Backyard Weather vs RainVis
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Backyard Weather
Monitor personal weather stations, aviation weather, and coastal conditions. View current readings, historical charts for up to 11 metrics, and customize units. Offers widgets and a watch app for convenient access to weather data.
- Personal weather station monitoring
- Aviation weather (METAR)
- Coastal conditions (NOAA tides)
- Current conditions and historical charts
- Customizable units and display
- Widgets and watch app support
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**Personal Weather Station & Aviation Weather** Connect a PWS via Weather Underground, monitor aviation weather from any METAR airport, or track tides and coastal conditions from NOAA CO-OPS stations. **Three station types** • PWS — personal weather stations via Weather Underground • METAR — airport observations, updated every few minutes at most US airports • NOAA — tide gauges and coastal stations **Current conditions** Live readings with charts underneath, plus the record high, record low and average for today's date from your station's full archive. Up to 12 metrics depending on station type: temperature, feels like, humidity, wind, dew point, pressure, precipitation, UV, solar radiation, visibility, water temperature, and water level/tide. **Rich history charts** 1-day and 7-day charts you can drag to read exact values, times and wind direction. US airport stations fill in between the hourly reports, so today's line is a curve rather than 24 steps. **Alerts** Get notified when your station crosses a value you choose — a freeze, a gust, an inch of rain — or when it stops reporting altogether. Pressure drops, temperature swings and wind shifts are built in as ready-made rules. **Customisable units & display** 12- or 24-hour time, metric or imperial, and precision options for every number. **Color themes** Nine palettes for your charts and calendars. Preview any of them across every metric before you decide. **Widgets (Supporter)** Graph widgets for any metric over 1 or 7 days, a single-metric widget for one big number, a year-at-a-glance calendar, long-range history charts, a records widget, and Lock Screen complications. **Watch app (Supporter)** Temperature, feels like, humidity, wind, pressure and precipitation as watch complications, with every current metric and its graph in the app itself. **History & Records (Supporter)** Daily detail for any year your station has recorded — airports often reach back decades — plus all-time records, a record high and low for every calendar day, and yearly trends that overlay up to ten years on one chart. Free includes current conditions, 1-day and 7-day charts, one month of history, one alert per station, and three colour themes. Note: a Weather Underground API key is required for PWS stations. METAR and NOAA stations are free and need no API key. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
RainVis
Visualize detailed weather data with customizable forecasts. Track rain, temperature, wind, tides, and solunar timing in one view. Ideal for outdoor planning and coastal activities.
- Customizable forecast metrics
- Visual hourly previews
- Expandable hourly charts
- Coastal planning tools
- Rain-focused forecast
- Current conditions
- Radar with history
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RainVis turns detailed weather data into a visual forecast you can understand at a glance. Build your own forecast by choosing the details that matter most to you. Instead of jumping between separate hourly, daily, wind, rain, tide, and radar screens, RainVis lets you customize the forecast view around your plans. Track rain chance, accumulation, temperature, wind, gusts, humidity, pressure, dew point, cloud cover, tide height, tidal coefficient, and solunar timing in one visual forecast. Expand any day to inspect the hourly chart, compare multiple metrics together, and see when conditions line up. RainVis is especially useful for coastal fishing, boating, surfing, and outdoor planning, where the best window often depends on more than one number. Add tide and solunar details to your forecast to see tide movement, coefficient, moon timing, and major/minor activity periods alongside weather. Features: - Build-your-own forecast with customizable metrics - Compact daily forecast cards with visual hourly previews - Expandable hourly charts for rain, temperature, wind, gusts, humidity, pressure, dew point, cloud cover, tide, and solunar data - Coastal planning tools with tide height, tidal coefficient, NOAA tide source labels, moon data, and solunar activity periods - Rain-focused forecast showing chance, amount, timing, and accumulation - Current conditions for searched cities, saved places, or your current location - Radar with recent NEXRAD reflectivity history - iOS widgets for quick glanceable forecasts - Optional RainVis account for syncing Pro access across devices RainVis works immediately without signup. Free users can view the core visual forecast experience. RainVis Pro unlocks deeper planning features, including 15-day forecast trends, extended hourly forecast charts, longer radar history where available, live activities, and account-based access across iOS and web. Weather forecasts and coastal conditions can change quickly. Always follow official alerts and emergency guidance from the National Weather Service, NOAA, and local authorities. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://rainvis.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: RainVis at every 2 days against Backyard Weather's every 3 weeks. On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Backyard Weather sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $14.99 per year and RainVis sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Backyard Weather against 5.0 for RainVis. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively.
Backyard Weather ships an update every 3 weeks, RainVis every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Backyard Weather | RainVis |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 4+ |
| Developer | Samuel Albrecht | Brian Hakel |
Customer experience
Backyard Weather
RainVis
In-app purchases
Backyard Weather
- Backyard Weather Pro1 Month trial$14.991 Year
RainVis
- RainVis Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- RainVis Pro Annual$14.991 Year
Questions
Is Backyard Weather free?
Is RainVis free?
Which has better reviews, Backyard Weather or RainVis?
Do Backyard Weather or RainVis have ads?
Which is updated more often, Backyard Weather or RainVis?
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