OSMAnd vs. Organic Maps

https://blog.firedrake.org/archive/2025/09/OSMAnd_vs_Organic_Maps.html

by icheyne • 11 months ago

121 85 11 months ago

blog.firedrake.org

NoboruWataya• 11 months ago

It calls Organic Maps new (and the article is recent) but Organic Maps has been around for a while now?

FWIW I prefer Organic Maps for casual usage - I think OSMAnd is very featureful but the UI is less intuitive IMO.

jraph12• 11 months ago

It's been around for some time and is a fork of Maps.me, which was called MapWithMe before this.

77pt77• 11 months ago

Which is now completely filled with advertisements and limit on how many maps you can download.

It went from great to very intrusive.

carabiner• 11 months ago

What do you use Organic Maps for? Driving directions, walking, hiking, cycling? All of those or something else? It doesn't seem good for hiking because it's missing so many basic metrics that Gaia has (elevation data, different speeds like rate of ascent). I've got a rough impression that it's mostly suited for urban European locales for walking directions, but in the US I only use mapping apps for driving (turn by turn directions) and hiking in mountainous wilderness (as opposed to some places in Europe that had nearly urban "hiking").

0xbadcafebee• 11 months ago

AllTrails is better for 99% of activities and way easier to use. If you want some kind of uber-specific feature, use case or location, there is usually one app that is better for that (like onX for hunting/fishing, or Yahoo Maps for... Japan)

jraph12• 11 months ago

I use OrganicMaps / CoMaps for hiking. It has contour lines, it gives an elevation gain graph when you build an itinerary, and does seem to take the elevation gain in account when estimating time. I have not planned complex hiking itineraries with it too.

OSMAnd also has interesting features for hiking.

jraph12• 11 months ago

And now we have CoMaps [1], an Organic Maps fork.

I have both OSMAnd and CoMaps installed and started with OSMand, but I see myself reaching for CoMaps exclusively now.

Both apps are very good.

[1] https://www.comaps.app/

chris_overseas• 11 months ago

There's some backstory to the CoMaps fork that is detailed here: https://openletter.earth/open-letter-to-organic-maps-shareho...

Disclaimer: I don't know anything about this other than having seen the above link mentioned in a comment elsewhere as to why people should switch to CoMaps.

vzaliva• 11 months ago

I am sympathetic to the motivation for forking CoMaps, but their website, aside from a few vague statements, does not give me any reassurance that they are better governed. Who are these people (names)? How are they incorporated, and where? How are donations spent? How is the development direction decided? Until these points are clarified, I am hesitant to switch to CoMaps.

mfsch• 11 months ago

From what I can gather, they are not yet incorporated and they are working through organizational questions in [1] and the issues thereof. The `ACCOUNTS.md` file there gives an idea about the main people behind the project and the donation page on Open Collective [2] also documents team members and how they spend those donations.

[1] https://codeberg.org/comaps/Governance [2]: https://opencollective.com/comaps

mountainhiker• 11 months ago

This is publicly available:

- People who are regularly contributing to the project: https://codeberg.org/org/comaps/members

- Not yet incorporated, plans likely to have a non-profit in Europe.

- All donation spending is on OpenCollective - https://opencollective.com/comaps

- People who want to contribute to the project can just do so on Codeberg, there is no master plan, people just discuss the work, anyone can provide input : https://codeberg.org/org/comaps/members

For comparison, Organic Maps shares nothing about donations and is opaque about direction and decisions. If those question need to be answered before using an app, then it may be time to drop Organic Maps.

neilv• 11 months ago

Recent HN thread on the fork of CoMaps from Organic Maps:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44994927

thisislife2• 11 months ago

Note however that unlike Organic Maps, CoMaps lacks support for old devices. Without Organic Maps, an old iPad would be a useless junk instead of a great navigation aid.

jraph12• 11 months ago

On Android, CoMaps works on Android 5, which is not bad at all. But they are probably going to drop support for Android 5 soon because libraries might themselves drop support for Android 5 (Organic Maps will probably have the same issue).

https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps/issues/1274

deepsun• 11 months ago

One of the best map apps I saw is Mapy.com -- same OSM database, but works way smoother and looks better than OsmAnd. Less features, of course, but 99% of time I just need to see the map.

fisiu• 11 months ago

It's better known as mapy.cz Indeed, works really well, I use it mostly when hiking or cycling, but it's also helpful when sightseeing. It provides all details from OSM tiles when needed.

vanous• 11 months ago

Do note that mapy.cz is not open source and that they started moving more and more features into their subscription based paid offering... The beginning of enshittification.

timeon• 11 months ago

Mapy are (that name is plural) cool but as I remember the app requires account.

rafram• 11 months ago

that name is plural

As is Google Maps, but nobody says “Google Maps are…”

ximeng• 11 months ago

They have a really nice feature I haven’t seen elsewhere to find a circular walking/cycling/ski route of a certain length. Useful to get ideas on where to go if you have some time for a walk or ride in an area you’re not entirely familiar with.

xigoi• 11 months ago

Note that Mapy is built by a spyware company, just like Google Maps.

charlie-832• 11 months ago

An important thing to mention is that OSMAnd has multiple (somewhat confusing) paid tiers.

Since its FOSS you can presumably just compile it yourself if you wanted to bypass the paywall (the ethics of this are left as an exercise for the reader). However, Android Auto support is behind the paywall and Android Auto only works with apps downloaded from the play store.

OSMAnd definitely has more features (especially with the paid tiers) but, personally, I just wanted to get from A to B and I actually struggled to work out how to do that in OSMAnd which didn't give me a great impression of it.

I have both installed since I can imagine OSMAnd being better if I was planning a hike or something, but for day to day navigation CoMaps (Organic Maps fork with better governance)

Vinnl• 11 months ago

Since its FOSS you can presumably just compile it yourself if you wanted to bypass the paywall (the ethics of this are left as an exercise for the reader).

You don't even have to do it yourself - F-Droid does it too. (Which is why it's called OSMand~, as a nod to OSMand+.)

nine_k• 11 months ago

I frankly don't see any trouble in paying for open-source software once. I see it as a way to support the development. I often buy "premium" versions even if they add nothing on top of the OSS version.

As of OSMAnd, $40 might look like a steep price even for a lifetime unlimited license, but they regularly run sales where the same costs $25.

jazzyjackson3• 11 months ago

I’m pretty sure I’ve spent more than $40 on paper road atlases, and last time I updated the offline maps on my Toyota it cost me a $220 for the SD card from OEM, so a lifetime license is a steal.

shellfishgene• 11 months ago

I paid for OsmAnd+ a long time ago, now it asks me to pay a monthly 2.99 Eur for OsmAnd Pro it seems?

kivle• 11 months ago

Even if you buy it, they will still constantly nag for you to get their subscription service. And they arbitrarily lock most new features behind it, like 3D views and such.

sorenjan• 11 months ago

One killer feature in OSMAnd is the ability to add new maps layers. It's possible to find Strava's heatmaps as overlays (unofficially), which can be really helpful for instance.

kelnos• 11 months ago

Since its FOSS you can presumably just compile it yourself if you wanted to bypass the paywall (the ethics of this are left as an exercise for the reader).

Why would this be unethical? If the licensing -- that they explicitly chose to release it under -- allows this, then what you are really paying for is the convenience of someone else doing the build for you, and getting automatic updates. If you don't value that enough to pay, then it's perfectly reasonable -- and ethical -- to build it yourself and get the paid features for free.

(Not saying I'd do that; I do value someone else building and updating for me, and also appreciate the difficulties in funding open source enough that I'm fine parting with some cash for useful stuff. But I wouldn't look down on someone for doing a self-build.)

scheeseman486• 11 months ago

If you download OSMAnd from F-Droid you get all those features for free, except for Android Auto integration which isn't the fault of the developer, but because Google arbitrarily restricts anything not using GMS from working with it.

charles_f• 11 months ago

I have used osmand for a long time, but one thing that really broke it for me is when Android removed the ability for apps to read other apps data, thus making it impossible to backup track records with folder sync

I think it can be fixed by configuring where to save these. But I find it interesting that one os change in the api can have a somewhat remote impact on feature use.

risico2• 11 months ago

I've been trying really hard to get off Google Maps and almost managed to do it, but one thing that Google Maps offers and the others are not even close (at least for me) is discoverability.

For example if I am out riding some trails and then I want to pop out of the wilderness to grab a bite only Google has been able to provide good information of whats nearby (reviews help a lot as well).

Other than that I've been switching between OsmAnd and Gaia GPS (and Garmin built in device maps).

pferde3• 11 months ago

I guess that's country-specific. Over here, Google Maps has woefully outdated business info, apart from big names like McDonald or Starbucks. And I'm not even talking about building shapes, sidewalks, paths, or even roads.

Meanwhile in OSM, everything is much more detailed and kept up to date. I know, because I'm a mapper myself, and help keep it that way.

Google Maps seem like just another ad platform, for companies to pay if they want to be shown in higher zoom levels.

koyote• 11 months ago

Just so I know for future travels: where is this and what do you use instead?

So far I have seen Google Maps be pretty useless in parts of Asia with their own software infrastructure (e.g. Korea or Japan) but it's been very useful in most Western countries.

risico2• 11 months ago

Google Maps seem like just another ad platform, for companies to pay if they want to be shown in higher zoom levels.

I know, mostly that's my pet peeve as well and I guess I got trained to see through the noise. It is the last Google product that I am struggling to get rid off.

I guess that's country-specific. Over here,

Where is that?

I am slowly trying to get move to OSM backed apps and hoping to put in the effort as a mapper/contributor as well.

31337Logic• 11 months ago

I use exactly this feature (and for the exact same reason!) and Organic Maps has been more than helpful for me. Search, Categories, Food, and then View on Map.

jraph12• 11 months ago

Yep. And, unfortunately this is a bit hidden, but if you search "Vegetarian" it finds places where you can eat vegetarian and "Vegan" for places where you can eat vegan. I wonder how many hidden magic search strings like this there are, I'll report an issue for CoMaps to make them discoverable.

orbital-decay• 11 months ago

What I don't like in Organic (and by extension CoMaps) is curve and polygon rendering. If you put it side by side with OSMAnd, you can see how crude they look in Organic.

dvdkon3• 11 months ago

Personally I've settled on OSMAnd, due to its extra features (e.g. hillshading and map configurable hiking trail display) and better (IMO) map styles. The Topo style is one of my favourite styles for hiking.

It has two downsides not mentioned in the article: OSMAnd's maps are noticeably larger, and the renderer is much slower.

pavon• 11 months ago

I have both OSMAnd and Organic Maps installed, but I usually end up reaching for OSMAnd. I like the softer color scheme of Organic Maps better, but not the decrease in detail. Neither are perfect about choosing when/where to draw street names, but I have to zoom/pan a lot more to find them in Organic Maps.

Also, the address search on OSMAnd used to be much worse than Organic Maps, but it has improved, and I actually prefer it over Organic Maps now.

polairscience• 11 months ago

Related but annoying question. What are you all using for public lands access and land ownership? This is a similar problem where the paid/closed apps (OnX et al) have very good data but serious issues for obvious reasons.

khimaros• 11 months ago

there is a plugin for US data in OSMand which can be enabled for BLM, USGS, and some others

aqfamnzc• 11 months ago

Caltopo is great for this. They require a subscription to download (raster) maps but you can cache a bunch of tiles before you leave to get the gist. These days this is one of the very scarce use cases I don't use OSMand for.

stevage5• 11 months ago

I use Osmand a lot. It work well, but I dearly wish they'd improve some UX issues.

I always seem to have the map telling me how far it is to some temporary marker I placed months ago that I can't easily work out how to remove.

Also any time I do navigation, the Trip Recording plugin pops up as a sticky system notification even when I haven't enabled trip recording.

But the offline navigation is a killer feature, and following custom GPX's.

lmm3• 11 months ago

I always seem to have the map telling me how far it is to some temporary marker I placed months ago that I can't easily work out how to remove.

You can either tap the marker and tick it off, or use Menu -> Map markers if you can't find it. You can also use Menu -> Configure map and turn off Map markers completely.

Also any time I do navigation, the Trip Recording plugin pops up as a sticky system notification even when I haven't enabled trip recording.

Hmm, it does pop up every time for me but dismissing it works.

stevage5• 11 months ago

Yeah figured out the map marker thing now. Ticking it off didn't really help because it then just switched to the next one.

Just one of those things where the default behaviour isn't great and relies on the user to reconfigure.

nicman23• 11 months ago

did they implement A* for offline pathing? i remember they were thinking on it and what was in place was oom on my phone

stevage5• 11 months ago

I don't know what algorithm is used. Mostly I'm using it in pretty simple situations like working out the distance to the next campsite along a hiking trail.

mnmalst• 11 months ago

You can disable the notification. Took me a while to find this as well.

Menu > Plugins > Trip Recording > Settings > Notification (Second to last option)

stevage5• 11 months ago

Thank you!

pbsurf3• 11 months ago

I've been building https://github.com/styluslabs/maps with support for 3D terrain, custom layers, and plugins for search and routing.

Vector tiles are generated and served on-demand by https://github.com/styluslabs/geodesk-tiles so there's no need to download an entire country or region first.

jazzyjackson3• 11 months ago

Wow the readme looks very impressive, would love to try this on my next off grid trek

Is it just you building it, is there a business behind it?

pbsurf3• 11 months ago

No business, just me!

kabes• 11 months ago

But can you download a country up front? For offroad motorcycle trips I often get in to areas with no mobile connectivity

pbsurf3• 11 months ago

Yes, you can download any region and set of layers for offline use.

jraph12• 11 months ago

A good OSM app for desktop is sorely needed, I'll be sure to check this out. Thanks for building this as free software and for making it available on Linux. Nicely detailed README as well.

You should probably submit a Show HN.

edit: just checked it out, building and running it on Linux was very easy. Nice!

dvdkon3• 11 months ago

A new maps app and a revival of Tangram ES from the developer of my favourite note taking app, I'm glad I checked this comments section :)

And I see you open-sourced Write, thanks!

maelito• 11 months ago

Why not Maplibre ? I'm curious.

jazzyjackson3• 11 months ago

I couldn’t make heads or tails of how to navigate with OSMAnd until thumbing through GitHub issues and finding out about https://opensupermaps.com/ which, after importing a few gigabytes of text files, allows general search of street addresses - not a great learning curve for adoption!

What I’d really like to do is copy the old school car GPS interface of, select state, select city, select street, house number, where at each stage it narrows down the list of possibilities so you only have to type 3 or 4 letters before auto completion. If there’s any pull request I would make it would be to build that out using the open super maps database

SchemaLoad• 11 months ago

Modern maps apps basically do this for you by using your current location or currently viewed area to automatically put the current city results first.

dvdkon3• 11 months ago

Maybe it depends on regional data availability, but here in the Czech Republic, that's mostly how search in OSMAnd works: You search for a town, then a street, then a house number. I don't know why it only works for you after importing third-party data.

Almondsetat• 11 months ago

The only reason I have OSMAnd installed along with OrgMaps is for those occasions when I want to find water fountains nearby, since you can filter by object type

jraph12• 11 months ago

You have this in the category search on Organic Maps and CoMaps as well :-). This, and toilets.

mastermage2• 11 months ago

My problem with OSMand even though it is immensely powerfull is the rendering speed is so slow. Sometimes i just want to have a quick look where I am, but it takes so long to load higher detail levels.

gausswho• 11 months ago

Have you tried it since the vector map release a few weeks back? I found it greatly improved rendering performance.

jdnnndnxh• 11 months ago

Which version does carry this release and does it have to be manually activated?

I'm running 5.1.3 and it's rendering is awfully slow

jraph12• 11 months ago

What do you mean the vector release? OSMAnd has had vector maps forever (since the beginning?). Did they change the rendering?

sohkamyung• 11 months ago

I still use OSMAnd because it can take photos (with GPS coordinates) at waypoints while recording a track.

I use this to take photos of images from my DSLR while on nature walks.

I later download the waypoint photos and upload it to iNaturalist to get the location information I need to link the location to my higher resolution camera images.

More reliable than linking my camera to my phone (via Bluetooth) to record the location info.

globular-toast2• 11 months ago

JOSM, the OSM editor, has a clever way to do this. It links photos to locations on your track using the timestamp of the photograph. The only problem with that is the time on the camera is probably off by a bit. So to solve that you just take a photo of the time on your GPS device at some point in your walk (usually the start). That's then used to determine the offset to align everything.

metalman• 11 months ago

That was unsettling, I downloaded OSMand, which determined my location is spite of my dissabling everything possible related to location on my phone, and then wanted another 100megs for my area on top of the 150 for the app, which means that it is worse for time and data than just useing osm, when looking at areas all over the world, which I do daily. I am looking at one(or more) of the newer 2 Tb, ultra mini ssd's that I would then consider building into my franken phone that works as my mobile data wifi hotspot for all of my other devices, as I realy realy want a local copy of OSM, and Wikipedia, all of it.

OSMAnd vs. Organic Maps

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