Comparison

Good Buoy vs SailWindow

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

Head to head
About

Good Buoy

This app provides a comprehensive boating dashboard with real-time weather conditions, live buoy camera feeds, and nautical chart overlays. It also records trips, tracks water roughness, and monitors your body's response to motion, helping you plan better days on the water.

Highlights
  • Conditions dashboard (wave height, wind, temp, pressure)
  • Live buoy camera feeds
  • Nautical chart overlay
  • GPS trip recording with roughness gradient
  • Motion and stress sensing
  • Color-coded condition ratings
Features
Read full description

Good Buoy is a new kind of boating app — one built around the experience of being on the water, not just getting there. We bring together buoy, phone, and watch data into a clean, glanceable dashboard so you can plan smarter days and capture the ones worth remembering. Conditions dashboard Four metrics that matter — wave height, wind speed, water temperature, and air pressure — each with trend charts and instant, color-coded ratings. Know before you go. Buoy cameras Numbers describe the ocean. Cameras show it. Browse live imagery from offshore NOAA buoy cams for visual context on sea state, visibility, and the conditions data alone can't convey. Nautical chart overlay Chart data and navigational marks, layered cleanly over Apple Maps. Trip recording Turn your iPhone into a trip recorder. GPS routes with distance, speed, and a roughness-colored gradient trail that shows where the ride got bumpy. Motion & stress sensing Numbers fade. The memory of a rough ride doesn't. Your iPhone measures how rough the water felt, while your Apple Watch tracks how your body responded to it. Every trip ends with a picture of how the day really felt — so you can look back, learn, and plan smarter ones ahead. Spend less time checking apps. Spend more time on the water.

About

SailWindow

This app provides sailors with a focused marine weather view, combining forecast conditions, alerts, and buoy observations. It helps users quickly assess if conditions are good, questionable, or unsafe for sailing.

Highlights
  • Sailing window summary (Good, Caution, No-Go)
  • NOAA marine forecast text
  • Wind, wave, and temperature charts
  • Active marine and weather alerts
  • Nearby buoy observations
  • Saved sailing locations
  • Local notification rules
Currently charting
Read full description

SailWindow helps sailors quickly understand whether the next few hours look good, questionable, or unsafe on the water. Choose a sailing location and get a focused marine weather view built from NOAA, NWS, and NDBC data. SailWindow combines forecast conditions, active marine alerts, nearby buoy observations, and NOAA marine text forecasts into a clear summary for planning your time on the water. Features include: • Sailing window summary with Good, Caution, and No-Go conditions • NOAA marine forecast text matched automatically to your selected location • Wind, gust, wave height, wave period, wave direction, temperature, rain, and thunder risk charts when available • Active marine and weather alerts • Nearby NOAA/NDBC station and buoy observations • Station map with selectable buoy markers • Saved sailing locations • Local notification rules for changing conditions SailWindow is designed for pre-sail planning and situational awareness. Weather and marine conditions can change quickly. Always check official sources, local conditions, and required safety equipment before going out.

Screenshots

Good Buoy4 screens
SailWindow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Good Buoy at Free against SailWindow's $0.99. Good Buoy also leads on device support (3 vs 1). SailWindow's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and chart position (#84 vs unranked). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence 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

Good Buoy is free to download; SailWindow costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Good Buoy against 5.0 for SailWindow. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Good Buoy ships an update weekly, SailWindow every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Good Buoy versus SailWindow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGood BuoySailWindow
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings4 — better2
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supported — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#84 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGOOD BUOY LLCDIMITRY BRAZNICHENKO

Customer experience

Good Buoy

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

SailWindow

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Good Buoy

No in-app purchases

None

SailWindow

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Good Buoy free?
Good Buoy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SailWindow free?
SailWindow costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Good Buoy or SailWindow?
Good Buoy and SailWindow are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Good Buoy or SailWindow have ads?
Good Buoy shows ads; SailWindow does not.
Which is updated more often, Good Buoy or SailWindow?
Good Buoy ships an update weekly, and SailWindow every 5 days. Most recently, Good Buoy was updated on October 1, 2026 and SailWindow on September 26, 2026.

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