Scuba Diving Hand Signals vs Subsurface
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Scuba Diving Hand Signals
Master underwater communication with a comprehensive guide to over 240 scuba diving hand signals. Learn common, emergency, and wildlife signals with illustrations and animal facts. Track your progress and test your knowledge with an integrated quiz.
- 240+ hand signals illustrated
- Signals grouped into 8 categories
- Underwater wildlife facts
- Learning progress tracking
- Integrated quiz
- Social media sharing
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Proficiency in underwater communication is not only a vital part of scuba diving training, it also makes diving a much more enjoyable and safer experience. Scuba Diving Hand Signals intends to support beginning recreational scuba divers in learning underwater communication via hand signals. More than 240 commonly used gestures are illustrated and grouped into eight categories: ▻ Common signals ▻ Problem and emergency signals ▻ Training signals ▻ Number signals ▻ Air pressure signals ▻ Underwater wildlife signals ▻ Emotion and miscellaneous signals Underwater wildlife signals are supplemented with images of each indicated animal and useful information about its features, distribution, and human interactions. Last but not least, the app includes a quiz and tracks your learning progress which can be posted on Twitter or Facebook.
Subsurface
This application allows divers to manage their dive logs on their mobile devices. It supports editing dive data and downloading new information from compatible dive computers. Optional cloud synchronization is available for seamless data transfer with desktop versions.
- Mobile dive log management
- Edit dive data
- Download from Bluetooth LE dive computers
- Optional cloud synchronization
- Open-source and free
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Subsurface-mobile is an iOS dive log application based on Subsurface, the best free open source dive log application available on Windows, Mac and Linux. Subsurface-mobile allows you to access your dive log on your tablet or phone, edit the data and even download new dive information from many Bluetooth LE enabled dive computers. Using a free Subsurface Cloud Storage account you can synchronize your dive data with the Subsurface desktop application (while significantly increasing the usefulness, the cloud account is not required to use Subsurface-mobile). To get support from the developers, please use the in-app menu entry "Ask for support" Please check out the Subsurface-mobile user manual: https://subsurface-divelog.org/documentation/subsurface-mobile-v3-user-manual (also available from within the app) Subsurface-mobile is free and open source. No ads, no commercial anything. And it comes with free cloud storage (if you decide to use that - it's optional). Your data aren't used for anything, nothing gets monetized.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Subsurface at Free against Scuba Diving Hand Signals's $2.99. Subsurface also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.0) and review sentiment (63% vs 50%). Scuba Diving Hand Signals's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17). On update cadence, 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
Subsurface is free to download; Scuba Diving Hand Signals costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Subsurface holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Subsurface has 48 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Scuba Diving Hand Signals's written reviews are positive against 63% of Subsurface's.
Scuba Diving Hand Signals ships an update every 5 weeks, Subsurface every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Scuba Diving Hand Signals | Subsurface |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (5 ratings) | 4.5 (48 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 63.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 48 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lars Behnke | Dirk Hohndel |
Customer experience
Scuba Diving Hand Signals
Subsurface
In-app purchases
Scuba Diving Hand Signals
No in-app purchases
Subsurface
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Scuba Diving Hand Signals free?
Is Subsurface free?
Which has better reviews, Scuba Diving Hand Signals or Subsurface?
Do Scuba Diving Hand Signals or Subsurface have ads?
Which is updated more often, Scuba Diving Hand Signals or Subsurface?
Other comparisons
