Gaia, Basecamp, OnX, GPS?

[Jethro]

I have always used Gaia for overlanding but everyone I hunt with uses onX. What drives your preference for onX?

I find OnX to be much more user friendly, and I had Gaia before I had Onx.

I know Gaia has tons of layers, way more than I'm interested in, but I honestly don't care for the way you manage what is active/inactive/in library. One of the main reasons is Onx imagery is much sharper detail.

So Gaia has just been my back up and price increased this year. I actually just canceled my plan as it was set to renew on Wednesday.

 

[caseybratten]

Do you have onX elite? I like not having to limit the number of places I can plan routes and download offline maps without paying 100 bucks a year.

 

[Jethro]

Me? Yes I have elite. I have always renewed onx with a coupon code, so 70-80$ is the cost. I use it often laptop and app. Its worth the price to me.

 

[caseybratten]

Gotcha, with Gaia going up and all my buddies on OnX it might be time to make the switch. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[SharkDog]

I have always used Gaia for overlanding but everyone I hunt with uses onX. What drives your preference for onX?

I used Gaia for years, first free and then paid, but I switched to OnX last summer. Gaia was getting glitchier and glitchier. I was having trouble with downloaded maps, particularly.

OnX has been a more seamless experience for me. I used OnX for one year around 2017 and it has improved alot since then.

 

[taskswap]

Additional Research over on apple forums seems to indicate that iPhones do have stand alone gps chip set but also rely on cell data for support. It works without cell but not as quick or accurate as full on gps units. Some talk about the iPhone 14 may be an improvement?

They absolutely have GPS chips. (Nearly all modern phones do, if they cost >$100). But when cell phone networks (and other known signal sources like Wifi hotspots) are reachable, it's much faster and takes much less battery power to use those instead. They can often show your position "instantly" (within seconds) after being turned on where a lot of GPS devices can take a minute or longer to get an accurate fix, and often don't work indoors at all. When a GPS device does seem to locate you instantly, it's often showing you the last/cached position - if you turn it off and drive to another trailhead, it can take awhile to re-acquire.

Not saying either is better or worse. You have to decide which is best for you. I love using my phone for this - I like the elegance of having only one device to charge and use, the wide range of apps (on Android I don't even use OnX, I use Locus Pro and Caltopo, which sync to their Web apps much better and ofter more tracking stats) and there is a big weight savings as well obviously. But if you don't mind the 10oz or whatever your device is, and prefer a dedicated unit, who's to say what's right for you?

 

[FoggyScope]

I use onx, i have tried gaia, basemap and go hunt. I think onx is superior, though they all have small differences. I like gohunt on the computer. The biggest problem ive had with onx is issues without service and the fix i found is to be in airplane mode if you think you might loose service.
On the property lines im not sure as its common for fences to be in the wrong place slightly, so it can be hard to tell but 90% of the time they match up to the map so i figure its the fences not the map.
Gps tracking is pretty much right on with my old garmin 64 handheld gps as far as i can tell on all 3 map apps.