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Best Weather Station Software for a Personal Website (2026)

If you own a personal weather station (a Davis Vantage Pro, a WeatherLink Live, or an AirLink air-quality sensor), you have probably wondered how to get its data onto a real website. Maybe you want to share local conditions with your town, embed a live widget on a club or school page, or simply keep your own historical records. The good news is there is no shortage of weather station software. The bad news is that most of it was built for hobbyists who enjoy tinkering, not for people who just want a clean website that stays online.

This guide compares the most popular weather station software in 2026 (CumulusMX, WeeWX, Weather Display, and the official Davis WeatherLink portal) and explains where each one shines and where it falls short. At the end, we look at a newer, fully hosted approach that removes the server and the maintenance entirely.

What makes good weather station website software?

Before comparing tools, it helps to know what actually matters when you put a personal weather station online:

  • No always-on computer. Many packages need a PC or Raspberry Pi running 24/7. If it reboots or fails, your site goes stale.
  • Long-term data retention. Your charts and records are only as good as the history behind them.
  • A design that looks good on phones. Most visitors will check the weather from a mobile device.
  • Low maintenance. FTP uploads, cron jobs, and PHP scripts break in ways that are tedious to debug.
  • Your own domain with SSL. A custom domain looks professional and builds trust.
  • Reasonable cost and effort. The total cost is the software plus the hosting plus your time.

CumulusMX

Best for: Windows or Raspberry Pi users who want full control and don't mind maintaining it.

CumulusMX is the cross-platform successor to the classic Cumulus software, and it is genuinely powerful. It supports a wide range of station brands, generates detailed web pages, and has an active community. The catch is that it needs to run 24/7 on a computer or Raspberry Pi on your network. If that machine reboots, loses power, or its SD card corrupts (a common Raspberry Pi failure), your site stops updating. You are also responsible for hosting the generated web files yourself, usually by uploading them over FTP to a separate web host.

WeeWX

Best for: Linux enthusiasts who are comfortable on the command line.

WeeWX is a favourite among the technical crowd. It is free, open source, written in Python, and endlessly extensible through plugins and skins. It is also one of the most reliable engines once it is set up. But "once it is set up" is doing a lot of work in that sentence: installation, configuration files, and skin editing all assume you are happy in a terminal. As with CumulusMX, you need an always-on Linux machine and somewhere to host the website it produces.

Weather Display

Best for: Long-time Windows users with an existing setup.

Weather Display is one of the oldest weather station programs still in use, and it is packed with features. The trade-off is that the interface shows its age, it is Windows-centric, it requires a paid license, and (like the others) it needs an always-on PC to keep your data flowing.

Davis WeatherLink (the official portal)

Best for: People who want zero setup and don't care about design.

If you own a Davis station, you already have a free WeatherLink.com account, and it will show your live data with no extra software at all. That is its biggest strength. The weaknesses are that the layout is fixed, you cannot use your own domain on the free tier, and historical data is limited on the free plan. Older records roll off over time. It is the simplest option, but also the least flexible.

PWS website templates (Saratoga, Leuven, and friends)

Best for: Tinkerers who want a custom look and enjoy maintaining it.

These are PHP template packs you upload to a web host to display data coming from Cumulus or WeeWX. They can look great, but they depend on a steady stream of files arriving over FTP, and they break in frustrating ways: a PHP version bump on your host, a stalled upload, a missing file, or a template that has not been updated in years. They add a second moving part on top of the software already running at home.

Pro Weather: the fully hosted alternative

Best for: Davis owners who want a great website without running a server.

Pro Weather takes a different approach. Instead of software you install and a server you maintain, you give it your Davis WeatherLink API key and it builds and hosts the website for you. There is nothing to install and no machine to keep running at home.

  • Fully hosted: no Raspberry Pi, no FTP, no PHP to maintain.
  • Updates automatically every 10 minutes.
  • Your data is stored forever, so charts and records keep growing.
  • Your own domain with automatic SSL is included.
  • Designed for phones from the very first screen.
  • Set up in minutes, not an afternoon.

It does one thing and does it well: turn a Davis WeatherLink station into a beautiful, maintenance-free website. If you want the backstory, read Why I Built Pro Weather.

Comparison at a glance

  • CumulusMX / WeeWX / Weather Display: powerful and flexible, but you run and maintain the software plus a 24/7 computer, and you host the website yourself.
  • Davis WeatherLink.com: zero setup, but a fixed design, no custom domain on the free tier, and limited history.
  • Pro Weather: fully hosted, custom domain, unlimited history, and automatic updates, built specifically for Davis stations.

Which should you choose?

If you love tinkering and want total control, CumulusMX or WeeWX are excellent and free. Just be ready to run and maintain a server. If you want the simplest possible free option and are not fussy about design, the WeatherLink portal works. But if you have a Davis station and want a professional-looking website that stays online with none of the upkeep, Pro Weather is the fastest way to get there. You can have your site live in a few minutes. The setup guide walks you through it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Raspberry Pi or an always-on computer?

With CumulusMX, WeeWX, or Weather Display, yes. They run continuously on a machine you own. With a hosted service like Pro Weather, no: the cloud collects and publishes your data for you.

Does this work with non-Davis weather stations?

CumulusMX and WeeWX support many station brands, which is a real strength if you do not own a Davis. Pro Weather is focused specifically on Davis WeatherLink stations, so it is the best fit if that is what you have.

How long is my weather history kept?

With self-hosted software it depends on your own storage and backups. WeatherLink's free plan only keeps recent data. Pro Weather stores your full history indefinitely, so long-term charts and records keep building.

Can I use my own domain name?

Self-hosted setups can, with extra DNS and hosting configuration. WeatherLink's free tier cannot. Pro Weather includes a custom domain with automatic SSL out of the box.

Ready to put your Davis station online the easy way? Start your Pro Weather site. It takes about five minutes.