SEAiq USA vs Coastal Explorer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SEAiq USA
This marine navigation app provides detailed charts for the United States, including weather and AIS data. It offers features like waypoints, routes, and an anchor alarm. While basic chart viewing is free, premium navigation requires an annual subscription after a trial.
- NOAA chart downloads
- Weather and AIS data
- Waypoints and routes
- Anchor alarm
- Night color modes
- Chart measuring tools
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SEAiq USA is a full-featured marine navigation app for the United States. It automatically downloads and displays charts from NOAA and the US Army Corps of Engineers for the regions you select. Features include: * Waypoints * Routes * Tracks * Night color modes * Anchor alarm * Automatic download and display of weather (wind & isobar) * Chart measuring tools (EBL/VRM) * Wi-Fi-based NMEA and AIS * Vector charts No purchase is required to view charts. Premium navigation features are enabled during a 7-day evaluation period. After that, an annual subscription is required. Existing one-time purchases retain the features they unlocked. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Coastal Explorer
Plan and log your cruises with detailed nautical charts and weather forecasts. Enhance your experience with a subscription for offline access, real-time navigation, and integration with marine electronics.
- View NOAA and USACE nautical charts
- Create routes and waypoints
- Cloud synchronization
- ActiveCaptain points of interest
- US Coast Pilot information
- Marine weather forecasts
- Tide and current predictions
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Coastal Explorer™ is a sophisticated, full-featured, easy-to-use cruise planning and logging tool designed specifically for the pleasure boater. And it becomes a complete navigation system with the purchase of a chart subscription. The free Coastal Explorer app provides these great planning features: * View NOAA and USACE nautical charts for the US in vector format * Create routes, waypoints, boundaries, and other navigation objects * Cloud-synchronization of your navigation objects * ActiveCaptain points of interest * US Coast Pilot information * Marine weather forecasts and observations for the US * Tide and current predictions for the US Purchasing a chart subscription turns Coastal Explorer into a complete navigation system that includes: * Downloadable charts, tide and current predictions, Coast Pilot, and ActiveCaptain places for offline use * Interfacing with compatible networked marine electronics devices, including GPS, compass, depth sounder, anemometer, AIS, autopilot, and more * Customizable instrument panels * Route following with cross-track error, distance and time to go, estimated time of arrival, etc * Track and event recording * Integrated blogging Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. See our Terms of Service at https://www.rosepoint.com/legal/terms_of_service.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: SEAiq USA at 76% against Coastal Explorer's 11%. SEAiq USA also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.8) and ratings volume (503 vs 16). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. SEAiq USA sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $10.00 per year and Coastal Explorer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
SEAiq USA holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SEAiq USA has 503 ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of SEAiq USA's written reviews are positive against 11% of Coastal Explorer's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SEAiq USA | Coastal Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (503 ratings) — better | 2.8 (16 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 75.5% of reviews — better | 11.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 503 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 54 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sakhalin | Rose Point Navigation Systems, Inc |
Customer experience
SEAiq USA
Coastal Explorer
Bugs and requests
SEAiq USA
Reported bugs
6 issues- Chart download failures with error messages
- App incompatibility with iOS 8 updates causing loss of purchase
- Performance degradation on iPad 3 and older devices
- Slow zoom and pan responsiveness
- Active Captain integration not fully functional in free version
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- Deceptive Active Captain marker display without content access
Requested features
7 requests- Delete and rename imported tracks functionality
- Track export as CSV spreadsheet with date, time, course, speed, location
- International chart support in free version
- Precipitation weather integration
- More prominent waypoint highlighting when route not selected
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- Enhanced navigation marker visibility
- Improved iPad-to-iPhone GPS sharing
Coastal Explorer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
SEAiq USA
- Premium Annual$10.001 Year
- Upgrade for Premium Features$24.99
Coastal Explorer
- Monthly Subscription$19.991 Month
- Yearly Subscription$49.991 Year








