HookEcho vs RainViewer
Global rain mosaics on a subscription. Clime is the same shape of product.
Where RainViewer wins
- Worldwide coverage: HookEcho is the US plus the German DWD network.
- iPhone builds, and a simpler app for a simpler question.
RainViewer answers "is rain coming" well, worldwide, and if that is your question it is a reasonable app to pay for. It cannot answer "is this storm rotating", because mosaic imagery has thrown that information away before it reaches you. HookEcho decodes the volume on your own machine, so nothing is thrown away — inside the US, for free.
Feature by feature
| Feature | HookEcho | Clime / RainViewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Yes Free, MIT licensed | Partly Free trial, subscription |
| Ads | Yes None | No Yes |
| Account required | Yes Never | Partly For the paid tier |
| Open source | Yes Every line | No |
| Level 2, every tilt | Yes All elevations, full resolution | No Mosaic imagery |
| Dual-pol products | Yes ZDR, CC, KDP, ΦDP | No |
| Velocity and dealiasing | Yes With storm-relative | No |
| National MRMS mosaic | Yes Full resolution | Yes |
| Lightning | Yes GOES GLM | Partly Paid tier |
| Forecast models | Partly HRRR, NAM, soundings | No |
| Tropical tracks | Yes NHC cones and advisories | Yes |
| Archive playback | Yes Back to 1991 | No |
| Works offline | Yes Chase packs, prefetched | No |
| Coverage outside the US | Partly US plus German DWD radar | Yes Global |
| Runs in a browser | Yes The whole app, no install | No |
| iPhone and iPad | No Not yet | Yes |
| Desktop app | Yes Windows, macOS, Linux | No |
| Mobile polish | Partly Android only, and younger | Yes |
| Telemetry | Yes None, at all | No Ads and analytics |
Verified August 2026, from each product's own pricing and feature pages. Tiers and prices move; if a row here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed. That column covers both apps, which sell the same thing.