Comparison

Fishing Codex vs Surf Reader

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

Head to head
About

Fishing Codex

Log your fishing trips privately with detailed catch information, tide, moon, and weather data. Discover your best fishing times and locations, even offline. Explore maps and compete with other anglers.

Highlights
  • Private catch logging
  • Automatic tide, moon, and weather data
  • Offline functionality
  • Location privacy
  • Catch statistics and patterns
  • Go-To navigation
  • Offline map tiles
Features
Read full description

Fishing Codex is your private fishing logbook — log every catch, keep your locations private, and learn the water you fish. Free forever, fully offline, no account required. One tap logs the fish. Fishing Codex fills in the tide, moon and weather for that exact place and moment, then turns years of catches into patterns you can actually fish — your best tides, your best moons, your best times of year. YOUR LOGBOOK STAYS PRIVATE • Drop a pin where you fish — your exact locations stay private, visible only to you • Nothing leaves your logbook unless you choose to publish it • Works fully offline with no account required — entries save to your device first and sync later LOG EVERY CATCH • Fish On! mode: one tap starts the fight timer, and location, tide, moon and weather are captured automatically • Photos, species, length, weight and method — every catch in your own logbook • Tell the app what water you fish — sea, lake or river — and it shows only the conditions that water can have • Rebuild years of fishing history from your photo library: every old photo gets the tide and moon it was actually caught on, worked out from its date and place • Import from GPX, KML and CSV files in minutes KNOW WHEN TO GO • Best Fishing Times opens on today's answer — how good the day is and when the next feeding window falls — with about 30 days of windows scored from tides, sun, moon, weather and sea • Every entry carries a weather-and-sea forecast for its exact place — wind, swell, rain, temperature and more, readable offline • Tide predictions work worldwide and keep working offline • Your own stats reveal your real patterns — best tides, moon phases, seasons and times, per species FISH TOGETHER • Crews: your own crew from day one — a feed, chat, weekly quests and crew badges • Events: competitions, challenges and trips — enter a catch in one tap and watch the leaderboard live; some events let the community pick the winner • A worldwide catch feed, and badges for the moments that matter • Available in 13 languages — pick yours on the first screen NAVIGATE & EXPLORE • Go-To navigation with a live course arrow, built for open water • Offline map tiles, free for everyone, searchable and downloadable by region • The public map shows where anglers are active as a soft heat glow over a broad area • Free entries published by other anglers can be claimed every day — the exact location appears on your private map, and each claim stays for 5 days FISHING CODEX PRO • The full 14-day weather-and-sea forecast on every entry • Full Best Fishing Times — the whole 30-day range, plus per-species and starred views • Advanced catch stats and month-by-month trends • Rank your entries against today's conditions • 10 GB of cloud photo backup, up from 200 MB Fishing Codex Pro is an auto-renewable subscription (Monthly or Annual). The subscription title, length and price are shown in the app and at purchase; it auto-renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period, and can be managed in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://fishingcodex.app/app-terms.html Privacy Policy: https://fishingcodex.app/app-privacy.html

About

Surf Reader

Features
Read full description

Surf Reader is a pocket-sized coaching companion built around Martin Dunn's 40-year surf-coaching method. Read the break, set your intention before you paddle out, then rate the surf you actually had — and watch your wave-selection skill grow session by session. MAP THE BREAK Sand banks shift, rips appear, peaks drift. Turn what you see in the lineup into a saved beach map you can pull up before every paddle-out. Eight break types, drawn your way. PLAN WITH INTENTION "Just have fun" is a great mantra and a poor session plan. A guided 7-question flow gives you one specific thing to work on each surf. REVIEW HONESTLY Rate your session the moment you're back on the sand. Surf Reader closes the loop between what you planned and what you actually did. WATCH YOUR SKILL RISE Every session feeds a simple picture of your progress, so better wave selection becomes a habit — not a guess. BUILT FOR SURFERS • 5 languages — English, Español, Português, 日本語, Français • 8 break types to map • Local-first: your sessions, plans and maps stay on your device — no account required Built on Martin Dunn's coaching from eSurfR.com, MartinDunn.com.au, and Martin Dunn Surf Camps.

Screenshots

Fishing Codex4 screens
Surf Reader3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Surf Reader at none against Fishing Codex's 2. On price, update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Fishing Codex sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Surf Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Fishing Codex ships an update every 8 days, Surf Reader every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Fishing Codex versus Surf Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFishing CodexSurf Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB85 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFISHINGCODEX LIMITEDAshley Martin Dunn

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Fishing Codex

Subscriptions2
  • Fishing Codex Pro (Monthly)$4.991 Month
  • Fishing Codex Pro (Annual)$44.991 Year
None

Surf Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fishing Codex free?
Fishing Codex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Surf Reader free?
Surf Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Fishing Codex or Surf Reader have ads?
Neither Fishing Codex nor Surf Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fishing Codex or Surf Reader?
Fishing Codex ships an update every 8 days, and Surf Reader every 2 weeks. Most recently, Fishing Codex was updated on October 31, 2026 and Surf Reader on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons