landscape mode for a larger map with extra pan and zoom controls. Long-press to burst-loop imagery faster and spot trends. • Current conditions ticker Cycles through the nearest surface observation and also shows nearby lightning, precipitation, and storm reports when relevant. Tap icons to jump to the location. • Interactive graphs View 36-hour trend graphs for temperature, wind, cloud cover, precipitation amount and type. • Forecast Clock See the next 8 days in a concise Today/Tonight format, including sunrise, sunset, and moon phase. • Site lists Quickly check weather for nearby cities, airports, ballparks, speedways, golf courses, and more. Stadium views include wind direction for in, out, or across-field awareness. • Drawing tools Draw on the map, add text, overlay it on weather imagery, and share. • Weather badges Badges show when rapid changes in rain, temperature, clouds, or wind are forecast. Configurable. • Deep customization RainAware includes extensive settings so you can tune the app to your workflow. ***** SUBSCRIPTION FEATURES ***** Subscriptions are available in-app and work across supported devices. • Full-map access View the full weather map without regional limits. • Storm cell tracking Filter storm cells and view motion, hail potential, rotation, and more. • National radar products Includes Echo Tops, Hail Swaths, and Rotation Tracks. • Single-site radar Access reflectivity and velocity products, with options to merge Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico radar into the national view. • Expanded satellite imagery Adds water vapor and colorized visible imagery for enhanced cloud-top analysis. • More alert types Add lightning proximity alerts, severe storm report alerts, and alerts for another location. • RainPro tool Interactively refine precipitation motion for even more precise rain timing. • Environmental fields Display threat areas, VAD wind profiles, isobars, CAPE, updraft helicity, 500 & 850 mb charts & more. • Warning & observation monitor Filter and sort warnings and surface observations. • Advanced surface observations Plot thousands of stations, ships, and buoys, including water temperature and wave height. • Longer loops Animate up to 36 frames and as much as 12 hours ahead on capable devices. • Aviation mode Use FAA sectional maps as an underlay, display flight rules at stations, and view winds aloft at VWP locations. • Advanced drawing tools Draw fronts, time-match drawings to imagery, and create lines, polygons, circles, and squares. • Faster data updates Get more frequent radar, satellite, and surface data refreshes. • Performance controls Manage memory, cache behavior, panning, and image tiling. Coverage is best across the USA and southern Canada. Satellite and local radar coverage also extends from Hawaii to the Caribbean. https://www.rainaware.com/rainaware_coverage_map.webp

About

Rain Radar App

Get real-time rain alerts and see approaching precipitation with the latest data. This app prioritizes battery and data efficiency for a fast, simple user experience.

Highlights
  • Real-time rain notifications
  • Up-to-date radar data
  • Battery-saving design
  • Data usage optimization
  • Fast and simple interface
Features
Read full description

With just one tap Rain Radar will show (and notify) you when rain is approaching to your location. Rain Radar data images are newest possible and therefore more reliable than a traditional forecast. In a world full of apps, Rain Radar was precisely designed to save your battery, data usage and processing power while maintaining the fastest and simplest user experience.

Screenshots

RainAware4 screens
Rain Radar App4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Rain Radar App at Free against RainAware's $4.99. RainAware's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (51% vs 17%). On rating, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Rain Radar App is free to download; RainAware costs $4.99 up front. RainAware sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month and Rain Radar App sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for RainAware against 4.0 for Rain Radar App. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RainAware has 1.1K ratings behind it against 24, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 51% of RainAware's written reviews are positive against 17% of Rain Radar App's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

RainAware ships an update every 2 weeks, Rain Radar App monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
RainAware versus Rain Radar App: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRainAwareRain Radar App
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating3.9 (1.1K ratings)4.0 (24 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.6% of reviews — better16.7% of reviews
Number of ratings1.1K — better24
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#8 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB110 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRainAware LLCSimon Hocevar

Customer experience

RainAware

All ratings1,068 ratings
Positive71.2%
Neutral5.2%
Negative23.6%
Written reviews172 reviews
Positive50.6%
Neutral9.3%
Negative40.1%

Rain Radar App

All ratings24 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral8.3%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive16.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative66.7%

Bugs and requests

RainAware

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login screen freezes
  • Incompatible with older devices
  • JSON could not be serialized because of error: The data couldn't be read because it isn't in the correct format. [47

Requested features

3 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard
  • Push notifications to alert you to rain within 3 hours

Rain Radar App

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

RainAware

Subscriptions2
  • RainAware Suite - Monthly$6.991 Month
  • RainAware Suite - Annual$69.991 Year
One-time1
  • RainAware Suite - Day Pass$0.99
1 purchases

Rain Radar App

One-time1
  • Rain Radar PRO$3.99

Questions

Is RainAware free?
RainAware costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Rain Radar App free?
Rain Radar App is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, RainAware or Rain Radar App?
Rain Radar App is rated higher. RainAware averages 3.9 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Rain Radar App averages 4.0 from 24 ratings.
Do RainAware or Rain Radar App have ads?
Rain Radar App shows ads; RainAware does not.
Which is updated more often, RainAware or Rain Radar App?
RainAware ships an update every 2 weeks, and Rain Radar App monthly. Most recently, RainAware was updated on October 16, 2026 and Rain Radar App on October 5, 2026.

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