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OnX vs Gaia GPS
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Hey, ready and willing to switch to OnX but still not there yet. I appreciate the support of this web site which adds value to the product. As well as rock climbing, mountain climbing, backpacking, skiing and hiking I do off roading in the West USA. OnX Off Road is pretty good but has not yet exceeded the general value of Gaia which has a bit more for multi-sport applications. Despite being $10 a year more I'm going to stick with Gaia another year. OnX Hunt premium with the land owner info is mind blowing but I would only use that feature about 3 times a year and can easily get by without it. At $100 a year it's pretty cool. Would consider it if the product were more interactive with guides on Mtn Pjt as far as access routes, etc. I know it's coming some day and when that day comes I will jump over. Overland travel by foot and back country skiing both on and off trails is super important. There are winter only ski routes in SEKI and Yose that have been there for 100 years yet not yet an overlay on any apps that I know of. (I don't know all of them). |
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I haven’t used OnX, but is their land owner layer any different from the Gaia ‘Private Land’ layer? You may already have that if you pay for Gaia. I imagine both are just a collection of parcel info that you can often view or download for free from a county GIS or tax webpage. |
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I did an OnX Hunt free trial and my mind was blown by the level of data. You can get the land owner name on record. Great for general survey work. A friend was uncertain of property lines she owned and the app could get you real close. Thanks for the tip on Gaia. After your mention I grabbed that app and there are hundreds of layers I didn't know about. It turns out I have the premium membership at only $40 a year I have access to all that. |
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Pretty fed up with Gaia myself, it's become slow as shit since the buyout. Sometimes it'll take a full minute to load in details after zooming in - web or app (even with downloaded tiles). |
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One of the downsides of Gaia is that it comes with a subscription to Climbing. |
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Caltopo does all of the above, and isn't trying to suck every ounce of data from you for their vampire corporate overlords. |
Christopher Lellis wrote: Oh look a bot shilling for onx, color me surprised. |
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I admittedly have no experience with Gaia, but I do have a lot of experience with onX Backcountry. It's got a few small annoyances, such as the route building feature snapping to the wrong place forcing you to wrestle with it too much, but the app works extremely well while you are out in the field. I know where I am and I know where I am going with onX backcountry, and have done some treks that others would call me a bit crazy for doing. It's a very legitimate tool for it's name sake, I'm quite happy with it. |
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Dang! That went dark fast. Hopefully we can get back to the regularly scheduled topic now please? |
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I use gaiagps and I like it a lot. I don't pay any money. I don't see any ads. I make the map on my computer and it shows up on my phone when I'm out in the field. the maps pop up when I have no service, and I have always had access to all my maps. if I have to make a route on my phone I can, but it's easier on the computer. I mostly use Gaia for when I'm going to an area that has no trails and I want to give myself an idea of where I think I should go to get to my objective. I also like combining known trails in to loops for mountain runs. so primarily for getting to new crags and long runs/hikes/jogs. it has always worked for me, YMMV. I have never used OnX. |
Christopher Lellis wrote: Mostly a Gaia user here. But good to hear about the other side, Christopher. And I’m no fan boy of OnX. :) |
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Use caltopo |
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OnX backcountry Premium has private land ownership records now too. I’ve been having a lot of OnX Backcountry crashes recently that are annoying. I’ll buy a monthly subscription to OnX Hunt from September-January though as it has Block Management Land (Montana) for private land hunting opportunities. I wish OnX Backcountry would use the OnX Hunt feature of “Recent Satellite Imagery”. I’ve used it to see when ice breaks up on lakes and trail conditions! |
drew A wrote: I've never used Caltopo, but I do want to explore it along with Gaia. |
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I have and use all three (Gaia, OnX, and Caltopo). I find slightly different use cases and strengths for each of them. While by no means an exhaustive review, my thoughts on each of them below. Gaia: My go-to app, and probably the one I would choose if I could only pick one. General reasons for liking it, in no particular order: -I like the base topo layer, and you can download huge areas at low file size so I don't have to constantly remember to download an offline map. For example, I currently have all of Colorado and Utah downloaded as the base topo layer. I never have to worry about getting lost on some random forest service road without service. It has a good mix of pure topo map, and points of interest/activities (camps, climbing areas, trails, visitor centers, random stuff like that). - It has a ton of layers - an almost overwhelming amount. It has different base layers, including their own worldwide topo layer, old FS and USGS topos, National Park maps, International source map layers. It has navigation/enrichment layers like slope angle, shaded relief, satellite (from Mapbox, not as good as Google), land ownership (public and private), US hunting layers (over 600 different state hunting information layers) and then also has up to date information layers including avalanche forecasts, active and historical wildfires, cell coverage, snow coverage, precipitation maps etc. If OnX does it, chances are Gaia does too, and more. You just have to dig for it a bit more and combine layers to get to the picture that you want. Caltopo also has a ton of layers too. - International maps: Gaia topo works internationally, with a surprising level of detail. I have been truly impressed at how good the topo maps were and how many points of interest it contained. I've used it skiing in Japan (a mix of the Gaia layer and the local Japanese maps it gives you), climbing in Canada, and most recently trekking and climbing in Patagonia and Nepal. When traveling in Patagonia a few months ago I had basically all of southern Chile/Argentina downloaded (another win for the efficient base map layer size). An astonishing number of climbing trails and bivys are marked on the base map layer. - The app works decently with IOS (bugs aside - more on that later). This is predominantly in contrast to Caltopo, which still feels like a desktop experience migrated to a mobile device. Maybe Caltopo works better on Android. OnX definitely has a more modern and maybe intuitive app, but once you get the hang of Gaia, its pretty useable. - It more or less functions as a true GPS mapping app, allowing me great flexibility in how I want to utilize it, building my own routes, applying layers, etc. - Things I don't like about Gaia: It seems like it has gotten noticeably buggier since the Outside buyout. It has stabilized a bit recently, but sometimes it can be slow or crash. Also support can be harder to access - the whole company culture definitely seemed to change. They began to experiment with "turn by turn" directions, which I think is the wrong move for a backcountry GPS app, and killed their previously very helpful "guide me" feature for routes. (On that note, I'd recommend Maps.me or the free open source copy Organic maps for offline turn by turn directions in the frontcountry, but that's a slightly different conversation). They seemed to have somewhat tried to move towards being an "online guidebook", like Alltrails, and have added some popular hikes as "activities". While sometimes its kind of handy to see what hikes are around in an unfamiliar area, overall its not what I look for in a backcountry GPS app, and I think it has contributed to the buggyness and slow down. If your primary use case is finding and downloading established trails, OnX or AllTrails is probably better. In Gaia foldering and organization is ok, but sometimes clunky and slow to use. The browser version can be slow and clunky, and doesn't provide much additional value over the app, but does allow for some bulk organization of items. The list price just increased dramatically for premium - from roughly $30/year to something like $60. Given the buggyness, I'm not sure that price increase was warranted. OnX: I just re-purchased a subscription to OnX backcountry on their sale to check it out. ONX seems to be trying to strike a middle ground between a true GPS mapping app (like Caltopo and to some extent Gaia) and an online guidebook, like AllTrails. Things I've liked/not liked so far: - My primary interest was seeing if the crag info can be saved for offline use, but it can't. In offline mode it is helpful for seeing crags around me, but then you have to go into MP to see details of routes, pictures etc. In online mode, it is a pretty sweet experience that allows you to see crags around you and double click to see routes, comments, pictures etc. If they can replicate that online experience in an offline mode - be able to download crag information for offline use - then it would be the ultimate app for climbers. - I'd give them a high grade for the effort they have made to map hiking trails, crags, ski lines, bike trails, etc and import it into the app. For the US, it is probably the best all-in-one resource for pre-mapped activities, and they are adding more content constantly. This has certainly met its pushback, especially in the skiing community, but lets get real: Berthoud Pass is not a secret, guidebooks already exist, the popularity of skiing, climbing and mountain biking has exploded in the last 5 years or so, and the future will be increasingly app based and digital/online. - They also have a couple nice layers for skiing that Gaia doesn't have, like the ATES rating and avalanche runout zones. I'll probably play with these more next ski season. - They have a really sweet 3D mode, even in the app, which can definitely help better visualize terrain. Gaia has a 3D mode, but only on the browser. - I don't have enough experience to say for sure, but it seems less buggy than Gaia. Google searching shows that users have had issues at various times with stability. My interaction with OnX Support has been top notch while Gaia's support has fallen behind a bit recently. Things I don't like: It seems like the download size of maps is bigger, as I don't think you can just download the base layer map, or choose which layers to include. This makes it harder to download large areas and you have to download area by area. For example, it seems like the max area I can download in one map is a little less than half of Colorado, and that's at the "low" resolution, for 2GB. With Gaia I downloaded all of Colorado with the base topo layer and offline routing data for 0.64GB. Not as many overall layers, or ability to stack layers at different opaque-ness. Not a big deal, but in line with their "guidebook" approach, you have to pick an "Activity" to use the map - Hike, Bike, Climb or Ski. You can toggle the visibility of those activities off the map to get a clean map to look at. No international coverage, I think its just US and Canada. I haven't really spent to much time digging in further. I may keep it around to A) be able to see at a glance what crags are around me when traveling or in unfamiliar areas and B) Play with some of the skiing specific layers next season and C) check in on the app's development: they are adding new features and functionality constantly, and a lot of them are quite nifty, and well executed when done. Its definitely the fastest growing app, and may become the best app in the future depending on what you are looking for and what features they add. CalTopo: I'll keep this relatively brief: this is the ultimate gps mapping tool for nerding out (without getting really technical like true arc-gis). Personally, I find the browser version to be the best out there, and don't use the app that often as I find it rather clunky on a phone. I primarily use Caltopo to build my own routes or explore new areas, and then export whatever I create into Gaia for in the field navigation. Among many, many other features, Caltopo has the ability to cut and merge tracks and routes, which is really handy sometimes. Most of the functionality that I actually use Caltopo for, like editing GPS tracks, is available in the free web browser, so really no need to buy a subscription since Gaia also has most of its premium layers. Anyway, those are my high level thoughts. TLDR: -Currently rely on Gaia the most due to its rich layer library, large area offline maps, international coverage and generally workable functionality. They run the risk of not innovating as quickly (or as well) as competitors, especially OnX. Not innovating as quickly can be forgiven if they stick to a pure backcountry GPS mapping app play, but if they continue to poorly roll out features that increase the buggyness of the app, they run the risk of becoming too unreliable. OnX is worth keeping an eye out as a well executed app that is doing an excellent job of becoming a powerhouse as both mapping app and online guidebook. They need to increase independent mapping functionality, including low file size base maps and more layer control, and expand coverage to international. Still, they are currently the best app for people who want a multi-sport guidebook app for hiking, skiing, climbing and mtn biking with GPS mapping functionality specifically for the US/Canada. Caltopo remains one of the best desktop resources, and has a very powerful pure GPS map tools, but the UI and readability of Gaia and OnX is a bit better on mobile. |
Mitch Steiner wrote: Tap layers button on the map > Layer Options > toggle to Hybrid or Satellite basemap > see "Preferred Basemap Imagery" immediately below basemap options > select Recent Imagery |
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Hey Tim N, that is an awesome comparison and analysis, thank you for that. I read every word. I will definitely reread this from time to time. When one google searches OnX vs Gaia vs CalTopo or some similar comparison, this very thread comes up close to the top. This is going to be seen quite a lot I presume. Valuable information. |
Zander Göpfert wrote: Oh! Well there we go!! Thank you! |
Christopher Lellis wrote: Thanks! I went in and made a few edits based on playing around with OnX a bit more. |
