Comparison

RainAware vs Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar

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
Currently charting
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

Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar

Get hyper-accurate, minute-by-minute weather forecasts for your current location or any city. Track storms, view high-resolution radar maps, and receive timely notifications for precipitation and severe weather events.

Highlights
  • Hyperlocal forecasts
  • Minute-by-minute precipitation
  • 10-day hourly forecasts
  • High-resolution radar maps
  • Storm and snow tracking
  • Customizable home screen widgets
  • Severe weather notifications
Features
Read full description

Dark Sky’s features have been integrated into Hyperlocal Weather app which is Powered by Weatherkit and offers hyperlocal forecasts for your current location, including next-hour precipitation, hourly forecasts for the next 10 days, high-resolution radar, and notifications. Dark Sky's forecast technology is now enhanced and integrated into the all-new Hyperlocal Weather app, with powered Apple’s Weatherkit. Hyperlocal Weather is the most accurate local weather app for weather tracking. Track different local current weather conditions and get accurate weather forecasts in this live weather app. Rain Drop Gauge & Rainfall is your hyperlocal rain history tool. Better than a basic rain gauge, Rain Drop Gauge shows the real rainfall at your exact location — every drop of rain that actually fell. Check daily rain totals and rain fall on a colour-coded rain calendar, explore the interactive rain accumulation map, and tap-and-hold for rainfall at any point. Rain Drop Gauge reveals your last 24/48/72 hours of rain, daily wind and precipitation type, and compares rain totals across your locations. Track every rain drop and rainfall with Rain Drop Gauge. ROUTE WEATHER Don't just check the weather where you are, check it where you're going. Route Weather calculates your drive and shows the forecast for each point along the way, timed to when you'll actually pass through. Compare alternative routes, spot snow, ice, fog or thunderstorms before you leave, and get suggested breaks and overnight stops for car, caravan and truck trips. Times are always shown in each place's local time. LIGHTNING ALERTS Stay safe when storms build up. Hyperlocal Weather watches satellite lightning data around your location and notifies you when strikes come within the radius you choose, including how far away the storm is, which direction it's in, and when it has moved on. APPLE CARPLAY Your forecast, right on your car's display: current conditions, alerts, next-hour rain, hourly and daily forecasts with charts, and a live precipitation radar for the road ahead. STORM & SNOW TRACKER Storm tracker & snow tracker is the best tracking for being ready for severe weather. Track storms, tornados, and snowfall at any time. Get updated & warnings for upcoming storms and snow. HURRICANE FORECASTS Hurricane forecasts will show you upcoming storms and hurricanes. LOCAL WEATHER In this most accurate weather app, local weather forecast gives you the most accurate hourly and daily weather forecast for your current location. View the current temperature, weather conditions, wind speed, storm, and precipitation for your location on the maps. Select a place to view local weather conditions based on Dark Sky data. Local weather with Doppler weather radar. RADAR WEATHER MAPS Radar Weather Maps lets you track live weather and future weather for any location in the US with detail down to the city level. Get real-time updates on weather conditions, local temperature, and more. Stay ahead of the weather with future radar and weather maps. WEATHER WARNINGS The Weather Warnings app gives you up-to-date information on weather alerts in your area. You can view alerts for rain, wind, and other weather conditions. You can also see the time of the alert and how long it will last. WEATHER WIDGET Weather Widget shows you the current weather and forecasts. Get a weather alert with weather widgets before the precipitation. Add or remove local or any city for widget info. See the next hour rain widget on the homepage. Weather Parameters Shown: - The possibility of rain (snow, windy, sunny...) - Wind ( Knot and Beaufort ) - Satellite cloud images - Rain radar forecast interactive map - Temperature - Feels like the temperature - Average wind direction and speed - Maximum wind speed observed - Humidity Are you ready for a wonderful minute app? Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

RainAware4 screens
Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar at Free against RainAware's $4.99. Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks). RainAware's advantage is rating (3.9 vs 2.9) and review sentiment (51% vs 28%). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar is free to download; RainAware costs $4.99 up front. RainAware sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month and Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

RainAware holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RainAware has 1.1K ratings behind it against 39, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 51% of RainAware's written reviews are positive against 28% of Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

RainAware ships an update every 2 weeks, Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
RainAware versus Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRainAwareDark Sky Tech & Rain Radar
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating3.9 (1.1K ratings) — better2.9 (39 ratings)
Positive reviews50.6% of reviews — better28.3% of reviews
Number of ratings1.1K — better39
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#9 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB46 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperRainAware LLCHyperlocal Weather App Yazilim Limited Sirketi

Customer experience

RainAware

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

Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar

All ratings39 ratings
Positive43.6%
Neutral7.7%
Negative48.7%
Written reviews53 reviews
Positive28.3%
Neutral11.3%
Negative60.4%

User reviews

RainAware

From 1.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Quick and Accurate
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Very dependable
  • 👍 Pretty accurate
  • 👍 Reliable - Accurate - Worth Every Penny

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Worse lately
  • 🐛 Very disappointed
  • 🐛 do not waste your money
  • 🐛 You never Know!
  • 🐛 Not reliable

Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar

From 39 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and informative interface
  • 👍 Hyperlocal weather accuracy
  • 👍 Clean and simple design
  • 👍 Great information presentation
  • 👍 Accurate hourly predictions

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Radar not working consistently
  • 🐛 Premium features not active after purchase
  • 🐛 Persistent advertisements despite premium
  • 🐛 Inaccurate weather predictions
  • 🐛 Notifications not working

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

Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • Radar does not work
  • Premium features not enabled after purchase
  • Ads still present after buying premium
  • Unable to connect to WeatherKit error
  • Rain inches option not working
Show 10 more
  • Notifications not working
  • Silent alarms for severe weather
  • App not visible after purchase
  • Temperature displayed in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit
  • App not working for extended periods
  • Radar shows no data
  • Error message about not being able to get data
  • Payment accepted twice, but ads remain
  • App not working across any part of the app due to data pull issues
  • Premium version not working as premium

Requested features

9 requests
  • Compatibility with Apple Watch & iPad
  • Add date to widget
  • Change military time to normal hours in widget/radar
  • Hourly % chance of precipitation on main screen
  • Change units from mm to inches for snow/rain
Show 4 more
  • Add days of the week to 10-day forecast
  • Option to switch temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit
  • Widget size options (e.g., 1x2 instead of 2x2)
  • Add notifications to premium features

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

Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar

Subscriptions1
  • Premium 1 Year$9.991 Year

Questions

Is RainAware free?
RainAware costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar free?
Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, RainAware or Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar?
RainAware is rated higher. RainAware averages 3.9 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar averages 2.9 from 39 ratings.
Do RainAware or Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar have ads?
Neither RainAware nor Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, RainAware or Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar?
RainAware ships an update every 2 weeks, and Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar every 2 days. Most recently, RainAware was updated on October 24, 2026 and Dark Sky Tech & Rain Radar on October 25, 2026.

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