Gaia GPS or On X Offroad?

[omnitonic]

I live in southern nevada, the majority of it is blm, it's all pretty much open land use, free range, except Nellis AFB and area 51. Come across catlle gates every now and then, general rule is "if it's open leave it open, if it's closed, close it after you go through.

The general rule I use in southwestern Virginia is that if it's posted, assume the worst. Meth is the new moonshine, and people still make moonshine too. Have you ever seen the movie Deliverance? I got a purty mouth, so I watch where I step out there.

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[DadJokes]

Gaia is easy and I think I pay about $40/year. (With access to private landowner name and property lines included btw)

I get free GPX files from the Overland Bound forum, Trailsoffroad.com (paid access version with more trails available), and some here and there through FB groups and other sites.

Trailsoffroad is great. Lots of descriptions and updates of the trails. I pay for the subscription version.

AllTrails is best for hiking trails in my experience. I pay for this too.

I might try OnX eventually but I’m loaded up right now.

 

[av8or]

I use gaia and love it. $40 a year and worth every penny. In eastern oregon there’s so much open space, and so little cell service it’s the only real way to efficiently navigate and explore.

 

[Suffolklou]

You can always find a discount for Gaia Gps. I had it first and use it the most, plus I use the apple car play. That said, you can do more on a phone or tablet than on the car play interface. I tried OnX and it wasnt bad, but I am more familiar with Gaia. Gaia has more layers, more than I will ever use but they are there if i need them.

The nice thing about trails offroad is that you can upload to Gaia from trails with one click now. They are the perfect companion for eachother.

I like that I can basically trace a line in Gaia on my desktop. save it and open the Gaia app on my phone or tablet and it shows up.

 

[Andy2434]

Another positive nod for Gaia.

 

[IslandNomad]

Paid Gaia user for many years here.

Unfortunately, Gaia has just been bought by another company , and it looks like its subscription fees will go up to $100 and ALL YOUR DATA, TRAVELS AND ACTIVITY will be mined by the company and shared with whoever they see fit.

This last part is likely a deal breaker for me, so unless they change their privacy policy, I will be likely ending my subscription and deleting the app.

Privacy policy link: https://www.pocketoutdoormedia.com/privacy-policy/#information-we-collect

 

[Steve F]

Gaia is in Android Auto beta, I have stayed away from it until now, works well on Android auto so got a subscription for a year to see how it goes.

 

[Chupacabra]

Gaia supports CarPlay, OnX does not. For me that's a big decision point if I can't show it on my in-car screen.

 

[AZ Hella]

I use Gaia and onX ( I’m kind of a geek ). Trails offroad has a new app. It seems pretty good So far. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trails-offroad/id1545278645

 

[DadJokes]

Paid Gaia user for many years here.

Unfortunately, Gaia has just been bought by another company , and it looks like its subscription fees will go up to $100 and ALL YOUR DATA, TRAVELS AND ACTIVITY will be mined by the company and shared with whoever they see fit.

This last part is likely a deal breaker for me, so unless they change their privacy policy, I will be likely ending my subscription and deleting the app.

Privacy policy link: https://www.pocketoutdoormedia.com/privacy-policy/#information-we-collect

Well, I definitely don’t care for that. Looks like I’ll be shopping for a new nav app after only 2 years. Remember when you could do business and weren’t worried about all the legal liberties someone could take with your information? You know…. uneventful transactions.

 

[BillWorkbench]

CarPlay was the deciding factor for me to pick Gaia. I love having a sat map on my Jeep display.

If you search YouTube for Gaia reviews you will find a coupon code to save some money.

 

[DadJokes]

Gaia supports CarPlay, OnX does not. For me that's a big decision point if I can't show it on my in-car screen.

I like it but it’s limited function and I’m not used to Gaia like that yet anyway. It’s definitely not a tablet as far as function.

 

[DadJokes]

I use Gaia and onX ( I’m kind of a geek ). Trails offroad has a new app. It seems pretty good So far. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trails-offroad/id1545278645

I wonder if Trailsoffroad people knew…I use them too.

 

[IslandNomad]

I am trying out a new app: OSMAnd It has both Android and iOS apps.

https://osmand.net

It seems promising so far. I am about to run a FunTreks trail in CO tomorrow. I downloaded the GPX file from funtreks.com, imported it into the app easily and it shows the route. I will follow it tomorrow and report back.

 

[IslandNomad]

Update on trying out the app OSMAnd : https://osmand.net

TL;DR: It works well and I recommend it:

• The interface is more intuitive and capable than GaiaGPS.
• You can easily set up and define profiles for ordinary driving, 4x4 driving, hiking, etc. and set up what is meaningful to display on the screen when using each profile.
• I downloaded the funtreks.com GPX file and it easily imported it. Thereafter, it routed me quite well to the beginning of the trail. During the drive, it showed the trail, where I was on it, and how much distance was left.
• The offline map worked well when I left cellular service. The online map worked well when I had cellular service, but the app become flaky and crashed when I was using an online map and the cellular service was flaky. I will write to them about this.
• It does support iOS CarPlay, but the display information is quite inferior to what is displayed on the smartphone. So I didn't use it.
• Once I got the app set up, I left it running for 9 hours without issues.
• It recorded my journey as a GPX track for the whole 9 hours. I will inspect it and upload it to openstreetmap.org to which I contribute map improvements.

After this experience, I signed up for an iOS subscription. The cost for the All inclusive Annual (1 year): $7.49/year!

So there is no comparison. Gaia GPS's new owners have become greedy. It's especially ironic that they use OpenStreetMap as their base source to derive their maps, but have now starting preventing their long time users from using OpenStreetMap as layer directly in the app.

The subscription gives me hourly updates too. Gaia GPS takes 2 - 3 weeks to turn around map improvements.

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