FerryOrNot compares the ferry against driving around. Take the guesswork out of your decision — we check: live traffic, the boat you'd actually catch, the wait at the dock, and whether the drive-up deck will still have room. Save yourself time and frustration!
Ten Washington State Ferries crossings across Puget Sound. Independent, not affiliated with WSF or WSDOT.
Leaving now either way, the ferry gets you there 43 min sooner — driving around takes 1 hr 49 m.
≈$28 ($27 fare + $0.54 fuel) ›
A real Thursday, September 2026. The app recomputes every minute.
Bainbridge to Seattle is 33 minutes on the water or an hour and forty-nine around. Which one wins changes by the minute: I-5, a late boat, a cancelled sailing, and how many cars are already in the holding lanes.
WSF's own app shows the schedule and a space number — that's it. Map apps don't know when your boat is actually leaving, and none of them predict delays!
Only FerryOrNot looks at your whole journey, in real time, and tells you the quickest option.
The app's answer: take the 1:15 PM ferry, 43 min sooner.
The ferry option is four legs: the drive to the dock, the wait in line, the crossing, and the drive on the far side. The drive-around is one long leg with live traffic. The app times both from where you are and recommends one, with the confidence earned by analyzing months of ferry data.
Leaving now, take the 1:15 PM ferry — 43 min sooner.
Real readings from the app: two Thursday afternoons and a Monday night, September 2026. The live app recomputes every minute.
The default. Where you are, right now, both ways.
Plan the 4:30 departure with the boats and predicted traffic you can expect to actually find.
It works backwards: "leave by 3:40 to make it", and which boat that means.
Every recommendation carries named checks, each individually answerable. The confidence you see is derived from them, never asserted separately. If there's a check the app couldn't run, it says so.
Every crossing the engine looked at, and the drive, each with its outcome and a one-clause reason. A real check from a Monday night.
WSF's drive-up number counts cars scanned at the booth against a schedule slot. When there are disruptions, that number quickly becomes unreliable. Our backend has watched every sailing on ten crossings, every minute, since summer 2026. Three things it found:
Published 37% full. Actually over capacity.
When a boat fills or is cancelled, the cars already through the booth spill onto the next sailing, and their app's number for that sailing doesn't include them. FerryOrNot simulates the queue in physical order and says when WSF's number is misleading.
Their app stops at +5, but the boat is still loading.
WSF stops updating a sailing's count five minutes after its scheduled time, even when the boat is late and still taking cars. FerryOrNot's backend keeps counting and serves its own figure for exactly the time when WSF's app goes dark.
The next one sells out 54% of the time.
If the previous sailing sold out, the next one sells out about 54% of the time even when WSF's number still looks roomy. FerryOrNot warns; their app can't.
Measured on FerryOrNot's own telemetry across 18 route directions, summer–fall 2026. Space counts are advisory estimates, not guarantees.
Choose your journey, pick your boat. From that moment, the journey is checked continuously until you board, in the app and on your Lock Screen. If our recommendation changes — we tell you! Privacy first — no data ever leaves your device.
A reminder that fires to the minute even if the app was killed. The card goes on your Lock Screen the moment you commit, with the boat, the deck count, and the leave-by time.
"You can't reach the dock in time" is computed from where you actually are, not where you started. When a warning stops being true, the card says so: "your 7:05 works again." If the boat fills before you'd board, you hear that too, and the next option that still works.
As you approach the terminal, the Lock Screen card becomes your boarding pass: the real scannable QR, at tollbooth size, on the locked phone. No unlock, no tap.
The journey watch ends itself when the boat departs. Nothing runs on the far side, and nothing runs between trips.
One sailing, the 12:55 AM from Bainbridge, on a September night. The pass QR is a rehearsal code that links to the App Store listing; a real pass never appears on this site.
So there's no reason to keep a second one installed.
The whole dayEvery sailing on any crossing, with space on the right rail and late boats marked.
Open a sailingIts deck-fill curve against its own history, and "be in line by".
The fleetTwenty-one boats on a map, with a slider that scrubs the whole day.
Terminal camerasWSDOT's holding-lane cameras, stamped with the minute they were taken.
Service alertsWSF's bulletins, plus reduced-service cautions before specific cancellations post.
What the trip costsWSDOT's fare for the direction you sail, fuel from your own vehicle's EPA record, tolls read off the route. Nothing guessed.
The decision engine runs on the device.
The backend only sends data down.
Everything above. No free tier, no ads, no upsells.
Cancel in Settings any time.
TestFlight builds don't charge. The subscription begins with the App Store release.
About 5¢ a day.
Less than six percent of one car fare a month.
On a desktop? Scan to install.Payment is charged to your Apple Account. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use
Because the comparison is the product. No free app answers "ferry or drive, from here, now", and the watch that follows a commitment isn't a lookup feature. The schedules, cameras and space counts are here too, so nothing is missing.
No. It's an estimate built from WSF's count and our queue model, and the app says when it's unsure. Never a guarantee.
The location session starts shortly before you need to leave and ends itself when the boat departs. Nothing runs between trips.
The pass is cached, the timetable is on the phone, and the app says "Offline" rather than inventing a recommendation.
Port Townsend–Coupeville and the San Juans are covered for schedules and status. The app never promises a drive-up spot on a reservation sailing.
Ten crossings. Seven days free. Nothing about you leaves your phone.
