A Tides Near Me alternative that works with no signal
Tides Near Me does one thing very well: open it, see the nearest station, know whether the water is rising or falling. That is why it has 163K ratings. People go looking for an alternative for two reasons.
- Ads. The free tier shows Google AdMob ads. Premium, a subscription listed at $14.99 or $1.99, removes them and adds 30-day forecasts.
- No offline claim. Its listing never says it works without signal, and at the point, in the islands, in the anchorage, signal is often what you do not have.
If you run a boat, currents are the other difference. Since version 4.0 in October, a Tides Near Me current station shows the last and next current with speed, the next slack, and the day's curve. It gives the slack as a time, not a window with a duration, and the listing makes no offline claim for it.
Slackwater, in short
Free, no ads, no account, no tracking. Tides worldwide and currents across the US and Canada. Bundled stations predict on your phone without a connection. Canadian stations need an initial download; some passes require a connection and are labeled in the app. For a current station it gives the next slack, how long it lasts, and max flood and ebb with direction.
It is available on the App Store and needs iOS 26. Its standalone Apple Watch app is free. Alerts, station calendars, lock-screen widgets and Watch complications are optional Premium features, with annual and lifetime purchase options.
Slackwater features checked October 9, 2026; Tides Near Me's details checked against its US App Store listing and website on October 14, 2026.
Side by side
| Tides Near Me | Slackwater | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free with ads; Premium removes them; Go Mode charts extra | Free core; optional Premium |
| Offline | No offline claim | Bundled predictions offline; Canadian setup, some passes online-only |
| Tides | Worldwide | Worldwide |
| Currents | Last and next current with speed, next slack time, daily curve, moving-currents map | Slack time and duration, max speed and set, scrubbable curve |
| Canada | Yes | Yes, CHS |
| Data sources | Providers listed by country on its website | Named per station, with datum |
| Marine weather | Wind, seas, water temperature, warnings | Not included |
| Home widgets | Yes; full widgets for Premium | Free |
| Lock screen widgets | Not listed | Premium |
| Apple Watch | Yes, subscribers only | Free standalone app; complications Premium |
| Account required | No | No |
| Ads | Google AdMob in the free tier | None |
Side by side
| Tides Near Me | Slackwater |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Tides Near Me's own listing: Coecles Harbor, last tide and next tide as big times over the day's curve. Nothing to learn; that is the point of it. | Slackwater at St Martins: the same answer, rising at 14.3 ft at 6.2 ft per hour, with the curve so you can see where in the cycle you are. |
Both apps show current stations:
| Tides Near Me | Slackwater |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Tides Near Me's own listing: The Race, last flood at 3.3 mph, next slack at 6:52 PM, then a 4.4 mph ebb. | Slackwater at Nakwakto Rapids: ebbing at 1.7 kn to the south, max ebb in 1h 44m, and the week's slacks and maxima listed below. |
The details that matter
Rising or falling, instantly. This is the thing Tides Near Me nailed, so it is the thing Slackwater's list had to match. Stations sort nearest first. Each card draws a day of its curve with a marker at now, so you read the state from the shape before you read the number. Nothing to tap.
Offline predictions. Slackwater bundles harmonic data for thousands of stations and computes their predictions on the phone for any date. Most Canadian stations build an offline model from CHS predictions after an initial download. Some Canadian passes remain online-only and are labeled in the app. Map areas you have already viewed are cached for use without a connection.
Currents with an answer. Deception Pass ebbing at 3.1 kn, next slack in 5h 26m, and it lasts 19 minutes. That last number decides whether you go, and it is the one most tide apps do not have.
Where the numbers come from. Every station names its source and its datum. The engine is checked against NOAA's and CHS's own published predictions, and the deviations are written down on slackwater.xyz.
Who should switch
Switch if you use the app on the water without signal, want to know how long slack lasts, or are done with ads.
Stay with Tides Near Me if you prefer its simple next-tide view, want marine weather beside the tide, check from a beach with signal and the ads do not bother you. It still answers that question well.
Moving over
Nothing to import. Open Slackwater, allow location if you like (it stays on the device), and your nearest stations are already there. Search for the rest by name and star them. Two minutes.
Predictions are not observations. Weather, river flow and local conditions change the water. Slackwater is not for navigation.
Download Slackwater on the App Store · Free, no account. Requires iOS 26 or later.
See also: the best tide and current apps for iPhone · Slackwater vs Tide Alert