Note: The author of this post, Nate Copeland, is a hunter from Oklahoma, who aggregates and manages much of the state-by-state hunting data for Gaia GPS.

For this post, I stack up Gaia GPS vs onX Hunt, doing an exhaustive comparison of features, maps, and pricing. Want to do your own Gaia GPS vs. onX Hunt review this season? Take the Gaia Hunt Challenge. Click here to get a free 7-day trial of Premium Membership and let us know your feedback!

In a nutshell, I found both apps deliver the core package of hunting maps – land ownership, GMUs, and other sources, merged with topo maps and satellite imagery. Where onX is strong is having a sole focus on hunting, and it offers a few map sources and design touches geared towards hunters. Gaia GPS, on the other hand, has more powerful software overall.

Cost	Gaia GPS	onX Hunt
App	Free to Download	Free to Download
Plan	Premium (global) $39.99/year (no state-by-state)	Elite (50 states) $99.99/year (1 state – $29.99/year)

Gaia GPS – Premium & Gaia GPS Membership

Hunters using Gaia GPS should usually choose a Premium Membership, which costs $39.99/year. A Premium Membership provides access to private land ownership, GMUs, and other layers useful for hunters. Premium also includes additional topo maps such as National Geographic Trails Illustrated, Neotreks, and even premium topos for Europe. Click here for a full list of available maps.

A hunter on a budget might opt for a basic Gaia GPS Membership, which is $19.99/year. While you don’t get hunting overlays, you still get great topo and satellite maps, along with all the powerful route-planning, tracking, and navigation features of Gaia GPS.

onX Hunt – Premium & Elite Subscription

An Elite subscription from onX includes data for all 50 states costs $99.99/year. You can also get access to all maps for a single state for $29.99/year.

In addition, the Boone and Crockett Trophy Game Records layer and the Prairie Dogs layer cost an additional $9.99 each.

Feature Comparison

If you are looking for a full-featured GPS, then Gaia GPS shows its strength.

In comparing the features of the apps, I just couldn’t find a single thing onX Maps did that Gaia GPS did not. You might think my chart below is biased, but truly Gaia GPS is easily winning the feature war (though I’ll point out some unique maps onX has in the following section).

Feature Comparison	Gaia GPS	onX Hunt
Map Downloads	Custom Areas, Huge Sizes	Grid-Based, Size Limits
Route Planning	Smart-Routing (Snaps to trails/roads), or Manual	Manual Only
Export Trip Data (GPX/KML)	Yes	Via Website
Import Trip Data (GPX/KML)	Yes	Via Website
Vector Topo Maps*	Yes	No
Group Sharing (sync routes/folders with your hunting partners)	Yes	No
Folders	Yes	No
Grid Overlays	Yes	No
Backtrack	Yes	Waypoints Only
Distance Markers & Announcements	Yes	No
Photos	Yes	No
Custom Map Sources	Yes	No
Apple Watch	Yes	No
Nautical Units	Yes	No
Datum Shifting	Yes	No
Coordinate Formats	5	3
Track Recording	Yes	Yes
Printing	Yes	Yes
iPad App	Yes	Yes
Trail Search	Yes	Yes
Data Sync	Yes	Yes
Layered Maps	Yes	Yes
Create Waypoint at Current Location	Yes	Yes
Night Mode	Yes	Yes
Map Rotation	Yes	Yes
Visible Trip Stats	Yes	Yes
Custom Waypoint Icons	Some Hunting Focused	All Hunting Focused

*Not Available on Android devices

Give me a shout at copeland@gaiagps.com if you find something in onX that Gaia doesn’t do! The closest thing I could find was the ability to copy coordinates with one tap on the map, where Gaia GPS requires a few taps for it. But this isn’t something I ever do in the field.

The thing you see most complained about in onX reviews on the App Store are how the map downloads work. Here’s one recent review quote:

“And, it still isn’t set up to download complete maps into the phone for offline. It’s as if onX expects me to hunt a small patch of land…What I want is to define my area in terms of what tags I have, then download the whole area I can hunt in one go.” – onX Hunt App Store Review Oct. 10th, 2017

 

Maps Comparison

When comparing maps available in Gaia GPS vs. onX, overall Gaia GPS has a deeper catalog of maps, but onX has a few notable hunting-specific sources.

Gaia GPS uniquely provides National Geographic Trails Illustrated Maps as part of the package, which are amazing maps for certain forests and wilderness areas. Gaia GPS also has a remarkable depth of map sources – dozens of topo map sources for all over the world, ranging from classic USGS/USFS topos, to historic topos, European topos, and of course the default source in the app, Gaia Topo.

For the default source in the app, Gaia Topo sets the standard for digital topo maps, with adjustable text size, units, and tiny/fast downloads. Gaia GPS, unlike onX, displays many layers as “vectors” on iOS, which for the end user means the text is crisper and the downloads are faster and smaller.

On the other hand, onX does have a few interesting map sources for hunters that Gaia GPS lacks, such as praire dogs towns, precipitation radar, and a others (see the table below). Again here, give me a shout at copeland@gaiagps.com if there’s a map you’d like to see in Gaia GPS, because that’s my job!

Maps Comparison	Gaia GPS	onX Hunt
Map Sources
National Geographic Trails Illustrated Maps	Yes	No
Private Land (by state)	Yes	Yes
Public Land (by state)	Yes	Yes
GMUs/WMAs (by state)	Yes	Yes
Walk-In Areas (by state)	Yes	Yes
Satellite Imagery	Yes	Yes
Topo	Yes	Yes
USGS Topo	Yes	No
NeoTreks Land Use	Yes	No
US Forest Service Topo	Yes	No
Shaded Relief	Yes	No
Land Features	Yes	No
Public Land Survey System	Yes	Yes
Timber Cuts	Yes	Yes
Current Wildfires	Yes	Yes
Historical Wildfires	Yes	Yes
Recreational Sites	Yes	Yes
Trails	Yes	Yes
Forest Vistor Maps	Yes	Yes
USFS MVUM	Yes	Yes
USFS Roads & Trails	Yes	No
Nautical Charts	Yes	Yes
Precipitation Forecast	Yes	Yes
Snow Forecast	Yes	No
Possible Access (by state)	Yes	Yes
Roadless Areas	Yes	Yes
Roadless & Trailless Areas	Yes	No
US Wilderness Areas	Yes	No
Praire Dogs Towns	No	Yes
B&C Trophy Big Game Records	No	Yes
Eastmans’ MRS	No	Yes
NWTF Wild Turkey Records	No	Yes

 

Comparing Basic Usage

Gaia GPS

Gaia GPS offers a powerful set of features for customizing offline maps, planning routes, recording tracks, and layering map sources.

With a large collection of hunting specific map sources and interactive private land layer, it’s easy to create a custom hunting map and know exactly where you are while hunting. Offline maps with Gaia GPS can be set to cover a specific area or follow along a previously saved route or track.

The flexibility of Gaia GPS also allows hunters to conventionally import or export waypoints, tracks, and routes making it easy to transfer your past treestand locations into the app.

Gaia GPS also lets hunters organize their hunting trips into folders which can store everything from access points to offline maps to trail camera photos. Hunters can also share folders with other Gaia GPS users, so everyone knows the location of basecamp and who will be hunting which areas.

onX Hunt

The onX Hunt app, like Gaia GPS, has the ability to quickly provide users with the basic tools required for offline navigation and knowing the land ownership status of your current location. onX Hunt users can select between three predefined offline map sizes which vary in resolution. The onX Hunt app includes three different base maps: topographical, satellite imagery, and a hybrid base map which can be changed with a single tap.

Some people may prefer the more limited workflows and choices in onX – Gaia GPS is more flexible, but can be complex.

Websites

gaiagps.com

Pairing gaiagps.com with the Gaia GPS app, let users easily back up their hunting data and offline maps. Hunters can also scout from the web and finalized all of their pre-hunt plans on where should treestands, trail cameras, and access points be set up.

onxmaps.com

The online version of the onX Hunt app also pairs with the app and lets hunters back up their data and scout from onxmaps.com. Pre-hunt scouting can also be completed on onxmaps.com.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap for my review of Gaia GPS vs. onX Hunt. If you want to compare for yourself, click the link below to get started.

I prefer Gaia GPS for my hunts, largely because it has a deeper set of maps and features than onX. But there’s always room to improve, and I’ll be continuing my work this season to add more hunting maps to Gaia GPS.

It’s also notable how much less expensive Gaia GPS is for a multi-state hunter – you get the full package for just $39.99, compared to $99.99 for onX. Lots you can do with $60 savings!

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