OnTheSnow Alternatives: What Else Skiers and Snowboarders Actually Use

Which OnTheSnow alternative is right depends on why you are leaving, and the three common reasons need three different answers. If it is the forecast, OpenSnow and Snow-Forecast.com are built around forecasting rather than resort reports. If it is that the official snow report said one thing and the mountain said another, no aggregator fixes that, and what you want is a report from someone who rode it this morning, which is what Froth does. If it is that you want to keep a good day inside your group, you want private sharing, which is also Froth.

Froth publishes this page and is one of the options listed. Froth is a report app, not an aggregator: no trail maps, no hour-by-hour forecast, no powder alerts, and about 600 resorts rather than 2,000 plus. If you want a like-for-like OnTheSnow replacement, look at OpenSnow or Snow-Forecast.com rather than at Froth.

What are the main OnTheSnow alternatives?

What is the best free OnTheSnow alternative?

OnTheSnow is itself free, so a free alternative only makes sense if it does something OnTheSnow does not. Every app in the table is free to download. OpenSnow and Snow-Forecast.com put their longer forecasts behind a subscription, while Froth is free with no paid tier for the core app, because the reports come from riders rather than from a forecast model or a data feed somebody has to pay for.

Is there an OnTheSnow alternative with real rider reports?

That is what Froth is. Skiers and snowboarders post what the mountain is doing right now: surface, depth, fresh snow, temperature, visibility, crowd, and a photo or video of the run. Reports are timestamped so you can judge how stale they are, and you can share them with the whole Froth community or privately with your crew. OnTheSnow carries firsthand reports too, but alongside the official resort report rather than as the centre of the app, and its listing describes photos rather than video. The full comparison covers what each one has and lacks.

Which OnTheSnow alternative has the best snow forecast?

OpenSnow is the forecast specialist of the group: its listing leads with 15-day snow forecasts, local daily snow experts who write a forecast each winter morning, and its own PEAKS mountain forecast model. Snow-Forecast.com is the other option, with forecasts by elevation and a very wide international list. Froth is not a forecast app. Each resort page shows a snowfall strip with yesterday's snowfall and a seven-day forecast, which is enough to know whether it snowed, not enough to plan a trip around.

Why do skiers and snowboarders look for an OnTheSnow alternative?

In practice there are three reasons, and they need different answers. If the forecast is the problem, OpenSnow or Snow-Forecast.com is the fix. If the official snow report keeps saying packed powder while the mountain says ice, no aggregator solves that except a person who is there, which is the case for a report app. If the problem is that a good report brings the whole region to your stash, the fix is sharing it privately, which is what Froth's groups are for. One thing that is not a fix: OnTheSnow's App Store developer name is "OnTheSnow / Skiinfo", so moving to Skiinfo, its European sister app, is not a change of provider.

The short version

Pick the alternative that matches your reason for leaving. OpenSnow and Snow-Forecast.com are forecast apps, free to download with a subscription for the long-range view, and they are the like-for-like replacements for the planning half of OnTheSnow. Froth does a different job: live reports posted by riders with photo or video, private crew sharing, and winter weather and avalanche warnings, free with no paid tier for the core app.