Comparison

GWL vs WaveDepth

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

Head to head
About

GWL

Features
Read full description

This app scans for Ground water sensor and reads the depth of water

About

WaveDepth

Features
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WaveDepth estimates how deep the water is by watching what waves do as they cross it. In deep water a wave barely feels the bottom. As the seabed rises the wave slows, its crests bunch together, and it grows taller โ€” wave shoaling. How much taller depends only on the depth and the wave period, so measuring that change at several points along the wave's path recovers the depth at each one. All you need is one brightly coloured floating ball and a steady place to rest your phone. HOW A MEASUREMENT WORKS 1. Register your ball. Circle it once in a photo and enter its real diameter. That single number sets the scale for everything that follows. 2. Film the water. Up to two and a half minutes, split into five 25-second sections with a five-second gap between them. Move the ball to a new spot during each gap. 3. Mark the ball in each section. You get one frame per section โ€” circle the ball on each. That fixes its size and colour for tracking that stretch of water. 4. Read the depth. The app follows the ball twenty times a second, measures the wave period from both the ball's motion and the water around it, and reports a depth for every section. WHAT YOU SEE Every section gets its own card: the depth, the camera-to-ball range, the wave amplitude and how it compares with the reference section, the period used, the ball's width in pixels, the scale at the ball, and the phone's tilt. Open the diagnostics on any section for the frames analysed, the detection rate, the tracking confidence, the drift removed by the fit, and any period estimates that were measured but deliberately left out of the calculation. Nothing is hidden behind a summary. If a number looks wrong, the numbers behind it are there too. ALREADY HAVE MEASUREMENTS? Manual mode takes a wave period and a set of amplitudes and returns the depth profile directly, with no filming required. ON YOUR DEVICE All video analysis runs on your iPhone. Nothing is uploaded, no account is needed, and the app makes no network requests of its own. Available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. PLEASE READ These depth readings are rough estimates and can be inaccurate. Do not rely on them for navigation, safety, or any real-world decision. WaveDepth is a tool for curiosity and experiment โ€” it is not a depth sounder and not a charting instrument. The developer accepts no responsibility for any use of these results.

Screenshots

GWL3 screens
WaveDepth4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: WaveDepth at monthly against GWL's every 14 months. GWL's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

GWL ships an update every 14 months, WaveDepth monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
GWL versus WaveDepth: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGWLWaveDepth
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 14 monthsMonthly โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 โ€” better15.1
Further details โ€” not scored
Size10 MB24 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperSmart Sensor Devices ABJin Hwa Lee

In-app purchases

None

GWL

No in-app purchases

None

WaveDepth

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is GWL free?
GWL is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is WaveDepth free?
WaveDepth is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do GWL or WaveDepth have ads?
Neither GWL nor WaveDepth shows ads.
Which is updated more often, GWL or WaveDepth?
GWL ships an update every 14 months, and WaveDepth monthly. Most recently, GWL was updated on October 3, 2026 and WaveDepth on October 13, 2026.

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