Blue Map vs Seaside Buoy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Blue Map
Access global environmental data, including air and water quality, corporate emissions, and ecological information. Participate in environmental protection by reporting pollution, sharing data, and tracking your low-carbon actions. Visualize environmental conditions with interactive maps and receive AI-driven insights and health alerts.
- Real-time environmental quality data
- Corporate emissions and performance tracking
- Public pollution reporting and action
- Interactive environmental maps
- AI-powered data insights
- Personalized health and environmental alerts
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Blue Map: Your Mobile Portal for Environmental Transparency, Oversight, and Participation We aggregate corporate environmental data, emissions, air/water quality, and ecological info to build a platform where everyone can participate in protecting our planet. 【Data at Your Fingertips】 • Environmental Quality: Real-time air quality in 380 cities & water quality from 1,900+ stations. • Corporate Emissions: Track real-time discharges of 9,000+ air/water polluters. • Corporate Performance: Monitor 6.6M+ enterprises with 1.7M+ violation records. • Carbon Data: Access corporate and regional emissions data for low-carbon action. 【Public Participation】 • Micro-Reporting: Submit pollution leads and track progress, driving thousands of industrial firms to respond and reduce emissions. • One-Key Sharing: Instantly share data on social media, @ authorities to drive action. • Fingertip Environmentalism: Report issues, observe waste sorting, join eco-surveys, log low-carbon acts, and check product footprints with "Carbon-EZ-Check." 【Visual & Interactive Maps】 • 48-Hr Minute-Level Maps: Hourly forecasts for air quality, wind, rain, and typhoons. • Multi-Dimensional Maps: View air/water quality, emissions, corporate records, species distribution, and global solar data in layered visuals. 【AI & Health Features】 • AI Insights: Get plain-English explanations of complex environmental data. • Health Care: Receive alerts for masks, ventilation, air quality, pollen, and outdoor exercise, with personalized risk assessments. Blue Map makes the environment visible and turns your actions into a force for change. 【Honors】 The Blue Map App is developed by the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), a Beijing-based non-profit. Since 2006, IPE has built open environmental data platforms to drive corporate green transformation and improve governance. Awards include: • 2012: Goldman Environmental Prize; 3rd China Soft Science Award. • 2014: Selected for Beijing's first "Green Environmental Protection Theme App." • 2016: Public Participation & Innovation Award (IFCE). • 2017: Founding Member & Vice Chair, Green Consumption and Supply Chain Alliance. • 2018: Vice Chair, China Green Supply Chain Alliance. • 2020: Founding Member, Green Finance Committee (MIIT). • Mar 2023: National award for COVID-19 community guideline research. • Jul 2023: Outstanding Partner, "Whole Value Chain Model for Plastic Pollution Governance" (All-China Environment Federation). • Mar 2024: Council Member, All-China Environment Federation (5-year term). • Jul 2024: Partner, "Swift Action" Tech Initiative (Chaoyang District). 【Contact】 • Website: https://www.ipe.org.cn • Weibo: http://weibo.com/u/5042247906 • Tel: 010-67189470 ext. 8001 【Thanks】 To everyone tracking pollution, monitoring haze, and sharing forecasts—thank you!
Seaside Buoy
Access live scientific data from ocean buoys globally. View water temperature, swell height, and more from public scientific organizations. Features include automatic closest buoy selection, map browsing, favorites, and distance/bearing calculations.
- Live buoy data worldwide
- Water temperature and swell height
- Automatic closest buoy selection
- Map and list browsing
- Favorite buoys
- Distance and bearing to buoy
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Live scientific readings from ocean buoys around the world. Data is provided by the National Data Buoy Center of NOAA and other public scientific organizations. Most buoys report water temperature and swell height, but some have more information available than others. Automatically select the closest buoy, choose one from the map, or choose from the list. Build a list of favorites for quick access to key buoys. With your device's location function turned on, bearing and distance to the buoy is calculated and displayed. This app is lightweight, easy-to-use, and requires virtually no data usage. Currently, buoys are included from the following locations: US Pacific: Washington to California US Atlantic: Main to Florida Alaska Hawaii US Virgin Islands Puerto Rico US/Canada Great Lakes Caribbean Gulf of Mexico United Kingdom Ireland Spain Portugal Italy Australia Chile
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Blue Map at none against Seaside Buoy's 4. Blue Map also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Seaside Buoy's advantage is ratings volume (892 vs 2) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15). On price, update cadence 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. Seaside Buoy sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Blue Map asks for nothing beyond the download.
Blue Map holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Seaside Buoy has 892 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Blue Map's written reviews are positive against 56% of Seaside Buoy's.
Blue Map ships an update every 2 weeks, Seaside Buoy every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Blue Map | Seaside Buoy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.6 (892 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 64.5% of reviews — better | 55.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 892 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 127 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 北京市朝阳区公众环境研究中心 | ENC Data |
Customer experience
Blue Map
Seaside Buoy
Bugs and requests
Blue Map
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Seaside Buoy
Reported bugs
3 issues- Graph view doesn't render properly
- Crashes every time tried using it
- Stopped loading buoy data suddenly
Requested features
2 requests- Add swell info
- Add Celsius temperature display
In-app purchases
Blue Map
No in-app purchases
Seaside Buoy
- Small Tip$0.99
- Remove Ads$2.99
- Medium Tip$2.99
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- Large Tip$4.99









