Comparison

LKN+ vs Sunpatch

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

Head to head
About

LKN+

Stay informed about Lake Norman's water conditions with real-time updates on water levels, temperature, and wind forecasts. Receive alerts for safety and water level changes, and visualize historical data.

Highlights
  • Real-time water level updates
  • Water temperature tracking
  • Wind forecast with 5-day outlook
  • Water level and safety alerts
  • Historical water data visualization
  • Interactive temperature sensor map
Features
Read full description

Worried about flooding at the lake, wondering about the water level changes, curious about the current water temperature, interested in Lake Norman specific alerts. This app is for you if you visit, live, and/or boat on Lake Norman and are interested in water level, water temp, and/or wind forecast information. LKN+ is the ONLY app that includes: - Water Level measurements updated every 30 minutes - Water Temperature updated every 15 minutes - Water Temp Sensor Map showing an interactive location of the temp sensors - Day, Week, Month, and Year views of Water Level and Water Temp changes at the lake - Wind Forecast that includes wind speed, gust, and direction with a 5 day future forecast - Maximum, Target, and Minimum Water Level reference annotations - Color coded Water Level status - Get specific measurements from touching a specific point on the Water Level and Water Temp charts - Water Level and Safety Alerts

About

Sunpatch

Features
Read full description

Every seed packet and plant label is written in hours of direct sun. Almost nobody knows what their own garden actually gets — so the tomatoes go in the shady corner and never ripen. Sunpatch answers the question with a number. MEASURE YOUR OWN SKYLINE Other sun apps show you where the sun is. That is the easy half. The half that decides whether anything grows is what stands in the way: the fence, the garage, next door's lime tree. Point your phone at the top of each one, or enter its height and distance, and Sunpatch builds the skyline around that exact spot. REAL HOURS, ANY DAY OF THE YEAR The app walks the day minute by minute and counts only the light that actually reaches you. You get the total, the first and last sun, the longest unbroken stretch — and the same figures for every day of the year, so you can see the bed that bakes in July sit in shadow from October. FULL SUN OR PART SHADE, SETTLED Sunpatch classes each spot the way plant labels do: full sun, part sun, part shade, full shade. Then it matches 135 plants — vegetables, herbs, fruit, flowers, shrubs, houseplants and lawn — against the light you actually have, and tells you plainly what will not work. WHAT IF YOU CUT THAT TREE BACK Tap any obstruction and see exactly how many hours removing it would give you. Sometimes it is two hours. Often it is nothing at all — which is worth knowing before anyone reaches for a saw. DECIDUOUS TREES ARE HANDLED PROPERLY A bare lime tree in February is not the same obstruction as the same tree in July. Sunpatch drops it to a bare canopy outside the leaf season, and counts dappled light at what it is worth instead of rounding it to nothing. THE SUN COACH Ask what to plant, why something is struggling, or how to win back an hour. It answers from the numbers you measured, not from generic advice. The Coach is the one part of Sunpatch that runs on a server instead of your phone, so it needs Pro and a free account. WORKS OFFLINE, AND WITHOUT SIGNING IN Every calculation runs on your phone using the NOAA solar algorithm, so measuring, the charts, the whole year and the plant library all work in aeroplane mode with no account at all. Signing in is optional and does one thing: it backs your spots up, so a lost phone is not a lost season. No ads, no analytics, no tracking. SUNPATCH PRO The free app measures one spot completely. Pro adds unlimited spots, the Sun Coach, what-if on every obstruction and the full year on any date. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Sunpatch Pro is offered as a monthly or a yearly auto-renewable subscription. A subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it at any time in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://szymdzie.github.io/sunpatch/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://szymdzie.github.io/sunpatch/privacy.html

Screenshots

LKN+4 screens
Sunpatch4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: LKN+ at none against Sunpatch's 2. LKN+ also leads on update cadence (daily vs monthly) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, ads 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

Both are free to download. Sunpatch sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. LKN+ asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LKN+ ships an update daily, Sunpatch monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
LKN+ versus Sunpatch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLKN+Sunpatch
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyDaily — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB67 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTimothy BarrSzymon Dziedzic

In-app purchases

None

LKN+

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Sunpatch

Subscriptions2
  • Sunpatch Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Sunpatch Pro Yearly$17.991 Year

Questions

Is LKN+ free?
LKN+ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sunpatch free?
Sunpatch is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do LKN+ or Sunpatch have ads?
Neither LKN+ nor Sunpatch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LKN+ or Sunpatch?
LKN+ ships an update daily, and Sunpatch monthly. Most recently, LKN+ was updated on November 4, 2026 and Sunpatch on October 29, 2026.

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