Wärtsilä iSailor Reviews

Update: They changed the rules and screwed over their existing customers! Goodbye!

Travis_McGee

I’m changing my rating to one star because they suddenly, without warning, switched to a subscription fee model. This was after I had purchased hundreds of dollars worth of charts in reliance on a model that allowed me to regularly update any chart that I had purchased without paying an additional fee. They then retroactively decided that my “subscriptions” to these HUNDREDS of dollars worth of charts expired last March! I could understand if they needed to charge an additional fee to cover the administrative cost of updating the charts, but that would be only a relatively small cost per user. Instead, their new fees are way over the top, and are clearly intended to become a new profit center for the company. I’m sure that the app will continue to work well. But now there is absolutely no basis to use anything other than Navionics, which is the “gold” standard for the sailing industry. My original review is below: ——————————————- I have used this app everywhere, from Biscayne Bay, to the Adriatic, to the middle of the Caribbean. It can get a bit cluttered, but overall it’s great for basic route planning and tracking, and generally pretty intuitive to use. When sailing a thousand-mile passage in the Caribbean, it was great to be able to pull my iPhone out of my pocket at any time, day or night, and see our heading, COG, speed, and distance to waypoint. But... I recently bought the tides and tidal currents plug-in, in order to plan a voyage in the Pacific Northwest. The currents really rip, up there, so it’s critical to have down-to-the-minute accuracy on tides. To ensure accuracy, I compared times in the app with times on the Canadian government’s official tide tables, and found that the times were waaaay off. They weren’t event close. I soon realized that I needed to set the time zone in the iPad (I’m on the East Coast) to the time zone where I was planning my voyage (British Columbia). After doing that, and adjusting the Canadian tide tables for daylight savings time, the times were much closer. But close won’t count when crossing Seymour Narrows.

New Changes

rintintin9999

There is no reason we should have to pay outrageous amounts of money for a subscription services. This is a total money grab. This company is going downhill and fast.

New update scam

Captnec

I'm more than niggled by this extortionate cost of having to now pay for updating previously purchased charts which I assumed were free to update once purchased. Was a great app but out of principal, I'll be switching back to Navionics.

Breach of contract

Doubloh

When I purchased the charts lifetime updates were part of the contract. Now they change the terms and there is a expensive subscription service to get what I already paid for. Don’t buy this product.

Charts are not free

Sisiutl

I tried iSailor but found OpenCPN to still have better functionality and does not charge subscription for charts. I sail all around the world and subscription cost for many areas add up to be prohibitive.

Very bad business decision!

A r k i e 1

I have enjoyed your software for the last three years, and have found it to be very reliable and easy to use. I have used your charts to voyage up and down the east coast of the U.S. and also trips to Bermuda. The charts have proven very accurate and affordable - - up until now. The decision to go “subscription based” has caught many of us by surprise. The concept of buying a chart, and then having periodic updates was very appealing, and was a major factor in my decision to use your software. To change this support policy retroactively has made for many unhappy and disappointed customers whose ranks I have now joined. I would urge you to reconsider your business decision, and come up with a plan to rectify this current situation. If nothing is done in future revisions, I will be compelled to look for alternative navigation solutions, as I am sure many other loyal customers will also.

Business model

s/v Slipstream

It’s hard to believe the app materially changed it pricing model for existing customers.

Bait and Switch

Yorkshireman at sea

Terrible change in business model. I have advocated this product to 100s of people. No more.

Ruined a good app, time to try another

obnoxious88

I have used the app for years and it was great. Now they change the rules and want to charge for updates per folio! Most travelers have multiple folios so it is cost prohibitive. Time to try another app. Maybe SEAiq will be better and not rip-off their customers by changing the contracts with existing customers. Bye

What a shame

celinapayson

Agree with other recent reviewers that the app update requiring subscriptions is a terrible decision and sure to alienate the existing base of happy customers. Existing customers like me bought the maps with the understanding that the maps would be regularly updated. Now you are trying to charge people a similar amount PER YEAR to get the updates. Crazy. I would have been happy to pay a small nominal fee for updates on new purchased charts. You could reconsider and grandfather charts purchased prior to your new policy change. That would at least be fair to existing customers. However, i also think you need to revisit your new pricing. People will leave the app.

Wärtsilä iSailor Reviews – Page 2