Favorite mapping app?

[roosiebull]

What is the preference for everyone? I assume onX is still the most popular for western hunting, mainly because they were there first, but has anyone tried and liked a different app better?

I just got spartan forge to check out, and very quickly noticed they have much better maps than onX… most of my elk hunting is on national forest, big mature second growth, mostly roadless, and a very detailed topo is the most important feature for me, and onX severely lacks there, compare the 2, and the areas don’t even look similar… onX will show a big area with spread out contour lines, I will drop down, and plan to side hill through it, and it will be drainage after drainage, not flat at all, and spartan forge shows exactly that… onX doesn’t

Who has ditched onX in favor of something else for elk hunting?

I don’t care much about features, I am fairly simple, I use topo contours for finding elk and covering ground, and I mark waypoints, seems like they would all work just as good for that, but it looks like there may be a difference between the different apps even for that

 

[Gerbdog]

Ive used "Basemap" and OnX..... pros and cons to both. OnX i think has better maps and has some nice icons to drop. I may be too dumb to figure it out, but i cant find an "arrow" icon for myself and which way im facing.... Basemap has the leg up on that..... Compass mode was the best i found in OnX which works fine.....

I like the interface of Basemap a bit better but im likely going to stick to OnX into the future and just adjust to it.

Basemap has a great layer feature

 

[wapitibob]

Spartan forge uses the same terrible sat imagery as gohunt in all the areas I hunt. I never use a topo map.
Basemap was cumbersome.
Gaia was ok when I used Google earth imagery but I never cared for the user interface.

 

[BBob]

I use GAIA, onX and a bit of Scout to Hunt. onX for simplicity but Scout to Hunt is pretty good for free and has better 3d than some of the others.

 

[roadrunner]

OnX. Not because it's my favorite but because I'm not interested in switching.

 

[ddd-shooter]

Topomaps+
Lots of available maps to download. Satellite, forest service Topo, usgs Topo, trail and road overlays, gmu overlays, public land and private land boundaries. Very useful

 

[mtnbound]

I used GoHunt maps, and the sat maps were brighter than OnX, but OnX 's topo maps had more detail. Due to a fire, I could see that both GoHunt and OnX sat maps were not current, but OnX was a lot closer to matching the timeline of after-fire conditions. I use CalTopo for SAR, but it has no hunting-specific waypoints. I also use Garmin maps, and Birdeyes sat imagery, which contains different levels of detail when compared to other platforms. E-scouting is much easier with any of the cloud-based platforms; this is where Garmin sucks.

 

[Ringbill27]

I’ve used BaseMap for years now and prefer it over on onx.

 

[Jqualls]

I am looking to find something to replace Onx. It worked fine in the basic free version for what I needed. I really only need a downloadable map and ability to mark locations (I used googlemaps for years prior to Onx). If I was hunting somewhere unfamiliar, I would definitely use their subscription plan but I dont need all the other stuff to hunt in my backyard. Now the free version basically has no functionality and you cant even export your old waypoints or tracks. They did give me a free trial subscription so I could export my data but rubs me the wrong way to get all your waypoints then basically lock them up.

If you use OnX or maybe any mapping application make sure to download to data into a file prior to your membership term if you want to use a different app.

 

[WCB]

I use OnX...easy to use...shows me the boundary, trails, and 3d and imaging is good enough. Not sure a guy needs more than that. I guess I also don't live and die by it either...phones dies or I forget to download a map...eh keep on hunting.

 

[Mikido]

BaseMap here. Usually you can find black Friday deals on it.

 

[Ross]

Gaia is very easy and if you just like topo only may be a good option.

 

[lundellhunting7]

I have been using onX forever but have slowly been converting to GoHunt

 

[Snow Doctor]

I bought Gaia many years ago so I have the Legend level I believe is what they call it. Now they've started cutting things out of that to force folks who already own it to go subscription. I don't want to be part of the Outside universe and want Gaia to honor what I bought and paid for. Can't recommend them anymore as even the base topo maps functionality is starting to go away.

 

[Mike 338]

I have On X but pretty much go with a map and compass.

 

[Mattyq17]

OnX but have thought about checking out GoHunt or Spartan Forge.

 

[kbincolo]

Google Earth + GAIA.
I have been using this combination for the last 3 years after using OnX before that.
Google Earth is still the best 3D option and "show viewshed" is unmatched. Any waypoints I set in GE I export to GAIA for field use.
I just received an OnX free extended demo from a product purchase and tried it out. I will not be going back. Some of the features like elevation bands were neat, but nothing I can't do on my own using topo line overlays. The 2d show viewshed feature was nowhere nearly as effective as Google Earth. Also, FWIW, I glanced at some of the OnX hunt statistics and some of the success rates were immediately obvious as egregiously inaccurate compared to CPW published data.