Getting Started with ShipPlotter: Track Local Vessels from Home

MarineTraffic wins for convenience and global tracking, while ShipPlotter wins for hardware-level control and raw radio data processing. Comparing them as direct rivals is a slight misnomer: MarineTraffic is a massive, cloud-based consumer web service, whereas ShipPlotter is a local Windows utility designed to decode raw radio signals from an antenna. In fact, hobbyists frequently use ShipPlotter as the backend hardware tool to pipe live radar information into MarineTraffic’s global network. Feature Comparison At a Glance MarineTraffic – Ship Tracking – App Store – Apple