What is the best hiking app on iOS?
Have you been on the lookout for a hiking app for iOS but haven’t found what you need yet? Are you looking for an app that have provides the ability to find hikes in your area and record your hikes. In this post a few apps are identified and tested.
The iOS Hiking Apps
- Alltrails
- Trailforks
- GPS Tracks
- Komoot
- Gaia GPS
- Organic Maps
- Wikiloc
- GPX Tracker
- Naviki
- Forge (South Africa)
Open Source vs Closed Source
Open source means the application code is visible to the public. Often open source apps do not request payment for extra features.
The open source apps are:
- GPX Tracker
- Organic Maps
GPX tracker is good for loading gpx files and also recording GPX. However it does not allow for search of hiking routes in the area.
The other apps require payment and do not share their crowdsourced data.
Features without Internet
When there is no internet available – some apps still give good features.
Naviki showed contour lines and some high peaks in the area. Wikiloc and Organic maps also showed them but required one to download the offline maps.
Battery Usage
A 1 hour 30 minute hike was used to test the battery. A number of apps were opened and set to record at the same time.
The battery usage screenshot is below:
As can be seen: Alltrails is the worst drainer of battery at 22%. Trailforks is not far behind with 14% usage. GPS Tracks fairs in the middle with 7%. Provided the features have what you need would favour Komoot and Gaia GPS. Wikiloc used 14% while naviki used 7% with GPX tracker using 3%. The organic maps usage is a bit skewed as it was an app that was used more in the last 24 hours.
Organic maps also has power saving mode – which was not enabled during the tests.
Finding Local Hikes
Wikiloc seems to be the best at this. Was staying at a resort on the Sterkfotntein dam with 3 hiking trails and was able to find 3 recorded hikes at the resort.
No results from Komoot and Trailforks even though the searching mechanism via the map is seen as simpler than the Wikiloc searching by filters.
Predefined Trails
Some apps have pre-defined trails approved by the app – forge SA is one example.
Summary
On the whole the best apps would be:
- Organic Maps
- GPX Tracker
- Wikiloc
- Naviki