Boat Instruments vs Sail Buddy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Boat Instruments
This app provides AIS, GPS, and instrument data for boats, acting as a companion to onboard systems or a standalone GPS tool. It displays real-time data like depth, speed, and wind, and shows the position and course of nearby vessels with collision warnings.
- AIS and GPS data display
- Real-time instrument readings
- Collision detection warnings
- Configurable instrument pages
- NMEA bridge connectivity via WiFi
- Target position and course tracking
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AIS, GPS and instruments for your boat. Essential and useful companion to boat instrumentation or to complement the GPS functions of your device. The app connects through Wifi to NMEA bridges that transmit instrumentation and AIS data. You can configure flexible pages of analog and digital instruments, which display realistic gauges and panels: ● Depth, speed, course, wind, location, rudder, rpm. More instruments in future versions. The AIS screen shows relative position, speed and course for nearby targets that the on board AIS receiver is reporting. A minimum safe distance can be used to show warnings about potential collisions. The relative direction of travel of targets is shown in colours to indicate relative position in 5, 10 and 20 minutes. ● Relative course and speed, collision detection, forecast position. ABOUT US Imray is the leading publisher of nautical charts, books and apps. Our charts, designed and published in England for nearly 200 years, feature popular, carefully edited and award-winning cartography. Look out for other applications in the Marine Navigation Series from Imray Follow us on Twitter @imray_charts Facebook @imraynautical LANGUAGES English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese
Sail Buddy
This app provides a clean, easy-to-read display for course, speed, and NMEA data, complementing other navigation tools. It supports various devices, including iPads in split-screen mode and Apple Watches for hands-free data access. Route tracking and export are also available.
- Large, readable course and speed display
- NMEA data reception via WiFi
- Route tracking and export (CSV, KML, GPX, GeoJSON)
- Apple Watch integration for hands-free data
- Split View support on iPads
- Alarms for data loss and grounding
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Sail Buddy is a light-weight app that displays course, speed and NMEA data in a fast, clean interface. This is not a "kitchen sink" application with lots of features you may or may not use. If you want a clean, easy-to-read data display to complement your navigation and weather apps, this might be the one for you. Also works very well on iPads and other tablets, including "split screen" mode so you can use other navigation apps side-by-side. And the Apple Watch lets you keep track of course, speed and essential data, hands free, no matter where you are on your boat! Sail Buddy receives NMEA data from external hardware via a WiFi connection. Your hardware must support WiFi or be connected to a multiplexer with WiFi support. Sail Buddy includes a "demo" mode that plays sample NMEA data if you just want to see how the app works without connecting to an NMEA network. Features: • Displays course and speed and NMEA data in a large, easily read display • Multi-view instrument dial option for wind, course, speed and satellite views • Support for TCP and UDP connections • Support for Sail Timer wind instrument™ and Sail Timer wind vane™ • Route tracking with full capture of GPS and NMEA data • Export routes in CSV, KML, GPX and GeoJSON • Alarms for lost data connections and potential groundings (if your hardware supports depth data) • Start and stop instruments and tracking with your Apple Watch • Full support for "dark mode" • Supports Split View on newer iPads (use Sail Buddy alongside your favorite navigation app)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Sail Buddy at 100% against Boat Instruments's 80%. Sail Buddy also leads on price ($4.99 vs $6.99). Boat Instruments's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 16.4). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Boat Instruments costs $6.99 and Sail Buddy $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Boat Instruments ships an update every 2 months, Sail Buddy every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Boat Instruments | Sail Buddy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 | $4.99 — better |
| Rating | — | 4.4 (14 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 14 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | FB Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson GmbH | Tim Herzog |
Customer experience
Boat Instruments
Sail Buddy
In-app purchases
Boat Instruments
No in-app purchases
Sail Buddy
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Boat Instruments free?
Is Sail Buddy free?
Do Boat Instruments or Sail Buddy have ads?
Which is updated more often, Boat Instruments or Sail Buddy?
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