The Best Rain Gauge App

A rain gauge app’s job is to complement the gauge you already own: log the reading from your instrument, hold the running total and the season’s record. It should also cover additional locations that you care about. If you keep a gauge in the yard and walk out to read it after a storm, this guide is about the app that goes with it.

If instead you want software to stand in for a gauge you don’t own, that’s a virtual rain gauge, a separate category with its own guide. For someone who keeps a physical gauge and wants the record-keeping to match, our pick is Rain Tally. What makes an app a rain gauge app, and why Rain Tally is the one we recommend, comes down to a few things.

What makes an app a rain gauge app

A rain gauge app has to pass three tests: it records your own reading, it keeps that record for you, and it covers the places you actually want to track.

It takes your measurement. The number that matters is the one your gauge captured, because rainfall is intensely local. Two gauges within a mile of each other can differ by two inches in a single heavy storm, the kind of local variation a weather service models from a distance. On most days a good weather service comes close; on the days it doesn’t, the only reading that’s truly yours is the one from your gauge. A rain gauge app lets you record it.

It keeps the record. A gauge tells you today’s number and nothing else; once you empty it, the reading is gone unless you wrote it down. A rain gauge app should hold the running total, the week, and the season, so the record keeps itself.

It covers multiple areas. For most people that means one yard. For some it means a second property or a garden plot across town. Either way, the app should track the places you care about and total the rain against whatever you’re aiming for. For an established lawn, that target is usually about an inch of water a week, the benchmark from EPA WaterSense.

Among iPhone apps, Rain Tally is the one built to do all three.

Rain Tally

Rain Tally is the rain gauge app to install on an iPhone or iPad. It treats your gauge reading as the source of truth, then builds both the record and the daily watering decision around it. It’s also our overall pick in the wider roundup of apps for tracking rainfall totals, judged there against the whole category rather than just gauge companions.

Install Rain Tally for iPhone and iPad

Why we like it

Rain Tally’s Recent screen is the reason to install it. It shows the past 7 days of rainfall next to the next 3 days of forecast, with a weekly target beneath that shows how close you are to getting what you need. That is the watering decision in one glance: whether your yard has had enough water this week, or whether you still need to run the sprinkler.

For someone who keeps a gauge, the decision runs on your own numbers. Log what your gauge caught and your reading becomes the past side of the chart; on the days you don’t get out to read it, the weather service fills in, so the record behind the decision stays complete. When your gauge and the service disagree, yours is the number the app counts.

Beyond the week, Rain Tally keeps a record a gauge alone can’t. Pull up any year by day, week, or month, and read this season against past ones to see whether you’re running wet or dry. The history and trend views are closer to a data tool than a weather app, which is where the app pulls ahead of a notebook.

Locations don’t need a street address either; drop a pin to follow a second yard, a community plot, or the back corner of a property. And all of it is free for one location.

Where it falls short

Rain Tally is iPhone and iPad only. There is no Android version and no web app, so if your phone isn’t an iPhone, this isn’t your pick; the FAQ below covers what Android owners can do instead.

It also won’t pull readings from a personal weather station; if you own one, you type its rainfall in yourself. Logging is manual by design, but the weather service covers the days you skip, so a missed entry doesn’t leave a hole in your record. None of this disqualifies Rain Tally for a homeowner with a gauge and an iPhone.

Who this is for

Rain Tally fits a US iPhone owner who wants the rain at their own spot on record, free for one yard, with room to grow. The free tier covers one location and includes the Recent screen, the weekly target, and manual gauge logging. For most homeowners with a single gauge, that is the whole job at no cost. One location stays free for as long as you want it; the paid tiers are there when you outgrow it.

Plus ($1.99 a month or $19.99 a year) raises the cap to 10 locations and unlocks History and Trends, the full-year and season-over-season views. It’s the tier for someone tracking more than one spot. One reviewer, Btrflies, used Rain Tally to watch rainfall at an Airbnb about 20 miles away, in a different county, through a severe drought, which is exactly the second-location case Plus is built for.

Pro ($49.99 a year) lifts the cap to 50 locations, more than most homeowners will ever need. It exists for heavier multi-site use.

For the gauge owner specifically, this is the app that retires the spreadsheet.

Other ways to keep your own rainfall record

Three methods record the rain at your own spot without an app: a weather station, a CoCoRaHS gauge, or a gauge paired with a spreadsheet. Each comes with a different trade-off.

A personal weather station

A weather station you own records your rain for you. Mount one from Tempest, Ambient Weather, AcuRite, or Davis and its rain sensor logs to a companion app on its own, with no reading to take and nothing to write down. For someone who wants the measurement handled without walking out to a gauge, that is the appeal.

A station costs anywhere from about $190 for an Ambient Weather WS-2902 to $1,600 or more for a Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus, and each one covers a single location. Its rain sensor is automated, and in heavy downpours these sensors can under-read; Tempest’s in particular can come in low against a nearby manual gauge. None of these stations let you hand-correct the day’s number when you know the sensor missed.

A weather station is the right call if you want hands-off measurement at one home and treat the hardware cost as worth it. If you’re choosing the hardware itself, our guide to rain gauges covers what to buy and where to put it. If accuracy matters more than convenience, a manual gauge can outread a station’s sensor for a fraction of the price.

CoCoRaHS

CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, is a NOAA-backed citizen-science network with more than 27,500 active observers. Buy its approved 4-inch gauge for about $42 and read it each morning, and you take the kind of reading widely treated as ground truth: several apps rely on CoCoRaHS observers as a check on their own numbers.

The catch for a homeowner is what the Observer app does with the reading. It files your number into the network’s research dataset and does little to show that history back to you. As a way to measure and contribute it’s the gold standard, but it isn’t built to be your personal record.

CoCoRaHS is the right call if you want the most rigorous reading and want it to count beyond your own yard. It pairs naturally with an app for the record-keeping it skips: send your gauge reading to CoCoRaHS for the network, then enter the same number in Rain Tally to keep your own history and answer the week’s watering question. Our guide to rain gauges covers the approved gauge and where to site it.

A gauge and a spreadsheet

A plastic gauge and a spreadsheet cost almost nothing, and they work. Read the gauge after it rains, type the number into a row, and add up the column yourself. People have kept their rainfall this way for decades, and for some it is enough.

The cost is the upkeep. The column grows only on the days you remember to fill it, a missed reading leaves a blank, and there is no week, month, or season view unless you build the formulas for it. Comparing this June against last June means more columns and more bookkeeping. The record stays only as complete and as organized as the effort you keep putting in.

A gauge and a spreadsheet makes sense if you already keep one and don’t mind the bookkeeping. If the bookkeeping is the part you want gone, that is what Rain Tally replaces: the same gauge reading goes into the app, the totals and season views build themselves, and the days you skip are filled in for you.

Frequently asked

Is there a free rain gauge app?

Yes. Rain Tally’s free tier covers one location and includes the Recent screen, the 3-day forecast, a weekly target, and manual gauge logging, which is enough for a homeowner with one yard. The paid tiers add more locations, full history, and season trends.

How accurate are rain gauge apps?

Any app’s rainfall figure is an estimate of what fell at your exact spot. Rainfall can vary by inches over a mile in a single storm, and no app or weather service captures that from radar alone. If you own a gauge, Rain Tally lets you log your reading to override the estimate on the days the two disagree.

Is there a rain gauge app for Android?

Not Rain Tally; it is iPhone and iPad only, with no Android or web version. If you want to keep your own rainfall record on Android, the practical options are a physical gauge with a notebook or spreadsheet, or a personal weather station with its own companion app.

A physical rain gauge in the yard is the most accurate way to know your rainfall. Rain Tally is what turns those readings into a record you can use, season after season.