Boat Instruments vs VMG Display
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
VMG Display
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Turn your phone into a set of tools for your boat. It shows your position, speed and heading and by setting a course it calculates and displays the VMG in real time. Visualizza: - Speed (SOG) - Course (COG) - Boat Position (lat,lon) - Lolcal or UTC time - Set Bearing/Course (BRG) - Course Deviation - Velocity Made Good (VMG/VMC) no ads or subscriptions required
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: VMG Display at $0.99 against Boat Instruments's $6.99. Boat Instruments's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 14.0). On update cadence, 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
Boat Instruments costs $6.99 and VMG Display $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Boat Instruments ships an update every 2 months, VMG Display every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Boat Instruments | VMG Display |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | FB Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson GmbH | StudioZeroPixel |
In-app purchases
Boat Instruments
No in-app purchases
VMG Display
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Boat Instruments free?
Is VMG Display free?
Do Boat Instruments or VMG Display have ads?
Which is updated more often, Boat Instruments or VMG Display?
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