We read 5,963 App Store reviews across every major dive log app, in twenty languages and forty five storefronts, and coded what divers praise and what makes them leave. This is that research, app by app, with the quotes left in. Yes, we make one of them. That is disclosed in the intro, in the block, and it is also why the research exists.
Researched and written by the SeaLog team · Updated 7 August 2026 · Star data from the US App Store, July 2026
The short version
Best overall logbook
SeaLog, because it reads every brand, works with no signal and exports for free at every tier. Ours, and Pro is a subscription, so check our work.
Best free option
Subsurface-mobile, genuinely free forever, if you can survive the interface.
Best agency app
MySSI, clearly ahead of PADI, as long as you own a Mares computer.
Best if you own an Apple Watch Ultra
Oceanic+, an excellent dive computer and a logbook you cannot export.
Best for certification cards
PADI, for the eCards and the courses, not for the logbook.
Check this before anything else
Whether the app exports. Four of the nine will not give your dives back, and a fifth charges for it.
How we ranked them
In July 2026 we scraped every written customer review Apple exposes for each of these apps, across forty five storefronts, using the iTunes reviews feed. That produced 5,963 reviews after deduplication, dating back to 2017. We read them, coded the recurring themes per app, counted how often each one recurs, and kept the verbatim quotes. For the three largest apps the sample runs past a thousand reviews each. For the smaller ones it is every written review that exists worldwide, which is a small fraction of the star ratings.
The ranking weights five things, in this order: whether your dives are safe, whether you can get them in, whether you can get them out, whether the app works without a signal, and what it costs to keep using. Star averages are reported but not ranked on, for reasons the findings section makes uncomfortably clear.
Disclosure. SeaLog is our app. We placed it first on a page we also wrote, which is a conflict of interest and you should treat it as one. Everything we claim about the other eight is sourced to their own reviewers rather than to our opinion, the quotes are reproduced without editing beyond translation, and the screenshots are each publisher's own. We earn nothing if you download any of the others, which is exactly why the honest comparison is the useful one.
Ratings from the US App Store, July 2026. Star averages hide a lot: agency apps collect ratings from course students at happy moments, while hardware companion apps are rated by the divers who have no choice but to use them. The written reviews tell the real story below.
What 5,963 reviews agree on
Before the individual apps, the pattern. Six complaints recur in every language and in almost every app in this category, and they are ranked here by how much review weight sits behind them. If you are choosing an app, these are the six questions to ask about it.
1 Lost dive logs are the nuclear complaint
Every major app in this corpus has a cluster of reviews about years of dives vanishing after an update, a sync failure or a new phone. Oceanic+ carries roughly 430 sync and loss mentions, PADI roughly 70, and MySSI deletes dives when it merges a dive site upstream. Nothing else generates this much one star fury. Data durability is not a feature of a logbook, it is the product.
Reported by reviewers of: Oceanic+, PADI, MySSI, DiverLog+, Garmin Dive
2 Universal dive computer import is the most wanted feature, and nobody ships it
MySSI reads Mares and nothing else, unfixed through roughly 90 complaints over eight years. PADI reads nothing at all. Garmin locks its API. Oceanic+ has no manual or backfill entry. Divers are not asking for much, one MySSI reviewer wrote that it should import CSV or literally any data output.
3 Subscription resentment is deeper here than in any comparable category
A dive computer is a buy once object in a diver's mental model, so renting the function reads as betrayal. The most repeated monetisation sentence in the entire corpus, across languages, is a variation on: I would happily pay once, even a hundred euros, but never a subscription.
Reported by reviewers of: Oceanic+ with roughly 480 mentions, Dive+, PADI eCards
4 Data lock in, described by users as hostage taking
Oceanic+ and MySSI have no export. DiverLog+ sells it as an extra purchase on top of a paid app. Garmin locks the API. The phrase that recurs is that the data is locked inside, and reviewers treat it as a dealbreaker rather than an inconvenience.
Reported by reviewers of: Oceanic+, MySSI, DiverLog+, Garmin Dive
5 Offline matters more here than almost anywhere else
Boats, liveaboards and remote atolls are exactly where a logbook gets used and exactly where most of these apps stop working. One Garmin reviewer noted you cannot even view previous dives without signal, which matters in a dive accident. A PADI reviewer put it more bluntly: nobody at PADI actually uses this app on a boat after a dive.
Reported by reviewers of: PADI, Garmin Dive, Oceanic+, Dive+
6 Broken dive site validation stops divers logging at all
PADI's site search returns nothing and then blocks the save. MySSI demands an address or coordinates for a custom site and otherwise leaves the dive as a draft forever. DiverLog+ resets manually typed coordinates to zero. A logbook that will not accept a location it does not recognise is a logbook that loses dives to friction.
Reported by reviewers of: PADI, MySSI, DiverLog+, Garmin Dive
And what actually earns five stars
The positive half of the corpus is just as consistent. Six things show up over and over in the reviews divers leave when they are happy.
Automatic logging, described over and over as the logbook writing itself
Everything in one place: dives, certifications, statistics and a map behind one login
GPS that identifies where you dived without being told
Depth of captured data: profiles, temperature, SAC, gear and photos that serious divers audit and find accurate
Small utilities well out of proportion to their cost: hand signals, knots, checklists
Support that actually replies, which repeatedly turned one star reviewers into advocates
The ranking, one by one
Each block below carries the same things: what the app is, what its own reviewers say in their own words, a plain pros and cons list, and a bottom line. Ratings are the public App Store average. The sample average next to it is the average of the written reviews we read, which is a different and usually less flattering number.
1
SeaLog
An offline first logbook that reads every dive computer and keeps a species life list
by Roadtrip Technologies
This one is ours. Read it as an argument, not as a review.
App StoreNo rating yetNew app
Written reviews readn/anot in the corpus
PriceFree to download, then €4.99 a month or €69 a year for Pro
Last updatedIn development
The app we built after reading this corpus, which is both the reason to trust the list and the reason to check our work. It is also, awkwardly, a subscription.
Best for: Divers who own more than one brand of computer and want their whole history in one place
Screenshots: Roadtrip Technologies, via the App Store, July 2026.
Full disclosure before anything else: we make this one. That is exactly why it sits at the top of a page we also wrote, and you should discount it accordingly. What we can do is show our work. Every design decision below maps to a numbered complaint that thousands of divers left on somebody else's app, and you can read those complaints yourself in the blocks that follow.
SeaLog is deliberately not a dive computer. It does not try to run on your wrist at forty metres, which is where the reliability war in this category is fought and lost. It is the place your dives go afterwards and stay: imported over Bluetooth, from Apple Health, or from a UDDF, CSV or FIT file that any computer can produce, then held on the device first and synced to the cloud second.
Now the part that will annoy some of you, and it should be said plainly on a page that has just spent several thousand words documenting how much divers hate subscriptions. SeaLog Pro is a subscription: €4.99 a month, or €69 a year. We know what roughly 480 Oceanic+ reviewers said about renting software, because we read them and quoted them above. Some of those divers will read this line and close the tab, and that is a fair reaction.
What we can do is make the subscription mean something different from the ones the corpus is angry about. Export to UDDF, CSV and PDF is free at every tier, including the free one and including after you cancel, so the subscription never becomes a lock on the door. Your dives are stored on the device, so an expired subscription does not hide the logbook you already wrote. The monthly plan exists so you can switch it on for a dive trip and off again afterwards, which is exactly the pattern the happiest Oceanic+ reviewers describe. What you are renting is the ongoing work: new computer integrations, the dive site catalogue, the species data, the sync that has to keep running.
The other caveat is the one you would expect. It is new. There is no eight year rating history to check and no thousand review corpus proving the sync never eats a dive.
Pros
Reads every brand: Bluetooth, Apple Health, UDDF, CSV and FIT, not one manufacturer
Works with no signal on the boat and syncs when you are back, which is the structural failure of four apps below
Export to UDDF, CSV and PDF is free at every tier, including the free one
Local first storage: deleting the app does not delete your dives, and a new phone does not lose them
A 122 species life list, which reviewers of MySSI, Garmin and Oceanic+ ask for and none of them ship
4,847 seeded dive sites plus free text entry, so a missing site never blocks a save
A monthly plan you can switch on for one dive trip and cancel after, without losing anything
Cons
Pro is a subscription, €4.99 a month or €69 a year, in a category whose reviewers say loudly that they want to pay once
The annual plan works out dearer than paying monthly for twelve months, so take the monthly unless we fix that
New, with no long public rating history to audit yet
Not a dive computer: it logs dives, it does not run them
An unlimited logbook and the full species list are the paid part
No agency integration, so it will not hold your PADI or SSI certification cards for you
Bottom line. Built as the answer to this page. Judge it against the list, not against our description of it.
The open source power tool, free forever, with a desktop brain in a phone body
by Dirk Hohndel
App Store4.47★47 ratings
Written reviews read47not in the corpus
PriceFree, open source, no purchases of any kind
Last updated13 April 2026v6.0.5581
The most capable free logbook in existence, and the one everybody else's users escape to when a companion app fails them.
Best for: Technical divers, multi computer owners, and anyone who wants their data in a format that outlives the app
Screenshots: Dirk Hohndel, via the App Store, July 2026.
Subsurface is the app that keeps showing up in other apps' one star reviews as the workaround. A diver moving from a Suunto Vyper to a Shearwater Perdix wrote that they had to use Subsurface to get a complete history, because neither manufacturer's app would read the other's dives. That sentence is the whole category in miniature, and Subsurface is the only reason it has a happy ending.
It reads an enormous list of computers, it stores everything locally, it exports to more formats than anyone will ever need, and it costs nothing, forever, because it is a volunteer project with nothing to sell you. There is no subscription, no account requirement, no data hostage situation. If your only criterion is that your dives must still be readable in twenty years, this is the answer and the argument is over.
The cost is paid in the interface. Subsurface began as a desktop program written by kernel developers, and the mobile app inherited that lineage rather than escaping it. Nothing is where a phone user expects it. The learning curve is real, the mobile experience is a companion to the desktop app rather than a replacement for it, and the small review sample reflects an audience that found it deliberately rather than casually.
What reviewers praise
“I moved from a Suunto Vyper to the Perdix but need to use Subsurface to get a complete history.”
left on Shearwater Cloud, one of two reviews naming Subsurface as the escape hatch · cited by name in rival apps' reviews
“There is a reason so many of us use 3rd party apps. But Garmin locks the API.”
left on Garmin Dive, United States · why people leave the manufacturer app
Pros
Broadest dive computer support of anything on this list
Genuinely free forever: open source, no account, no purchases, no telemetry pitch
Exports to many formats, so your logbook is never trapped
Fully offline and local by design
The documented fallback when a manufacturer app loses or locks your dives
Cons
Built for the desktop, and the mobile app carries that history visibly
The steepest learning curve in the category
No marine life logging, no modern design polish, no hand holding
Tiny review base, so there is little public signal on recent mobile releases
Bottom line. If you can tolerate the interface, nothing else here protects your data this well for this little money.
SSI's training app, with certifications, eLearning and a logbook in one place
by HEAD Watersports GmbH
App Store4.82★8.2K ratings
Written reviews read1,4194.1★ average in sample
PriceFree, with courses sold through dive centres
Last updated10 June 2026v4.1.272
The best of the agency apps by a clear margin, held back by an eight year old refusal to import anything but Mares.
Best for: SSI students and instructors who want certifications, coursework and logs under one login
Screenshots: HEAD Watersports GmbH, via the App Store, July 2026.
MySSI is the app PADI divers keep saying they wish they had. Thirty nine reviews in our sample compare the two directly and almost every one favours SSI, citing dive computer sync, dive graphs, buddy features and fish identification. One British diver wrote that the app is so much better than PADI's that they regret ever getting their open water from PADI.
It earns that. Certifications, course material, dive centre directory, a site map and the logbook all live behind one login, and the 2022 redesign genuinely fixed the app. The written review average climbed from under 2.6 in the crash ridden years to 4.5 and above from 2023 onward. Offline course study works. Support answers.
Then there is the import problem, and it is not a small one. Mares owns SSI, so MySSI reads Mares computers and nothing else. Around ninety reviews in our sample complain about it, some of them eight years old, and the app does not offer CSV or UDDF import as a fallback either. A Spanish reviewer put the case plainly: you are also a certification company, you should not force your students to use one brand. A Polish diver said they simply stopped adding logs because typing them was boring.
The second structural problem is site validation. Dives at non SSI centres often cannot be verified, and custom sites demand an address or coordinates before they will save as anything other than a draft. One British reviewer in 2026 reported that more than twenty verified dives disappeared from their log because the dive site had been deleted or merged upstream. There is no export, so there is no way to keep a copy outside the app.
What reviewers praise
“It is a gigantic wallet, that carries all your credentials and history of diving.”
United States · everything in one place, roughly 250 mentions
“Passing from paper to the app opens a world beyond the submerged one.”
Italy, translated · the logbook beats paper, roughly 100 mentions
“This app is so much better than PADI, that I regret ever getting my open water from PADI.”
United Kingdom · 39 direct comparisons, almost all favouring SSI
What reviewers report going wrong
“You are also a certification company, you shouldn't force your students to use one brand, it's not that complicated.”
Spain, translated · Mares only import, roughly 90 mentions
“Doesn't let import from basically any dive computer. I just stopped adding logs because it's boring.”
Poland · manual entry fatigue
“Around 20+ verified dives have disappeared from my log, because the dive site was deleted or merged.”
United Kingdom, 2026 · data loss through upstream site changes
“Only pre-set SSI dive sites can be logged, that makes the app unusable for me.”
Switzerland, translated · site validation blocking saves, roughly 40 mentions
Pros
Certifications, eLearning, dive centres and the logbook genuinely in one place
Course material studies offline and syncs progress across devices
Dive site map, statistics and QR buddy sharing are all present and liked
Reviewers who have used both consistently rate it above the PADI app
Free, with no paywall inside the app itself
Cons
Imports Mares computers only, and offers no CSV or UDDF fallback after eight years of requests
No logbook export at all, so there is no way to keep your own copy
Dives can vanish when SSI merges or deletes a dive site upstream
Custom dive sites demand coordinates or stay stuck as drafts
Crashes still trickle into recent reviews, and unit preferences do not reliably persist
Bottom line. Excellent if you dive SSI and own a Mares computer. Frustrating in direct proportion to how far you are from both.
PADI's official app: eCards, eLearning, dive shop finder and a manual logbook
by PADI Americas, Inc.
App Store4.85★45.6K ratings
Written reviews read1,1213.19★ average in sample
PriceFree, with eCards charged separately
Last updated4 June 2026v1.51.1
A 4.85 star app whose written reviews average 3.19, which is the widest honesty gap on this page.
Best for: PADI divers who need their certification cards on their phone
Screenshots: PADI Americas, Inc., via the App Store, July 2026.
Start with that gap, because it explains the whole entry. PADI has 45,656 ratings averaging 4.85, and a written review corpus of 1,121 that averages 3.19 and is violently bimodal: 41 percent five star, 30 percent one star. Read the five star reviews and a pattern appears immediately. More than sixty of them thank an instructor or a dive shop by name and never mention the app at all. Ratings are prompted after courses. Several one star reviewers call the average fake, and some five star reviews contain bug reports in the body.
The app itself has genuinely improved. A mid 2025 consolidation brought QR codes and offline eCards, and the written average climbed from 2.8 in the worst years to 4.13 in 2026. What people like is real: certifications always in your pocket, everything in one place, and, disproportionately, the small reference tools. The hand signals and knots sections earn about twenty five separate mentions of affection, which is a remarkable return for a feature that must have cost a fortnight.
As a logbook, though, this is the weakest entry on the page. There is no dive computer import of any kind, and around twenty five reviews explicitly ask for it. There is no export, so nothing you type in ever comes back out. There is no offline mode, and about twenty six reviews say so directly, one of them noting that nobody at PADI actually uses this app on a boat after a dive. Around twenty five more report that the dive site search returns nothing and then blocks the save, meaning the dive cannot be logged at all.
And then the reason the brand takes a beating in this corpus, which is not really about software. Roughly sixty three reviews are about being charged forty to sixty five dollars for a digital copy of a certification they already earned. One Danish reviewer's summary of the acronym has stuck: Put Another Dollar In. This poisons the ratings in every year of the sample.
What reviewers praise
“No need to bring any cards anywhere anymore.”
Indonesia · certifications in your pocket, over 80 mentions
“Easy to do trainings as well as keep track of dive logs, hand signals, useful knots.”
United States · all in one convenience, roughly 50 mentions
“Love the knots and symbols learning part.”
Canada · the small reference tools, roughly 25 mentions
What reviewers report going wrong
“I lost three years worth of dives and notes.”
Australia · silently vanishing logbooks, roughly 70 mentions
“Paper burns but doesn't randomly evaporate.”
Norway · trust in digital logging
“Logging a dive takes longer than the dive itself.”
Netherlands · performance, roughly 93 mentions
“Nobody at PADI actually uses this app on a boat after a dive.”
United States · no offline mode, roughly 26 explicit mentions
“£38 for an automatically sent digital version of the card you already have. Crazy.”
United Kingdom · eCard pricing, roughly 63 mentions
Pros
Your certification cards, always with you, and now readable offline
eLearning, dive shop finder and reference tools in the same app
The hand signals, knots and checklist sections are genuinely loved
Support replies fast, and several reviewers raised their rating because of it
Sentiment has climbed sharply since the mid 2025 rebuild
Cons
No dive computer import of any kind, so every dive is typed by hand
No logbook export, so your dives cannot be taken anywhere else
No offline mode, at the exact moment divers use a logbook
A long history of logbooks disappearing, with reinstall as the standard support answer
Broken dive site search can block a dive from being saved at all
eCards cost 40 to 65 dollars for certifications you already paid to earn
Still no iPad app, and no Apple Wallet support for the cards
Bottom line. Keep it for the cards and the courses. Keep your logbook somewhere that can import, export and work offline.
Turns an Apple Watch Ultra into a dive computer, with an automatic logbook attached
by Huish Outdoors, LLC
App Store4.39★4.5K ratings
Written reviews read2,9903.4★ average in sample
PriceFree app, subscription for the dive computer features
Last updated23 July 2026v4.0.4
The most loved and the most resented app in the corpus, often by the same diver in the same review.
Best for: Occasional and holiday divers who own an Apple Watch Ultra and do not want to buy hardware
Screenshots: Huish Outdoors, LLC, via the App Store, July 2026.
Oceanic+ is our largest single sample at 2,990 reviews and the most polarised: 45 percent five star, 25 percent one star, almost nothing in between. When it works, the praise is unlike anything else here. Around 230 reviews describe the automatic logbook, and one line captures it perfectly: my logbook has basically written itself. About 170 more praise how readable the Ultra screen is underwater, several from divers who wore a wrist computer alongside it to check, and reported it was spot on. Roughly seventy five love the haptic alerts, one divemaster noting they can be felt through a seven millimetre suit.
The counterweight is the sync. Around 430 reviews mention dives failing to travel from the watch to the phone, 182 of them one star. Dives sit on the watch for hours or days. The app reports a successful sync while nothing appears. And, most damagingly, reinstalling the app to fix it wipes the unsynced dives from the watch without warning, which produced dozens of reviews from divers who lost entire years of logs mid trip.
Around 140 reviews report crashes, including the pattern that hurts most: an automatic update the night before a dive trip leaves the watch app unusable. The October 2024 release alone drew 76 one and two star reviews in a single month. Beyond the bugs there are hard product limits that serious divers hit fast. Past roughly forty four metres the app blanks its decompression data and locks for 48 hours, a behaviour described in German, French, Spanish and Italian reviews in near identical terms. PPO2 is capped at 1.4, below what many European divers plan to. There is no air integration, and the phone app needs internet, which fails precisely on liveaboards.
Then the money. Subscription comes up in roughly 480 reviews and is the dominant one star driver after bugs. The framing is always the same: a thousand euro watch sold as a dive computer, then a monthly rent for the function. That said, the happiest reviewers use the same pricing differently, subscribing for the month they dive and cancelling after, which they point out costs less per day than renting a computer.
What reviewers praise
“My logbook has basically written itself.”
the automatic logging theme, roughly 230 mentions · automatic logging
“The bright colors, strong vibration, and ease of use are just wonderful.”
United States · underwater readability, over 170 mentions
“Haptic feedback can be felt through a 7mm suit.”
a divemaster, United States · haptic safety alerts, roughly 75 mentions
“I wore a wrist computer as well to check accuracy, it was spot on.”
one of dozens of side by side accuracy tests · measured accuracy
“A dive computer's #1 requirement is rock-solid reliability.”
one of roughly 140 crash reports · crashes and update regressions
“Data is locked inside the app. This is a dealbreaker.”
one of roughly 90 export requests · no export to SSI, PADI, Subsurface or MacDive
“I'd happily pay once, even €100, but never a subscription.”
the single most repeated monetisation line in the entire corpus, across languages · subscription resentment, roughly 480 mentions
Pros
Automatic logging that reviewers describe as writing itself
Best underwater screen readability on this page, repeatedly verified against dedicated computers
Haptic ascent and safety stop alerts felt through a thick suit
GPS entry and exit points mapped onto the dive automatically
No hardware to buy if you already own an Ultra, and a monthly plan you can switch on for one trip
Cons
Watch to phone sync failure is the single most reported problem in our entire corpus
A reinstall can wipe unsynced dives from the watch with no warning
No export at all, so your logbook cannot leave
No manual or backfill entry, so pre existing dives cannot be brought in
Blanks decompression data and locks for 48 hours past about 44 metres, with PPO2 capped at 1.4
The phone app requires internet, which fails on liveaboards
Subscription on top of a premium watch, and support that reviewers repeatedly say never replied
Bottom line. A remarkable dive computer wrapped around a logbook you cannot export and, too often, cannot sync. Use it to dive, keep the record elsewhere.
The companion app for Garmin Descent computers, free with the hardware
by Garmin International
App Store4.84★844 ratings
Written reviews read1243.29★ average in sample
PriceFree with a Garmin Descent
Last updated29 July 2026v3.6.1
Excellent data capture, no subscription, and a cloud dependency that makes it useless exactly where divers dive.
Best for: Descent owners who dive inside signal and never want to leave the Garmin ecosystem
Screenshots: Garmin International, via the App Store, July 2026.
Garmin Dive does the hard part well. Dives arrive from the Descent automatically with GPS entry and exit points, tank pressure from an air integration transmitter, photos, gear and filters attached. A Japanese reviewer summed up the appeal: after the dive, the log just appears, where they used to type everything by hand. It is free, with no subscription, and a Norwegian reviewer called it the best free dive log app they had tried.
The structural problem is that it is a cloud app. Around nine reviews name this explicitly and the phrasing is memorable. One American diver pointed out that if you are diving a sinkhole in the jungle or at sea for days, the app is useless. A German reviewer raised the sharper version: you cannot even view previous dives, which matters in a dive accident. Another simply asked why dive data cannot be local and sync later, which is a fair question with no visible answer.
The second problem is the closed door. Around fourteen reviews are about the locked API: no export to SSI, PADI, MacDive or Subsurface, and no import of the dives you logged before you bought a Garmin. One reviewer asked, not unreasonably, not to be forced to enter two hundred dives manually one at a time. Another noted there is a reason so many divers use third party apps, and that Garmin locks the API.
Around the edges sit the annoyances that add up over a diving life: deleting a dive does not renumber the rest, deleted dives occasionally come back, numbering breaks when you switch computers, and there are no gear presets or copy from last dive for a week of repetitive trip logging.
What reviewers praise
“After the dive, the log just appears automatically, I used to type everything into an app by hand.”
The transfer and viewing app for Shearwater Perdix, Teric and Peregrine computers
by Shearwater Research Inc.
App Store2.62★102 ratings
Written reviews read492.49★ average in sample
PriceFree with Shearwater hardware
Last updated18 June 2026v2.12.10
The most respected dive computers in the sport, attached to a companion app their owners have complained about for eight straight years.
Best for: Shearwater owners who need to get dives off the computer and nothing more
Screenshots: Shearwater Research Inc., via the App Store, July 2026.
There is a strange honesty to this entry. Almost all of the five star reviews in our sample are praising the hardware, not the app. When the app itself is praised, it is for two specific things: Bluetooth pairing that works, and post dive profile visualisation that looks good on an iPad. One cave diver called it a handy post dive visualisation, which is about the ceiling of the affection on offer.
The most common complaint is not a bug at all. It is language. Around twelve reviews, the single biggest theme, ask for a localisation that does not exist: Chinese five times, Japanese three, Russian before it was added, plus French and Polish. Serious divers in major markets have been rating an English only app one star for years, which is a solvable problem that has stayed unsolved.
After that come the update regressions. Around nine reviews report crashes tied to a specific release, one noting the app closes when tapping Connect. A 2019 update made the tab bar unresponsive. Version 2.10 removed surface interval and end of dive time from the log, which two reviewers in New Zealand and Russia noticed independently and neither forgave. Roughly seven reviews are about the interface itself, with the recurring judgement being that it feels like software from the nineties, and at least one direct unfavourable comparison to Oceanic+.
Underneath sit the quieter data problems that matter more than the paint: temperature imported with the wrong sign or unit, miscalculated SAC rates, dive fifty sorting before dive six, and no way to filter by computer if you own more than one. Four reviewers were locked out of their own logs entirely by a cloud account that never sent its activation email.
What reviewers praise
“Really like the graphics, you can easily add all kinds of info.”
an iPad user reviewing the dive profile view · post dive visualisation
“A handy post dive visualisation.”
a cave diver · what the app is genuinely good for
What reviewers report going wrong
“日本語対応してほしい.”
Japan, meaning please support Japanese · missing localisation, roughly 12 mentions and the top theme
“Outdated app for worlds best dive computer.”
one of roughly 7 interface complaints · dated interface
“App keeps crashing since last version.”
one of roughly 9 crash reports · update regressions
“I moved from a Suunto Vyper to the Perdix but need to use Subsurface to get a complete history.”
no import from other computers · one logbook, two brands, no bridge
Pros
Reliable Bluetooth transfer off the best regarded computers in diving
Exports UDDF, so your dives can leave whenever you want
Local app, free, with no subscription
The dive profile view is genuinely good on a larger screen
Cons
Interface repeatedly described by its own users as decades out of date
English first, with major markets asking for localisation for years
Update regressions, including one that removed surface interval and end time from logs
Cloud account failures have locked divers out of their own logbooks
No import from any other computer, so a brand switch splits your history
Data quality bugs on temperature units, SAC and dive ordering
Bottom line. Use it for what it is good at, pulling dives off the computer, then take the UDDF file somewhere you enjoy looking at it.
The mandatory companion for Oceanic, Aeris, Aqualung and Sherwood Bluetooth computers
by Head Watersports S.p.A.
App Store2.53★111 ratings
Written reviews read502.4★ average in sample
PricePaid, with export sold separately on top
Last updated30 October 2025v1.1.53
A captive audience and a decaying app. Every five star review in our sample is from 2020 or earlier.
Best for: Aqualung and Oceanic owners who need to configure their computer from the phone
Screenshots: Head Watersports S.p.A., via the App Store, July 2026.
That last sentence is the finding. All six five star reviews in a fifty review sample date from 2018 to 2020. From 2022 onward the stream is almost entirely one and two star, while the app remains the only way to talk to a large installed base of Aqualung, Oceanic, Aeris and Sherwood computers. The users cannot leave and the app has stopped improving, which is a combination that shows in every line of the corpus.
One thing is genuinely liked: configuring the computer from the phone instead of through two buttons on a wrist unit, particularly setting a Nitrox mix. When Bluetooth cooperates, pairing to an i330R or i300C is called easy. The gear bag and buddy signature features drew early praise.
The rest is a list of things that have been broken for years. Around eight reviews report the app opening and closing straight away after an update, crashing on the Settings tab or during a firmware update. A German reviewer's verdict was that it feels as if it was never finished being programmed. Around six are about a dive site GPS bug where manually entered coordinates snap back to zero, zero, one reviewer noting they sent support a screen recording years ago, never got a response, and the issue is still not fixed.
The part that should decide it for you is the exit. There is no free export and no backup, and getting your dives out requires a further purchase on top of an app you already paid for. One French reviewer wrote that it is impossible to export your dives without paying. Another, contemplating a phone change, wrote that they were about to lose three years worth of dive logs if they could not back them up. Around five reviews confirm that fear is founded: a new phone means the data is gone, even with a recognised login.
What reviewers praise
“Setting the Nitrox mix from the phone instead of fiddling with the computer buttons.”
Germany, translated · the one feature that genuinely lands
What reviewers report going wrong
“As if it was never finished being programmed.”
Germany, translated · crashes and instability, roughly 8 mentions
“Never got a response, and the issue is still not fixed.”
on a dive site GPS bug reported years earlier with a screen recording · unresponsive support, roughly 5 mentions
“Impossible to export your dives without paying.”
France, translated · paywalled export, roughly 6 mentions
“I'm about to lose 3 years worth of dive logs if I can't back them up. Seriously, WTH?”
on phone migration · no backup, roughly 5 migration horror stories
Pros
Configures the dive computer from the phone, including gas mixes
Bluetooth transfer works well when it works, across the Aqualung and Oceanic range
Gear bag and buddy signature features exist and were liked early on
Cons
Export sits behind an extra purchase on top of a paid app
No backup, and changing phone has repeatedly meant losing everything
A dive site GPS bug that resets coordinates to zero, unfixed for years
Crashes after updates, on settings, on login and during firmware updates
Bluetooth transfer described by owners as a gamble, with dives silently missing
Support that multiple reviewers say never replied at all
Data entry that demands an English keyboard, blocking German and French users
Bottom line. If you own the hardware you are stuck with it for transfers. Pull the dives out early and keep them somewhere that will still be maintained next year.
Underwater photo colour correction with a dive community and a light log attached
by Life Plus Tech (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
App Store4.73★2.6K ratings
Written reviews read2102.81★ average in sample
PriceFree, with a VIP subscription
Last updated26 June 2025v3.2.5
Best in class colour correction on photos, attached to a video feature that has been crashing for years and a logbook nobody uses.
Best for: Fixing the blue cast on underwater photos, and nothing else
Screenshots: Life Plus Tech (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., via the App Store, July 2026.
Dive+ is on this list for completeness rather than as a logbook recommendation, because a lot of divers arrive at it looking for one. What it actually does superbly is fix the blue cast on underwater photographs, one tap, no Photoshop. Reviewers in English, Japanese, French and Spanish all say some version of the same thing, and one French photographer wrote that after struggling for years to remove the blue from underwater photos, this is top and hyper effective.
The problem is video. Eighty four of the two hundred and ten reviews in our sample, forty percent, mention crashing, and the crashes cluster on video colour correction, which is the paid feature. Reviewers report buying VIP specifically for video and hitting an instant crash, in every language, every year from 2018 to 2026. A Japanese reviewer asked why something broken for one or two years is never fixed. Photos mostly work, video mostly does not, and the money is charged for the half that does not.
The written average has decayed accordingly, from around 3.6 in 2018 to 1.5 in 2026, even while the store rating stays high on the strength of the photo feature. Eleven reviews say support never answered. Videos upload to a server rather than processing on device, which matters when roaming, and exports come back with audio stripped, resolution reduced and EXIF date and GPS wiped.
One note that generalises beyond this app: the community layer, which is the entire premise of the name, draws almost no review affection outside China. Two or three mentions in two hundred and ten. Divers in this corpus want their data intact and their photos fixed, not a feed.
What reviewers praise
“This app uses by far the best algorithms for restoring true underwater colors. Ditch the red filter.”
one of over 25 reviews praising the correction · photo colour correction
“I struggled for years to remove the blue from my underwater photos, here it's top and hyper effective.”
France, translated · the job it does well
What reviewers report going wrong
“Bought VIP to fix video colors, instant crash!!”
China, translated · video crashes, 84 of 210 reviews mention crashing
“It's been broken for 1-2 years, why is it never fixed!?”
Japan, translated · chronic unfixed video bug
“I'd prefer to pay one time instead of being a milk cow.”
France, translated · subscription resentment after a free era
Pros
The best one tap underwater colour correction on photos in the category
Fast and simple compared with desktop editing
Works alongside the Smart Housing hardware as a light dive computer substitute
Cons
Video colour correction, the paid feature, crashes for forty percent of reviewers
Written review sentiment has fallen every year since 2018
Uploads media to a server, and strips audio, resolution and EXIF metadata on export
Support is repeatedly reported as never replying, including on billing
iPad and Mac versions neglected for years, and it breaks on each major iOS release
The logbook is an afterthought, not a reason to use it
Bottom line. Use it for photos if the blue cast bothers you. Do not put your dive history in it.
Most of this decision collapses into three questions, and the corpus is unusually clear about the order to ask them in.
Can it read your computer? If you own one brand and intend to keep owning it, the manufacturer app will import automatically and that convenience is real. If you own two brands, or expect to switch, you need something that reads UDDF, because no manufacturer will read a rival's dives for you.
Can you get your dives back out? Ask this before you type a single dive, not after two hundred. Four apps here have no useful export, and reviewers describe that as their data being held rather than stored. An export file is the only backup that survives the company losing interest.
Does it work on the boat? A logbook is used at the surface interval, on a liveaboard, on an island with no bars of signal. Apps that need the internet to show you dives you already logged fail at the only moment that matters.
After those three, the rest is preference: whether you want your certification cards in the same app, whether you care about logging the marine life you saw, whether a subscription bothers you. On that last one the corpus is not subtle. Divers pay for hardware happily and resent renting software intensely.
Moving a logbook you already have
Most divers reading this are not starting from zero, they are stuck somewhere. The route out is nearly always the same: get a UDDF or CSV file out of the old app or straight off the computer, then import it once. We wrote a guide per app, including for the apps that make it difficult.
Import from every computer, offline first, export always at every tier, and a species life list nobody else ships. Free to download, then €4.99 a month or €69 a year for Pro. Export stays free even if you cancel.
It depends on what you own. If you want one logbook that reads every brand, works with no signal and lets you export everything, that is the case we make for SeaLog, and we made it, so weigh it accordingly, including the fact that our Pro tier is a subscription. If you want the same guarantees for nothing and can live with a difficult interface, Subsurface-mobile is the honest answer and has been for a decade. If you dive SSI and own a Mares computer, MySSI is excellent. If you own an Apple Watch Ultra and dive occasionally, Oceanic+ is a remarkable dive computer, but keep the record somewhere else.
Which dive log apps can import from my dive computer?
Almost none of them import from every computer. Manufacturer apps read their own hardware: Garmin Dive reads Descent, Shearwater Cloud reads Perdix, Teric and Peregrine, DiverLog+ reads Aqualung, Oceanic, Aeris and Sherwood, MySSI reads Mares. PADI imports nothing at all. The apps that read across brands do it through the UDDF file format, which is Subsurface, SeaLog and a handful of desktop tools.
Which dive log apps let me export my dives?
Subsurface exports to many formats, Shearwater Cloud exports UDDF, and SeaLog exports UDDF, CSV and PDF for free at every tier. PADI, MySSI, Oceanic+ and Garmin Dive have no useful export. DiverLog+ has one, sold as an extra purchase on top of a paid app. If you only check one thing before you start typing dives into an app, check this one.
Why do the App Store ratings not match the reviews?
Because star ratings and written reviews come from different people at different moments. PADI averages 4.85 stars across 45,656 ratings while its 1,121 written reviews average 3.19, because agency apps prompt for a rating right after a course, when the diver is thanking their instructor rather than assessing software. More than sixty five star PADI reviews in our sample praise an instructor by name and never mention the app. Hardware companion apps get the opposite treatment, rated by people who are obliged to use them.
Do I need a subscription for a dive logbook?
Not necessarily, and this audience feels strongly about it. Subscription comes up in roughly 480 Oceanic+ reviews and is the main one star driver after bugs. The most repeated line in the whole corpus is a version of: I would happily pay once, even a hundred euros, but never a subscription. If that is your line too, Subsurface is free forever and Garmin Dive and Shearwater Cloud are free with the hardware. SeaLog Pro is a subscription, €4.99 a month or €69 a year, which puts us on the wrong side of that sentence and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we do differently is refuse to hold the data: export is free at every tier and keeps working after you cancel, and your dives stay readable on the device either way.
Will I lose my dives if I change phone?
In several of these apps, reviewers report exactly that. DiverLog+ has around five reviews describing a new phone wiping the logbook even with a recognised login, and Oceanic+ reinstalls have wiped unsynced dives off the watch without warning. The protection is not the app's promise, it is a file: export UDDF or CSV every few months and keep it somewhere you control.
Which dive log app tracks the marine life I have seen?
Almost none. MySSI has a shallow species picker, and reviewers of MySSI, Garmin Dive and Oceanic+ all request proper marine life logging without getting it. One SSI reviewer asked the company to collaborate with dive identification books. SeaLog ships a 122 species life list, which is the one place on this page where there is no incumbent to compare against.
Method: 5,963 App Store customer reviews collected from the iTunes reviews feed across 45 storefronts in July 2026, deduplicated and coded by theme. Star averages, versions and prices from the iTunes Lookup API, US storefront, July 2026, and may have moved since. Quotes are verbatim, translated where the original was not in English. Screenshots belong to the respective publishers and are reproduced for comparison. Corrections are welcome and we will make them.
PADI
MySSI
Oceanic+
Garmin Dive
Shearwater Cloud
DiverLog+
Subsurface
