RainViewervs
The Weather Channel


The Weather Channel: Major weather platform with radar and forecasting capabilities, web and mobile presence

Global rain radar with accurate precipitation forecasts
As of 30 August 2026, RainViewer is free to use. RainViewer provides worldwide rain radar coverage with smooth animations and accurate precipitation forecasts. Softwr lists it under Weather. RainViewer is launched in 2017, available on Web, iOS, Android.
Overview
RainViewer provides worldwide rain radar coverage with smooth animations and accurate precipitation forecasts. Features past and future radar imagery with up to 2-hour precipitation predictions.
The honest half
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about RainViewer.
Cross-shopped
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.


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Pricing
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
Premium
$2.99 /mo
Capabilities
Global rain radar
Smooth animations
2-hour forecasts
Lightning data
Satellite imagery
API access
Integration with API access
Widgets
Integration with Widgets
Notifications
Integration with Notifications
Web support
Available on web
Ios support
Available on ios
Android support
Available on android
Answered, with sources
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
RainViewer processes radar data from over 1,000 radar stations worldwide to provide precipitation forecasts with sub-kilometer accuracy updated every 5 minutes.
SourceRainViewer provides 2-hour precipitation forecasts updated frequently throughout the day with hyperlocal predictions.
SourceRainViewer offers both a mobile app and web platform for accessing precipitation forecasts and radar data.
SourceBehind it
Timeline
RainViewer founded by Oleksii Schastlyvyi in Naples, Florida
SourceKeep looking
America's most trusted weather source with real-time forecasts
Critical weather technology for media and government
Crowdsourced hyperlocal weather from personal stations
Professional weather solutions for business operations
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for RainViewer, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
What people switch to, and what they give up
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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