Lightning Radar vs Fire
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lightning Radar
Track lightning strikes globally in real time with live alerts and detailed storm information. View strike locations, distances, and directions on an interactive map, and receive notifications as storms approach.
- Real-time lightning strike map
- Customizable lightning alerts
- Lock screen and Dynamic Island storm updates
- Nearby radar and strike distance
- Live chart of nearby storm activity
- Search and save locations
- Private by design, no tracking or ads
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Lightning Radar shows you where lightning is striking, around you and around the world, in real time. LIGHTNING ALERTS Now you can be warned before a storm reaches you. Turn on Lightning Alerts and get a notification when strikes land within your chosen radius, around where you are and around any saved places you choose to watch. The alerts step up as a storm closes in, and they are tuned not to over-notify: once it is right on top of you, they stop repeating. Tap an alert to jump straight to that strike on the map. Alerts stay off until you switch them on, and you can turn them off any time. Turn on Background location and they can follow you as you move, still sending only the same coarse grid cell, so you stay covered on the road as well as at home. ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN While a storm is nearby, a Storm Live Activity keeps the nearest-strike distance on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets show the live count of strikes near you at a glance. NEARBY RADAR See the closest strike to you at a glance: how far away it is, which direction it's in, and how long ago it hit. An animated radar dial sweeps through the strikes within your chosen range and turns to your compass heading, so "up" is the way you're facing. Set the range anywhere from 5 km out to 5,000 km. NEARBY ACTIVITY A live chart shows strikes per minute near you over the last several minutes, so you can tell whether a storm is building or moving off. Tap any strike to jump straight to it on the map. LIVE WORLD MAP Every strike detected by the Blitzortung.org volunteer network appears within seconds. From each one a ring spreads outward at the speed of sound, the way thunder travels, so you can watch a storm move and sense how far off it is. MADE TO EXPLORE • Search any place and jump to it • Save the spots you care about for one-tap access • Switch between a light or dark map • Distances in kilometres or miles • A live readout shows how far behind real time the feed is running IN YOUR LANGUAGE Lightning Radar is translated into 35 languages, from the map and the radar to alerts, widgets and the Storm Live Activity. It follows the language your phone is set to, or you can give the app a language of its own in Settings. Distances, dates and times follow whichever you pick. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-up, no tracking, no ads, no third-party analytics. The map and radar run entirely on your device: your precise location is used only to place the radar around you and never leaves your phone. Lightning Alerts are the one exception, and only if you turn them on. To work out which strikes are near you, the app sends an anonymous notification token, your alert radius, and a coarse location: a grid cell roughly a fifth of your radius across, never your exact position. That goes to our own server (on our own hardware in the EU), is used only to find nearby lightning and deliver the alert through Apple, and is tied to no identity. Turn alerts off and it is deleted. ABOUT THE DATA Strike data comes from Blitzortung.org, a community network of volunteer-run detectors, and is free for personal, non-commercial use. Coverage isn't perfect and strikes can be missed or delayed, so please don't rely on Lightning Radar for anything safety-critical.
Fire
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Fire-Watch helpt je actieve brandhaarden en risicosignalen in jouw omgeving overzichtelijk te volgen. De app toont satellietdetecties van mogelijke brandhaarden op een interactieve kaart. Je kunt de afstandsradius zelf instellen, hotspots bekijken, rookrichting zien en lokale risicosignalen volgen op basis van branddata, bliksem en wind. Belangrijkste functies: • Actieve brandhaarden op de kaart • Afstand filteren op basis van jouw locatie • Rookpluimen met windrichting • Details per hotspot, zoals afstand en intensiteit • Waarschuwingen met instelbare afstand • Testknop voor het alertgeluid • Donkere kaartweergave voor beter overzicht Fire-Watch is bedoeld als hulpmiddel voor bewustwording en overzicht. De app is geen officieel waarschuwingssysteem en vervangt geen lokale hulpdiensten of veiligheidsinformatie. Volg bij gevaar altijd de instructies van lokale autoriteiten.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Fire at daily against Lightning Radar's monthly. Fire also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Lightning Radar ships an update monthly, Fire daily. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lightning Radar | Fire |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (19 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 19 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.1 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Koode | Bas Nijland |
In-app purchases
Lightning Radar
No in-app purchases
Fire
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Lightning Radar free?
Is Fire free?
Do Lightning Radar or Fire have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lightning Radar or Fire?
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