I personally use OsmAnd on mobile (available exclusively on Android), but I’ve taken to using CoMaps on desktop. The menu UI on the right leaves something to be desired, and it’s not nearly as powerful as OsmAnd; however, the map itself is rendered well and easy to navigate, the search and navigation functionalities work well, and map updates come frequently.
To me, it’s the best desktop maps application provided OSM has decent coverage in your area. (If not, I could go on for thousands of words about why you, yes you, should contribute.)
Here’s an example screenshot of a walking route between two nearby locations:
Context for those using Organic Maps: CoMaps is a fork of Organic made by former Organic contributors that has been active for over a year now. It’s generally accepted as better than Organic. This is the open letter they wrote to Organic airing their grievances.
Why YSK: Offline maps are a great way to safeguard your privacy and don’t require much storage space. Likewise, using OpenStreetMap is a great way to maintain digital sovereignty from giant corporations.
I tried osmand a while back - I wanted more detail than organic. I really like the detail on osmand, but it keeps crashing my phone after a few minutes so is basically unusable for me.
Co-maps is good and doesn’t crash my phone. It now has contour lines too which is a feature i really want.
What i don’t like on comaps is the saved routes. It just seems to saves the line - not the navigation waypoints. So when you load back in, you can’t load into navigation and alter waypoints.
And they have the correct spelling of “gulf of Mexico”
We do! Unfortunately, all the past attempts at securing a sponsorship for it never came to anything. “Gulf of Mexico, presented by Carl’s Jr.” just recently fell through.
Damn, I like money tho. I hope it has electrolytes at least. Thank you for your service, citizen Not sure!
Just tried osmand and I basically soft locked the free version. I didn’t know there was a download limit. I told it to download all of the maps for my province. It downloaded a bunch and then stopped and said I reached a download limit. It didn’t get as far as downloading the map where I actually live, so I can’t use the app. Deleting maps doesn’t restore any ability to download maps. Dumb design.
Even though it’s a pain, I seem to recall that you could just delete the app and install it again, resetting the map download count.
Thanks! That worked.
Deleting maps doesn’t restore any ability to download maps. Dumb design.
That actually is dumb design. I suggest using the F-Droid version which gives unlimited map access. I never use more than the base seven, but (apparently) not being able to change what those are is silly.
Didn’t know they had a desktop version! I use it a lot on my phone, since Osmand was too overloaded for my purposes. Maybe I’ll give it another shot for planning hiking trips tho
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Have been using including in my vehicle. Pretty good honestly. I haven’t missed Google Maps.
I’ve been using “Simple OSM Viewer” (on Android). Is there a reason for me to switch over?
Tbh I’m a bit overwhelmed by how many OpenStreetMap-related apps there are.
I tried OsMand and kicked it out again. One star rating, for only having very few maps for free, and then wanting a fortune for downloading more. Was not even enough to plan the single trip I had in mind.
OsmAnd’s base version has seven offline maps free, which has always been enough for me.
If it’s not enough and you don’t want to upgrade to Maps+, because OsmAnd is FOSS, the version on F-Droid has the Maps+ and Pro features, meaning unlimited offline maps.
And make sure to donate if you use it, bandwidth is not free at a scale
