Comparison

Backyard Weather vs RainVis

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

**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/

About

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.

Highlights
  • Customizable forecast metrics
  • Visual hourly previews
  • Expandable hourly charts
  • Coastal planning tools
  • Rain-focused forecast
  • Current conditions
  • Radar with history
Features
Read full description

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

Backyard Weather4 screens
RainVis4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Backyard Weather versus RainVis: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBackyard WeatherRainVis
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings23 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.6 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB15 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperSamuel AlbrechtBrian Hakel

Customer experience

Backyard Weather

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

RainVis

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Backyard Weather

Subscriptions1
  • Backyard Weather Pro1 Month trial$14.991 Year
2 purchases

RainVis

Subscriptions2
  • RainVis Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
  • RainVis Pro Annual$14.991 Year

Questions

Is Backyard Weather free?
Backyard Weather is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RainVis free?
RainVis is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Backyard Weather or RainVis?
Backyard Weather and RainVis are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Backyard Weather or RainVis have ads?
Neither Backyard Weather nor RainVis shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Backyard Weather or RainVis?
Backyard Weather ships an update every 3 weeks, and RainVis every 2 days. Most recently, Backyard Weather was updated on October 31, 2026 and RainVis on November 5, 2026.

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