Contributor III
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Have Gaia…OnX pushes more and haven’t used it. What is everyone’s thoughts on an overall best navigation app? Could be another one also…
OnX or Gaia
- Thread starter Drudown
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zgfiredude
Rank VI
Steward I
I'll follow this one.....I use Gaia and Trails Offroad. I like meandering in TO looking for trails and finding some "difficulty" info and then pull it into Gaia for nav. But it appears that you can do both in OnX. I've been wondering about it as well.
Member III
I've looked at it a few times. The app is geared towards hunting. I never got the free week subscription to check it out because I need more time than that to play with it. Another thing to look at is, how long have they been around. I had a couple of apps years ago that really rocked. When the first one stopped being supported after using it for years, I found another one just as good. Years later that one stopped being supported and I found GAIA. Its been several years and its still being supported.
Something I look for is being able to easily make my own routes, the dirt roads need to be somewhat updated, good resolution when I zoom down and the ability to easily share my routes and way points. GAIA is better than some, not as good as others. I found more good than bad and it does everything I require. If you needed hunting area's, I'm sure you could drop a hunt map overlay.
Something I look for is being able to easily make my own routes, the dirt roads need to be somewhat updated, good resolution when I zoom down and the ability to easily share my routes and way points. GAIA is better than some, not as good as others. I found more good than bad and it does everything I require. If you needed hunting area's, I'm sure you could drop a hunt map overlay.
Advocate I
Are you sure you're not thinking of onX Hunt? onX Off-Road is a different app/service with different content.
I currently have both Gaia and onX Off-Road subscriptions, they're different enough that there's not tons of overlap in capabilities. My basic usage of them falls into 2 categories; Research and planning.
Research - onX Off-Road has some really good user-generated content to help locate good trails and locations. The downside is that it's mostly user-generated, so if there are little to no users in a given area/region there's not going to be content.
Planning - Gaia makes route/trip planning pretty easy, all of the different map overlays/layers are very helpful and they tend to be pretty current, the MVUM overlay is pretty important to be current. The current bummer with Gaia is that it doesn't have Android Auto support. Does have Apple CarPlay though, so you can navigate pretty easily if you have an iPhone.
onX Off-Road doesn't have any actual navigation functions other than displaying your location on the current map. It does have the ability to record your track so you can see where you've been, upload the track with pics and info, etc, but no routing/navigation. This is why it ends up being used for research and not route planning.
Gaia has various nav functions, one to get you to a trail/waypoint via the device's default map/nav app and the other is in-app navigation for routes defined in Gaia itself. This is why I use Gaia for the actual route planning.
Both offer the ability to access maps/routes on your computer via browser which gets synced to the app, but onX Off-Road's web functions are limited compared to the app. Gaia's web maps are fairly comparable to the app functions with some obvious things missing like nav.
I also have iOverlander as another source when out and about, but my current go-to apps/services are both Gaia and onX Off-Road. It's not like either are particularly expensive and they each provide good, useful info and features. I just wish Gaia would hurry up with Android Auto support.
Member III
That's what popped up when I looked at it.
To be sure I understand what your saying, I cannot plot my routes. I can only import routes/waypoints, view routes and track where I'm going.
Member III
Advocate I
Yeah, that was their first product, then they added the Offroad app/service. The Hunt and Offroad services are totally separate.
Correct, you can also manually add waypoints in the app by dropping pins but dropping multiple pins doesn't allow you to create a route. I wouldn't even call what's available "routes" since there's no nav, I would only call them tracks since they are pre-defined either by you or other users that share them by importing them.
Trails Offroad just released a new app. It is really nice. You can download entire states to have the trail guides for offline use! I will still use the Gaia GPS import feature for more detailed maps layers.
For the OP. OnX is dumping lots of money into their app. I prefer using Gaia GPS and a well-curated guide from someone like Trails Offroad. OnX is adding lots of trails and I think paying people a few bucks to write those trail reviews. I really don't know the details though. I still don't like the app but I still pay the annual subscription fee to see how it changes.
For the most part OnX only pulls difficulty ratings from what the government supplies in MVUM layer that OnX incorporates into its main map. You can filter by trail type based on the MVUM categories. You can't filter in Gaia GPS. I have never found this data all that useful and ALWAYS do more online research when mapping out longer overlanding routes anyway.
Advocate I
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I got a real good deal on OnX Offroad so I will use that since I'm just starting out. If I start getting more involved and taking more trips I will try Gaia just to really see what both have to offer and see which one suits me better.
North40overland
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Influencer I
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I am Gaia all the way. Absolutely the best one in my opinion. I love that it works really well on your PC when you are planning and building your routes. You can organize and save things really easily and then it just sync's with all your devices. I also love that it supports apple carplay so I can pull up the Gaia maps on my dash screen and use it the same way I would use Google Maps. I also like that it integrates with Google or Apple Maps so I can use it like a normal GPS. OnX is close but I think Gaia still has the crown, at least for now.
$31.99 with the discount offered on my website. $2 more than a standard OnX subscription. Or $68 dollars less than OnX “Elite”. Elite gets you some of what Gaia offers.
Steward I
Premium is $29 for Overland Bound members. Gaia GPS: Navigate, Track, and Explore
Advocate I
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Oh wow, I didn't know this, I might have to jump on this when my OnX expires. Thank you.
Member III
I have now used OnX on a few trips over a month. I uninstalled it this weekend. It has some real nice features but the few issues I have with it I cant live with. Over all its actually not bad. A person just getting into this will find it very simple to use. It seems that's where it shines. I can deal with a few quirks as long as they don't effect the functionality. Thiers did.
I'm not slamming the program, its just not for me.
I'm not slamming the program, its just not for me.
I use gaia for all my hiking trips. I use onx offroad for trail info. It's better and has more offroad features vs the onx hunt app
Traveler III
I'm using both GAIA and TO. No experience with anything other than Caltopo. Like the ability to sync TO with GAIA. Love the Apply CarPlay integration of GAIA. My criticism of TO is that they don't seem to have a lot of content in areas close to me that are popular offroading destinations. One glaring omission (to me) is the absence of the Monache Jeep Road. What I love about TO is the trail ratings and videos so that I can see the hard parts of a trail. Pulling an offroad trailer affects decision-making and TO helps with judgement.
Monache Jeep Road
Monache Jeep Road
Advocate I
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When you utilize CarPlay with Gaia, do have connectivity/accuracy issues? I don't believe iPhone has a GPS (?) or are you using a different device?
Thanks!
Traveler III
All iPhones have GPS. But when in the middle of nowhere, for redundancy, I have my iPhone connected to my InReach, and GPS, SOS and satellite messaging through my Earthmate app work anywhere on the face of the earth.
I've not had any connectivity or accuracy issues. The CarPlay aspect of GAIA is getting better.
