Comparison

Tide Buoy vs Flood

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

Head to head
About

Tide Buoy

Quickly access tide charts, surf conditions, and marine weather for your current location. Designed for surfers, anglers, and boaters, it provides clear visual data for coastal activities.

Highlights
  • Clear tide charts
  • Nearby tide station data
  • Surf and marine conditions
  • Save favorite spots
  • Visual tide curve
  • Coastal water data
Features
Read full description

Tide Buoy makes it easy to check tide charts, surf conditions, marine weather, and coastal water data without digging through cluttered apps or confusing charts. Open the app and quickly see the tide curve, nearby tide station data, and ocean conditions for your current location, which matter most for your next surf session, fishing trip, beach day, or boat outing. Built for surfers, anglers, boaters, beachgoers, and coastal travelers, Tide Buoy gives you a fast, visual way to understand what the water is doing right now and what it is about to do next. With Tide Buoy you can: - View clear tide charts at a glance - Check nearby tide stations automatically - Track incoming and outgoing tide movement - Review surf, buoy, and marine conditions in one place - Save favorite coastal spots - Plan surf sessions, fishing windows, boating days, and beach trips faster - Use a simple, clean tide app built for speed Tide Buoy is designed for quick coastal decisions. Whether you are checking dawn patrol, planning a fishing run, timing a beach walk, or watching the tide before a boat outing, Tide Buoy helps you make better ocean decisions with less friction. Tide and buoy data is sourced from public NOAA services, including CO-OPS tide stations and NDBC buoy observations. Premium Subscription: - Tide Buoy Premium - 1-year auto-renewing subscription - Premium features include future tide lookahead, saved spots, map-based spot picking, and expanded surf and buoy views. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://tidebuoy.com/privacy

About

Flood

This app provides early warnings for coastal flooding along Florida's Gulf Coast. It monitors key conditions like tides, moon phases, and storm proximity, translating complex weather data into easy-to-understand risk levels. Receive timely alerts to stay informed and prepared for rising waters.

Highlights
  • Coastal flood early warning
  • Monitors 4 key flood conditions
  • Plain-language risk assessment
  • Live tide and hurricane tracking
  • AI-powered 12-hour outlook
  • Moon phase tracking
Features
Read full description

Flood-Cast is a coastal flood early-warning app for Florida's Gulf coast — created after Hurricane Helene pushed record surge into homes along the coast, from the barrier islands to Tampa Bay. Instead of burying you in raw weather data, Flood-Cast watches the specific conditions that drive coastal flooding and tells you, in plain language, how worried to be right now. THE 4 FLOOD CONDITIONS Flood-Cast continuously checks the four factors that line up during the worst coastal floods: • Spring tide — a full or new moon, when tides run highest • King tide — a predicted high tide above the king-tide line • Hurricane on a parallel track — a storm running along the coast • Eye 40–75 miles offshore — close enough for the outer bands to push water inland As these stack up, your risk ring climbs from Minimal toward Flood Now — so you can watch the conditions building instead of being caught off guard. RECALIBRATED AGAINST HELENE Helene drove more than six feet of surge with its eye far offshore — a combination simple rules miss. Flood-Cast layers storm-surge, storm-size, and distance escalators on top of the base gate, so a large, distant, surge-driving storm still raises the alarm. WHAT YOU SEE • A friendly risk ring with a plain-language summary • The live 4-condition checklist, so you can watch conditions stack up • A tide curve with the king-tide line, highs, lows, and a "now" marker • A hurricane tracker showing the eye's distance, bearing, and the danger band • The moon drawn in its current phase • A 12-hour AI outlook that reads the trend and explains what's coming LIVE DATA • Tides from NOAA Tides & Currents (your nearest Florida station) • Active storms from the National Hurricane Center • Moon phase computed on your device — no network needed Flood-Cast won't cry wolf. A full Flood Now alert only fires when the conditions truly line up; the rest of the time it quietly shows you the coast is calm. Built for residents, renters, and anyone who loves the Gulf coast and wants a head start before the water rises. A 3-day free trial unlocks the full app. Continuous monitoring and alerts are available by subscription. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://floodcastapp.com/privacy

Screenshots

Tide Buoy4 screens
Flood3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Flood at none against Tide Buoy's shown. Flood also leads on update cadence (daily vs weekly). Tide Buoy's advantage is ratings volume (8 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment and in-app purchases 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. Tide Buoy sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per year and Flood sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $13.99 per year. 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 Tide Buoy against 5.0 for Flood. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tide Buoy has 8 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tide Buoy ships an update weekly, Flood daily. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Tide Buoy versus Flood: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTide BuoyFlood
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (8 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings8 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyDaily — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.517.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWILLIAM BRADFORD BOOTHNxtranet

Customer experience

Tide Buoy

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Flood

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Tide Buoy

Subscriptions1
  • Tide Buoy Premium (Yearly)$2.991 Year
One-time3
  • Tide Buoy Support Tip $1$0.99
  • Tide Buoy Support Tip $5$4.99
  • Tide Buoy Support Tip $10$9.99
1 purchases

Flood

Subscriptions1
  • FloodCast Premium3 Days trial$13.991 Year

Questions

Is Tide Buoy free?
Tide Buoy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Flood free?
Flood is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Tide Buoy or Flood?
Tide Buoy and Flood are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 8 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Tide Buoy or Flood have ads?
Tide Buoy shows ads; Flood does not.
Which is updated more often, Tide Buoy or Flood?
Tide Buoy ships an update weekly, and Flood daily. Most recently, Tide Buoy was updated on October 31, 2026 and Flood on November 5, 2026.

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