Off-Road Ranger I
Correct. Paid by membership.
And don’t forget your Overland Bound discount.
https://www.gaiagps.com/overland_bound/
Gaia or....
- Thread starter Jopina7807
- Start date
And don’t forget your Overland Bound discount.
https://www.gaiagps.com/overland_bound/
Member I
Can anyone confirm how many devices you can use with one account? Between my wife and I we have 4 (2 phones 2 tablets) that we would like to use.
Traveler II
I have been a Backcountry Navigator Pro user for nearly 10 years now. It has been rock solid and it's use is completely second nature. Currently I am participating in a Beta test for Backcountry Navigator XE (a redesign of BCN) and am quite impressed.
Off-Road Ranger I
Gaia does not limit the amount of devices you can use to access your account.
Therefore, in your case, both you and your wife would be able to access the account via all 4 (2 phones 2 tablets) devices.
I've been using GPS units since the 90's and GPS apps on an iPhone for many years now. Hands down for backcountry exploration Gaia Pro is the winner. I do have the paid subscription and that gives you many more features such as overlays and additional map datasets. I see some complaints here about Gaia and will try to address a few. 1 - I never use Gaia for highway routing, there are other purpose built apps that are better at that. 2 - Download all the maps you want while in cell coverage or better yet while on wifi. Remember that you'll only download the layer you are viewing - i.e. USGS Topo or Aerial or whatever. Also zoom to level you want downloaded. 3 - I don't use any app for logging tracks. My logs are of hikes or backpacking trips and I use a standalone GPS data logger that way I don't kill the battery on my phone. With all this being said I have several other gps and mapping apps on my phone. Never hurts to have redundancy. Also, learn to use the Caltopo website to create tracks or waypoints and then you can load them into Gaia using Dropbox.
Contributor III
Hey Konza i have bcn pro i got very frustrated with it because i could not loadareas of any significant size to any detail there seemed to be some kind of unlisted fike size limits! Do you know if that is true? Does the new program eliminate that defect? MuY goak is ti hsve the western us on one device tona zoom level 15 or better. Can it be done? Because like my avatar i never know exactly where the road/ trail will take me
Why I have loved GAIA GPS for years. The development team at Gaia knows how important the off-road abs overlanding community is for them. They continually improve the product. New improvements to the MVUM and USFS MAP layers are now available.
Until i can get the whole western usa on asingle 128 chip at a detail level 15 without 100,000tile down load limit ill use a standalone gps gaia is not the only one who hasnot got that figured out yet No monthly fees please!
I have never had a need to download an entire part of the country. Maps change all the time. New layers come out. Trails open and close. So I download the areas I need and keep them for a year. Then if I return I delete those and download current versions. While most of the stand alone GPS can offer "entire coverage" of an area they likely don't provide the level of detail you are seeking.
It takes money to develop maps. Depending on the map layer the developers of apps have to pay fees licensing fees as well. Depending on the layer the more you download the more they have to pay. I don't find it practical to not to expect fees. Yes, there is a difference between one time vs annual vs monthly. MVUM Maps change annually. If you want to be legal with an electronic map you will need to find a source for them. There is an OB member which has taken the time to provide a source. I think it is free but I also think folks should be willing to pay for his time. Paper maps from the Forest Service are available as are PDF versions. Takes more effort but they are "free."
An app like Gaia allows folks to download a variety of map layers as required. After years of not really using them I am finding satellite imagery more useful.
Everyone has different needs but I have found all of the phone and tablet apps to be far more robust than anything offered as a stand alone device.
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Member I
I've been using Hema Maps and like it pretty well. Recording tracks keeps a lot of data. They hadn't updated the app for a long time, but finally did and now it works well on my iPhone 8.
I need to mention OpenStreetMap – the open source/crowd sourced mapping project. I love it. I enjoy contributing. It is used by Gaia and many other Apps because it is hard to beat hundreds of thousands of volunteers all over the globe.
For hiking/backcountry I use OruxMaps, for car navigation I use OsmAnd.
And, yes, with OpenStreetMap, you can have it all, free, as in free beer, no subscription, and free as in liberty to do whatever you want, download all the detail you want that fits on a chip in a modern device.
I never used Gaia, but you are paying for the user experience, and ability to combine other map sources, nicely, in one place. You don’t need the “best”, free beer and liberty is good enough.
For hiking/backcountry I use OruxMaps, for car navigation I use OsmAnd.
And, yes, with OpenStreetMap, you can have it all, free, as in free beer, no subscription, and free as in liberty to do whatever you want, download all the detail you want that fits on a chip in a modern device.
I never used Gaia, but you are paying for the user experience, and ability to combine other map sources, nicely, in one place. You don’t need the “best”, free beer and liberty is good enough.
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I beta tested Gaia back in the early days. Great people. Great features continually added for that I would gladly support a subscription service, as my other GPS apps have gone the way of the unpaid developer. But you get all the basic features other apps give you free just all the good stuff comes at paying for a team to keep it working, as a mobile dev myself this is key to keeping any app alive and good...
Plus I am a GIS snob, so I have loaded more base maps than most..its like an addiction....so far its one of the only apps to allow me to overlay multiple maps to create a better map that either one would be separately...
Hit me up if you are still on the fence I have might have a few promo codes left...
Plus I am a GIS snob, so I have loaded more base maps than most..its like an addiction....so far its one of the only apps to allow me to overlay multiple maps to create a better map that either one would be separately...
Hit me up if you are still on the fence I have might have a few promo codes left...
Hema hasn't been updated in over a year. It is a dead app. At some point it will no longer run on iOS.
Openstreet is just one of the many layers available in Gaia GPS. The National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps are a good example of a premium map layer. You are correct Gaia offers OpenStreet and encourages users of the app to contribute to that database. But they also offer a lot more. If you don't need it, cool, but the two are not the same. I prefer the Mapbox Streets HD over Openstreet. As a individual user you can create custom maps as well including Google Maps.
Maps for Hiking, Trails, Hunting, Camping, 4x4, Cycling | Gaia GPS - This lists all of the available map layers in Gaia GPS.
Orux is a decent app for Android. I haven't used it in a long time. Only thing I found problematic with it was downloading maps for offline use. Maybe the UI has improved.
I've noticed BCN for iOS is still vaporware. That's too bad. Competition is always good.
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Mapbox is OpenStreetMap so you can't prefer it. (: The data that is, you may prefer the rendering. That track I personally added to OpenStreetMap is what you see in Mapbox. I will also note that convergence of detail is ongoing, some of the layers in Gaia, the government sources (USGS/USFS/NPs) that are under Open Data are already added/imported or continue to be added into OpenStreetMap.
As for Google Maps, don't know, are they even a consideration in this space, remote and offline applications? I'm not sure they can compete in this space. I gladly gave up on Google Maps altogether.
I'm sure Gaia is wonderful, and liked by this cohort, and good for them to support OpenStreetMap because they actually depend on it.
It is fascinating how this all works and how it is fragmented - I'm all geeked out.
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Member I
I've just been talking with their support staff today about an issue I saw. They still seem to be supporting it even if they haven't updated it in a long time.
There have been lengthy threads on topic. Answering a phone call or email isn’t the same as actually supporting an app. I can’t elaborate further (nda). If you’re happy with it great. I’ve had plenty of apps through the years get abandoned. It’s a simple heads up. If you have important GPX files I would make sure you have local copies.
