Free and Pro

APRS Connect is free to install and use over APRS-IS. APRS Connect Pro is a subscription that switches on a set of extra features. This page lists both sides so there is no guessing about what is behind the subscription.

What the app does without Pro

Everything that runs over the internet backbone, and everything built on top of it:

APRS-IS: send and receive over the network, with the range filter or your own filter string. See Connect to APRS-IS.
Messaging: threads, delivery states, acks, retries, bulletins, blocking, archiving.
Nets and groups: ANSRVR rooms such as #APRSThursday.
Every service screen: APRS OTA, WHO-IS, the SMS and email gateways, QRX, WXNOW and the rest of the directory, including editing, exporting and importing it.
The map: the vector basemap, real APRS symbols, trails, objects, follow mode, digipeater paths, and the tile cache that keeps what you have looked at for offline use.
Stations and the packet log: every station heard, device identification, weather and telemetry history, the raw feed, packet inspection, the log's retention windows, and exporting the log as a capture file.
The station beacon: smart beaconing or a fixed interval, symbol, comment, path, position ambiguity, Mic-E, and beaconing in the background.
Grid squares: your own Maidenhead locator, and the distance and bearing from it to any other square or heard callsign. See Grid squares.
The Dashboard: your station's own numbers over a day, a week, a month or all time. Tiles for Pro features show PRO without a subscription. All devices, which adds in what your other devices counted, is part of sync, which needs Pro. See Dashboard.
An account: optional. Signing in, two-step verification if you turn it on, and your Support conversation and the app's news on every device signed in. See Your account.
Backup and restore: exporting and importing the JSON backup.
Emergency beaconing.

What APRS Connect Pro adds

Radio channels: Bluetooth KISS, Bluetooth LE, USB serial, the audio modem, and KISS over TCP. See Connect a radio.
Offline map downloads: downloading, importing and drawing whole regions. Regions already downloaded are kept on the phone but not drawn while Pro is off. Tiles cached by looking at the map are a different thing and stay in use with or without Pro.
The rest of APRS-IS on the map: the Rest of the world layer draws every station our server hears on APRS-IS, worldwide, with details, hourly weather and raw packets for each. See Map.
The weather radar layer on the map.
Track export: a station's trail as GPX or KML.
Extra beacon profiles: beacons beyond the station beacon, such as a second SSID, a fixed object or a vehicle with its own settings. A beacon profile transmits as another SSID and puts it on the map; Your other callsigns below is the opposite half, and only receives.
Capture replay and import: playing a capture file back through the app, or filing it into the log.
Retry when heard: a failed message waits for its station to be heard again and then tries once more, up to three times over two weeks, with a Waiting to be heard screen listing every message that is waiting. The Retry button itself is free. See Messaging.
Mobiles nearby: a notification when a station on the move comes close enough to work, either already inside the range you set or heading into it, with a Mobiles nearby screen listing everyone who qualifies. Seeing moving stations on the map is free. See Mobiles nearby.
Digipeater coverage map: a heat map on the map tab of the places signals have reached a digipeater from: your own, every station the app has heard, or one digipeater's own footprint chosen from its marker. The coverage itself is recorded whether or not you have Pro, so the map has your history from the day you installed the app rather than from the day you subscribed. See Map.
IGate: pass APRS traffic between your radio and the internet. What you hear goes to APRS-IS, and messages for stations you can hear come back to the air. See IGate.
Digipeater: repeat what your radio hears back onto the air, as a fill-in or a wide-area digipeater, so stations that can't reach the network on their own reach it through you. See Digipeater.
Your other callsigns: receive and answer messages sent to your other SSIDs, such as a digipeater on another radio. Each one gets its own conversation, and whether this device acknowledges on its behalf is a switch per callsign. See Your other callsigns.
Sync between your devices: with an account, your settings, messages, pinned stations, blocklist, digipeater coverage and Dashboard numbers stay in step on every device signed in, and you choose what each device sends and receives. Devices that share one callsign and SSID take turns beaconing, so your station is not on the map in two places. The account itself is free. See Sync between your devices.
Sending from the packet composer: sending a packet you wrote by hand, and sending a saved one on a repeat. Writing a packet, its preview and decode, and saving it are free. See Packet composer.
The KISS server, in the Windows, Linux and Mac apps: other APRS programs on your computer or your network use APRS Connect as their TNC. See KISS server.
The ISS: where the space station is and its next passes over you, each pass drawn on a sky chart, the Space station map layer, a beacon profile for its digipeater that can send itself whenever the station is heard, pass notifications, and the list of stations heard through it. The VIA ISS mark in the packet log is free. See APRS through the ISS.
SSTV pictures, in the Android app: slow scan TV pictures received off the air, the ISS's among them, with a gallery of recent ones, and pictures of your own sent through your radio or saved as sound. See SSTV pictures.

The list is stated in the app on the Pro screen and beside each feature it applies to, and it can change between versions. More Pro features are planned; the app and this page say what Pro includes at the time, and nothing is sold on what is not yet in it.

What it costs

$3.99 a month or $29.99 a year, billed through Google Play on Android or the App Store on iPhone, with a 7-day free trial where the store is offering one. The trial is the store's: you start it from the Pro screen, it turns into the paid plan when it ends unless you cancel first, and it is offered once per Google account or Apple ID. Cancelling, changing plan and refunds all happen in the store you subscribed through. See the terms.

Where there is no store, Pro is paid for on aprsconnect.com instead. See Pro in a browser.

Pro on all your devices

One subscription covers every device signed in to the same account. It does not matter which one it was bought on: a subscription from Google Play covers an iPhone, one from the App Store covers an Android phone, and either covers the browser version. The Windows app is covered the same way, and a subscription bought from it covers your phones.

On the device where you subscribed, open Settings → Account and create an account or sign in. A subscription bought on aprsconnect.com already belongs to an account.
On each other device, open Settings → Account and sign in to the same account.

Each of them then has Pro for as long as the account does, a free trial included, and its Settings → Subscription screen says Pro through your account.

You need only one subscription. On a device whose account already has Pro, the Pro screen opens Settings → Subscription instead of offering plans.
It is changed or cancelled where it was bought: in Google Play or the App Store on the device you subscribed on, or for one bought on aprsconnect.com as described under Pro in a browser.
Signing out turns Pro off on that device, unless it has a subscription of its own.
Without internet, a device that has Pro through the account keeps it for 7 days after it last checked. The device the subscription was bought on does not depend on this.

The Pro screen on a phone has Already have Pro on another device? Sign in under the plans, and so does the last step of setting the app up.

Pro in a browser

The browser version has no app store, so Pro there belongs to your account. The same goes for the Windows app, and everything below about the browser is true of it too.

If you have Pro on another device, sign in on the device you subscribed on, then sign in to the same account in the browser. A free trial counts.
If you do not, choose a plan on the Pro screen in the browser. It asks you to create an account or sign in, then opens the payment page on aprsconnect.com, which shows the price and any tax before you pay.

A subscription bought on aprsconnect.com covers every device signed in to that account, the Android and iPhone apps included. To change or cancel it, open Settings → Subscription in the browser and choose Change or cancel.

Without an account the browser runs the free side of the app.

Where the Pro screen is

Settings → Subscription → See plans.
From any locked feature: a radio channel row, the Add channel sheet, the Weather radar, Digipeater coverage and Space station rows in the map's layers panel, the Export track screen, Add beacon, an extra beacon's switch, the capture section of the Packet log settings, the download and import actions on the Offline maps screen, Retry when heard in a failed message's long-press menu, the Retry when heard section of the Messages settings, the Mobiles nearby settings screen, the Other callsigns card on the Station identity screen, SEND and the repeat switches in the packet composer, a Dashboard tile marked PRO, and the Mobiles, IGate, Digipeater and ISS screens in the drawer. Without Pro, those four tiles wear a small lock where a count would go, in the drawer and on the bar if you have dragged one there, so you can tell before tapping.
In the Windows, Linux and Mac apps, from the KISS server page on the Radio screen.

Two Pro features have no door of their own. Without Pro, the Rest of the world row is left out of the layers panel, and the Settings sync card under Settings → Account says that sync is part of Pro.

When a trial or subscription ends

Nothing is deleted and nothing goes off the air. APRS-IS stays connected, the station beacon keeps running, and messages, the map and the packet log carry on. What changes is that the Pro features switch off: a radio channel stops being brought up and its row says why, an extra beacon stops transmitting and its row says why, and the radar row, track export, capture replay and offline downloads each show the Pro notice instead of doing their job. A failed message already waiting for its station keeps its watch until it is used up or lapses; new failures are no longer offered one. Alerts about nearby mobiles stop being posted and the Mobiles nearby list stops filling; the range and frequency settings are kept as you left them. The IGate and the digipeater stop with the radio channels they run on. Messages to your other callsigns are no longer listened for or answered. The Rest of the world, Digipeater coverage and Space station layers stop drawing, though coverage is still recorded. Repeats set in the packet composer stop. Your devices stop syncing, and each one keeps what it has and works as it does on its own. The KISS server closes its port. Your radio channels, beacon profiles and downloaded regions are all kept as they were, and come back the moment Pro does; until then the map draws from its tile cache and the online basemap rather than from the downloaded regions.

If a payment failed rather than a cancellation, update the payment method in the store first; the app reads the subscription back from the store on every launch.

Restoring Pro on a new phone

Settings → Subscription → Restore a purchase asks the store for a subscription bought on the same Google account or Apple ID. A backup does not carry the subscription, which stays with the store.

Restore reaches only this phone's own store. For a subscription bought on the other kind of phone, or on aprsconnect.com, sign in to your account instead: see Pro on all your devices.

Last updated 11 October 2026