Pro Weather· Updated
Weather Underground Alternatives for 2026
For years, Weather Underground was the default place to send personal weather station data. You connected your station, got a public page, and your readings joined a giant map of stations around the world. But a lot of owners have been looking for alternatives, whether because of changes to features and pricing, the ads, the cluttered interface, or simply the realization that the page never really felt like theirs.
If that is you, the good news is there are solid options in 2026. This guide covers the main ones, who each suits, and how to think about the choice.
First, what are you actually looking for?
"Alternative to Weather Underground" can mean two quite different things, so it helps to know which you want:
- Another community network, where your station joins a shared map and gets a standard public page on someone else's site.
- Your own website, with your own design and ideally your own domain, that you control.
Weather Underground is firmly in the first category. If that model works for you and you just want a different network, the first few options below fit. If you have outgrown the shared-page model, skip to the section on having your own site.
What happened to Weather Underground?
Weather Underground still works, but it has changed hands twice and shed features along the way. The Weather Company (owner of weather.com) bought it in 2012, IBM acquired that business in 2016, and Francisco Partners bought it from IBM in early 2024. Its classic free API was retired in 2019.
Founded in 1995 out of the University of Michigan, WU built the largest personal weather station network in the world, and for a long time it treated hobbyists well. For station owners, the moment that eroded the most trust came under IBM: the classic free API keys were shut off on February 15, 2019, breaking thousands of hobbyist dashboards, displays, and integrations overnight. Owners who upload PWS data can still request a free replacement key, but it is deliberately limited — your own station's observations and history, nearby PWS data, and a short forecast, with daily call caps — rather than the general-purpose weather API it used to be.
None of this means WU is bad now. Uploading remains free and the station map is still huge. The lesson is simply that a platform's direction is decided by whoever owns it this decade, not by the station owners who feed it — which is exactly why alternatives are worth knowing.
Community network alternatives
These are the closest like-for-like swaps. You upload your data and get a public page on their platform.
PWSWeather
PWSWeather, run by AerisWeather (now part of Vaisala Xweather), is one of the most established networks and a common first stop for people leaving Weather Underground. It accepts data from most station software and gives your station a public page on their map. It is a straightforward, no-frills home for your data.
Windy
Windy is best known for its beautiful animated forecast maps, and it accepts personal weather station contributions too. If you love the visual, map-first experience and want your station to appear on it, Windy is appealing. It is more a global visualization platform than a personal-page service.
AWEKAS and CWOP
Two more networks worth knowing. AWEKAS is a popular European weather network with its own station map and statistics. CWOP (the Citizen Weather Observer Program) is a volunteer network that feeds data to meteorological services, valuable if you want your readings to contribute to forecasting and research, though it is not built around a polished public page.
The common thread across all of these: it is their platform, their layout, and often their ads. Your station is one of many on a shared map. If you decide to feed one — or several — the setup is much the same as uploading to WU; our walkthrough on sending your station data to Weather Underground, CWOP, and more covers it service by service.
How do the alternatives compare?
All the community networks are free and give your station a public page or map presence, but none gives you your own domain or a site you control. Self-hosting and a hosted service like Pro Weather do give you that; they differ in how much of the work lands on you.
| Option | Free? | Your own page? | Own domain? | Data export? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PWSWeather | Yes | Station page on their map | No | No bulk export |
| Windy | Yes | Map presence with station detail | No | No |
| AWEKAS | Yes (paid extras) | Station page and statistics | No | Limited |
| CWOP | Yes | No polished page; data feeds research | No | Publicly archived by third parties |
| Self-hosted (CumulusMX/WeeWX) | Software is free; hardware and hosting are not | Yes, fully yours | Yes | Yes, it is your database |
| Pro Weather | €5.99/month after a free trial | Yes, a complete website | Yes, with automatic SSL | Full history stored forever |
A note on that last column: the safe assumption with any community network is that the history you upload lives on their platform, on their terms. If your archive matters to you, keep a copy you control — we cover the options in automatic weather station data backup.
Self-hosted alternatives
If the appeal of leaving Weather Underground is having something that is genuinely yours, you can run your own site with software like CumulusMX or WeeWX, optionally dressed up with a PWS template.
This gives you full control over the look, but it comes with real ongoing work: a computer running 24/7, plus a web host to publish to, usually over FTP. We compare the two main programs in CumulusMX vs WeeWX.
Your own hosted website (the middle ground)
There is a newer option that sits between "join someone else's network" and "run your own server": a fully hosted personal weather site.
This is what Pro Weather does. You give it your Davis WeatherLink API key and it builds and runs a complete website for you. The result is your own site, not a page on a shared platform, but with none of the server maintenance:
- Your own site and your own domain, with automatic SSL, not a profile on someone else's map.
- No ads, and a clean design built for phones first.
- Your data stored forever, so your charts, records, and almanac keep growing.
- Fully hosted. No Raspberry Pi, no FTP, nothing to install or maintain.
- Automatic updates every 10 minutes.
The trade-off compared to a network like Weather Underground is that your station is not part of a big shared map by default. The upside is that the website is unmistakably yours. Many owners actually do both: contribute raw data to a network like CWOP for research, and run their own Pro Weather site as their real home on the web.
Which alternative is right for you?
- Want a direct, free swap for the WU map? Try PWSWeather, or Windy if you love map-based visuals.
- Want to contribute to forecasting and research? CWOP is purpose-built for that.
- Want full control and enjoy running a server? Self-host with CumulusMX or WeeWX.
- Want your own polished website without the upkeep? A hosted service like Pro Weather is the most direct route.
For a full rundown of the software side, see Best Weather Station Software for a Personal Website.
Common questions
Is Weather Underground still free for PWS owners?
Yes. Uploading your station data to Weather Underground remains free, your station keeps its public page on the map, and contributors can get a free PWS API key for their own data. What has thinned out over the years are the perks around it — and the platform's priorities are now set by its current owner, Francisco Partners, not by station owners.
What happened to the Weather Underground API?
The classic free API was retired on February 15, 2019, during IBM's ownership, which broke thousands of hobbyist apps and dashboards. Owners who actively upload PWS data can request a replacement key, but it is limited to PWS observations, station history, and a short forecast, with daily call limits. There is no free general-purpose Weather Underground API anymore.
Can I send my station data to several networks at once?
Yes, and it is common. WeatherLink, CumulusMX, and WeeWX can all upload to multiple services simultaneously, so one station can feed Weather Underground, PWSWeather, and CWOP at the same time. Each upload is independent — adding a network never means leaving another, and it costs nothing but a few minutes of setup per service.
Do I have to choose between a network and my own website?
No. The two solve different problems: a network puts your readings on a shared map and, in CWOP's case, into research and forecasting; your own site is your public home with your name on it. Plenty of owners do both — upload to CWOP for the greater good, and point friends and neighbors at their own domain.
Ready for a site that is actually yours?
If leaving Weather Underground is really about wanting something of your own, Pro Weather turns a Davis station into a beautiful, ad-free website in about five minutes, with your data kept forever. No network, no server, no maintenance.