Savvy Navvy is the boating app most often described as "a sat-nav for boats": you set a destination and it builds a course that folds in tide, weather, and chart data. This review answers the questions people actually search: what it does well, whether it is free, whether it runs on OpenStreetMap, how it relates to a Simrad chartplotter, and which alternatives, free and paid, make sense. Disclosure: we build a browser route planner ourselves, and this review is based on Savvy Navvy's published features and materials, described plainly.
- Savvy Navvy's core is guided auto-routing with tide and weather folded in, plus charts, anchor alarm, and tracking.
- It is a paid subscription with a free trial; it is not a permanently free app.
- Its charts are licensed from hydrographic offices such as UKHO and NOAA, not OpenStreetMap seamarks.
- Simrad is helm hardware; Savvy Navvy is a planning and phone-navigation app: different layers, often used together.
- Free alternatives exist (OpenCPN, OpenSeaMap); browser planners cover the planning half without an install.
#What Savvy Navvy does well
The signature feature is the automatic course to steer: pick a destination and the app proposes a route that accounts for chart data, your boat's draft, tidal streams, and the wind, then shows how the plan changes if you leave at a different time. Around that core sit licensed charts, marina and anchorage information, weather overlays, offline chart packs, an anchor alarm, GPS tracking with location sharing, and NMEA connectivity to onboard instruments. For sailors who want one polished app that just answers "which way and when", it is a strong product, which is why it appears near the top of our route planner comparison.
#Is Savvy Navvy free?
No. Savvy Navvy is a paid annual subscription with a free trial, and pricing tiers that gate features like offline charts and advanced routing; check their site for current numbers. The trial is genuinely useful for deciding whether the auto-routing fits your kind of boating before paying. If the question behind the question is "what can I use without paying", the alternatives section below is for you.
#Does Savvy Navvy use OpenStreetMap?
Its nautical charts do not come from OpenStreetMap: Savvy Charts are built on data licensed from hydrographic offices such as the UKHO and NOAA, which is precisely what you are paying for. Base map elements ashore may resemble common web maps, but the navigational content, depths, marks, hazards, is licensed official data. The OpenStreetMap-based nautical option is OpenSeaMap, a free community chart, useful but not a substitute for official charts.
#Simrad vs Savvy Navvy
These are different layers of the stack, not rivals. Simrad makes helm hardware: chartplotters, radar, autopilots, running C-MAP charts, installed and wired into the boat. Savvy Navvy is a phone and tablet app for planning and personal navigation. Plenty of boats run both: plan on the app, navigate on the plotter, with GPX as the bridge (our GPX guide covers moving routes between them). If you are choosing where a fixed budget goes first on a small boat, a phone app plus paper backup usually precedes helm electronics.
#The alternatives
Paid: Navionics for the most widely used charts and plotter sync, Aqua Map for US waterways with USACE survey depths. Free: OpenCPN is a full open-source chartplotter for a laptop, and OpenSeaMap covers browser charting. And for the planning half specifically, the Marine OS route planner runs in the browser with auto sea routes, weather and comfort ratings along the route, a 72-hour departure scanner, float plans, anchor watch, and live trip sharing; it deliberately does not replace licensed charts, so pair it with one of the chart options for navigation. The full field is in best marine route planner apps.
If your question is "which way and when, with tides handled for me", Savvy Navvy earns its subscription. If it is "give me official charts at the helm", Navionics or Aqua Map. If it is "plan trips well without installing anything", a browser planner does that today, and the free trial stack (OpenSeaMap plus trials) tells you which paid features you would actually use.
Marine OS is marina management software, and the Marine OS app includes a browser route planner for boaters covering planning, departure windows, safety sharing, and destination marinas. This review reflects published information about Savvy Navvy; try both and keep whichever answers your question.
Try browser route planning alongside your chart app
Auto sea routes, weather along the way, a departure scanner, and live trip sharing, no install needed.
#Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Savvy Navvy is good software with an honest price; the mistake is only buying it for a question a free tool already answers. Compare the whole field in best marine route planner apps and best boating apps.
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