Pocket Marine vs Smart Reef
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pocket Marine
Manage all your aquarium data in one place. Track water parameters, inhabitants, dosing, and maintenance with detailed logs and reminders. Access an extensive library of marine species to make informed decisions about new additions.
- Marine species encyclopedia (800+)
- Water parameter testing journal
- Inhabitant and dosing logs
- Maintenance and water change journals
- Species compatibility guide
- Useful calculators
- Customizable reminders
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A handy tool to keep track of all of the vital information related to your aquarium together with an in-depth library of species to ensure you never get caught short for an impulse buy. Main features - • An encyclopaedia of over 800 species of marine fish, invertebrates and coral • Testing journal to keep track of over 30 of the most vital parameters • Trends to plot graphs and visualise how stable each parameter is over time • Inhabitants diary to keep track of your latest additions including information such as how long you've had it, was it feeding in store beforehand, where was it purchased from and much more. • Dosing log top keep track of any chemical additions to your tanks to help keep up to date on doses and keep stability where it should be • Reminders with device notifications so you never miss an important event • Water change journal to keep a detailed log such as when, how much, salinity etc. of your water changes performed • Maintenance log to remind you of your last maintenance actions completed per tank • Compatibility of species - A simple, brief run down of what species are typically safe, tolerant or not safe to be housed with others • A simple set of useful calculators such as alkalinity conversions, Celsius to Fahrenheit or gallons to litres and more. Keeping track of our aquariums can ultimately be one of the most important parts to the 'reef keeping' hobby. Maintaining husbandry tasks, testing, stability, water changes, inhabitant stats etc. are all vital to keeping successful aquariums. Pocket Marine was designed to make inputting, storing and keeping all information with you at ease. Often, any issues that we have with our aquariums can be linked to actions that were performed a short time beforehand. For this reason, a log of changes made, actions performed or additions can be vital when trying to decipher a problem that may be in play. Pen and paper has always been a great way to keep this information at hand but, Pocket Marine offers a place to store this somewhere that, this day and age, is with us at all times. Not just for tracking events. Pocket Marine is a great way to help you log your inhabitants into specific tanks, record your latest water change for your mixed reef tank or simply log your latest maintenance action performed on the fish only office tank. Recording your information couldnt be easier and keeping it on your mobile device saves on that frantic search incase of needing the information at a later date. Help with that last second impulse buy at the store. With an in depth library of over 800 species of fish, invertebrates and coral and being added to daily, you will always have the information on hand that you need to make that informed decision on a purchase. We hope you enjoy using the app and that we can help with your success in the hobby and welcome any feature requests you may have. Happy Reefing!
Smart Reef
Manage your marine aquarium with this app. It provides device management, alerts for issues, and detailed historical data. A central dashboard offers a clear overview of your aquarium's status and device operations.
- Device management
- Aquarium alerts
- Measurement history
- Operational status dashboard
- Planned job journal
- Preset sharing
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Functionality: • device management • alerts when any problems occur in the aquarium • presentation of measurements and the operational status of devices • device operation and measurements history • clear, collective dashboard with information on device operation • modern table of parameters measured in the aquarium • unique journal of planned jobs and aquarium task history integrated with devices Devices may be connected via a Wi-Fi network and your home router. Dashboard sharing, loading and sharing of presets with other users and many more useful features. Supported devices: • Thermo control - temperature controller • Thermo view - temperature monitor • TDS meter - reverse osmosis water monitor • Salinity guardian - salinity monitor • pH meter - pH monitor • Level sensor - water/liquid level meter • Level keeper - automatic water refill system • Smart pump - dosing pump • Power switcher - timing programmer / device switch • Reef flare - smart LED lamp • Smart roller • Smart tester • Dosing pumps • kH keeper
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pocket Marine at 79% against Smart Reef's 4%. Pocket Marine also leads on rating (4.8 vs 1.5) and in-app purchases (none vs 11). Smart Reef's advantage is price (Free vs $3.99). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Smart Reef is free to download; Pocket Marine costs $3.99 up front. Smart Reef sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Pocket Marine asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pocket Marine holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Marine has 597 ratings behind it against 23, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Pocket Marine's written reviews are positive against 4% of Smart Reef's.
Pocket Marine ships an update fortnightly, Smart Reef every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pocket Marine | Smart Reef |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (597 ratings) — better | 1.5 (23 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 78.8% of reviews — better | 3.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 597 — better | 23 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 14.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 213 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Liam Salmons | Reef Factory sp. z o.o. |
Customer experience
Pocket Marine
Smart Reef
Bugs and requests
Pocket Marine
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes when trying to edit targets/ranges
- Endless scroll to select values
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between Celsius and Fahrenheit
- Crashes when accessing certain sections like soft corals
Requested features
9 requests- Ability to sync data across devices
- Customizable home screen
- Tracking for spending on tank supplies
- Ability to set default parameters
- Graphs showing multiple parameters together
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- Export data to Excel
- Ability to move livestock up/down in list
- Add more fish and coral species to database
- Dosing calculator
Smart Reef
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Pocket Marine
No in-app purchases
Smart Reef
- Warranty 3 years$12.99
- Warranty 3 years$17.99
- Warranty 3 years$19.99
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- Warranty 3 years2 variants$24.99
- Warranty 3 years$29.99
- Warranty 3 years2 variants$34.99
- Warranty 3 years2 variants$39.99
- Warranty 3 years$49.99









