- Escape the ordinary. Navionics electronic navigation charts of marine areas, lakes, and rivers provide boaters around the world with detailed cartography, HD bathymetry, and advanced features for use with their GPS chartplotters and mobile devices.
- With the best marine navigation apps you can quite literally turn your phone or your tablet into a full-blown chartplotter. That means you have a valuable back-up to the electronics at your helm, and you can carry your tech with you even when aboard small boats with no electrical systems.
If you have a boat (or you're thinking about buying a boat) and you have a cell phone, you’re probably interested in learning all about the best boating apps. And among the many types of boating apps out there, marine navigation apps are some of the most useful. With the best marine navigation apps you can quite literally turn your phone or your tablet into a full-blown chartplotter. That means you have a valuable back-up to the electronics at your helm, and you can carry your tech with you even when aboard small boats with no electrical systems.
Verdict: TimeZero is a full-featured marine navigation software for PC that is available in three versions. The basic version is designed to guide beginners in the art of sailing a boat or yacht and provides all the necessary assistance in learning the craft.
We’ve put a number of marine navigation apps to the test through the years, and these are our favorites (in alphabetical order):
- C-Map Embark
- iNavX
- KnowWake
- Navionics
- SeaPilot
C-Map Embark
C-Map has been creating digital charts for years and has had other nav apps in the past, but Embark recently replaced previous offerings. The concept behind developing this next-gen nav app was to make it as simple and easy to use as possible. It’s a goal C-Map reached, and although this does by design make it one of the more simplistic apps in our round up, that’s one of the reasons why we love it – it’ll take you all of 30 seconds to figure out how to accomplish essential navigational tasks like going from point A to point B. Nifty bonus feature: the app can “see” the lighting situation you’re in and automatically adjust color and contrast for the best viewing.
Price: Free basic version with in-app purchases of varying costs for some map access and weather data.
iNavX
iNavX provides you with amazing latitude in the charts you choose to navigate with, and has eight different providers in their in-app chart store (NOAA charts come free). This app also allows you to do much more than simple navigational tasks, with quite advanced functionality like overlaying GRIB files (a form of current weather data) on your chartplotter screen, or connecting with NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association) compatible instruments on your boat via WiFi to display things like engine data and AIS (Automatic Information System, which uses transponders on commercial ships and boats to broadcast information regarding things like identification, speed, course, and destination) data. Figuring out the navigational basics isn’t made overly-complex by the additional features, but using the advanced functions will take some studying up.
Price: $4.99 for Apple plus in-app purchases; free for Android’s basic version, $19.99/year for the enhanced Pro version.
KnowWake
KnowWake previously made our list of the Best Boating Apps for Navigation, Fishing, Weather and More, so it's no surprise that it found its way to this list, as well.
Diving into the app, you'll immediately see similarities between GPS apps that you might use in your car—like a Google Maps or a crowd-sourcing app like Waze.
KnowWake is home to a real-time community of boaters across North America, Canada, parts of the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand, covering coastal waterways and more than 350 inland lakes and rivers. KnowWake provides its users with an easy way to explore all the dockside and waterfront locations available by boat. You'll will find everything from local restaurants, marinas, fuel docks, boat ramps, dive shops, inlets, dive sites, snorkel areas, and so much more.
You'll also find helpful tools like Destination Routing based on vessel draft, Location Sharing between users, Local and Remote Depth Gauge, Vessel Tracks, Pre-Departure Checklists, and a simple Float Plan submission form.
Price: Yep, you're in luck—this one's free.
Navionics
Navionics lays claim to being the most popular boating app available, and its navigational features and functions are comprehensive, to say the least. In fact, it offers many features that some modern chartplotters can’t match. Dock-to-dock auto-routing, for example, creates a route from point A to point B taking things like nav aids and your boat’s draft constraints into account, when you merely tap the beginning and end points. The Sonarchart Live function lets you create bathymetric maps of the area you’re boating in, in real time. User-generated community edits can be displayed with daily updates. And these are just some of the highlights in a long list of unique features.
Price: A two-week trial comes free, then the subscription varies depending on the chart region(s) you want ($14.99 to $54.99).
SeaPilot
Seapilot is a fairly comprehensive navigation app (though some of the more advanced features, like routing and weather forecasting, require upgrading to the premium version), which introduces a different twist into the mix: Facebook integration. Connected friends are displayed like AIS targets on the app, so finding each other and linking up on the water is easier. Seapilot is also unusual in that it can offer polar diagrams (which show the theoretical attainable speed depending on wind direction and speed) for over 300 boats, to determine the ideal path to steer a sailboat taking wind and current forecasts into account.
Price: Free basic three-day-trial version, $7.99 to $64.99 depending on chart area subscriptions.
Looking for more boating apps to try?
Hey, you anglers, wait a sec—don’t put that phone back into your pocket just yet, because when you’re out fishing it’s good for more than just navigation. Also be sure to check out the Best Apps for Fishing so the next time you hit the water you catch more fish.
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Navigate with iNavX
The #1 Handheld Chartplotter
Navigate with iNavX
The #1 Handheld Chartplotter
- ▶ 'Editor's Choice Winner' -Practical Sailor
- ▶ 'The Standard' -Cruising Magazine
- ▶ 'Must Have List' -Cruising World
iNavX™ is the #1 handheld chartplotter and the only chartplotter on your phone that delivers charts from your favorite chartproviders and hundreds of features. Trusted internationally by casual and professional sailors, fisherman, and cruisers, download iNavX today and automatically receive complementary copy of high resolution NOAA RNC raster United States marine charts of the West Coast, Gulf Coast, East Coast, Great Lakes, Alaska, Hawaii, and US Virgin Islands.
Additionally, iNavX is the only app to give you access to all your favorite charts directly through the app. From Navionics, Blue Latitude, Explorer, Waterway Guide, NV Charts, Soltenick, to a host of other chart providers, to overlays from Theyr and GRIB file weather data - its all ready for you in your hand.
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'I just wanted to thank you and let you know that iNavX on my iPad really worked well for us on the Oregon Offshore last weekend. I had the iPad in a dry case and we used the basic functions of the iNavX program to navigate our way to an overall victory. I shared the program with a number of competitors after the race and I'm pretty sure they'll be visiting the app store soon.'
MM'I successfully used iNavX to input 1,695 waypoints stretching from the waters of Northern Mexico to the Channel Islands. I was then able to export those points and send the exported files to my Furuno dealer who used a Furuno program to convert the file to Excel and sent it back to me. Thank you so much for providing the platform for me to get this project done. I could not have done it without you.'
GM'I've used this app while cruising on a 36 ft sailboat all along East Coast for 6 years. It is not my primary Chart plotter but an excellent back up and even better for planning routes and exploring options for anchorages. All NOAA raster charts are free. To put this in perspective my primary Chart Plotter from Garmin costs $900 and requires $250 per Chip just for the Chesapeake Bay region.'
JMADVANCED
CHART PLOTTER
- Plot your position in real-time using your device's built-in GPS
- Easily pan, zoom, and rotate charts (including course up)
- Print detailed charts to use in combination with the app
- Display real-time instruments including speed, course, bearing and waypoints
ADVANCED
NAVIGATION
- Create waypoints and plan routes to navigate between them
- Quickly measure bearing/distance between points
- Track log allows you to record your actual route
- Import/Export data in KML (Google Earth) or GPX format
ADVANCED
INSTRUMENTATION
- Acts as a repeater for popular marine navigation software MacENC
- Supports NMEA data over TCP/IP (using Wifi)
- Integrates with external GPS, AIS receivers & transponders
- Connect instruments: Depth, Speed, Wind, Engine, Batteries, etc.
ESSENTIAL
TOOLKIT
![Marine Navigation Software Marine Navigation Software](/uploads/1/0/5/5/105532271/622580908.jpg)
- GRIB Weather Forecast
- Tides/currents
- Anchor Alarm
- AIS Alarm
- Port/navaid Search
- Tracking Log History
- And many more...
Getting Started – iNavX Android
Create Waypoints and Routes on a Chart – iNavX Android
Downloading Charts – iNavX iOS
Weather Forecasts – iNavX iOS
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