Alternatives to Orca

A marine navigation app for planning trips with charts, routing and weather, with optional boat hardware. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

  • Orca

    A marine navigation app for planning trips with charts, routing and weather, with optional boat hardware.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOS

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Orca.

  • Savvy Navvy

    A boat navigation app with marine charts, tides and weather, pitched as Google Maps for boats.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOS

    Savvy Navvy also plans boat routes around wind, tide and current on a phone, without Orca's optional Orca Core hardware for instrument connections.

  • Argo

    A marine navigation and trip planning app with nautical charts, autorouting and a boaters' community.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOSWeb

    Argo adds a web version, crowdsourced marina reviews and a free plan with charts and manual routing, while autorouting sits in paid plans.

  • Seapilot

    Marine navigation app with digital nautical charts, AIS, routes and weather routing.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOS

    Seapilot offers charts, weather routing with GRIB data and GPX import and export, with AIS and NMEA sensor support limited to Premium.

  • iNavX

    A marine chartplotter app for iPhone and iPad with charts from many providers, AIS and GRIB weather.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOS

    iNavX supports more than 25 chart providers, live AIS and GRIB weather, and includes free NOAA US charts, with other commercial charts bought separately.

  • Aqua Map

    A marine navigation app for boaters that shows NOAA, USACE and CMOR charts with offline use.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOS

    Aqua Map uses NOAA, USACE and CMOR charts offline with an anchor alarm, but its coverage centres on US waters and the Bahamas.

  • qtVlm

    Navigation and weather routing software for sailing boats, with a GRIB viewer and chart support.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindowsAndroidiOS

    qtVlm adds weather routing with departure-time comparison and a Windows version, reading S57, S63 and raster charts, though mobile versions are paid.

  • OpenCPN

    A free, open-source chartplotter and marine GPS navigation program for laptops and onboard computers.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxAndroid

    OpenCPN is a free, open-source chartplotter for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android with plugins, but its desktop-style interface suits phones less well.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.

  • PredictWind

    A marine weather service with wind forecasts, weather routing and departure planning for sailors.

    FreemiumProprietaryWeb

  • Windy

    An interactive animated weather map with wind, waves and radar forecasts from several forecast models.

    FreemiumProprietaryWeb

  • Navily

    A cruising guide app for finding anchorages and marinas, with community reviews and slip booking.

    FreeProprietaryAndroidiOSWeb

  • Signal K

    An open marine data standard and local server that connects a boat's instruments and sensors.

    FreeOpen sourceWebSelf-hosted

  • OpenSeaMap

    Free community nautical chart built on OpenStreetMap, with seamarks, harbours and depth data.

    FreeProprietaryWeb

  • MarineTraffic

    A live ship tracking map that shows vessel positions worldwide using AIS data.

    FreemiumProprietaryWeb