Gaia GPS is built for people who are offline and dirty – hikers, hunters, offroad drivers, geocachers, trailrunners, researchers, and other woodsy people. Motion-X GPS is a good, cheap tracking app, and it appeals to a more urban audience than Gaia GPS.
Our price is higher because we have features and maps for our special audience that Motion-X does not have. Buy both apps and compare – you can send us an email at support@gaiagps.com if you want a refund for Gaia GPS, for any reason.
Topo And Aerial Maps
There is no comparison between the maps in Gaia GPS and Motion-X.
Motion-X has stock maps you see in any app. Gaia GPS has the very best topo maps of the world, including government topo maps and international topo maps of the world, along with multiple sources of aerial imagery you can download for offline use, topped off with a big catalog of things like geology, public land, and National Park maps.
GaiaCloud
Motion-X GPS doesn’t have modern syncing capabilities like Gaia. In Gaia GPS, you can share links to any tracks or photos (Dropbox-style), and have your data synced across all iOS devices, computers (or even Androids), backed up to GaiaCloud, and up on cloud.gaiagps.com.
Motion-X shares your tracks to Facebook in an old-school way, but it’s just a standalone iOS app, and you’re out of luck if you want to use Motion-X on the web, or on an Android.
Conclusion
Motion-X is a good app, and they even update it a bit, even though they have much bigger successes (Jawbone and their Drive app). The custom UI in Motion-X is skeumorphic and cool, if a little retro under iOS7.
So, check out Motion-X GPS, but we think Gaia GPS is the only app for people who spend time in the woods and need serious tools.
I have been testing GPS Kit, Gaia GPS and Motion X for some time. I wish I could combine all three into one app.
– Gaia has the only sync service and large range of maps.
– GPS kit has the best UI and waypoint handling system. Walking to a waypoint is a pleasure plus the compass/ bearing auto switching option. Also very good dashboard.
– Motion X has nice UI and position sharing (urban environment) + range/bearing feature
Is there a limit on the # of tracks or # of waypoints that can be uploaded to Gaia? And, how does it interact with GIS files?
There is no hard limit, and I think you’re unlikely to hit any soft limits either.
If you have any problem importing a GPX or KML file, please send a note to support@gaiagps.com, and we’ll help you out.