Off-road navigation app advise needed

[Gaurav]

Hi all, looking for your up-to-date take on off-road navigation apps.

I’m considering moving away from Gaia (since the recent acquisition, the experience hasn’t matched my needs) and want to compare what’s new on the market with similar capabilities.

Could you please share:

• App name & pricing (one-time vs subscription, any “pro” tiers)
• Key features: offline maps, satellite/terrain layers, GPX/KML import/export, waypoint & track management, accuracy/reliability, live sharing, 3D/contour/dune visibility, and device support.
• How it compares to Gaia: what’s better, what’s missing.
• Regional notes: map quality and reliability in UAE/GCC deserts.

If you have screenshots or sample GPX files, even better. Thanks in advance for helping me pick a solid Gaia alternative!

[Frederic]

Good topic @Gaurav and good to revisit.

 

Above i made an overview last year after doing lots of trials and tribulations.

If your decision is to stick to smartphone (no Garmin devices), then these options i can recommend and i use myself:

CALTOPO

+ Best website to organize and archive all your waypoints and tracks. (not the stupid folder type). This is my main program to store all my waypoints and tracks and never lost anything.

+ Phone application is fine to use which many custom map functionalities but there is a bit of learning curve.

- Offline download of satellite maps is only low resolution due to copyrights. This is a pending issue. Using it online works totally fine.

* Cost is 50USD/year if i remember correctly.

 

GURUMAPS (app only, no website)

+ Very easy to install and use the phone app to navigate.

+ Free version allows for basic use. 40USD single purchase for life

+ Satellite imagery works fine if you have data on your phone. The maps are not super crisp but not bad at all.

- No offline satellite imagery download option (only offline street and topo maps available). There is a workaround but it's quite complicated and i would not recommend (fetching MBtiles through Qgis)..

 

There is also an app called GoatMaps, which have been launched by the original founders of GaiaGPS, but it lacks a lot of the functionalities and is not running stable with me.

Then you have an app and website called Backtrackmaps, which surprised me with its ease to work with and the layout is similar to GaiaGPS. The only problem i see is that this is coming from a single owner / coder who made this, so i do not consider it as a professional platform. It has however lots of potential and might be worth testing. 

For any drive where i have data coverage, i use Caltopo and sometimes Gurumaps.

For offline navigation i use my Garmin 276cx as it allows me to download Birdview satellite imagery beforehand which is quite nice. Takes some planning but i like the device as it's bulletproof and never let me down nor overheated.

 

[Luke K P]

the Garmin Tread phone app is quite nice.
I have been using this for route mapping, organising waypoints, and tagging routes etc.
It is nice that the organisation is tag based instead of folders... so a waypoint or route can belong to multiple categories.
the downside is cannot navigate using the app, so really it is my 'master collection of data'

If only could navigate on the phone, I would give it 100% recommendation,. but then garmin would never sell a piece of hardware ever again.

 

whilst i use the garmin hardware when driving, i usually select the tags i have planned to drive near (waypoints, routes etc) and 'share' to gaiagps on my phone as a backup.

[Gaurav]

6 hours ago, Luke K P said:

If only could navigate on the phone, I would give it 100% recommendation,. but then garmin would never sell a piece of hardware ever again.

I agree, the Garmin price is quite steep.