Best Boat Navigation App

Give Wavve your boat’s draft once and the shallows ahead show up in red, on a map simple enough for anyone aboard to follow.

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Five Things That Set Wavve Apart

A Chart Shaped by Your Hull

Set your draft and the chart shades water that may be too thin for your boat in red.

A Nudge When Depth Runs Low

Tied to your boat’s draft, the warning gives you a chance to throttle back and choose another line.

One Look Tells You Enough

Your position and the water ahead sit front and center on an uncluttered map.

Charts for the Water You Boat

Chart data drawn from more than 20,000 nautical charts, plus thousands of lakes, and coverage keeps growing.

Places Other Boaters Pin

Fellow boaters share Wavve Points that flag fuel docks, ramps, marinas, and hazards worth knowing about.

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Top Rated by the People Who Boat With It

Confidence That Starts With Your Draft

Wavve runs on the mobile device you carry anyway, so your dash stays as it is, with no new hardware to buy, mount, or wire in. Enter your draft once and any water that may be too shallow for that hull turns red, while Dynamic Depths updates that picture through the day, following the tide and the local water level. The screen stays uncluttered, so a single glance shows your spot on the water and what lies ahead.

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Features Every Boat Navigation App Should Have

Your Draft Drives the Warnings

Each alert is measured against the draft you entered, so it flags water that may be too shallow for your boat.

Personalized to Your Boat

Every chart view starts from your draft, so the red areas are calculated for your hull, not an average boat.

Red Shading for Shoals

Potentially shallow areas show in red against deeper water, so bars and shoals stand out even in bright sun.

Tides Built Into the Depth

Tidal areas get each day’s highs and lows, and the depth on the map shifts as the tide moves and water levels change with the season.

Hourly Wind and Wave Forecast

Marine weather for the coming seven days, forecast in hourly steps: wave height, wave period, wind, and gusts.

Charts That Outlast the Signal

Your chart and GPS fix stay on screen after coverage cuts out, provided you saved Offline Maps for the route while you had signal.

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Which Boater Are You?

Anglers in the Shallows

Keep your spots private with Wavve Points, and see which skinny water may be too shallow for your boat before you idle in.

Bluewater Fishing Crews

Read the week’s wave heights and wind gusts, and pick the calmest morning for the run out.

Families on the Lake

Know where your lake gets shallow before you pick a spot to swim, tube, or anchor.

Raft-Up and Beach Day Crews

Line up the raft-up with the day’s high and low tides, so you know when the water starts dropping before it is time to head home.

Newcomers to Boat Ownership

Every symbol on the chart explains itself with a tap, so the waterway starts to make sense trip by trip.

Experienced Captains

Plan on a bigger screen, keep a backup in your pocket, and send routes to a compatible chartplotter by GPX file.

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What Boaters Are Saying

What Boaters Want to Know

Is Wavve the best boat navigation app for my boat?

If depth is your first concern, Wavve was made for you, because it starts from the draft of your own boat, a number a standard chart never asks for. With that draft entered, AutoRouting plans every course around it, Dynamic Depths follows the rising and falling water, and potentially shallow water shows in red, with an alert as the bottom closes in. In 2025 it was the most-downloaded marine navigation app in the U.S. and Canada.

Where does Wavve have chart coverage?

Wavve combines chart data from more than 20,000 nautical charts in supported regions of the United States, Canada, the UK, and Australia, along with thousands of inland lakes. Named regions include the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the Florida Keys and Gulf Coast, Puget Sound, the Solent, Sydney Harbour, and Georgian Bay. New bodies of water are added regularly, so look up your own lake, bay, or river on Wavve’s coverage map, and if it is missing, ask Wavve to add it.

Can I navigate with Wavve when there is no cell service?

Yes, as long as you save the map before the signal fades. Offline Maps keeps downloaded charts on your device, and GPS keeps fixing your location with no cell connection. Anything that relies on the internet, such as building a new AutoRoute or refreshing weather and water levels, waits until you reconnect, so build any AutoRoute before you lose service.

Will Wavve replace the chartplotter on my boat?

It depends on how you boat. Some recreational boaters use Wavve as their primary navigation tool on a phone or tablet, while others keep it alongside a chartplotter for trip planning and as a backup in their pocket. Either way, you can plan a route in Wavve and move it to a compatible chartplotter with a GPX file.

Which membership plans does Wavve offer?

Membership is paid, with Annual as the stronger value and the plan most members choose, and Monthly for anyone who would rather stay flexible. One traditional paper chart can cost a boater about as much as an annual membership. Customers selecting an Annual membership can try Wavve Boating free for 14 days, so you can test it on the water before you commit.

How do I set up Wavve for my boat?

Install Wavve on an iPhone, iPad, or Android device, choose a membership, and type in your draft, which sets the shading for your hull. Then name a destination and let AutoRouting lay out a course, or simply head out with your position live on the map.

How To Get Started

Download Wavve Boating on iPhone, Android, or Tablet

Free to download on your iPhone, Android, or tablet.

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Try Wavve Boating free and see it on the water before you commit.

Start Navigating Easily

Open the app, set your destination, and start navigating with confidence.

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Trusted by Top Brands in Marine

Trusted by Marine Industry’s Top Brands

Boat Navigation Built Around Your Draft

Enter how deep your hull sits and the Wavve Boating Map shades potentially shallow water in red for that boat, so a flats skiff and a deep-keeled cruiser see two different pictures of the same bay. Shallow-water warnings adjust to the draft you enter, and with an Apple Watch paired to your iPhone they arrive as a haptic tap on your wrist. Dynamic Depths ties the picture to today’s water by combining charted depths, your draft, and tide or water-level data from measured and predicted stations, and where no station is nearby you can set the water level yourself. AutoRouting uses the same draft in every AutoRoute Mode. Choose Prefer Channels, Most Direct, or Balanced, and Wavve builds a route between two points around obstacles, through channels, and by water depth, then shows total distance, estimated travel time, and a fuel estimate. Check the route against the day’s conditions, then follow it turn by turn on the water.

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A Boat GPS App That Works Beyond Cell Service

Wavve Boating keeps working past the last bar of signal when you download the area you plan to run with Offline Maps before you leave the dock. The downloaded charts stay on your phone, your GPS position keeps updating because GPS does not depend on a cell connection, and the app tells you when you are in Offline Mode. A few things do need a connection. AutoRouting calculates routes on Wavve’s servers, so build your AutoRoute while you still have service, and weather, water levels, and new map downloads refresh once you are back in range. Pick your window before you lose signal: the Integrated Marine Weather Forecast color-codes wind and wave heights so a rough afternoon stands out and adds temperature and sunset times, while the Visual Wind Overlay shows wind direction across the map up to three days ahead. Wavve runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets; on a tablet, pick a GPS-capable model for positioning on the water. Routes and Trip Recordings sync by account to the Free Web Chart Viewer, so you can plan the weekend on a bigger screen at home and pick it up on your phone at the ramp.

Best Boat Navigation App for U.S. and Canadian Boaters

Recreational boaters made Wavve Boating the most-downloaded marine navigation app in the U.S. and Canada in 2025, the same year it surpassed Navionics as the most-downloaded boating app in North America. Boating Industry named the Discover Tab a Top Product in 2024, Dynamic Depths in 2025, and AutoRoute Modes in 2026. Founder Adam Allore started the company in 2018 after building a map that highlighted water too shallow for his own boat’s three-foot draft, and the app still serves the owners who ask that question first: pontoons, deck boats, bay boats, center consoles, and sailboats. If you run a commercial ship, work a busy commercial harbor, or need AIS traffic data, Wavve is not built for you. On depth accuracy, the number behind the shading is charted depth adjusted for your draft and for the water level at a measured or predicted station, which can sit some distance from you, so the red marks water that is potentially too shallow for your boat. It is not live sonar or a depth sounder and never the exact depth under your hull. Treat Wavve as a navigation aid and planning tool alongside prudent seamanship, current conditions and applicable official navigation requirements.

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Boat Navigation Charts for Coasts, the Great Lakes, and Inland Lakes

Wavve Boating draws on more than 20,000 nautical charts plus thousands of charted lakes, built from official and third-party sources, with key providers including NOAA and the Canadian Hydrographic Service alongside additional public and private data sources. Named U.S. coastal regions include Maine and New England; Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard; Long Island Sound and New York Harbor; and the U.S. West Coast. Named regions also include the Great Lakes on both sides of the border, the St. Lawrence River and the 1000 Islands, and the Trent-Severn and Rideau waterways. Inland, Wavve has chart data for Lake of the Ozarks, Lake Murray, Lake Norman, Lake Lanier, Lake Powell, and Lake Winnipesaukee. Coverage varies inside each region, so check your waterway on the coverage map or in the Free Web Chart Viewer before you buy. Where Wavve has no chart data, the map still shows the outline of the water and GPS still tracks your position, but there are no depths and AutoRouting is not available. You can request coverage for your water, and Customer Success reaches out when it becomes available.

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