Comparison

Shralp Tide 2 vs BayCurrents

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

Head to head
About

Shralp Tide 2

This app provides graphical tide displays and predictions for Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad. It offers at-a-glance tide information, time travel for tide viewing, and a monthly tide calendar for planning. It supports thousands of US tide locations and currents.

Highlights
  • Graphical tide display
  • Tide graph and highs/lows
  • Watch complications for tide level
  • Time travel for tide viewing
  • Interactive iPhone tide graph
  • Monthly tide calendar on iPad
  • Thousands of US tide locations and currents
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Graphical tide display on your Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad. The watch app displays a tide graph and highs/lows for the day and allows selection of any location configured on the iPhone app. Several watch complications are provided to allow display of tide level and direction at a glance on any Apple watch face. Enable time travel to see the tide level at any point in the day. On the iPhone an interactive tide graph is displayed by turning your device to landscape mode. Then touch the screen to see the tide at any time in the 24 hour window. No network connection is required, so you can check anytime, anywhere. New on iPad you now see a month-to-month tide calendar. Use it to easily plan your beach activities a month or more in advance. Allows navigation through the coming months or backward if you want to see what the tide was on a past beach visit. Runs on the current XTide 2.x codebase. This adds thousands of U.S. tide locations and currents. Current prediction is now supported for some locations within the U.S. only. Currents must be enabled in the application settings menu. We have also added the ability to configure the number of days of tides to display from one to fifteen days out. Tide station selection has been improved. Stations can be selected either from a map or from a list view arranged by country and state or province.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Regarding Tide Station Locations and Currents *** ShralpTide2 contains a wealth of tide and current information for the United States thanks to the NOAA. At present the NOAA is the only provider of data for current prediction. Prediction of currents is not available for countries other than the United States. Additionally, though tide station information is available for some countries outside of the United States, many tide stations that were previously available in the original ShralpTide are not available in ShralpTide2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Source code is available under the GNU General Public License. Visit the homepage for details.

NOT FOR NAVIGATION
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The author assumes no liability for damages arising from use of this program OR of any 'harmonics data' that might be distributed with it.

About

BayCurrents

Visualize high-resolution surface currents in the San Francisco Bay. This app supports various maritime activities with data up to 48 hours in the future. It operates autonomously offline, using NOAA model data enhanced by radar and tidal observations.

Highlights
  • High-resolution surface current maps
  • 48-hour future forecasting
  • Offline autonomous operation
  • NOAA numerical model data
  • Supports recreational and professional maritime activities
Features
Read full description

BayCurrents is a mobile app for displaying maps of high resolution surface currents within the San Francisco Bay. The app is intended to support a wide range of maritime activities, from recreational fishing and sailing to the operation of professional transport vessels. The source for the surface current data is a numerical model operated by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The model benefits from oceanographic high-frequency radar (HFR) measurements from the Central & Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS) HFR Network, along with other observations such as tides and wind. The resulting dataset contains current vector fields for hourly timestamps ranging from the recent past, to the present and up to 48 hours into the future. The complete vector dataset is downloaded by the app to allow autonomous offline operation. This app contains experimental data and is NOT for navigational purposes.

Screenshots

Shralp Tide 23 screens
BayCurrents4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: BayCurrents at Free against Shralp Tide 2's $1.99. BayCurrents also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4). Shralp Tide 2's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 10 months) and chart position (#46 vs unranked). On ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

BayCurrents is free to download; Shralp Tide 2 costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

BayCurrents holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 5 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shralp Tide 2 ships an update every 3 weeks, BayCurrents every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Shralp Tide 2 versus BayCurrents: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShralp Tide 2BayCurrents
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.4 (8 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews23.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings8 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#46 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DevelopershralpsoftwareMonterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Customer experience

Shralp Tide 2

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews55 reviews
Positive23.6%
Neutral14.5%
Negative61.8%

BayCurrents

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Shralp Tide 2

Reported bugs

20 issues
  • Horizontal cursor not working on iOS 15
  • Crashes and loses saved locations
  • Deletes favorite locations on close
  • Reverts to La Jolla/Scripps Pier
  • App crashes on start after deleting La Jolla
Show 15 more
  • Saved locations go missing
  • App crashes repeatedly after a while
  • App won't open/crashes instantly
  • Complication not showing on Watch 4 faces
  • App reverts to La Jolla and deletes chosen location
  • Defaults to La Jolla, requires manual input
  • App doesn't open, stops immediately
  • App crashes when deleting La Jolla
  • App won't restart after crash
  • App won't get past opening screen on iPad
  • Upgrade wiped out saved locations
  • App doesn't work since upgrade
  • New upgrade won't let you keep tide station
  • Can't access position with new version
  • App doesn't load

Requested features

17 requests
  • Update to fix iOS 15 horizontal cursor issue
  • Update for new Watch 4 faces
  • Add metric units to Apple Watch app
  • Add more BC tide stations
  • Add Australian tides
Show 12 more
  • Add Canadian tide stations back
  • Add meters as a unit of measurement
  • Add moon rise/set and sun rise/set
  • Add current predictor
  • Add more local tide locations
  • Extend future planning beyond 15 days
  • Allow planning for night tides
  • Add low tide daylight times to Calendar
  • Improve graphics and visuals
  • Make app compatible with older devices
  • Add current location maps
  • Add weather integration

BayCurrents

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Shralp Tide 2

No in-app purchases

None

BayCurrents

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shralp Tide 2 free?
Shralp Tide 2 costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is BayCurrents free?
BayCurrents is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shralp Tide 2 or BayCurrents?
BayCurrents is rated higher. Shralp Tide 2 averages 4.4 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while BayCurrents averages 5.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Shralp Tide 2 or BayCurrents have ads?
Neither Shralp Tide 2 nor BayCurrents shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shralp Tide 2 or BayCurrents?
Shralp Tide 2 ships an update every 3 weeks, and BayCurrents every 10 months. Most recently, Shralp Tide 2 was updated on November 10, 2026 and BayCurrents on November 3, 2026.

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