Pro WeatherPro Weather vs WeeWX: Cloud vs Self-Hosted
WeeWX has a well-earned reputation among weather enthusiasts. It is free, open source, written in Python, and once you have it dialled in, it can run for years without so much as a hiccup. The question is how much you have to invest to get it to that point, and what happens when something goes wrong.
This comparison looks at WeeWX side by side with Pro Weather, a fully hosted service that connects to your Davis WeatherLink account and builds a website for you. They solve the same problem from completely opposite angles.
Effort to get started
WeeWX assumes comfort with the Linux command line. You install it via a package manager or from source, edit configuration files, set up skins, and configure the upload target. Then you point it at your station, wait for it to collect enough data to confirm it is working, and finally set up a web host to publish the generated pages. For someone comfortable in a terminal, the process takes an evening. For everyone else, it can be a frustrating day of reading docs and searching forums.
Pro Weather asks for two things: a WeatherLink v2 API key and the subdomain you want. You paste the key, choose your settings, and your site is live. There are no configuration files, no SSH sessions, and no upload targets to configure. The whole process takes about five minutes.
Reliability in practice
WeeWX, once stable, is genuinely reliable. Many users report months or years of uptime. But that reliability depends on the hardware it runs on: a Raspberry Pi with an SD card, a small Linux server, or a repurposed PC. If that machine loses power, has a filesystem error, or gets tangled in a network change, WeeWX stops until you intervene. The same applies to the web host serving the files: if the FTP connection drops, the PHP version changes, or the disk fills up, your public site goes stale.
Pro Weather has no single point of failure at your end. Data collection runs in the cloud. As long as your station is online and reporting to WeatherLink (which it already does), the service fetches and publishes it. A power outage at your house does not affect your website. The updates happen every 10 minutes regardless.
Control and extensibility
WeeWX wins this category decisively. Its plugin system and skin architecture let you produce almost any output you can imagine. You can write custom Python extensions, generate JSON, feed data to home automation systems, or build a completely bespoke HTML site. If you want total programmatic control, WeeWX is the most flexible option available.
Pro Weather offers extensive customization through its dashboard: your own logo, banner photo, color scheme, fonts, dark mode, header style, and tab layout. You can also add a custom domain with automatic SSL. What you cannot do is write custom code or modify the rendering pipeline. The trade-off is that every site is tested, responsive, and performant out of the box.
Data history
WeeWX stores data in its own SQLite or MySQL database on your machine. Your history is as safe as your backup strategy. If the SD card fails and you have no backup, the data is gone.
Pro Weather stores your full history indefinitely on the server side. Your charts, records, and almanac build continuously and never roll off. This is one of the features that matters most over time.
Cost breakdown
WeeWX is free. The real costs are:
- A device to run it on: a Raspberry Pi with a case and power supply costs roughly €70–100, plus SD cards that fail periodically
- Electricity: running a Pi 24/7 costs roughly €10–15 per year
- A web host: typically €3–10/month to serve the generated site with PHP and MySQL support
- Your time: initial setup, ongoing maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery from failures
Pro Weather costs €5.99/month or €59/year. This includes everything: hosting, a custom domain with SSL, unlimited data storage, and all features.
Quick comparison
| Factor | WeeWX | Pro Weather |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | An evening to a weekend | About 5 minutes |
| Technical skill needed | Command-line Linux | Basic web familiarity |
| Always-on hardware | Yes, a computer or Pi | No |
| Web host needed | Yes, separate | Included |
| Plugin ecosystem | Rich, any Python possible | Dashboard customization |
| Mobile design | Varies by skin | Built-in, responsive |
| Data retention | Depends on your backups | Forever |
| Custom domain | Manual DNS and SSL setup | Included with auto-SSL |
| Cost | Free + hardware + hosting | €5.99/month all-in |
Which is right for you?
Choose WeeWX if you enjoy working on the command line, want total programmatic control over your data and output, have reliable always-on hardware, and are comfortable maintaining both the software and a web host.
Choose Pro Weather if you want a polished weather website that stays online automatically, with no server to run, no backups to manage, and no troubleshooting when something breaks.
For a broader look at all the options, see Best Weather Station Software for a Personal Website. If you are coming from the self-hosted world and wonder whether a hosted service is powerful enough, Pro Weather has a 14-day free trial so you can see for yourself.