MarineTraffic

MarineTraffic makes the vast, often invisible world of global shipping visible to anyone with an internet connection. The platform pulls data from thousands of AIS receivers and satellites to plot ship positions on interactive maps, showing vessel names, types, speeds, and destinations in near real time. What started as a community project has grown into a commercial service that attracts millions of visitors each month. A basic tier remains free, giving casual users access to live tracking and a searchable database of vessel details including dimensions, tonnage, and construction history. Paid subscriptions unlock satellite coverage, advanced filters, voyage analytics, and nautical charts.

The mobile app, last updated in May 2026, carries a 4.5-star rating from over 120,000 reviews on Google Play. A well-known American talk show host once called MarineTraffic his favorite app, a piece of praise the company still highlights. Beyond hobbyists, the platform serves shipping companies, port authorities, fleet managers, and even open-source investigators. Bellingcat includes MarineTraffic in its online investigation toolkit, though the guide notes ethical concerns around vessel privacy and limits on tracking military ships.

Users can create custom fleets to monitor specific vessels, set alerts for movements, and view weather data layered over the map. The community contributes thousands of ship photographs, which other users can rate, building a visual archive alongside the technical data. By pulling back the curtain on maritime logistics, MarineTraffic has become a reference point for anyone curious about what moves across the ocean and when. [edit]