SharkSmart vs UniPlanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SharkSmart
Stay informed about shark activity in NSW before you swim. Get real-time alerts on tagged shark detections and drone sightings. Understand shark behavior and assess your personal risk for a safer beach experience.
- Real-time shark alerts
- Drone and tagged shark detections
- Interactive risk assessment
- Shark and marine animal identification
- Beach mitigation gear locations
- Smartwatch compatibility
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Enjoy NSW beaches. Be SharkSmart. The NSW Government’s SharkSmart app helps you stay informed before you hit the water in NSW. The app is part of the NSW Government’s Shark Management Program implemented by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD). Check the latest shark alerts, Surf Life Saving NSW drone patrol observations, and tagged shark detections to better understand shark activity along the NSW coast. With greater awareness and knowledge of sharks and their behaviour, everyone can enjoy NSW beaches while reducing the risk of a shark encounter. The SharkSmart app provides real-time alerts, beach conditions, species information and helpful resources to keep you informed at NSW beaches. Stay SharkSmart with our App. Alerts & Notifications Receive alerts for tagged shark detections, shark sightings, Surf Life Saving NSW and Surfing NSW drone patrol observations, beach closures and other safety incidents. Customise notifications for alerts around you, by region, by time, or for your favourite beaches. New beach arrival notifications remind you when you are near the coast, with a quick link to today’s conditions and safety information. Daily Updates give you a snapshot of shark activity and alerts across NSW, or focused on beaches around you and your favourited beaches. Beach Status Check conditions before you go with beach status and at-a-glance information for beaches near you or in your favourites. See weather, water quality, patrol information, safety advice, and other local conditions to help you plan your visit. My Beaches Save your favourite NSW beaches and get updates and alerts for the places you visit most. Manage your list, view beach details, daily conditions and recent shark alerts for each location. Tagged Sharks When a tagged shark is detected, tap through for richer detail than ever before, including when and where it was tagged, species information, recent detections, and the path the indicative shark has taken along the NSW coast. Data may include contributions from DPIRD and research partners. Ask SharkSmart Have a question about sharks, beach safety or the latest conditions at a particular beach? Ask SharkSmart is your AI assistant for SharkSmart-related questions. Get clear, helpful answers in a conversation-style experience, with links to relevant alerts, beaches and species where available. Species There are over 180 species of sharks in Australia, and the majority are relatively harmless. In terms of shark-human interactions, the three species responsible for almost all serious and fatal interactions are the white, bull, and tiger sharks, collectively referred to in NSW as the ‘target’ species of our Shark Management Program. Browse images and information on these target sharks, as well as non-target sharks and other marine animals that sting or bite, for education and identification. Apple Watch Compatible If you have an Apple Watch, the SharkSmart app includes a companion watch app that lets you receive SharkSmart alerts on your wrist. View alerts around you or set up notifications for a region, by time or for favourite beaches. For more information visit: sharksmart.nsw.gov.au
UniPlanner
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UniPlanner is a planner built for one semester at a time: your courses, your assignments, your readings, and the study cards you make from them. RECORD THE LECTURE. GET THE NOTES. Record a lecture and UniPlanner writes it up — an overview, the key points with the reasoning behind them, the terms your lecturer actually defined, and what sounds examinable. It files itself into the right course. You can have it translated as it goes. WHAT DO I NEED ON THE FINAL? Enter your assessments and their weights once, and every mark you add answers the question students actually ask. It tells you the mark you need on what is left, and it is honest about the half-mark cases where rounding decides it. REVISE THE TWELVE YOU KEEP MISSING Study cards on a spaced schedule, so the ones you know go quiet and the ones you do not come back. Practise explaining an answer in your own words and get told where you were vague. Before an exam, it builds a plan from the topics you are weakest on. DEADLINES BY WEEK, NOT BY DATE Set your semester dates and your teaching breaks, and the workload forecast shows what is due in week nine rather than on the 14th. Readings, assignments and exams in one place, with the countdown that matters. AND THE REST OF IT Notes with real formatting, folders per course, a reference sheet for the formulas you keep looking up, and a semester archive so next year starts clean without losing last year. WORKS WITHOUT AN ACCOUNT Everything works signed out, stored on your own device and sent nowhere. Make an account and it syncs across your devices — you choose when. ABOUT THE AI FEATURES Recording lectures, summarising a reading you supply, and the study help are optional and use a credit allowance. The free plan includes credits to try them. Your recordings are deleted as soon as they have been transcribed, and nothing you type is used to train anybody's model. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.uniplannerapp.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SharkSmart at none against UniPlanner's 6. UniPlanner's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). On price, update cadence, ads 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. UniPlanner sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. SharkSmart asks for nothing beyond the download.
SharkSmart ships an update weekly, UniPlanner every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SharkSmart | UniPlanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (283 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 27.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 283 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 49 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development | Jared Westerlaken |
Bugs and requests
SharkSmart
Reported bugs
10 issues- App crashes on startup or when opening alerts
- Favorite beaches not saving or reverting to all beaches
- Search function not listing available beaches
- Map hanging when opening away from beaches
- Notifications not respecting location radius settings
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- Inconsistent data between map view and list view
- Add beach feature not working on iOS
- Settings menu freezing with spinning wheel
- Notifications continuing after app deletion
- Gallery tab crashing on iPhone 12
Requested features
11 requests- Ability to name individual tracked sharks
- Shark size and weight information at tagging
- Historical shark movement patterns and migration data
- Deep links from notifications to specific beaches
- Time-series reporting for shark activity
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- Apple Watch app improvements and alerts
- Expand coverage to rivers and harbors
- Better filtering by event type instead of notification source
- Expand geographic coverage beyond NSW
- More receiver stations in underserved areas
- Clearer messaging about beaches without receivers
UniPlanner
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
SharkSmart
No in-app purchases
UniPlanner
- Study AI1 Month trial$5.991 Month
- Study AI Max1 Month trial$11.991 Month
- Study AI6 Months trial$29.996 Months
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- Study AI1 Year trial$49.991 Year
- Study AI Max6 Months trial$59.996 Months
- Study AI Max1 Year trial$99.991 Year







