Comparison

Binnacle vs shipETA

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

Head to head
About

Binnacle

This navigation app provides tools for maritime professionals and sailing enthusiasts. It offers features like true wind calculation, celestial navigation, ETA estimation, logbook management, and port search. Stay informed with real-time NavArea warnings for safer voyages.

Highlights
  • True Wind Calculation
  • Celestial Navigation Tools
  • ETA Estimation
  • LogBook Management
  • UNLOCODE Search
  • NavArea Warnings
Features
Read full description

Binnacle is a set of bridge instruments for merchant marine deck officers. Thirteen tools, most of them working with no signal, and none of them pretending to be more certain than it is. ON WATCH • Navigational warnings, plotted. NAVAREA and the coastal services drawn on a chart where they actually are, instead of read as a wall of text at three in the morning. Set a radius from your position and follow only the services that concern the passage. • Weather for a position and a time you choose — wind in forces, the barometric tendency, fog risk. Forecast data from MET Norway. • True wind from course, speed and apparent wind. • Manoeuvring board — CPA and TCPA for two to five contacts at once, and one alteration that clears all of them. POSITION AND CHECKS • Compass error by amplitude or azimuth, worked against celestial data for the moment you observed. • Celestial fix — reduce two or three sights and see the cocked hat plotted, with its residuals, not just a number. • ETA and passage timing in UTC, with the arithmetic shown. • Heel, trim and roll period from the phone's own sensors, with GM estimated from the roll period. RECORDS AND REFERENCE • Log book for bridge events, kept for the whole contract and handed over as a PDF. • 17,998 ports by UN/LOCODE, and 11,728 port facilities with their GISIS codes, searchable by name or code — the reference is bundled, so it works alongside. • Manoeuvring miles — passage legs with sea and manoeuvring totals kept apart. • Unit converter for the units a bridge actually uses: knots, cables, fathoms, hectopascals, tonnes and the rest. WHAT IT WILL NOT DO It is an aid, not an authority. It does not replace corrected charts, official publications, the ship's procedures or the officer's judgement. Every screen states its own limits rather than hiding them, and every export says on its face what it is. WHAT STAYS FREE True wind, ETA, compass error, the manoeuvring board, heel and trim, weather and the unit converter are free, with no limit and no trial. The log book keeps ten entries free. Celestial reduces one sight free. Port search and the match count are free. ONE PURCHASE, NOT A SUBSCRIPTION • Navigational warnings — NAVAREA and the coastal services, with the chart and the radius • The facility's own record in Port Facilities • Fixes from two or three lines of position, and the plot • PDF export, on every screen including the free ones One payment of $5.99 unlocks all of it, on every device signed in to your Apple Account. There is no subscription, nothing renews, and there is nothing to cancel. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy and Terms are also in the app, under More.

About

shipETA

Features
Read full description

shipETA is an offline voyage planning aid for ship officers. Calculate Speed Required, Best ETA, Latest ETD, and bunker estimates with Zone Description (ZD) wall-clock times, built for pilot-station to pilot-station sea passages. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Speed Required: sail time, required dock ETA, pilotage, and distance to required open-water SOG • Best ETA: sail and SOG to pilot-station arrival and dock ETA • Latest ETD: required dock ETA and SOG to latest sail and departure • Fuel: cube-law estimate from two speed / MT-day references, with optional burn band • Routes: save and reopen passages on device • Vessels: performance profiles (SOG and cube-law refs) you can link to a route • Whale zone: SOG cap for ETA/ETD; segmented WZ distances for Speed Required • Share: export a PDF or copy a text summary via the system share sheet BUILT FOR THE BRIDGE • Works fully offline. No account, no cloud sync • ZD as a signed UTC offset (including half hours) • Clear timeline: sail, pilot out, sea passage, pilot in, dock • Local storage only for routes and vessel profiles IMPORTANT shipETA is a planning aid. Results are estimates from the values you enter and are not a substitute for official navigation systems, company procedures, or the Master’s judgment. Always cross-check before use. Support: dahiri.farid@gmail.com Privacy: https://seawork.org/#privacy Website: https://seawork.org/

Screenshots

Binnacle4 screens
shipETA4 screens

Verdict

The call

Binnacle and shipETA are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Binnacle versus shipETA: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBinnacleshipETA
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDanylo BudylkinFarid Dahiri

In-app purchases

None

Binnacle

No in-app purchases

None

shipETA

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Binnacle free?
Binnacle is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is shipETA free?
shipETA is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Binnacle or shipETA have ads?
Neither Binnacle nor shipETA shows ads.

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