We respect what Windy does well. Here is exactly where we're different and where we're not.
They built the weather layer; we built the fishing layer on top. If you only need to know the wind for your kite, they win. If you need to know which day this weekend is worth the petrol for the snapper run, the bite score is what matters and we have one trained on real catches.
Windy is the best raw-weather visualisation product on the internet, full stop. Fishare uses the same upstream data and adds a fishing-aware decision layer on top. If you want to look at weather, use Windy. If you want to decide when to fish, use Fishare.
Windy was built for pilots, sailors and kitesurfers — communities where the answer to "is it safe / fun to go out?" can be derived directly from wind, wave and pressure data. Fishing is one further step removed: the question is not "is the wind safe?" but "will the fish bite?", and that depends on tide stage, SST front position, bait-school behaviour and species seasonality in addition to the atmospheric inputs Windy excels at. This page covers how the two products map.
A factual head-to-head across the features that matter for the fishing-decision use case.
| Feature | Windy | Fishare |
|---|---|---|
| Atmospheric model variety | ECMWF, GFS, ICON, NEMS, plus regional models | Open-Meteo (best-of-class blend; we don't multi-source) |
| Wave / swell model | Multiple — switchable | Best-of-class blended wave model — one good answer instead of four competing ones |
| Wind animation UX | Best-in-class | Static arrows + values; we don't prioritise this |
| SST overlay | Yes — basic visualisation | Yes — and with the warm-cold water edges already detected for you |
| SST gradient / front detection | Visual only — angler does the interpretation | Modelled — the model knows where the edges are and factors them in |
| Chlorophyll-a | No | Yes — the green-water productivity index that drives baitfish behaviour |
| Eddy detection | No | Yes — mesoscale ocean structure that pelagic species track |
| Bathymetry / depth contours | No | Yes — the model knows seamounts, ledges and drop-offs, so it basically knows the contours of the seabed and finds good fishing structure for you automatically |
| Tide model | Separate tab — text + curve | Thousands of harmonic tide stations — same canvas as wind / swell / SST |
| Surface currents | Limited | Yes — surface flow plus where the shear lines set up |
| AIS vessel layer | Yes (Premium) | Yes (free) |
| Aquatic-reserve closures | No | Yes — rendered as polygons (NSW today, more coming) |
| Bite-score / fishing logic | None | Multi-input neural network trained on real catches — it actually learns from what works |
| Species awareness | None | Over 1,000 species — each weights conditions differently because, well, different fish want different things |
| Catch logging | No | Yes |
| 14-day forecast scrub | Yes — for weather variables | Yes — for weather + bite score combined |
Windy's pricing structure. Fishare is free across the board today (no paid tier yet — when one ships, current users get grandfathered).
Windy raised Premium from US$18.99/yr to US$24.99/yr in late 2025 — first price hike in 7 years. The free tier is still genuinely generous; for pure atmospheric visualisation, most fishing use cases never hit the paywall.
When the paid tier launches (currently deferred), users who signed up before launch get lifetime access at the free tier.
Limitations of Windy that come up in our own use and in public reviews. We don't list these to attack the product — they're context for the routing below.
Windy will tell you the wind is 12 knots SE, the swell is 1.4 m at 8 seconds, the pressure is 1018 and falling, and the SST is 19.4°C. It will not tell you that 12 knots SE on a falling pressure with a south swell and 19.4°C water is the textbook winter snapper window in Sydney. The user has to know that mapping themselves.
On Windy the tide is on a separate text-and-curve view, not co-rendered with wind and swell on the live map. For fishing the tide stage is the single most important variable at most spots — siloing it costs context.
Switching between ECMWF, GFS, ICON and NEMS is great for pilots cross-checking forecasts before a flight. For anglers it can produce decision paralysis — three of the four models will always disagree on the third decimal. We don't expose model switching; we publish one good answer.
Tracking commercial fishing fleets and pelagic boats is a real edge — AIS is the most underrated tool in shore-angler intel ("Boats are stacked on the south reef at dawn"). Windy gates this behind Premium; we publish it free.
Use-case routing — diplomatic, not flippant. Each row names a specific angler profile and the better tool for that profile.
The product is purpose-built for them and is the category gold standard.
The animation UX is genuinely beautiful and unmatched.
Multi-model variety is real depth that we don't replicate.
The bite score answers that directly; Windy gives you the inputs and asks you to do the model in your head.
The model already knows snapper want different conditions than tailor at Sydney spots; you don't have to know.
AIS is free here; gated on Windy Premium.
Windy's positioning is correct — they are an atmospheric-science product that ships on a beautiful map. Adding fishing logic would dilute that positioning and force them to maintain a domain-specific model layer outside their core competency. The opposite is also true: we don't try to beat Windy on weather model variety. We use the data, model the fishing-specific layer on top.
No migration step needed — Windy users typically keep Windy open for the atmospheric visualisation and add Fishare for the fishing-aware view. The two complement rather than substitute. If you want a one-app workflow, Fishare's map already exposes the wind / swell / SST / current / AIS layers Windy users care about; if you don't miss the animation aesthetic, you can stop opening Windy.
Comparison verified against Windy.com web + iOS, May 2026. Pricing per Windy's public Premium page. Atmospheric model list per Windy's own model documentation. We have not run a head-to-head accuracy benchmark — both products draw from overlapping upstream sources and the deltas tend to be within instrument noise.
Yes — the live map, bite score, 7-day forecast and spot pages are free to browse with no account. Logging catches and getting push notifications when peaks open requires a free account. There is no paid tier today.
They built the weather layer; we built the fishing layer on top. If you only need to know the wind for your kite, they win. If you need to know which day this weekend is worth the petrol for the snapper run, the bite score is what matters and we have one trained on real catches.
A multi-input neural network trained on millions of real catches across over 1,000 species — not a Solunar lookup. Inputs include wind, swell, tide stage, where the warm-cold water edges are, what the current is doing, moon phase, and a couple of dozen other features per hour. The model has been validated against catch data we held back from training. The catches keep coming in, so the model keeps getting sharper.
Fishare is a Progressive Web App (PWA) — open fishare.app in mobile Safari or Chrome, then 'Add to Home Screen'. It runs offline, sends push notifications, and stays in sync without an app-store install. Native iOS / Android builds are on the roadmap.
May 2026. We re-verify pricing, feature parity and known limitations each time a major version of Windy ships or pricing tiers change. The reviewed date at the top of the page is the source of truth.
They reflect the version of Windy we checked at the last review date. Software changes; if you spot something that no longer matches the live product, let us know via the feedback link in the app and we'll update.
Fishare tracks your home spots and pings you when the next 3-hour peak window opens. Log catches and blanks to teach the model your local patterns. Free forever for everyone who joins now.
Open Fishare