I just received a reminder that my annual Carrot subscription will renew shortly.
I’m pretty happy with Carrot, but - given the large & increasing number of weather apps - figured I’d check-in on the competition!
Is anyone using / paying for a weather app in preference to Carrot?
I’m especially interested in those who’ve used Carrot but prefer something else
I’m only interested in apps which include a Watch app.
I’m not looking to cut a subscription. I check the weather every day. I don’t mind paying for something which better meets my needs than the stock weather app.
More seriously, any weather app is only presenting information it has downloaded from somewhere. It’s the source of weather information that is critically important. If two apps show the same weather data, it’s only a matter of personal taste which you think presents it better. I had Carrot for a long time, never used the robotic snark, but quite liked the graphic presentation.
I like windy (premium) for the range and depth of data I can access for a reasonable subscription and I’ve always preferred weather data in map form. Day to day, the Apple weather app is fine.
I tried Carrot Weather more than a year ago, following all the praise by the tech blogosphere.
For several months, I compared its accuracy with the native weather app and found that Carrot had similar and sometimes less accurate information.
I tried a few other apps with similar results. I switched to the native app since then and never looked back.
In addition to that, the native weather app keeps getting better and better, to the point that a 3rd party app would only be necessary if one is looking for a specific type of info, IMO.
Of course your mileage may vary depending on where you are.
I very much like Weathergraph from Tomas Kafka - wide choice of data sources, excellent customisable graphics, not terribly expensive. Note that there’s more than one app with that name.
Also look at Weather Strip which has fewer options but works very well
This is a misunderstanding of how weather apps work. They don’t predict the weather themselves, they buy in and present data from meteorological companies. Carrot supports multiple data sources, so if the default one isn’t good enough for your location, you can switch to another service. Carrot runs various local services in Europe and the Americas.
I still have a Carrot subscription as I like their watch complications, but for iPhone and iPad I’m using Weathergraph now, also mentioned above. I find the detailed visualisation suits me and the widgets are detailed. I rarely open the app as the widgets suffice most the time.
I’m in the UK like you and am using Foreca as the data source (Carrot uses this by default). I find it mostly reliable. Neither app does weather alerts well and since we’ve had so many this autumn/winter I’ve ended up reinstalling the Met Office app and enabling weather alerts from them (their app is crap, as I’m sure you know, but I do need to know when a weather warning is issued, so I just have the notifications enabled and the app is ignored in my library).
I used Carrot for quite a few years, but a year or so ago I decided to go back to the stock Weather app to save the subscription cost on something I can get for free. The Weather app has come a long was and is about as accurate (for me) as any other one out there. I combine that with the Washington Post’s weather summary emailed to me every morning and I’m good to go…much cheaper!
I have not found anything better. It’s the most accurate and that is what matters. The only one may be Foreca may be the only one as the at is the forecast tool that I have Carrot weather set to use.
I have several and always default back to Carrot weather.
You might find Hello Weather worth a look. Nice design that’s quick to read, and it doesn’t collect any user data, which tends to be a problem with weather apps.
Mercury is my new favorite. iPad, iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch. They say that they will have a radar feature upcoming. Killer feature is trip planning and the user interface.
I really like Apple Weather’s UI (though some Carrotesque customization, including being able to re-order the data blocks, would be welcome) and generally find the live conditions and forecast to be accurate.
Mercury is great for glanceable weather forecasts. This app also has some innovative features, including the trip planning feature that @bowsertune mentioned. I purchased a Lifetime Premium license and will be curious to see where Mercury goes in the future.
I also appreciate that Mercury supports a Menu Bar item on the Mac.
I’ve used (and paid for) CARROT Weather in the past. It’s an impressive app, and it will be interesting to see where it goes in the future. In the meantime, I generally prefer the impressive visuals of Apple’s Weather app. And CARROT Weather’s Mac offering is long overdue for an update.
