Carrot Weather gets a fresh new design and a bigger shift to subscriptions

Carrot Weather — the entertainingly antagonistic weather application from developer Brian Mueller — just got its latest version 5.0 update, which brings a whole new (and far more customizable) design, removes the upfront price tag in favor of more subscription tiers, and, of course, adds new dialogue and Easter eggs for the app’s malevolent AI character.

It’s been a few years since Mueller released Carrot Weather 4.0, and the new update brings a fresh coat of paint to the weather app, with more detailed data that’s broken down into individual cards for things like Moon phases, wind speed, precipitation, and more.

Image by Brian Mueller

Users are also able to fully customize the layout of those interface cards based on the information that’s important to them, and they can swap between different custom layouts easily. (For example, a frequent skier might want to build a layout that focuses on snowfall and wind speed forecasts.) Everything has been visually updated to be more in line with modern iOS UI standards so the whole app will fit more seamlessly alongside the rest of your apps.

The new app also is now free to use, instead of charging $4.99 upfront to use. Like the old paid version, though, there are still optional subscription services that can be layered on top for more functionality. A Premium subscription ($4.99 per month or $19.99 per year) adds additional features like selecting weather sources, notifications, widgets, and Apple Watch complications. Premium Ultra ($9.99 per month or $39.99 per year) adds notifications for rain and storms, more widgets, and better data source switching. And a Premium Family subscription ($14.99 per month or $59.99 per year) is the same as Premium Ultra but can be shared through Apple’s Family Sharing with up to five other people.

Image by Brian Mueller

If you’ve already been a Carrot owner, though, you’ll get to keep any paid features you already had forever, even if they’ve been moved to one of the pricier tiers. Similarly, existing subscribers to the old Premium Club memberships will be able to continue to pay those lower monthly or yearly prices.

The free version of Carrot Weather includes ads — but for now, they’re either for entirely fake products or for other indie applications. (Mueller says he’s not getting paid for those, either, but views them as a way of “giving back to the awesome indie developer community.�) That said, he notes that he may end up selling ads in the future.

Carrot Weather 5.0 is available to download now on the App Store.