Open the phone in the morning and instantly understand the weather from a beautiful home screen widget, without seeing ads and without going into the app.
Authors describe a stale widget and elements that vanished. What is needed is an update time, clear settings and the chosen view being kept.
Which apps people use
These apps are mentioned in the breakdown of this job. Open each one to compare strengths and limits. The order of the list is not a ranking of fitness.
Rank 1. Review score: 84 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.9★ · 6,574 ratings
84of 100
One of the few weather aggregators that lets you choose your forecast source from multiple models. Users report genuine accuracy in tricky regions and call it the best they found after a long search for a Weather Channel alternative.
Praised: The ability to switch between weather data providers and the complete absence of ads.
Complaints: The home-screen widget does not always refresh without manually opening the app.
Best for: Users who want control over their data source and cannot tolerate ads
Rank 10. Review score: 62 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 16,693 ratings
62of 100
One of the few apps where users praise both accuracy and readability, not just design. Severe-weather warnings work. The weak point is that widgets were moved behind a paywall, cutting practical value for part of the audience.
Praised: The animated layout makes weather instantly clear rather than a boring table.
Complaints: Without a subscription there is no home-screen widget, and the widget is the main use case for a weather app.
Best for: Users who value visual readability over raw numbers
Rank 13. Review score: 61 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.8★ · 15,487 ratings
61of 100
A beautiful clock widget with a live globe and a reasonably accurate forecast, but the version 4.20 redesign traded simplicity for an overloaded screen and removed the temperature badge.
Praised: The animated Earth with clouds gives an intuitive sense of what is coming from the west.
Complaints: No radar at all, and the hourly forecast became an unreadable chart with tiny numbers after the update.
Best for: Those who want beautiful lock-screen widgets
Rank 51. Review score: 42 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.5★ · 5,838 ratings
42of 100
Beautiful design and broad widget customization attract users, but the radar regularly loads empty, Live Activities are unreliable, and a forced AI block with inaccurate forecasts at the top of the screen irritates even loyal fans.
Praised: Flexible widget customization and a clean interface that looks great on the home screen.
Complaints: The radar map frequently loads blank, and Live Activities on the Dynamic Island work intermittently.
Best for: Those who prioritize a beautiful widget over an accurate forecast
Rank 38. Review score: 44 out of 100. App Store rating: 4.7★ · 190,471 ratings
44of 100
For years it provided a reliable forecast and beautiful photo backgrounds, but the radar broke across several consecutive updates and stopped showing precipitation even during an active rain. This is critical for an app that bills itself as a weather tool.
Praised: Clean interface with photos of real places and convenient city switching.
Complaints: The radar regularly stops displaying precipitation after updates and takes a long time to recover.
Best for: Users who value visual presentation and a basic forecast
