The 19 Best Apps For Sailing 2026
The top apps for sailing that we couldn’t live without since becoming liveaboards.
I love the fact that sailing means I’m on my phone a lot less, but there are some sailing apps (like weather forecasts) that are literally life-saving.
I check them religiously twice a day (and get nervous when we’re offshore and without internet service!)
I’m so grateful we live in a modern world where we don’t have to rely on outdated systems to keep us safe at sea. Although you’ll always get those sailors who prefer the traditional ways, I think it’s prudent to use every single tool available to you to keep you as safe as possible out here.
Honestly, it’s also far more enjoyable when you have a helping hand from some of the best apps for sailing around!
Having access to such a huge amount of information is incredibly useful and before you set off on your liveaboard adventure you should download these sailing apps to your phone and give them all a go.
You’ll soon whittle them down to the ones you couldn’t be without!
We’ve written this article based on our extensive experience in using them throughout our three years living on a sailboat and sailing around Europe. They are also the sailing apps used by all the full-time cruisers we meet, so you can be sure they are the most useful! Read on to find out more.
And if you’re still in the planning stages of your sailing adventure then take a look at our guidebook for anyone planning a life at sea. 200+ pages of everything we’ve learnt, from making the dream happen through to making it last!
Quick Menu: Apps For Sailing
- Navigation and Anchoring
- Extra Sailing Apps
Sailing Apps We Love!
We use sailing apps CONSTANTLY. I honestly don’t know where we would be without these amazing little squares that store themselves on our phones and tablets. They have all made sailing life a million times easier for us, and when you live at sea that’s what you want. An easy life.
Below we’ve listed our absolute favourite sailing apps. The ones we use daily that you should seriously consider downloading.
Navigation and Anchoring Apps For Sailing
These are our top go-to apps for sailing that help us with all things navigation, including finding the best places to anchor (and sleep tight!)
We use these apps almost every day for planning and on passages, so keep them saved in your favourites for easy access!
1. Navionics Sailing App
This is an incredible navigation sailing app that gives you an entire region of charts for the price of one chart plotter chart.
I honestly think we would have run out of money a long time ago if it wasn’t for Navionics, as the price of charts on our standard chart plotter was absolutely insane!
Obviously, as with all technology, there might be a day when it fails, so we don’t solely rely on it. We still make sure we have paper charts for areas we’re visiting. In two years of cruising it hasn’t let us down yet!
One of the great things about it is that it’s updated regularly and contains useful information about anchorages and weather patterns in the area. We’ve found the notes included vital in many circumstances.
Navionics has been so useful that it’s replaced our chart plotter entirely.
We bought two Galaxy Tab A3 tablets (these have great screens for seeing in all kinds of different conditions) and two waterproof cases for them, and we fitted a tablet holder to our binnacle, along with a charging point.
We also downloaded the Navionics app to our phones so that we have four navigation devices if any one of them fails. We can’t fault it!
Note: There are a few problems we can foresee about relying solely on a navigational sailing app like Navionics, though we’ve never been unlucky enough to experience them!
One, if the GPS signal fails for some reason then it doesn’t matter how many devices you have, it’s not going to work!
Two, if you lose all your electrical equipment – perhaps if you get struck by lightening. Or maybe you don’t have enough redundancy devices and several just happen to break at the same time.
It’s a good idea to have paper charts as a back up for longer, more complicated passages, and ‘learn’ the route a little before setting off so you know if there are easy anchorages along the way to duck into if the worst happens.
Just as everything in sailing, there is only so much you can prepare for these freak occurrences!
2. Tides Planner Apps For Sailing
If you are in a tidal area this app from Imray provides all the information you require.
I still get a little nervous about working out the tidal range myself (maths was never my strong point!) Now I have something to double-check my calculations that I think is pretty reliable.
We have been sailing mostly in the Med where tides aren’t really a thing, but when we venture into tidal waters this is one of the apps we rely on most!
3. MarineTraffic
This is a sailing app we only recently discovered. It uses phone signal to find AIS information in your area and lets you know where boats are (and gives extra information such as boat speed and destination so you can get an idea of their possible heading).
Obviously, not all boats have AIS, so it really is only a guide, but it’s helped us work out whether we could be on potential collision courses and act sooner than we might have done through eyesight alone.
It would also be a really nice extra piece of information to have during fog or low visibility.
You need an internet signal for it to work, and you can find out our top ways to get internet while sailing here.
The sailing app costs £3.99 or you can use the web version for free!
4. Google Earth
Our anchor works best in a sandy bottom, so when we’re expecting heavy winds we want to make sure we’re somewhere the anchor will dig straight in and hold well.
Sometimes Navily or No Foreign Land detail the bottom but sometimes they don’t. That’s when we turn to our good friend Google Earth!
A lot of anchorages or shallow passages can be clearly seen on Google Earth and you can head to an anchorage and find that patch of sand even in the dark!
It’s surprisingly useful for sailing and an app we would thoroughly recommend!
5. Navily Apps For Sailing
One of our go-to sailing apps for anchorage information. Although there is anchorage information on the Navionics app, we tend to find a lot more information and extra anchorages on Navily.
They are rated for their overall protection so you can get an idea of how protected you’ll be in predicted winds, and they give information about the bottom holding and other extra useful things like whether there are amenities on shore, how busy or noisy it was etc.
We always check it before heading somewhere to anchor and have found it to be pretty accurate. Just bear in mind that the reviews are people’s own experiences so they won’t necessarily match your own!
6. No Foreign Land
An absolute gold mine of information for anchorages, this website is saved in my favourites bar and I use it A LOT! It’s a kind of review-based site for anchorages and marinas where users can add their experiences and useful information.
A great feature that can’t be found in other sailing apps, especially for families, is that you can add your boat and check in to the anchorages you arrive at so that you can find other cruisers with similar interests and go say hi!
People will usually add the age of their kids so you could connect easily with other sailing families. You can follow boats you know so that you can see if you’re in a similar area to friends you’ve made!
It also saves your route so you can see where and when you’ve arrived at different anchorages, which we find a nice little reminder of our journey so far.
It’s constantly improving, so now there is extra information being added to anchorages such as whether there is water and electricity, where laundry services can be found, and other useful things like supermarkets and car hire.
If you write a blog you can add links to articles you’ve written about the places you’ve visited.
There really is a whole wealth of features that I’m still discovering – admin are super helpful and will talk you through it all if you get stuck!
7. Anchor Watch Apps For Sailing
We have had mixed success with this sailing app but it’s so popular with most that we decided to include it here. Give it a go and see for yourself!
Anchor watch uses GPS location to set off an alarm if your boat starts drifting outside set parameters. You can input the amount of chain you have out and it will go off if you’re dragging anchor.
We had problems with it, as no matter how wide we set the parameter the alarm went off constantly anyway, even on a super calm day when it was clear we weren’t even moving, let alone dragging.
After a whole night of no sleep with the alarm going off every few minutes we gave up, but most sailors seem to love it so perhaps this is just us using it wrong!
One of the things I liked the idea of most was the fact you can get it to send you a message when your boat is moving so that if you were on shore you would get an alert.
This would definitely have put me more at ease when the wind picks up!
Weather Apps For Sailing
We use several different weather apps for sailing, because why not make the most of all the information you can get your hands on when it comes to keeping you and the boat safe!
Different weather models work better in different parts of the world, so our top tip is to ask on Facebook forums which weather model people have found works best for the area you’re sailing in.
These can differ even just from region to region, so make sure you do a little research before you head there for the most accurate forecasts!
8. Predict Wind Sailing App
We tried several wind forecasting apps before deciding Predict Wind was the most reliable for the area we were sailing in. We often check Ventuski on our laptops too for a second opinion.
PredictWind uses GRIB data from various sources. You can choose your source if you like (eg. if you have a preference for US or European weather models).
We have found the table feature really useful as you can compare all the different models at once and see the gusts in the area too. It also shows things like predicted wave height.
There are various add-ons that we would definitely get if we had money to spare. We would use the gust map instead of the wind map to be sure we weren’t going to get blasted.
One of the most useful seems to be the routing feature, where you can add your route and departure time and speed, and it will tell you what the conditions are predicted to be depending on where you are during your journey.
You can of course work this out for yourself but it would save a lot of time to have this done for you!
As with all weather models we’ve tried out we usually add 5 or 10 knots to the predicted wind speed as more often than not they underestimate!
9. Windy
When we left the Cyclades and headed to the Ionian we started to get really frustrated with Predict Wind as it was so often inaccurate.
This was partly to do with the fact that the winds in the Ionian are a lot less predictable, but when we asked around on forums we found people got the best forecasts from the Windy sailing app. We switched to that and got a bit luckier with our passage planning!
Personally, I don’t find Windy as easy to use as Predict Wind, but Adam finds the opposite so I guess it’s more a case of what you’re used to! Use both for the best idea of what the weather might do!
10. Blitzortung
This website was recommended to us by a sailing friend and it’s been a lifesaver on many occasions. Unfortunately, thunderstorms here in Greece seem to strike with very little warning and with quite some ferocity.
Blitzortung tracks lightning strikes around the world in real-time, so you can literally watch them coming towards you and prepare appropriately.
The white flashes are the live lightning strikes (to 1-minute accuracy) and then old lightning strikes are shown fading down to red so that you can get an idea of the direction the storm is travelling.
You can see how it saved our bacon here!
Useful Apps For Sailing
These certainly aren’t apps for sailing that we check every day, but they’re nice to have downloaded for those times you’re bored on a long passage, or want access to knowledge quickly.
Keep them in mind for the next time you need some entertainment on a calm sail!
11. Sail Expert
The Sailing Expert app does a whole range of different jobs for sailors, but we’ve included it in this list for it’s ability to keep sailing and maintenance logs.
The device’s sensors are used to fill the sailing log (location, COG, SOG, temperature, pressure) so that you don’t have to worry about keeping a paper record of your passage.
12. Knots 3D
Even the most experienced sailor can become a little rusty with their knot-tying skills when they aren’t using them every day.
Adam and I have the go-to knots that we love and use all the time, but every now and again we get frustrated when we forget a specific knot that would be useful for something specific.
The knots 3D app is great because it has a database of literally hundreds of knots and you can view the knots tying process in 3D, which is so much easier than from the page of a book!
It costs a few dollars but is worth it if you’ll be spending lots of time on the water!
13. Star Gazing Apps For Sailing
There are plenty of options out there, but we love star walk 2. This is such a great thing to do at night on a boat, especially in remote anchorages.
Instead of guessing blindly at the planets and constellations, star gazing apps will tell you for sure. Just hold up your phone to the night sky and it will show you a moving image of what you should see.
It’s surprisingly accurate and we’ve had a lot of fun with it. It will also help if you want to try a bit of celestial navigation on passage!
14. Audible – A Sailing Essential!
This is an absolute must-have for me, and one of the sailing apps I use the most. Although it’s not technically a sailing app, I think it should be!
Audible gives you access to millions of audiobooks of all kinds. It’s great for long boring passages where not much is happening, and we use it all the time when we’re doing work on the boat or doing things like tidying or sorting.
It needs minimal internet, it’s entertaining and soothing. We are completely addicted and I must have motored through about 20 books while working in the boatyard.
Sanding away with my headphones in made the job a whole lot more appealing!
You can get a free month’s trial here, and after that, it’s 7.99 a month for one book of your choice. It’s cheaper than buying a book each month but the price can sting if you get through them at the rate we do.
To combat this I take full advantage of their deal of the day where you can get books for £1.99. You just have to be a little less picky about what you listen to, which has forced me to listen and find I enjoy genres I never would have thought to listen to.
You can also get access to a whole range of podcasts (we love the true-crime ones!)
Correction: Audible has now introduced books that are included in your subscription so you don’t have to pay extra for them. They aren’t always the best quality reads, but they’re entertaining enough and as they’re free you can just skip the rubbish ones!
Should Be Apps For Sailing!
We’ve included a few of our personal favourite apps that aren’t specific for sailing but are super useful for cruisers anyway!
15. Revolut
This is our go-to app for managing our money while we’re out of the UK. Revolut gives great exchange rates so you don’t get stung too much when you’re out of the country.
The app means you can manage all your finances from one place and keep tabs on how much you’re spending and what on! It records everything for you in an easy-to-read chart so you can review your spending at the end of each month.
You can sign up for a free Revolut card here to make sure you get the best rates when spending abroad.
16. YouTube For Sailing Knowledge
This sounds like a strange one to add, but honestly, YouTube is a sailor’s bible these days. If you can’t learn it from YouTube then you don’t need to learn it!
We’ve found tutorials on how to fix the most random boat parts on YouTube. There’s such a huge wealth of information on there that I couldn’t leave it off the list!
It’s also a great place to learn about whether liveaboard life is really for you. There are a thousand different sailing channels out there that video daily life on board.
A lot of them show life as you dream it’s going to be, so you have to be a little careful to pick the right channels if you actually want to know what life is really like aboard a sailboat full time (trust us, it isn’t a bed of roses for anyone all the time!)
A few big channels we found to be more realistic are Sailing Kittiwake and Sailing Millennial Falcon. Or you can check out ours here for a bit of insight as to what it’s really like to sail on a budget!
17. Zoom, What’s App Video or Skype Apps For Sailing
When you live on a sailboat you’re often away from family and friends for months or even years at a time. There is nothing quite like having a video call (when the internet allows!) with those that you’re close with to pick you up after a bad day at sea or make you feel a little less far from home.
We’ve found that Zoom is best for group calls with multiple people and you get 40 minutes free, and can then end the call and restart!
You can even organise things like quizzes online to entertain yourselves and make you feel as though you’re really there.
We prefer What’s App video calls for one-to-one conversations as it’s much easier to use on your phone. It’s great to call someone from home on a long and boring coastal passage and have someone to catch up with!
18. Google Maps
The brilliant thing about sailing is that it takes you to new and interesting locations. But that also means it can be hard to know where you can get provisions or boat parts as you’re often sailing in unfamiliar areas.
To help us work out where we can provision or get certain services (Adam is always looking up fishing shops!) we use good old Google Maps.
We have the app on our phone and use it to navigate to the nearest stores or tourist attractions and it’s super useful for working out walking distances to the things we need. Sometimes we even plan anchorages around the things we need onshore and the distance we’ll have to walk to get there!
19. Instagram
This might seem like a bit of a strange one to have on the list but let me explain myself. Instagram is actually an awesome way to meet other sailors and get great sailing advice.
It’s a small world, the sailing community. If you create a sailing related profile and add and interact with a load of other sailing profiles you’ll be amazed at how many people you’ll start to actually connect with. And then meet up with.
We’ve met so many people in real life that we started talking to in Instagram, and we’ve stayed in touch and asked for help and advice along the way. It’s such a great resource that most people probably don’t even think of using. GET ON IT NOW!
And to help get you started here are some awesome ocean Instagram captions so you don’t have to do any of the hard work.
Conclusion: The Best Apps For Sailing
So there’s a low down on our all-time favourite sailing apps. Hopefully, they help you out as much as they’ve helped us! If you have any more favourites then please do let us know below so we can add them to our favourites library!
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thanks so much for this wonderful review of apps and sailing resources!
That’s really nice post. I appreciate your skills. Thanks for sharing.
This is such a great list. I’ve had my own but there are some real gems in here I had never thought of. One thing I’m looking for is a simple app to track where I’ve stowed all the spare parts on my boat.