Comparison

BlueHelm Boating vs Depthly

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

Head to head
About

BlueHelm Boating

This app provides advanced navigation tools for boaters, including an anchor alarm, trip planning with smart routing, and marine weather forecasts. It also acts as a personalized AI guide for your vessel, offering offline access to your boat's systems and procedures.

Highlights
  • Anchor-drift alarm
  • Live float plans
  • Marine weather forecasts
  • AI-powered boat guide
  • Offline vessel procedures
  • Smart water routing
  • Find nearest marinas and fuel docks
Features
Read full description

Navigation, Anchor-drift alarm. Live float plans. Marine weather. And your boat's own guide — with you at the helm, even offline. BlueHelm is built around YOUR boat: its systems, procedures, and checklists become a guide you can actually use underway, with the safety tools running alongside. YOUR BOAT (AI) Ask questions and get answers drawn from your boat's guide plus current conditions. "Where's the A/C seacock?" "What do I shut off on the inverter?" Boating questions only — and it never replaces your own judgment or official sources. ANCHOR WATCH Drop anchor, set your rode, and BlueHelm watches your swing. If your boat drifts past your ring, the alarm sounds — even with the screen off. Adaptive monitoring is designed to be easy on your battery overnight. TRIPS & FLOAT PLANS Plan a trip with a suggested water route, or just tap Track Now and go. Share a live float plan so the people who worry can watch your track. Every trip is saved with distance and time. SMART WATER ROUTING Plan a trip and BlueHelm suggests a route over real water — out the harbor channel, around the headland, never a straight line across land. In US waters, routing is informed by NOAA chart data. A planning suggestion to refine, not navigation — always verify against official charts. FIND NEAREST The closest marinas, fuel docks, launch ramps, harbors, anchorages, and bays — sorted by distance from your position, with over 17,000 US coastal places built in. Works with zero signal, exactly when you need it. Tap any place to plan a route there, or just ask Your Boat. TRAVEL WINDOW A same-day read on wind and swell, scored hour by hour, so you can pick the calm window instead of guessing. Transparent about its sources and thresholds — a planning aid, not a go/no-go verdict. MARINE CONDITIONS Wind, tide, waves, and water temperature with hourly and 7-day forecasts, tide charts, and NOAA coastal alerts in US waters. VESSEL GUIDE Your boat's procedures — getting on, heading out, heading back, closing up — as living checklists that work fully offline. Multi-boat ready: every vessel keeps its own guide, log, and documents. MOB & EMERGENCY One-tap man-overboard marking and an emergency console with your position ready to read over the radio. MEMBERSHIP — STRAIGHT PRICES Free to download, and free forever for anchor watch, the map with your position, nearby places, today's conditions, float plans, SOS and your boat's guide. Premium adds the Premium chart (charted depths and hazards, water routing, tracked trips), Ask your boat and the week ahead, for up to three boats: $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year. Try each Premium feature free first: five 24-hour passes each, started with a tap, no card, nothing automatic. No ads. We never sell your data, and your guide content is never used to train AI. BlueHelm is an aid to seamanship — not a substitute for it. Always maintain a proper lookout, monitor official forecasts and notices, and carry required safety equipment. AI answers can be wrong; verify anything safety-critical against your boat's documentation. Questions? services@getbluehelm.com Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://getbluehelm.com/legal

About

Depthly

Features
Read full description

Know how deep the water is before you get there. Depthly turns your iPhone into a pocket depth chart for the sea. Aim the crosshair anywhere on the map, tap once, and read the depth of the seabed at that exact spot. No sonar hardware, no cables, and nothing to install on your boat. BUILT FOR PEOPLE ON THE WATER Whether you sail, fish, cruise, paddle or dive, the question is always the same: how deep is it here? Depthly answers it in one tap, using published bathymetric survey data that covers seas around the world, with especially detailed coverage of European waters. TAP TO SOUND Take a sounding anywhere on the chart. Every measurement is saved as a pin with the depth, the exact position in decimal or degrees and minutes, the nearest place name and the time it was taken. Build your own private chart of the places that matter to you: anchorages, fishing marks, shallow passages, dive sites. DEPTH CONTOURS ON ANY MAP Generate depth contour lines for the area on your screen, at the interval you choose, drawn over a marine chart, a satellite view or a standard map. See at a glance where the bottom shelves, where the deep channel runs and where it gets thin. SEABED PROFILES Pick two points and Depthly draws the cross section of the seabed between them, with the total distance, the deepest and shallowest points and the average depth. Perfect for checking a passage, planning a dive or understanding a fishing ground. WORKS COMPLETELY OFFLINE Download the chart and the depth data for a whole cruising area before you leave the marina. Out on the water, with no signal at all, soundings, contours and profiles keep working exactly as they do at home. Your charts do not need the internet once they are on your phone. RECORD YOUR TRACKS Record your route while you are underway. Depthly logs your position and fills in the depth beneath you along the whole track, even if you were offline at the time. Review the track later on the map, see the seabed profile under your route, and keep a log of every trip. TAKE YOUR DATA WITH YOU Export tracks and seabed profiles as GPX or CSV files that open in chartplotters, mapping tools and spreadsheets. Depths are written the way chartplotters expect, so your recorded data slots straight into the rest of your navigation setup. TRUSTED SOURCES Depth data comes from EMODnet Bathymetry and GEBCO, the leading public bathymetric surveys. Depthly is a planning and reference tool: always use official charts and your own judgement for navigation. FREE TO USE, PRO IF YOU WANT MORE The free version includes five depth soundings every day, all map styles and unlimited track recording. Depthly Pro unlocks unlimited soundings, depth contours, seabed profiles, offline areas, GPX and CSV export and iCloud track sync. Pro is available as a monthly or annual subscription, or as a single lifetime purchase. The annual plan starts with a seven day free trial. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and can be managed or cancelled in your App Store account settings at any time. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://blayasoft.com/privacy.html Drop a pin on the sea and know what is under it. Download Depthly and take your first sounding today.

Screenshots

BlueHelm Boating4 screens
Depthly4 screens

Verdict

The call

BlueHelm Boating and Depthly are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. BlueHelm Boating sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Depthly sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
BlueHelm Boating versus Depthly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBlueHelm BoatingDepthly
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscription—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBlue Helm LLCIvan Blajic

In-app purchases

9 purchases

BlueHelm Boating

Subscriptions9
  • BlueHelm Premium$9.991 Month
  • Crew Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Captain Monthly$17.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Add a Boat$49.001 Year
  • Add a Boat (2nd)$49.001 Year
  • Add a Boat (3rd)$49.001 Year
  • BlueHelm Premium$59.991 Year
  • Crew Annual$99.001 Year
  • Captain Annual$199.001 Year
3 purchases

Depthly

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$3.991 Month
  • Annual Premium7 Days trial$8.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$24.99

Questions

Is BlueHelm Boating free?
BlueHelm Boating is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Depthly free?
Depthly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do BlueHelm Boating or Depthly have ads?
Neither BlueHelm Boating nor Depthly shows ads.

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