If you care about weather widgets on your iPhone, two apps consistently come up in conversation: CARROT Weather and Cloudmesh Weather. Both offer far more widget options than Apple's built-in Weather app. Both go well beyond the basics. But they take fundamentally different approaches to pricing, personality, and privacy -- and those differences matter more than widget count alone.
This is a fair, detailed comparison of both apps, covering what each does well and where each falls short.
CARROT Weather has earned its reputation. It launched in 2013 and has spent over a decade refining its feature set. Its defining characteristic is personality -- a sarcastic AI narrator delivers weather reports with dark humour, pop culture references, and occasionally unsettling commentary. Whether this appeals to you is entirely a matter of taste, but for the millions of users who love it, the personality transforms a utility app into something genuinely enjoyable.
Beyond the humour, CARROT is a deeply customisable weather app. Its widget builder lets you construct widgets from individual data modules -- temperature, wind, UV, precipitation, humidity, pressure, and dozens more. You can choose layouts, colours, and which data points appear where. For users who want precise control over their home screen, CARROT's widget builder is one of the most powerful available on iOS.
CARROT also lets you switch between multiple weather data sources, including Apple Weather, Foreca, and others. This is useful for comparing forecasts or choosing a provider that is more accurate in your region. The animated radar maps are smooth and detailed, and the app supports Apple Watch complications with customisable data.
CARROT's most significant limitation is its pricing model. The app uses a subscription: approximately $4.99/month or $19.99/year for the premium tier that unlocks the advanced widget builder, multiple data sources, and radar maps. The free tier shows basic forecasts but restricts the features that most users download CARROT for in the first place.
Over three years, the subscription costs around $60. Over five years, $100. For a weather app -- even an excellent one -- this adds up, particularly when the built-in Apple Weather app is free. CARROT's developers have been transparent that the subscription funds ongoing development, server costs for data sources, and new features. That is a legitimate justification. But it means you are renting access to your preferred weather experience rather than owning it.
CARROT also requires an account for premium features, and forecast data is fetched from third-party servers. This is standard for weather apps, but it means your location data is transmitted externally as part of normal operation.
Cloudmesh Weather takes a different approach across nearly every dimension. It ships with 29 pre-built widgets across home screen, lock screen, and Apple Watch complications. Rather than a build-your-own widget system, Cloudmesh provides a curated set that covers the data points most users actually want: current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts, precipitation probability, wind, UV index, air quality, barometric pressure, astronomy (sunrise, sunset, moon phase), and more.
The widget count is higher than CARROT's out of the box, though the trade-off is less granular customisation. You choose from 29 options rather than building from scratch. For users who want variety without complexity, this is an advantage. For users who want pixel-level control, CARROT's builder is more flexible.
Cloudmesh's standout features include AI-generated weather summaries that describe conditions in natural language, a community barometric mesh network that aggregates anonymised pressure readings from nearby devices, and earthquake detection. The barometric mesh is a genuinely novel feature -- it provides hyperlocal pressure trend data that can indicate incoming weather changes before they appear in traditional forecasts.
The pricing model is a one-time purchase. You pay once and own the app permanently, including all future updates. There is no subscription, no account required, and no recurring cost.
Cloudmesh does not have CARROT's personality. There is no sarcastic AI narrator, no dark humour, no pop culture easter eggs. If you enjoy CARROT's personality (and many people genuinely do), Cloudmesh will feel more utilitarian by comparison. Weather apps are checked multiple times a day, and the experience of using them matters alongside the data they provide.
The widget system, while extensive, does not offer the same build-from-scratch flexibility as CARROT's widget builder. You select from the 29 available options rather than constructing a custom layout from individual data modules. For most users, 29 options are more than enough. For power users who want a very specific combination of data points in a specific arrangement, CARROT offers more control.
Cloudmesh is also a newer app, having launched more recently than CARROT's decade-long presence. CARROT has had years to refine its features, build integrations, and respond to user feedback. Cloudmesh is evolving quickly but does not yet have the same depth of third-party integrations.
| Feature | CARROT Weather | Cloudmesh Weather |
|---|---|---|
| Widget count | Custom-built (flexible) | 29 pre-built |
| Widget customisation | Granular (build from modules) | Select from curated set |
| Lock screen widgets | Yes (customisable) | Yes (multiple options) |
| Apple Watch | Yes (complications) | Yes (complications) |
| Personality / humour | Yes (sarcastic AI) | No |
| AI weather summaries | No | Yes (natural language) |
| Community mesh network | No | Yes (barometric) |
| Earthquake detection | No | Yes |
| Data sources | Multiple (switchable) | Multiple sources |
| Radar maps | Yes (animated) | Yes |
| Pricing | ~$19.99/year subscription | One-time purchase |
| 3-year cost | ~$60 | One-time (no recurring) |
| Account required | Yes (for premium) | No |
| Data storage | Cloud (third-party servers) | On-device |
This is where the two apps diverge most clearly, and the difference is architectural, not just policy. CARROT Weather requires an account for premium features and sends your location to third-party weather data providers every time it fetches a forecast. That is standard for weather apps, and CARROT's privacy policy is transparent about it. But it means your location history exists on external servers, tied to your account, as a normal byproduct of checking the weather.
Cloudmesh Weather does not require an account, does not store personal data in the cloud, and processes forecasts on-device. The practical difference is straightforward: with CARROT, uninstalling the app does not delete the location history already held by third-party forecast providers. With Cloudmesh, there is no external record to delete because none was created. (For a deeper look at how community mesh networks handle privacy through coordinate coarsening and anonymous contributions, see our article on how community weather networks work.)
For most users, both apps handle data responsibly and the privacy difference will not be the deciding factor. But for users who prefer that no external service holds a log of their locations, the architectural gap between the two is significant.
CARROT Weather is the better choice if you value personality and entertainment in your weather app, want maximum widget customisation with a build-from-modules approach, like switching between multiple forecast data sources, and do not mind a subscription model. It is a mature, polished app with a passionate community, and its developer (Brian Mueller) has supported it consistently for over a decade. If you enjoy using CARROT, the subscription fee supports a genuinely independent developer building a genuinely good app.
Cloudmesh Weather is the better choice if you want a large number of widgets without building them from scratch, prefer a one-time purchase over a subscription, value on-device privacy with no account requirement, or are interested in features like the community barometric mesh and AI summaries that CARROT does not offer. It is the more utilitarian option -- less personality, more data, no ongoing cost.
Yes, and some weather enthusiasts do. You can use CARROT for its personality and radar maps in the main app while using Cloudmesh widgets on your home screen and lock screen. iOS lets you mix widgets from different apps freely, so there is no technical reason to choose just one. The only constraint is whether paying for both feels worthwhile -- and since Cloudmesh is a one-time purchase, adding it alongside a CARROT subscription is not an ongoing additional cost.
Both CARROT Weather and Cloudmesh Weather are excellent, and both are substantially better than Apple's built-in Weather app for widget enthusiasts. CARROT offers personality, deep customisation, and a decade of refinement. Cloudmesh offers more widgets out of the box, a one-time price, on-device privacy, and unique features like the barometric mesh. The right choice depends on whether you value customisation flexibility or widget variety, subscription or one-time pricing, personality or utility. Neither choice is wrong.