Comparison

Navily vs Sailmate

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

Head to head
About

Navily

This app serves as a comprehensive mobile cruising guide for boaters. It offers a vast database of marinas and anchorages, user-generated reviews and photos, and seamless berth booking across Europe. Connect with other users and marinas through in-app chat and receive real-time warnings.

Highlights
  • 35,000+ marinas and anchorages
  • 350,000+ community photos and comments
  • Easy berth booking in 700+ European marinas
  • In-app chat with users and marinas
  • Real-time anchorage warnings
  • Emergency SOS feature
Features
Read full description

With over 1.2 million boaters worldwide, Navily is the all-in-one boating and sailing app to discover safe anchorages, book marinas with ease, and cruise with confidence. Whether you're planning a day trip, a sailing holiday, a coastal cruise, or an offshore adventure, Navily gives you everything you need in one place. Trusted by sailors, cruisers, and recreational boaters around the world, Navily helps you plan routes, discover the best marinas and anchorages, and make every journey easier. Explore more than 35,000 marinas and anchorages backed by 500,000+ trusted reviews and photos from the Navily community and our marina partners. Why choose Navily? - A growing community with over 1.2 million boaters worldwide - 35,000+ marinas and anchorages - 500,000+ reviews and photos - 700+ bookable marinas - Smart route planning and distance calculations - Navily Protection Scores to find the best anchorages - Live chat with nearby boaters - Real-time anchorage alerts - Emergency SOS feature- ask the community for help! Plan smarter boating routes. Spend less time searching and more time sailing. Compare nearby marinas and anchorages, calculate distances, filter results to match your preferences, discover the best locations to anchor with Navily Weather Protection Scores, and build routes with automatic itinerary planning. Whether you're cruising the Mediterranean or exploring the Caribbean, Navily helps you make better decisions before you leave the dock Sail with confidence. - Access over 500,000 community reviews and photos to find the perfect stop, including: - Depth and seabed information - Wind and swell protection - Marina facilities and services - Local tips from experienced boaters - Real photos from fellow sailors - Every review is automatically translated, allowing you to benefit from the knowledge of our international boating community. - Stay connected through community chat, receive real-time anchorage alerts, and access essential services both ashore and at sea. When you're off the grid, Offline Mode keeps important information available whenever you need it. Unlock even more with Navily Premium. Upgrade to Navily Premium and enjoy: - View a 72-hour anchorage protection score before you drop anchor - Filters the map to your preferences and boat requirements - AI-powered summaries of all community comments - Offline-mode, no internet needed. Navily is also available in French, Spanish, German and Italian. Want to help us improve Navily? Find us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and share your stories with us, we are passionate about what we do! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/navilyApp Twitter: https://twitter.com/navilyapp Instagram: http://instagram.com/navilyapp Blog : http://blog.navily.com/ Website : https://www.navily.com/ Privacy policy : https://www.navily.com/privacy Terms of Use : https://www.navily.com/cgu

About

Sailmate

This app offers worldwide charts, weather forecasts, and route planning for sailors and boaters. Connect with a community to share locations, rate marinas, and view events. It also includes a signal code identifier and country flags.

Highlights
  • Worldwide nautical charts
  • Offline chart downloads
  • 5-day wind and weather predictions
  • Route planning and ETA
  • Trip recording and sharing
  • Community marina ratings and events
  • International signal code identifier
Features
Read full description

Sailmate is a free and easy to use app for sailors and boaters. It provides charts worldwide showing thousands of harbours and marinas and their characteristics, along with numerous buoys, beacons and lights. A directory conveniently sort harbours per countries and regions. In addition to Sailmate own charts, thousands of nautical charts from various authorities could be downloaded and viewed offline, in the USA, Alaska and Hawai (NOAA), France (Shom), Finland, Norway. A comprehensive weather menu gives instant access to weather data, including wind 5-day predictions, actual and forecast weather at thousand of locations, satellite charts. A moving map provides route planning, ETA, heading to waypoint and more. You could create an unlimited number of personal waypoints. Sailmate records performed trips and allow to review later boat paths or share them with friends. You could take pictures during trips, and view them at their location on the map. This social app allows sailors and boaters to exchange together, rate marinas and suppliers, view events, share good anchorage locations... An helpful annex is provided to quickly identify any signal from the international signal code and any country flag.

Screenshots

Navily4 screens
Sailmate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Navily at 94% against Sailmate's 17%. Navily also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (837 vs 1). Sailmate's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 16.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Navily sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.49 per year and Sailmate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Navily holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Navily has 837 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Navily's written reviews are positive against 17% of Sailmate's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Navily ships an update every 2 weeks, Sailmate every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Navily versus Sailmate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNavilySailmate
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (837 ratings) — better3.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews93.6% of reviews — better16.7% of reviews
Number of ratings837 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size242 MB144 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThe Navigation FamilyMyriel Aviation SA

Customer experience

Navily

All ratings837 ratings
Positive96.3%
Neutral1.6%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews233 reviews
Positive93.6%
Neutral2.1%
Negative4.3%

Sailmate

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive16.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative66.7%

Bugs and requests

Navily

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Booking cancellations not working
  • Spinning icon issue with past bookings
  • Difficulty accessing messages from map view

Requested features

5 requests
  • Offline map downloads
  • Improved route planning tools
  • Live chat with other users
  • Customizable notifications
  • Better integration with navigation apps

Sailmate

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Navily

Subscriptions3
  • Navily Premium$9.491 Year
  • Navily Premium$18.491 Year
  • Navily Premium$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • Navily Premium 30 days$17.99
1 purchases

Sailmate

One-time1
  • France SHOM chart subscription$54.99

Questions

Is Navily free?
Navily is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sailmate free?
Sailmate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Navily or Sailmate?
Navily is rated higher. Navily averages 4.8 out of 5 from 837 ratings, while Sailmate averages 3.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Navily or Sailmate have ads?
Neither Navily nor Sailmate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Navily or Sailmate?
Navily ships an update every 2 weeks, and Sailmate every 6 weeks. Most recently, Navily was updated on October 29, 2026 and Sailmate on October 24, 2026.

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