NOAA Tide Chart & Forecast

Review by eFreeware

Most tide apps stop at a pair of high and low times for the day. NOAA Tide Chart & Forecast takes a different approach: it draws the full tide curve for each station, so you can read how the water moves through the whole day rather than just the two peaks. That single design choice tells you a lot about who it is built for. It is a planning tool for people whose day depends on water level and water movement, not a glance-and-go widget.

The app comes from NextStack LLC. It is free and includes in-app purchases. It has passed 10,000 installs and holds a 3.9 average from 104 ratings, a middling score that suggests a useful tool with some rough edges for a portion of its users.

This is aimed at anglers, boaters and sailors, surfers, divers and kayakers, and beachcombers who wait for the lowest water of the month. If you plan outings around tides, swell and feeding windows, the breadth of what is here is the appeal. If you just want tomorrow's high tide in one line, the app offers considerably more than that.

Tide charts, forecasts and station search

The core of the app is tide prediction. It covers stations worldwide using NOAA tide data alongside other marine weather sources, and presents high and low water as a continuous curve so the shape of the day is visible at a glance. Each station also gets a daily forecast with the timing and height of every high and low, which is the level of detail I would want before committing to a launch window or a walk out to a low-tide reef.

Finding the right station is handled in a few ways. Location-based search picks up your nearest station, which matters when the closest big port is not the water you are actually standing in front of. You can also search by name or station ID, save frequently used spots as favorites, and switch between All, Nearest and Favorites views to cut down the taps. For anyone who rotates between a handful of regular marks, that combination is the difference between a two-second check and a small chore.

You can switch between feet and meters and between 12 and 24 hour time. Past tides are available as well, which helps when you want to repeat a good day. There are also monthly tide reports that put the whole month in one view, useful for planning spring tides ahead of time.

Solunar scores and the Fish Activity Score

The angling side of the app goes beyond water level. Solunar data flags the major and minor periods linked to feeding activity, so a trip can be timed for the better bite windows instead of whenever you happen to be free. The Fish Activity Score condenses this into a 0 to 100 rating for each day, built from solunar periods, moon phase and local conditions, and it highlights the best window along with the major and minor feeding times.

That score is the feature I would expect to divide people. It is a convenience layer on top of the raw data, and its usefulness depends on how much you trust a single number to summarize a day on the water. What I like about the way it is presented is that the underlying periods are still there, so the score works as a quick filter rather than a replacement for reading the tide and moon yourself.

The app covers the questions that come up the night before a trip: when the water moves, when the light changes, and when the fish are supposedly most active.

Waves, swell and tide alerts

Tide height alone does not tell you what the water will be doing, and the app acknowledges that with wave and swell forecasts covering height, period and direction for any station. For surfers this is close to essential, and for kayakers and divers it fills in the part of the picture that a tide table leaves blank. The developer describes the data as coming from trusted marine weather sources, and the combination of swell and tide in one place is what makes the app more useful than a pure tide table.

You can be notified ahead of time when the conditions you want are due. The examples given include clamming at low tide, diving at slack water, or an incoming push. That is a sensible use of alerts: instead of checking the app repeatedly, you define the condition once and let it come to you.

The most recent update added wind and temperature widgets for the home screen and lock screen, covering wind, gusts, air and water temperature, with forecasts, charts and full-data dashboards. The same release mentions performance improvements and bug fixes. Widgets are a natural fit for this kind of app, since the information you want most often is exactly the sort of thing you would rather see without opening anything.

What it costs

The app is free to download, which is a welcome combination in a category where free often means cluttered. It does offer in-app purchases, so there is some paid element inside, though what those purchases cover is not clear.

That is worth weighing rather than worrying about. The tide data, forecasts, alerts and solunar features do not appear to sit behind a paywall. Against paid tide apps, the free entry point here is a genuine advantage; if you prefer to know exactly what you are buying before you start, that part becomes clear only inside the app.

The 3.9 average from 104 ratings is the other cost-adjacent signal. It is a fair score rather than a glowing one, and with a user base in the low tens of thousands, it reflects a small sample. I would treat it as a reason to try the app against your own local stations rather than as a verdict on the data.

How it compares with other ways of checking tides

The obvious alternative is a plain tide table, whether from a government source or a basic free app. Those give you high and low times and little else. What separates this app is the layering: the full curve, monthly reports, swell data, solunar periods and a daily activity score in one place. If your planning stops at "what time is low tide", a simpler tool will do the job with less on screen.

A dedicated marine weather service is the other comparison. Those tend to go deeper on wind, pressure and sea state, and often cost more or come with a subscription. This app sits somewhere between the two, leaning on tide data as its foundation and adding enough marine weather to be useful without becoming a full forecasting suite.

For anglers specifically, solunar-focused apps are a third category. This one folds solunar periods and a daily score into a tide app rather than making them the whole product, which suits someone who wants one place to check before a trip. The trade-off is that the depth in any single area is likely to be less than a specialist tool would offer, and the activity score is a simplification of conditions that some experienced anglers will prefer to judge for themselves.

A capable planner for water-dependent days

NOAA Tide Chart & Forecast is a good fit for people who plan around water rather than merely check it. The full-day tide curve, worldwide station coverage, monthly reports, swell forecasts, solunar periods and configurable alerts cover the questions that come up before a trip, and the free entry makes trying it against your own local stations straightforward. The recent addition of wind and temperature widgets extends that usefulness to a glance at your home screen.

The caveats are modest but real. The app has in-app purchases, and its 3.9 rating from 104 users suggests not everyone is satisfied. The Fish Activity Score is a convenience rather than a substitute for reading conditions yourself, and anyone wanting deep marine forecasting may find the weather side lighter than a specialist service.

My recommendation is for anglers, boaters and sailors, surfers, divers, kayakers and beachcombers who want tide, swell and solunar information in one app and are happy to explore the paid elements on their own terms. If your needs are limited to a daily high and low time, a simpler tide table will serve you just as well.

What's new in version 2.8.6.13

Thank you for using the Tide Chart app! Here's what's new in this release: • New Wind and Temperature widgets for your Home Screen and Lock Screen: wind, gusts, air and water temperature, forecasts, charts and full-data dashboards. • Performance improvements and bug fixes. We're always working to improve your experience. Stay tuned for more updates!