Lightning Tracker vs Lightning Radar
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lightning Tracker
This app provides real-time lightning strike data on a live map, offering alerts for nearby activity. It helps users plan outdoor activities and stay aware of approaching storms with detailed strike information and weather radar integration.
- Live lightning strike map
- Nearby strike alerts
- Ground and intracloud strike types
- Weather radar integration
- Closest strike distance and age
- Optional monthly Pro subscription
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Lightning Alerts is a live lightning tracker and storm map for nearby strike awareness, powered by enterprise-grade lightning data. Open the map without creating an app account. Check recent strike activity before travel, golf, hiking, boating, surfing, fishing, open-water activities, or everyday weather planning. The map can show both ground-reaching and intracloud strikes. Ground mode helps filter cloud flashes so busy storms are easier to read. What you can see: - Live map of recent strike activity - Nearby alerts for your location or a saved place - No app account required to open the map - Ground-reaching and intracloud strike types - Ground mode to reduce cloud-flash noise - Closest-strike distance, age, direction, and street context - Strike strength, polarity, and detailed strike type - Weather radar with strikes on the same map - Save one place you care about - Clear controls for alerts, ads, privacy, and analytics - Optional monthly Pro subscription that removes ads Use Lightning Alerts before you head outside, while storms are nearby, or when you want a clearer view of activity around a place. Choose the strike filter, inspect the closest strike, and use notifications to return to the live map when activity changes. Lightning Alerts is a weather awareness tool, not an emergency warning system. Always follow official weather alerts, local rules, and venue safety guidance. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Lightning Radar
Track lightning strikes globally in real time with live alerts and detailed storm information. View strike locations, distances, and directions on an interactive map, and receive notifications as storms approach.
- Real-time lightning strike map
- Customizable lightning alerts
- Lock screen and Dynamic Island storm updates
- Nearby radar and strike distance
- Live chart of nearby storm activity
- Search and save locations
- Private by design, no tracking or ads
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Lightning Radar shows you where lightning is striking, around you and around the world, in real time. LIGHTNING ALERTS Now you can be warned before a storm reaches you. Turn on Lightning Alerts and get a notification when strikes land within your chosen radius, around where you are and around any saved places you choose to watch. The alerts step up as a storm closes in, and they are tuned not to over-notify: once it is right on top of you, they stop repeating. Tap an alert to jump straight to that strike on the map. Alerts stay off until you switch them on, and you can turn them off any time. Turn on Background location and they can follow you as you move, still sending only the same coarse grid cell, so you stay covered on the road as well as at home. ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN While a storm is nearby, a Storm Live Activity keeps the nearest-strike distance on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets show the live count of strikes near you at a glance. NEARBY RADAR See the closest strike to you at a glance: how far away it is, which direction it's in, and how long ago it hit. An animated radar dial sweeps through the strikes within your chosen range and turns to your compass heading, so "up" is the way you're facing. Set the range anywhere from 5 km out to 5,000 km. NEARBY ACTIVITY A live chart shows strikes per minute near you over the last several minutes, so you can tell whether a storm is building or moving off. Tap any strike to jump straight to it on the map. LIVE WORLD MAP Every strike detected by the Blitzortung.org volunteer network appears within seconds. From each one a ring spreads outward at the speed of sound, the way thunder travels, so you can watch a storm move and sense how far off it is. MADE TO EXPLORE • Search any place and jump to it • Save the spots you care about for one-tap access • Switch between a light or dark map • Distances in kilometres or miles • A live readout shows how far behind real time the feed is running IN YOUR LANGUAGE Lightning Radar is translated into 35 languages, from the map and the radar to alerts, widgets and the Storm Live Activity. It follows the language your phone is set to, or you can give the app a language of its own in Settings. Distances, dates and times follow whichever you pick. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-up, no tracking, no ads, no third-party analytics. The map and radar run entirely on your device: your precise location is used only to place the radar around you and never leaves your phone. Lightning Alerts are the one exception, and only if you turn them on. To work out which strikes are near you, the app sends an anonymous notification token, your alert radius, and a coarse location: a grid cell roughly a fifth of your radius across, never your exact position. That goes to our own server (on our own hardware in the EU), is used only to find nearby lightning and deliver the alert through Apple, and is tied to no identity. Turn alerts off and it is deleted. ABOUT THE DATA Strike data comes from Blitzortung.org, a community network of volunteer-run detectors, and is free for personal, non-commercial use. Coverage isn't perfect and strikes can be missed or delayed, so please don't rely on Lightning Radar for anything safety-critical.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lightning Radar at none against Lightning Tracker's 1. Lightning Radar also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (12 vs 1). Lightning Tracker's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs monthly) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.1). On price, rating, review sentiment 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
Both are free to download. Lightning Tracker sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Lightning Radar asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Lightning Tracker against 5.0 for Lightning Radar. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lightning Radar has 12 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Lightning Tracker ships an update every 2 days, Lightning Radar monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lightning Tracker | Lightning Radar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (12 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 12 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lightning Alerts Oy | Koode |
Customer experience
Lightning Tracker
Lightning Radar
In-app purchases
Lightning Tracker
- Ad-free monthly$0.991 Month
Lightning Radar
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Lightning Tracker free?
Is Lightning Radar free?
Which has better reviews, Lightning Tracker or Lightning Radar?
Do Lightning Tracker or Lightning Radar have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lightning Tracker or Lightning Radar?
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