I agree with taking the time to learn Gaia especially for off road travel. However before I get serious about learning and using Gaia (or paying for the annual fee) I have a question. The new app that Overland Bound came out with: is it a replacement for Gaia? I don't understand if the new app is doing what Gaia does or it more of a community gathering app.
IMHO the new app will offer some of the mapping features but I doubt it will be as robust. It will also take time to develop and mature. Gaia has very high quality maps which they pay for and then “you” as the end user pay in the form of the subscription. If you are worried they will be equal pay for Gaia for only a year.
The main difference you might see is curated content in the OB app. Meaning a list of trails traveled by OB members will start to appear. With that said I will let the OB founders speak to what it’s app will or will not do.
On a side note:
OnX (competitor to Gaia) is doing a ton of marketing for its new Off Road Version it is nowhere close to what Gaia can do. Far less maps, can’t import tracks from the app, on and on. Lots of promises and yet to deliver.
I mention this because while I think the OB app will be great when it is ready to go live it takes a ton of work to develop a robust functional app, talented developers, and a lot of money. Don’t be fooled by marketing hype.