Gone are the days you have to rely on old paper charts, or hard to read outdated chips in your chartplotter.

Boat navigation apps allow you to chart a course from your mobile device, follow markers & depth charts, create boat trip logs and more. You have the added convenience of planning ahead or reviewing trip information from anywhere, and sometimes even synching your info up with a desktop computer at home.

A built-in captain's log, along with access to your boat trip info and charts anytime & anywhere (at boat or home) are all big advantages to using a boat navigation app.

Many boat navigation apps have a free plan with some limited functionality, along with paid plans that provide advanced navigation features.

Tired of calling around to marinas hoping to find an available slip for your next boat trip? Well, there's an app for that! Several actually.

Transient boating apps allow you to "book a slip" or "reserve a slip" directly with a marina destination so that you don't have to try to call them asking about availability. Using one of these apps is also a big time saver because it saves all your boat information - like size, draft, electrical requirements - as well as your payment information. You can also use these apps to find out about marina amenities, search for marinas in an area, leave reviews and more.

Most transient booking boat apps are free for the boater to use... the marina or destination pays any fees for using the service!

Keeping track of all your boat maintenance needs manually makes the chore of maintaining your boat even more of a burden for boaters.

Boat maintenance apps help manage your boat's ongoing maintenance with innovative in digital technology that make the job easier. They can help organize or automate many of the tasks needed to maintain your boat, track maintenance & service intervals, log repairs, track costs, share details with marine mechanics, eliminate endless paperwork and more.

Cost can vary by app, but many of these boat maintenance apps offer some basic services for free for boaters, while professionals (such as marinas or yacht management companies) pay for use.

Tracking weather is different on the water, and many boaters like to have boating apps that are specifically made for marine conditions.

In addition to weather forecasts, marine weather apps can include special features like wind patterns (particularly useful for sailors), high tide/low tide and wave height. These are all things that are important to track before leaving the dock. Note that some navigation apps now carry some of these marine weather features.

While there are plenty of free weather apps boaters could use, weather apps that offer more sophisticated features for use on the water range from free to paid subscription plans.