Best free fishing apps in 2026, honestly compared

Ask any assistant for a free fishing app and you get the same four names — and then, if you push, the same admission: none of them is really free. Fishbrain, FishAngler, Fishing Points, ANGLR and Fishbox are all free to download. Every one of them sells a subscription on top, and the maps, charts or data you actually wanted are usually what it unlocks.

We make FishNerd, the one app on this page with no paid tier, so we have an obvious interest in you noticing that. Which is exactly why this page is built the way it is: every price and rating below was read from the app's own store listing on the date shown, the links are there so you can check, and each app gets the honest case for it — including the ones where it beats us.

Side by side

Feature	FishNerd	Fishbrain	FishAngler	Fishing Points	ANGLR	Fishbox
No in-app purchases at all	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Catch log	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AI species identification	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	—	—
Conditions attached to each catch automatically	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial
Tides	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Paid tier	Yes
Solunar / bite windows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	—	Yes
Bite forecast / activity score	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	—	Yes
Local regulations per catch	Yes	Yes	—	—	—	—
Private groups with a shared feed	Yes	Yes	Yes	—	Partial	—
Public community feed	No	Yes	Partial	—	Partial	—
WhatsApp catch cards	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Tackle box with barcode scan	Yes	—	—	—	—	—
GPS trip track recorded automatically	No	—	—	—	Yes	—
Smartwatch app	No	—	—	—	Yes	—
Depth / bathymetric charts	No	Paid tier	Partial	Yes	Paid tier	Paid tier
Offline maps	No	Paid tier	—	Paid tier	—	Paid tier

Yes / No / Paid tier / Partial / — = not stated on the store listing

Other apps worth knowing

FishNerd(ours)

Actually free — no paid tier exists

A catch log that fills itself in from one photo — species by AI, conditions attached automatically — with private groups and a WhatsApp feed. Free, with no paid tier at all. It does not do depth charts or offline maps.

Best for: Anglers who want the log to do the work, and refuse to pay a subscription for it.

No in-app purchases and no subscription tier exist. Free forever is stated on the homepage.
One photo logs the catch: species by AI, plus weather, pressure trend, moon, solunar and tide at that moment.
No depth or bathymetric charts, and no offline maps — if that is what you fish by, a chart app is the right tool.

Fishbrain

Largest community, if you will pay for the maps

The biggest fishing app there is: a huge social feed, crowd-sourced spots, forecasts, and a fish identifier. The catch is the paywall — the maps and data most people actually want sit behind a Pro package that runs $79.99 a year.

Best for: Anglers who want the largest community and will pay for the maps.

The App Store listing describes the app as free to download, with fishing maps, catch logging and community in the free tier, and Fishbrain Pro unlocking the advanced spot-finding and data features.
Pro is sold as monthly, quarterly and annual packages; the annual is $79.99.
4.7 stars across 74K ratings on the US App Store — the largest review base of any app compared here.

FishNerd vs Fishbrain →

FishAngler

Most features for the least money

A strong all-rounder with an AI guide, fish ID, tides, solunar windows and 3D contour maps, and the best-rated app in this list. It is marketed as free, and it mostly is — but there is a VIP tier at $49.99 a year, so it is not free the way FishNerd is.

Best for: Anglers who want most of Fishbrain's feature set at a lower price.

Often described as the free alternative to Fishbrain. The App Store listing shows it is free with in-app purchases: FishAngler VIP at $6.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
The listing advertises fish identification across 866+ species, a catch log with 45+ attributes, tide charts, solunar bite windows, 3D contour maps and community groups.
4.8 stars across 14K ratings on the US App Store.

FishNerd vs FishAngler →

Fishing Points

Best forecasts, tides and charts

The forecasting specialist — tides, solunar, fish activity and nautical charts, properly translated into Portuguese and Spanish, with a 4.8 rating in Brazil. It logs catches but does not identify them, and the charts and offline use are Premium.

Best for: Saltwater and boat anglers who plan around tides and charts.

A forecast-first app: fish activity projection, tides, solunar data, saved spots and nautical charts, with a catch log for photos, weight and length.
Fully localized — the Brazilian App Store lists Portuguese first among eleven languages, and the app has 4.8 stars across 9.9K Brazilian ratings.
Premium runs $9.99 a month or $29.99–$49.99 a year in the US; R$8,90 to R$99,90 in Brazil. Species identification is not among the listed features.

FishNerd vs Fishing Points →

ANGLR

Hands-free trip logging

The data-logger's app: it records the whole trip automatically — GPS track, conditions, waypoints — and pairs with a physical Bullseye button so you never touch the phone with wet hands. Maps and water-gauge data are Pro. Small user base, mixed reviews.

Best for: Boat anglers who want the trip recorded hands-free and will buy the button.

Built around automatic trip recording: it captures conditions and GPS tracks as you fish, with waypoints, a watch app, and an optional Bluetooth Bullseye button that marks a catch in one press.
Pricing is listed two ways — anglr.com shows Pro at $29.99 a year ($2.50 a month billed annually); the App Store lists ANGLR PRO at $39.99 alongside MEMBER tiers at $2.99 and $29.99.
4.2 stars across 635 ratings on the US App Store — by far the smallest review base in this comparison.

FishNerd vs ANGLR →

Fishbox

U.S. bathymetry offline — not built for Brazil

Forecasts, spots and bathymetric maps with offline tiles — but the maps are described as U.S. waters, and the store lists English and Japanese as its languages despite the Portuguese title. A capable app that is not built for Brazil.

Best for: U.S. lake and reservoir anglers who want bathymetry offline.

Sold on the Brazilian App Store under the title "Pesca Inteligente", but the listing states its languages as English and Japanese — Portuguese is not listed.
Its Play Store description describes the maps as covering 50,000+ U.S. lakes, rivers, reservoirs and coastal areas.
Forecasts (wind, pressure, solunar, tides), spots, offline map tiles and bathymetric maps are the core; the advanced features sit behind Fishbox Premium, sold at eight price points from R$32,90 to R$229,90.

FishNerd vs Fishbox →

How this list was made

Five apps were chosen for size — the ones with the largest store review bases and the ones anglers are most often steered to — plus ours. For each, we read the App Store and Google Play listings and, where relevant, the developer's own pricing page, and recorded the in-app purchase tiers exactly as listed. Nothing here is from memory or from another roundup.

Apps are grouped by what each is genuinely best at, not ranked. A ranking with us at number one would be worth as much as the maker-written lists this page exists to replace. Where a listing did not state something, the feature table says so rather than guessing.

The honest verdict

If what you want is the biggest crowd and you are happy to pay $79.99 a year, Fishbrain is the answer and nothing else here pretends otherwise. If you plan trips around tides and charts, Fishing Points is excellent and properly translated. If you want most of that feature set cheaper, FishAngler's VIP tier is half the price of Fishbrain's.

If what you want is a fishing app that is free the way the word usually means — no subscription, no in-app purchases, no feature you discover is locked after your third catch — there is one on this page, and we make it. FishNerd logs the catch from a photo, attaches the conditions itself, and identifies the species. It does not do depth charts, and it says so.

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