Sailing Navigation Apps for iPhone: Costs and Free Options

For most US coastal sailors, Navionics Boating is the usual starting point at $49.99/yr for US & Canada charts (US App Store, as of March 2026), Savvy Navvy is the pick for routing that takes wind and current into account, and SeaDrive is the free option for US waters. Other sailboat navigation apps such as C-MAP, Orca and TZ iBoat are free to download and charge a yearly subscription for charts, offline use or routing, so a truly free option is mostly limited to apps built on free NOAA chart data, such as SeaDrive.

This guide covers what US sailors should look for, what each app costs where prices are known, and what changed when NOAA retired its raster charts. For powerboat and general apps, see our marine navigation apps roundup.

The apps at a glance

• Navionics Boating: US & Canada $49.99/yr (US App Store, March 2026). Yachting World's overall pick in its 2021 test
• Savvy Navvy: paid tiers only, with a 3-day free trial. Routes using your boat's polars, draft and air draft
• SeaDrive: US charts are free. Extra features are sold as Sea Drive Pro in-app purchases
• C-MAP: check the App Store for current US pricing. YACHT reports offline maps are lost when the subscription ends
• Orca: from €49/yr per YACHT, with no confirmed US dollar price. Offline maps are lost when the subscription ends
• TZ iBoat: needs a TZ MAPS subscription. Check the App Store for current US pricing

What sailors need from a navigation app

These are the features sailors compare when picking a chartplotter app:

• Boat polars or performance data, so routing reflects how your boat sails
• Wind, tide and current aware routing
• GRIB wind overlays for forecast wind on the chart
• AIS, either from the internet or from an onboard receiver over NMEA or Wi-Fi
• Anchor alarm
• Offline charts for when you lose signal
• NMEA instrument integration to pull in wind, depth and speed from your boat

Decide which of these matter for where you sail before comparing prices.

Using an iPad

An iPad gives you a bigger chart, but Wi-Fi-only iPads have no GPS chip. If yours is Wi-Fi only, you need an external GPS receiver for the app to show your position.

NOAA retired raster charts in December 2024

If you sail US waters, this matters when you pick an app. NOAA finished its raster sunset program in December 2024, when the last of its 1,007 paper charts was cancelled. Paper charts, RNC raster charts, full-size PDF chart images and BookletCharts are all gone. NOAA had already shut down the RNC Tile Service and RNC Viewer in 2021.

NOAA ENC vector charts are now NOAA's primary chart product. They are free to download from Coast Survey, and update cells go up every weekday evening with changes such as new aids to navigation and newly discovered shoals. If you want a paper-style chart, NOAA Custom Charts builds PDF charts from the latest ENC data.

What this means for you:

• Older apps that advertised "free NOAA raster charts" are out of date
• Ask how often an app's US charts are updated and whether they come from current NOAA ENC data or the vendor's own surveys
• See our page on free NOAA charts for more on where the data comes from

The main apps and what they cost

Prices change often. A Panbo reader reported in August 2024 that a couple of app prices had doubled since 2023 (apps not named), so check the App Store listing before you subscribe.

Navionics Boating

• Price: US & Canada chart plan $49.99/yr on the US App Store as of March 2026. It rose from $24.99/yr in October 2023. Wavve's pricing guide lists USA only at $39.99/yr and Worldwide at $99.99/yr, and other regional packs on the App Store run $49.99 to $69.99
• Reviews: Yachting World's 2021 test picked it as the overall choice, praising animated current arrows and the best auto-zoom
• Watch for: YACHT's 2026 roundup noted Navionics had the worst app store ratings in its selection and reported that a periodic online check-in can block maps at sea. YACHT based its roundup on features and app store ratings, without a field test

Savvy Navvy

• Price: Savvy Navvy's pricing page now lists only paid tiers, Essential (£59/yr), Explore (£95/yr) and Elite (£99/yr), plus a 3-day free trial. Practical Sailor (May 2025) listed Essential at $79.99/yr, Explore at $144.99/yr and Elite at $149.99/yr at the time of publication, so check the App Store for current US pricing
• Sailing features: takes your boat details and polars, and routes around buoys, obstacles, draft and air draft. Offers AIS, a 10-day forecast, an anchor alarm and GPX export
• Reviews: in Yachting World's 2021 test it was the only app whose routing took wind and current into account, but its polars could not be adjusted and it routed the tester into shallow water and near lee shores
• Watch for: battery use. Practical Sailor's reviewer saw an Android phone drop from full to 34% on a three-hour trip. Drain varies by phone, so test yours

C-MAP

• Price: we could not confirm current US pricing, so check the App Store
• Reviews: in Yachting World's test it had no tide or current overlay, and its autorouting broke a 3 m (10 ft) minimum-depth setting
• Watch for: YACHT reports that offline maps are lost when the subscription ends

Orca

• Price: YACHT lists Orca Plus at €49/yr and Smart Navigation at €149/yr, with optional Orca Core hardware at €549. US dollar pricing was not confirmed
• Watch for: offline maps are lost when the subscription ends

TZ iBoat

• Price: requires a TZ MAPS subscription. Check the App Store for current US pricing
• Features: TIMEZERO highlights "Dynamic Moorings" anchoring suggestions, compatibility with Furuno hardware and NMEA systems, offline charts and weather, and GFS, ICON and AROME weather models
• Watch for: TIMEZERO's own blog ranks TZ iBoat the best iOS app, so treat that ranking as vendor marketing

Other apps

Panbo's roundup includes US-focused apps such as Aqua Map and Argo, and Yachting World's 2021 test also covered Seapilot, iSailor and iNavX. We could not confirm current US prices for these, so check the App Store. Dedicated weather-routing apps for offshore passages are outside the scope of this guide. YACHT's 2026 roundup covers several of them.

Is there a free sailing navigation app?

A few options, with limits:

• SeaDrive: its App Store listing says only US charts are available and that they will stay free thanks to NOAA. Extra features are sold as Sea Drive Pro in-app purchases
• NOAA ENC data itself is free to download, though you need an app that can display it

Savvy Navvy used to offer a US-only free plan, and an older help-center article (August 2025) still describes it. Its current pricing page lists only paid tiers with a 3-day free trial, so that article appears to be out of date.

On most other apps, "free" means a free download with charts, offline use or routing behind a subscription.

How to choose

• 1. Decide where you sail. Coastal and tidal waters call for tide and current overlays and current-aware routing. Inland lakes and rivers need good inland depth data. Check that chart coverage includes your waters before paying.
• 2. List the features you need from the list above.
• 3. Read what "free" covers and what happens to offline charts if you cancel.
• 4. Ask how often US charts are updated and whether they are based on current NOAA ENC data or the vendor's own surveys.
• 5. Download charts before leaving the dock and test GPS, routing and battery drain on a short trip.
• 6. Check every auto-route against the chart and your draft. Reviewers have caught autorouting that ignored minimum-depth settings or led into shallow water near lee shores. Treat any app as a navigation aid and keep a current chart aboard as a backup. NOAA Custom Charts can build a paper-style PDF from the latest ENC data, and the ENC files are free to download.
• 7. Use free trials to compare two or three apps before committing to a year.

Where Helm fits

Helm is built from government chart data: NOAA on the coast, USACE Inland ENC on rivers, and the USGS National Hydrography Dataset for lakes. The app says it redraws that data, that it is an aid and is not an official chart, and that you should keep an official chart aboard. It does not do wind-based sail routing or polars.

What it does for sailors:

• Choose Sail as your boat type in Boat Profile
• Route planning works around your draft plus a safety margin you set
• Your air draft counts: routing avoids bridges and overhead cables whose charted clearance is below your air draft (the full height of your boat above the waterline, masthead included) plus about 1.6 ft (0.5 m). Bridges with no charted clearance, including opening bridges, are not checked and a route can pass under them, so check every bridge on the route yourself
• When a low bridge blocks the way, it tells you why, for example "Fixed bridge: 16 ft clearance, your boat needs 20 ft plus 1.6 ft of margin"
• The chart has wind, wave and current overlays, plus a Ships (AIS) layer
• Download chart regions for offline use. Without signal, routes only work where routing data is already saved on the device
• Import GPX files and share markers, routes and trips as GPX
• Unknown or unsurveyed depth shows a dash instead of a number

Free: route planning.

Subscription: the Tides, Weather, Waves and Logbook tools, the anchor alarm and the depth under your keel reading. Our navigation apps roundup lists Helm's pricing alongside other apps.

Common questions

Is there a free sailing navigation app for iPhone?

SeaDrive says its US charts will stay free thanks to NOAA, with extra features sold as in-app purchases. Savvy Navvy used to offer a US-only free plan, but its current pricing page lists only paid tiers with a 3-day free trial. Most other apps are free to download and charge yearly for charts or offline use.

Can I still get NOAA raster charts?

No. NOAA cancelled paper charts, RNC raster charts, full-size PDF chart images and BookletCharts by December 2024. NOAA ENC vector charts are now the primary product and are free to download from Coast Survey.

How much does Navionics cost for sailing in the US?

The US & Canada plan is $49.99/yr on the US App Store as of March 2026. Wavve's pricing guide lists USA only at $39.99/yr and Worldwide at $99.99/yr.

Do I keep offline charts if I cancel my subscription?

It depends on the app. YACHT reports that with Orca and C-MAP, offline maps are lost when the subscription ends, and that Navionics uses a periodic online check-in that can block maps at sea. Check the terms before you download a season's worth of charts.

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