Comparison

VRTool vs FishCast

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

Head to head
About

VRTool

Features
Read full description

VRTool is a sailing planner and calculator. Calculators combine the following data: - GPS position ( or DR position ) - Polar chart customized for your boat ( your boat performance charts ) - 144h wind forecasts from NOAA GFS. - High resolution GSHHS world maps Real time sailing monitor shows the polar point, TWA, sail efficiency, best course, great circle distance and course to destination. Also logs boat positions, saving boat parameters periodically. Charting tools include: measure tool, route and track design, fixed wind angle tracks, marks, geodesic circles. Weather routing calculation up to 144h, with land collision detection. This finds the optimized route to destination considering the wind forecasts and performance of the boat. Wind forecasts from NOAA GFS, via VRTool webserver. Interactive Polar Chart Editor, for customizing your boat polar charts. VRTool can be configured to act as a NMEA talker, broadcasting GPS messages to other software connected to the boat local network ( including VRTool desktop edition)

About

FishCast

This app provides an hour-by-hour fishing forecast tailored to your location and target species. It analyzes weather, tides, and lunar cycles to predict optimal feeding times. Designed for anglers, it offers detailed insights into factors influencing fish behavior without ads or tracking.

Highlights
  • Hour-by-hour fishing score
  • Species-specific forecasting
  • Real solunar period calculation
  • Accurate NOAA tide data
  • Live hourly weather
  • Detailed scoring factor breakdown
  • Privacy-focused, no data collection
Features
Read full description

FishCast tells you when the fish will bite. Combining real-time weather, tides, lunar science, and species-specific behavior, FishCast generates an hour-by-hour fishing forecast for your exact location — so you can plan your next trip around the windows the fish are actually feeding. WHY FISHCAST IS DIFFERENT Most fishing apps just show you the weather. FishCast scores it. Every hour of every day gets a 0–100 fishing score based on what actually matters for the species you're targeting: barometric pressure trends, wind, cloud cover, water temperature proxies, solunar major and minor periods, and tide stage. SPECIES-AWARE FORECASTING Pick your target species and the forecast tunes itself: • Bass — values stable mid-range pressure and calm-to-light chop • Trout — weighted toward solunar periods and lunar phase • Walleye — rewards overcast skies and 8–15 mph chop, penalizes bright sun • Catfish — boosts low-pressure pre-storm feeding windows • Crappie — balanced moon, pressure, and wind scoring • Panfish — heavy solunar weighting, light tide influence • Saltwater — tide-stage dominant, ideal for inshore species REAL SOLUNAR, NOT GUESSES FishCast computes solunar major periods from actual lunar transit times for your latitude and longitude, and minor periods from real moonrise and moonset times — not a generic ±6-hour rule of thumb. Combined with sun rise/set and golden-hour weighting, you get the most accurate prediction of when fish are most likely to feed. ACCURATE TIDE DATA For coastal anglers, FishCast pulls live tide predictions directly from NOAA Tides & Currents stations near your location. See high and low tides, current tide stage, and how the tide cycle affects your hourly fishing score. LIVE WEATHER Hourly weather from Open-Meteo: temperature, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, barometric pressure with trend analysis (rising, falling, steady), and visibility. No subscriptions, no API keys, no ads. PRIVACY FIRST FishCast uses your location only on your device to fetch local forecasts. Nothing is sent to our servers — because there are no servers. No account, no sign-up, no tracking, no analytics, no data collection of any kind. Ever. WHAT YOU GET • Hour-by-hour fishing score for the next several days • Current-hour quality badge: Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor • Breakdown of every scoring factor: pressure, wind, moon, solunar, tide, cloud cover, temperature • Conditions tab: live weather with pressure trend • Tides tab: NOAA tide predictions with high/low markers • Solunar tab: major and minor feeding periods for today • Seven species profiles with custom scoring weights • Designed for accessibility: Dynamic Type, VoiceOver labels, color-blind-friendly status symbols • Dark mode optimized for early-morning and dusk use FishCast is built by an angler, for anglers. No fluff, no upsells, no ads. Just the forecast you need to know when to go. Tight lines.

Screenshots

VRTool4 screens
FishCast4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: VRTool at 3 against FishCast's 1. VRTool also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.0). On price, ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
VRTool versus FishCast: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVRToolFishCast
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS11.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size59 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOmar reisJOHN W WILLIAMS

In-app purchases

None

VRTool

No in-app purchases

None

FishCast

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is VRTool free?
VRTool is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is FishCast free?
FishCast is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do VRTool or FishCast have ads?
Neither VRTool nor FishCast shows ads.

Other comparisons