Gaia GPS Classic App Reviews

I was frustrated with Google maps and the lack of editing waypoints. Gaia has solved all of these issues and is a very intuitive app. Many, many overlays including radar make this an excellent tool while traveling or hunting. Topos, Google maps etc. are all available using Gaia. I emailed their development team and received two quick responses. Thumbs up!

Love this app! I have been using for all my hiking & snowshoeing. Quite useful for recording the trails & taking photos at the same time. For travelling, I use it to download street maps as well, because Google map doesnt allow download for offline navigation yet.

Yes, this is it: I dont need - and I dont want - my Garmin handheld GPS anymore. This app does it all, and it does it even better than every handheld GPS Ive tried before (the interface is so much more intuitive and user-friendly). I use the app mostly for hiking / trekking / snowshoeing trips, and its perfect (you can download the maps you need before you leave, so you can use the app while you are out there and offline - dont even need cell network nor wifi). But I could also use it for biking trips, and I believe it would work just as fine. Ive been testing it in Canada (mostly Québec) and in Northeastern US for a while now, and it has been working like a charm (I really dont understand the comments saying its "useless in Canada" - just learn to use it, and it will become usefull, youll see, its very easy, much easier to learn than most handheld GPS units with their weird and toyish interfaces). I also started to plan a trekking trip to North Africa / Europe with the app, and the maps are very accurate (you can use many different maps, but I mostly use OpenCycle topo map, which is great and much more accurate than the Garmin Topo for which you have to pay $150 or so – crazy! –, and you can even find trails and small dirt roads in the North African backcountry desert!!). You can see that map on OpenCycle website to get an idea. I did subscribe to Gaia PRO (free trial), and the app gets even more interesting, with satellite imagery (that you can also download and use offline!) and many other map sources. I really think both the app and the Gaia Pro subscription are worth every penny youll spend on them (but no, you don’t need the Gaia Pro subscription at all to fully enjoy the app). The only thing I didnt like at the beginning (and still don’t like, to be honest) is that you have to pay – get a Gaia Pro subscription – to be able to plan routes on GaiaGPS.com (the website / cloud, which is the "Bandcamp" of GaiaGPS, sort of) and then sync them into the app. For now, if you dont subscribe to Gaia Pro, you can only plan routes right in the iOS app, which is ok (its easy, sure), but it can be a real pain when you have a lot of planning to do (you have to spend hours in front of you little iPhone screen). To me, this route planning feature on the website is a very basic GPS use that should be free and open to everyone who paid $20 for the app. I also believe its the only reason why you might still want / need to use another software or website with this app, if you dont want to pay for a Gaia Pro subscription (you can plan your routes on the external software or website, and then import them in GaiaGPS app; its really easy). And sure, there are still a few things that could be improved. For instance, I would really like to have a "track recording interval option" (which you can find on many – most? all? – handheld GPS units). This would really help to save iPhone battery, and would be extremely useful for those who do extended backcountry trips without any access to power sources for many days / weeks, but who still want to track their trips. Its almost impossible to do right now, even with an external battery pack (the GPS tracking mode kills the battery way too fast – 7-8 hours or so with an iPhone 5, with everything else turned off). But this is the same on most GPS apps, I have to say, and maybe it’s also an iOS limitation. But these are really details, and overall, GaiaGPS is already a state-of-the-art GPS app. And I also understand it keeps improving very fast. The new uptdate (9.2) – which was the first update since I bought the app – really does improve several things (among others, it has a new and more intuitive Trip Computer to record your tracks). And there’s also a fairly big community of users who share their ideas on the feedback page to enhance the app. I have to say I usually dont write reviews (and no, I don’t know the GaiaGPS people). But seriously, this app is really (one of) the best thing that happened to my iPhone ever: it turned it into a awesome handheld GPS unit – with satellite imagery! – that I can use for all my backcountry and hiking trips. So I really wanted to take some time to share the good news and thank the GaiaGPS developers. And well, Im saying I don’t know the GaiaGPS people, but I don’t think I should really say that: I had to contact them at the beginning to get support with some features, and they were super-fast and super-friendly and super-helpful answering all my questions. I felt right away they were friends! (Thanks Josh!) So if youre looking for a GPS app for outdoors – hiking, backpacking, trekking, snowshoeing, biking... name it –, I really recommend you this GaiaGPS app. I tried a few others before – yes, Motion X is one of them –, but in my opinion, you just cant even compare, Gaia is the best all the way, and you’ll really get what you pay for. And if youre still not sure (like I certainly was before I bought it, a couple months ago), have a look on the website before, it will give you a much better idea of the app and how you can use it. And then, you’ll probably say "Goodbye Garmin" like I did a while ago...

This is my favourite app, period. Its easy to use, reliable, and accurate. I find it hard to believe only six people are behind this amazing piece of work. Not only that but the level of support and customer service they provide is unparalleled. Its exciting to see how eager they are to improve Gaias capabilities and functionality. Do not hesitate to spend the money on this app. Its the best money Ive spent and couldnt be happier. Ive enjoyed the developments over the years and look forward to what the future holds. Thank-you Gaia!

I have two other offline mapping apps I am using to compare here. Navionics, a boating map and PocketEarth, a roadmap. Both are reliable, quick, vector-based maps and I trust them to cache downloaded maps and display them without connectivity. Gaia is not like that. First, it downloads bitmaps, which means that the zoom level at which you download is important -it doesn’t scale well up or down afterwards. It is also horribly slow at displaying terrain and often leaves big gaping holes of blank spots. This is my main beef with Gaia - you never quite know if it is displaying something because it cached it or whether it’s just getting off the network. Of course, you can always take it for a hike and find out what it missed ;-) The other thing is that just gobbles storage space to, again, not cache very much. And, again, especially with the multiple layers, it’s never been particularly easy for me to tell what was actually downloaded where. If anything, I rely on PocketEarth more when hiking because at least I expect my maps to be available. Yeah, it will be a lot of blank green terrain with few markers of viewpoints. Nothing like a topo map. But at least it will be there and I will have rough idea of my position. Now, I know that both Navionics and PocketEarth work much better because they can get away with just loading vector, basically numerical data, for sea and roads. Terrain maps have it tougher, it’s not just keeping tracking of roads between cities, you need to track all the elevation and terrain info. So, I appreciate that Gaia has its work cut out. I just don’t happen to think that Gaia handles it particularly well, sorry.

The offline maps and way points are key for me. I use this app every time I head out on my dual sport and when scouting for hunting season. The cloud sync ensures I never lose my data. If you adventure in the outdoors, you need this.

Gets better and better all the time. I dont leave home without it.

I have used this app for more than a year. It is not reliable. I never know if it will record a hike or not. At the beginning it worked but with "upgrades" it has failed repeatedly. I am glad my safety does not depend on it.

Well designed app, I use it all the time when hiking, or exploring when traveling. Constant updates keep making it better!

After using the app I can say that it does almost everything. But.... The whole experience miss some finishing touch. The design is fine but there is a lot of pixel adjustment to be made. The web ui is there also but totally not usuable. I guess they like to have the feature list but guys... Take time to polish your software!

This app serves me well!

I use this app to track my snowmobile rides. I add pictures and I review it after. I didnt try the other app bcz this one is very good!!

This app is basically perfect as-is. I especially like the ability to plan out routes before you go, its such an intuitive process. Also I love how you can pre-download map regions and then extend battery life by going into airplane mode and using a delorme InReach via Bluetooth for GPS signal. iPhones can last days in this way. Fantastic and thank you for this app. Long time user - at least a couple of years. Keeps getting better!

I use it for hiking and off-road dual sport riding. I am a power user, and have put 200+ hours into this app. The Garmin is better only for BlueCharts marine navigation, but I removed the Garmin mount from my bike and Im exclusively Gaia now. It has been completely dependable for me. It is like Basecamp and a GPS unit rolled into one, you can do everything on your mobile. The app is very powerful at the expense in some cases of ease of use or simplicity, but theyve really tried to do the best they can and I cant think of how to improve anything once I figure it out and understand why theyve done something. My one complaint is that downloads for offline map storage can take a very long time. I strongly endorse this program and encourage people to share tracks in their free, publicly-accessible database.

This is the best complimentary app to ForeFlight for bush pilots. Adds all the missing features of ForeFlight. Map annotations (no fly zones like forest fires). Import waypoints. Categorize waypoints into folders. Offline hi resolution topo MNR maps even for Canada! Thank you for an excellent product and 1ˢᵗ class support!

The World Imagery Map is unable to provide any usable detail in Ontario, only scales down to 10Km. Topo map alone isnt always helpful to judge the terrain, satellite imagery overlay in greater detail would be quite useful.

Works awesome for flying in remote areas of Canada

I use it for snowmobiling! I am in northern Labrador and thats very useful to track snowmobile trails! Highly recommended!

Works flawlessly! Gives user tons of info! Simple to figure out. Bought a power monkey to allow use of Gaia on long trips Love it!

I ride snowmobiles in the mountains. This app has changed how and where I ride. I love it. Highly highly recommend over any handheld or other software, its that good.