Forecast Bar - Weather + Radar Reviews

by For_I_Am_A_Rain_Dog_Too

When I downloaded ForecastBar because of the iMessage features, it wasn't clear at all that this was for a trial period, then if I want to keep the functionality, I have to pay. It's a bait and switch and I'm super turned off. It doesn't matter how much I liked ForecastBar in iMessage, on my phone, my Apple Watch, whatever, I'm not going to pay to play. It's a shame too, as ForecastBar gave me most of what I was looking for, but I'm not interested in having to pay every year to unlock functionality on my phone, then extra for functionality on my watch. Had ForecastBar been a pay once and up front for everything sort of app, I'd have very strongly considered it, as it's what I'm looking for, but like I said, the bait and switch nature of their sales pitch has completely turned me off. I get a week of functionality for free? Ridiculous. It's on me for not being aware of this from the get go? Yeah, but honestly, when you're downloading sometjing for use in iMessage, are you usually taking the time to read all of the details? No!
Deleting and going back to the other paid apps I use that don't bait and switch like this junk.

by Super Buffet

Discovered Forecast Bar early this morning. I was excited about some specific complications for my new Apple Watch Series 5 and all the other things offered by a seemingly well designed and popular app. After a couple of hours I was impressed enough to go ahead and purchase the Premium Subscription; mainly, so I could use the awesome watch features of Forecast Bar.

Well, here I am about 12 hours later, and I have discovered that ForecastBar is stupid slow on both my watch and my phone. The phone app and the iPad app freeze on a regular basis causing me to quit and restart. The watch app doesn’t show data in the watch complications on a regular basis. I’ve read the FAQ item about this problem and followed all of the developer’s guidelines for remedy. As is, I have to manually refresh the watch app quite often so the watch complications will show data. When you look at a watch face, you want information at that instant – not after having to mess with some software.

Also, the iPad version of Forecast Bar keeps alerting me that it is not connected to a watch – so, I can’t change some settings which means I don’t have full use of the iPad app. I know an iPad doesn’t work with an Apple Watch like an iPhone does, but having a less than fully functioning app is very disappointing.

I hope ForecastBar can be fixed very soon. Otherwise, I will just have to delete Forecast Bar and move on to something else. Nobody has time for tech like this.

by IByron

ForecastBar does what it’s supposed to do on the iPhone and iPad. In fact it does so a skosh better than most other apps of its kind. A clean and customizable interface along with little “above and beyond” items (like the temperature on ForecastBar icon) make it a pleasure to use in the phone. It’s a bit annoying that the icon looks like its for a water intake tracking app (see: just about every water intake tracking app in the store; their stickers icon would be better) but that’s minor.

Tha Apple Watch is a different story. I’m a paid (annual) Full Access + Watch subscriber but the watch app doesn’t even show up. I’ve written to the dev multiple times and received no response at all. Not even an acknowledgement of receipt. An app that doesn’t give what you paid for, and a dev that won’t even respond to requests for support doesn’t merit a good rating, even when the basics of ForecastBar are fine.

by Luke Lucas

i've been using Forecast Bar for over two years now and in that time i'd rate my satisfaction anywhere between 90-99%. recent updates, however, have forced me to start reconsidering whether i keep ForecastBar as my main source of weather updates and predictions.

the information is just as great as it's always been, but these last few updates have made ForecastBar unstable and sometimes nearly unusable. immediate freezing, blank screens when in ForecastBar , forcing my entire phone to lock up, and generally just *not good*.

i don't know if Forecast Bar is trying to do too much with the family of apps across the Watch, iPhone, and desktop, but the more functionality they stick in, the worse it seems to get. and yes, i'm a fully paid subscriber on all platforms.

by 123r*

I really like the idea of ForecastBar. ForecastBar is really nice, it looks good, gives me information just the way I would want, and had plenty of customization but the main reason I got ForecastBar was for its watch features and well they don’t really work for me. I set everything up as I wanted in ForecastBar , set the complication on my watch and closed off ForecastBar , the complication showed just what it was suppose to but that’s where it stopped. From there on the only way to get the complication to show accurate info is to open ForecastBar , refresh it and then swipe it closed. I’ve tried opening ForecastBar on the watch and waiting a bit but it doesn’t work, has to be ForecastBar on the phone. I guess I will keep looking for a good weather app that’s friendly w my watch cause no one wants to have to open an app on their phone every 30 minutes or hour to see what the correct weather is.

by Ms.Owen

I absolutely love how customizable ForecastBar is and all its features. I used to love Storm Radar before the weather channel bought it and ruined it. It’s been a lot of apps since then and they’re all disappointing. I even bought the carrot weather app and found myself like “soo this is what everyone is raving about?”
Thank you for an actually useful app that translates well on to my Apple Watch.
My biggest thing I’d like to see is a pressure chart, I want to see how the pressure is changing through the day not just a description of where it is and where it’s going. I suffer from migraines and this chart is invaluable.

by Hobermikersmith

Been using ForecastBar for a couple years now and it’s high quality with a lot of good details and customization.

However, now that dark mode is baked into iOS13, I find myself disappointed with the current implementation and my inability to get my in-app weather screen to embrace the loveliness that is Dark Mode.

ForecastBar reflects Dark Mode within the settings screens of ForecastBar and on the widgets, but the in-app weather screen (where all your forecasts and such are) it does not (I’d love to be wrong and have missed some quirky detail here). I think this is where the customization backfires because I can only get my app to display in a mid-range grey colored background.

Technically I could try to achieve a fully black background by creating my own background pack via the customization (and I have) but even this I cannot get to work and so I’m left without Dark Mode support in the one place in ForecastBar that I really, really want it. And so I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that ForecastBar supports this new iOS feature when it isn’t done app-wide.

Again, I’d love to be wrong here, but until I can get ForecastBar fully Dark, I’m not feeling it.

Will update to 5* if/when the developers adjust their implementation to fully embrace Dark Mode app-wide.

by Addresseer

It’s generally fine, but I believe users would better correlate the forecast with respect to their schedule, especially the extended one, if the date of each day were shown. To be fair, it is accessible, but it’s by tapping on the left column, which would be fine. The problem is that when doing so other data is lost and one can’t view both fields of data together.

They list the high temperature first, and then the low in the extended forecast. While there may be a few days, especially in the fall, when the temperature steadily declines throughout the day, typically the temperature is lowest around sunrise and highest in the late afternoon, the former of which comes first.

Merely a minor annoyance for me, but may be more significant for those who are on an odd schedule up and more alert after midnight. From midnight for up to four hours, only eleven days, as opposed to fourteen, are shown on the extended forecast.

Believe I have mentioned all of this, and possibly more that may be escaping me, to them in contact efforts, but have yet to see any change.

Hope this is of some help.

Thanks

by MCIAD4

I was a long time user of another app that decided to mess up a good thing a couple of years ago and completely change their UI and UX, and offer no support when queried, which lost them this customer. Since then, I’ve been looking for a new app.

I work in public safety, and it’s beyond being a weather geek that I know what the weather is somewhere in my jurisdiction, and what it is predicted to do. And I like to use my watch to do it. (I never said I wasn’t a weather geek...). After two years of looking for something that updated reliably and proved to be accurate, with a customizable UI so that I’m looking at data that is relevant to me, I found it. Forecast Bar.

As far as support - I’ve emailed them a couple of times with questions about how to do something and have received responses within minutes - and from a real person, not a bot.

Spend the money, get ForecastBar - you will not be disappointed.

by Littleoncape

Long-time user of forecast bar. It is my go-to weather app. It has the best layout and features of any weather app I’ve used, and I’ve used many. We are self-employed landscapers and property managers and couldn’t live without it.
the developers are constantly striving to make improvements and they answer any questions or issues very promptly. I wholeheartedly recommend paying a little extra for the new widgets. I’ve installed two of them and they’re very useful.

by BiffMcMac

This is by far the best weather app I've ever used (and I've tried a lot)! The UI is easy to use, has lots of data, and more importantly the forecast is accurate.
UPDATE - Removing two stars... the problem(s) I have is ForecastBar is not at accurate as it used to be, also if there is a 16% chance of rain on a given day the icon shows rain when in reality the likely hood of rain is very low. This has led to having to tap on a given day and scroll right to find out when exactly the slim possibility of rain will occur. Very annoying!

by Alderete

A good app with a great feature, support for Netatmo personal weather stations. Most of my daily weather and forecast data come from a weather service, but my Netatmo station is far more accurate about what temperature it actually is at my house. Forecast uses my station to “override” the current temp, giving me the best of both worlds.

Even more important was the terrific support the Forecast team gave me when I had trouble figuring out how to configure my station. The user interface for that _could_ use a little work (or better, easier to find doc), but I received multiple personal responses to my questions until I had it figured out.

Responsive support is rare these days, and a treasure. Very happy with ForecastBar, and the team behind it.

by Chewmull

Best weather app I’ve found and I’ve tried at least 6. Customizable, great watch app, and outstanding support. (Got hung up on the new IOS widget functionality, no app issues just an Apple issue)

I’ve been searching for a weather app that was accurate, allowed for use of my Netatmo weather station and a great watch interface and ForecastBar has it all. Took some time to figure out ForecastBar settings but well worth the time. Keep the updates and features coming.

by Doc Hardware

Key points; highly customizable, accurate data, great customer service from devs. Great app.

I love ForecastBar because it can be tailored to suit your own taste. The interface is clean in general, and you can add or remove fields on information if you want more or less to be visible from a glance. I think ForecastBar is worth the subscription, though many people want everything for free. Most weather apps have a boring or gaudy UI, are somewhat accurate, and have ads, with an option to pay to remove ads... that’s all.

this app has served me perfectly. I’ve used Accuweather, The Weather Channel app, and the Apple Weather app, among others. Forecast Bar beats them all hands-down.

The developers even went above and beyond for me with a recent update: I have my version of ForecastBar customized to avoid affecting my night vision (light discipline. red text on black) but a prior update made the phone go bright white while loading, which defeated my purposes. I emailed the developers, and they made the screen go black on startup instead of white. Problem solved, and most other people probably didn’t realize, or necessarily care, but it made a huge difference for me.

Forecast Bar has never given me much of a reason to complain. Even when I did have an issue, though minor, it was fixed within days. Definitely a satisfied customer!

by Geterry

I have quite a few weather apps and all of them are in the four star rating. I keep checking for a better weather app all the time since they keeping better. Forecast Bar is ForecastBar to have I’ve been using the for several weeks now and love it. After using it for a week there was one thing missing I thought ForecastBar needed relating to UV index for the day. Love ForecastBar so much I wrote to the developer and suggested an app feature, well I’m bad ForecastBar already had it and I missed it. Even learned something new. By the way I got a speedy return on my question. Love it try it out. Lot of different customization to ForecastBar .

by WayneInColorado

I’ve been happy with other weather apps and was using one or two of the best known. When I saw Forecast Bar, I thought how different can it be? I mean it’s a weather app. Then I tried the free week trial. After the trial, I cancelled the other subscriptions and moved Forecast Bar to a primary place on my phone for easy access.

The user experience and interface is so much better than other apps. It gives all kinds of options for personalized experience to get the information I want. It works seamlessly with Apple Watch, including tons of complication options. Customer service and response is also excellent. Highly recommended.

by BrewersFanInWisconsin

I have always been interested in weather but have wanted a forecast app for all three platforms. Forecast Bar provides for all Apple platforms and allows the choice of two excellent sources of data - either The Weather Company or Dark Sky. The interface is very configurable and is essentially the same on a Mac or iPhone. There are separate subscriptions for the MacOS and iOS platforms (the iOS subscription covers Apple Watch) but their rates aren't prohibitively expensive. I really like what Forecast Bar has done. It might be nice to someday be able to choose from multiple locations on WatchOS but that's such a small point as to make it a non-issue. Great job Higher Bar!

by YogaMan108

I find this weather app extremely accurate. I’ve compared it to several other iPhone weather apps side-by-side, and it consistently has the most up-to-date information. It will also say things like “rain beginning or ending at such and such a time” and invariably it is correct.
It’s predictions for temperature and weather a week out also seems on the mark (as much as one can predict that far in the future.)
It’s easy to add or delete cities, and as I travel quite a bit, I find the forecast for domestic and international city is also very accurate.
The developers seem to be continually trying to improve ForecastBar ; this is a good thing.
So I fully recommend Forecast Bar.

by PhoneTrips

This is a great weather app for Apple users because it gives a consistent, highly configurable, interface for detailed weather information on Macs, iPads, iPhones, and Apple Watches. That’s the reason I originally started using it, but nowadays the most important reason is the myriad of complications for the Watch.

I use it as the large center complication for the Infograph Modular face. This rectangle can be configured (1) as a graph showing the next few hours of any one of 11 types of weather data such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, or precipitation chance.

(2) As a table showing conditions and a choice of weather data for the next five hours/days.

(3) As 3 lines of text showing current and upcoming weather data of your choice. But wait, there’s more, and my real reason for using ForecastBar. One of these 3 lines can show your next appointment! This isn’t weather data; why would I want this? Because I use every other complication position for something else and have no complication space for appointments. Two lines of data are sufficient for me to see the weather so mixing in the appointment line with the weather lines solves my hoarding of complications.

by RoaringBeavis

I love the iOS app, as it is full featured and easy to customize, however, once I configure the watchOS app, it works fine forts few hours and then it just displays 0 degrees in the complication. If I access ForecastBar , the data is correct, so I assume the issue is with the complication itself. The problem occurs in other compilations as well. This has been an issue since I purchased ForecastBar …this would otherwise be a 5 star review. As of now, I no longer use Forecast Bar because I am one who needs a reliable watch app. Please fix this, or I will definitely not renew my subscription when it expires.

by Bigk9359

The interface and functionality are wonderfully detailed, both on the phone and my watch. I love the customization and widget functionality. The weather is very accurate and I love the alert customization. My only gripes, which sadly, are deal breakers for me are 1) The radar is very slow to load compared to other apps such as My Radar and The Weather Channel. And 2) I can't use ForecastBar on my apple watch (series 3) without having to connect to my phone's Bluetooth! Every other weather app I've used allows me to use them without my phone needing to be present, why doesn't this one! If you make ForecastBar standalone usable with the apple watch, I will give it five stars and make it my go-to weather app.

by Tbone73747

I’m done with data being overlaid on top of the radar that I can’t turn off. I don’t even know what the data is and the developers don’t care enough to answer my question. I won’t pay for an app the developers apparently can’t control. My search for a good weather app continues.

I'm enjoying my trial of ForecastBar , except radar is frequently under "extremely heavy load" and only available to subscribers. I haven't been able to see the radar for the last 5 days. It is basically a Dark Sky clone. That's where their data comes from.

by ItsMe112233

...it doesn't update properly on my Apple watch. I set the complication to show on the bottom of the face and that seems to update properly. However, when I press on it to expand it and see the other data, it doesn't update at all. It seems I have to open ForecastBar on my phone in order for it to update on my watch. For example, on the face of my watch it says the temp is 73°. When I press on it, it shows the temp is 68°. (It is currently 73° and hasn't been 68° in a couple of hours.) Other than that, it seems to be a nice little app.

by Westmount48

After using several weather apps, this is the one that is most accurate, timely and informative. However much info you want, or not, this is THE one. Graphically pleasing and easy to use. It has proven invaluable these last few days, especially, during this period of rough weather.

by Gumby617!

ForecastBar itself is great. It works great with my watch, it updates like it’s supposed to. Allot of other third party apps don’t due that for me. Looks great on my phone also. Many different icon options also. My only issue with ForecastBar is I’ve already paid for the Dark Sky App, why am I paying for ForecastBar made by the same company? Pretty expensive if you ask me.

by Disappointed Updater

Have to daily restart either watch or phone in order to get both devices to reflect the same weather conditions been happening for a while, was hoping developer would do an update to correct this issue that I am a lot of other reviewers are having. I have a renewal next month and seriously considering not renewing

by Esoteric B.

I’m a weather enthusiast and have many weather Apps. I love ForecastBar. As my go to weather source with the ability to customize it to your liking makes it more user friendly. However I’ve not changed anything yet awesome!!