# Magic Earth Navigation & Maps — user reviews > 498 indexed App Store user reviews of Magic Earth Navigation & Maps by Magic Lane International BV, rated 3.90/5 from 555 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/magic-earth-navigation-and-maps/id1007331679/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/magic-earth-navigation-and-maps/id1007331679.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 326 · 4★ 66 · 3★ 49 · 2★ 33 · 1★ 81 ## What do users think of Magic Earth Navigation & Maps? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Excellent offline navigation - 🔒 Respects user privacy - 👍 Clean and intuitive interface - 🚘 Works well with CarPlay - 💡 Customizable map views and voices **Cons** - 🐛 Outdated map data and speed limit information - 🔍 Poor search functionality and address lookup - 🚧 Routing issues, such as suggesting inappropriate roads - 🔋 Drains battery quickly - 🤖 Unreliable voice guidance and lane assistance **Commonly reported bugs** - Keyboard obscures search results in CarPlay mode - GPS signal issues and location jumps - Inconsistent behavior when deviating from a route - Crashes and freezes, especially after recent updates **Most requested features** - Add ability to lock map orientation to North - Improve search by allowing voice input and better location relevance - Provide more detailed traffic information and rerouting options - Integrate with more car systems beyond just CarPlay - Offer more customization options for the user interface ## Newest reviews (21 of 498) ### 3/5 — Big price increase *2026-08-24, version 9.4.5* Price has increased from a pound to £12.99 a year, which is just too much. £5 or so would be more reasonable. ### 4/5 — bon mais *2026-08-21* Il ne fonctionne plus depuis que mon abonnement s'est terminé, alors que le mode gratis devrait permettre au moins d'utiliser les cartes en ligne... J'aimais bien son estimation d’arrivée (ETA). Certains concurrents sont trop optimistes, donc dangereux. **Developer response:** Hi, Alex! Thank you for your review. Let's check if the prohibitory traffic signs are properly set in OpenStreetMap. Please email us at support@magicearth.com and give us some examples of locations where you received guidance to dangerous U-turns or streets with prohibitory traffic signs. Thank you and looking forward to your email. ### 3/5 — Almost had potential… *2026-08-19* The concept is great, but the sudden 20x price increase is not, especially considering a few key issues. I used to be a subscriber but cancelled. I understand cost increases, but 20x is ridiculous. I like the route statistics showing elevation, road surface, etc. however, you must click on each item to see it. Displaying more info on larger screens would be more helpful. Issues holding it back: Maps are highly sensitive to rotating when you don’t want them to and then when you try to rotate them back, they don’t change. There’s no snapping at true north, so you have to press the tiny button to put it back. Address location isn’t the fastest. Wish there was trailer mode, but truck options are fine enough. Seems like some of these issues have been around for a while. Hopefully the developer addresses them if they want to justify the price increase… ### 3/5 — No good for HGV *2026-08-12, version 9.4.5* Been using this app for a week after purchasing a licence. Thought it seemed quite good for the first day. But then running it along side my TomTom with the same HGV dimensions it keeps trying to take me through weight limits as if it is ignoring the profile I had set. ### 3/5 — Hooked me in with a good price, but then … *2026-08-05* I have downloaded and tried quite a number of SatNav apps to my phone over the years. Some of them have gone through very heavy testing from me. Some have been discarded very quickly. Only a few have survived the tests. Magic Earth is one that has survived. And more than survived. It’s the only one that I have been willing to pay a subscription fee for. I dare say that the very reasonable price is the most obvious reason why I have been prepared to pay for it, but as the title of this review says, they hooked me in with the price. But now that they have me, they think it’s okay to bump up the price by an outrageous rate of more than 653% In One Year Oh, of course I could use Magic Earth without paying the subscription price. But what would I lose if I don’t pay? Nothing major. Nothing major, except Apple Car Play, Apple Watch integration, offline maps, elevation map styles, trip recording, sharing activities, cloud backups for favourites and history, more detailed weather information, not only for the destination, but also along the way, and the ability to choose languages based upon my preference and region, not having to stick to the default voice. And there’s a lot more. But who cares about a promise to keep the subscription price the same? Certainly not these developers. Shocking. And disgusting. Money grabbing behaviour. ### 4/5 — Great app *2026-07-28, version 9.4.5* Great app would love real time traffic integrated into the app would make it 5 stars ### 3/5 — Overall okay but confusing navigation *2026-07-28, version 9.4.5* The directions for turns are often wrong or confusing. I find myself needing to look at the map to know where to turn. NYC ### 3/5 — Pretty good *2026-07-27, version 9.4.5* 07/27/2026 Traffic seems to be accurate at times. Better than before. It’s getting closer to being useful. When navigating specifically in CarPlay it doesn’t show the exit number. In my area it doesn’t show the county road either just a different name that isn’t posted on any signs. Would be nice to show exit number and what’s on the sign so you can visually know your taking the right exit. The speed limit seems to have gone away. Not sure if that was on purpose or a mistake. 05/06/2026 Traffic reporting still doesn’t work in my area. Since traffic is the main reason I use navigation this app is still pretty useless. I’m a premium subscriber but won’t renew without good traffic information. 04/01/2026 Overall works well still. The biggest problem I have is there really isn’t traffic calculated into routes. If they are only using their own app crowd sourcing traffic data it won’t work as there isn’t enough users. Since this is a paid application now I would need good reliable traffic data to keep using this application. Overall it’s pretty good. Sometimes when I search for a place it will shows me other places with the same name but are not the place. Also when searching on car play the keyboard always shows so you can’t see anything except the first result which is annoying. ### 2/5 — Major price hike for what? *2026-07-26* I appreciate the privacy focus of this navigation app. For its previous subscription price I could look past the shortcomings and support the developer for providing at least a privacy-focused product. However, the outdated POI database, lack of detailed business information, and laughable public transit database haven’t improved substantially over the last year-ish that I’ve subscribed to the app. If there were significant improvements in the areas I mentioned above *before* the price hike, I might have thought it was worth it. But now, I’ll go look for other options until the developer makes major improvements for charging this much. ### 4/5 — Like it… could use a little work *2026-07-24, version 9.4.5* Best thing that’s not Google sucking up your information. Sometimes i search for something and it thinking I’m 5000 miles away. Also, would be nice to search by voice while driving ### 2/5 — Come on now *2026-07-17, version 9.4.4* Despite flaws, I was trying to use Magic Earth as much as possible - I was generally using it for about 75% of my mapping needs. I have had significant issues with it choosing routes that are overtly odd or routes that are ineffective given traffic patterns. I appreciated the privacy respecting approach and an overall functional product. I was willing to pay 0.99 USD/year, but now the dev has increased the price twenty times what it previously was. Unfortunately, the product is not worth that; I’ve cancelled my subscription. ### 2/5 — Good map but… *2026-07-12, version 9.4.4* I have found Magic Earth a useful tool but, in my opinion, not worth the significant subscription fee increase. I wonder whether the map previously downloaded will disappear after the renewal date. ### 3/5 — Privacy good, awful search *2026-07-11, version 9.4.4* The app itself is great if you know exactly where you want to go. But if you’re looking up where to go it’ll search thousands of miles away in another state. ### 3/5 — Nu nog straten op de Apple Watch of rijstrook begeleiding op Apple Watch voor de rest goede app *2026-06-28, version 9.4.3* Aanwijzingen volgende straat of een kaart op Apple Watch voor de rest goede app ### 2/5 — Traffic updates unavailable in New Zealand; info is misleading *2026-06-27, version 9.4.3* I really love this app and paid for the full version. Unfortunately the information given to you before buying is quite misleading. The app says Magic Earth has live traffic updates but that's not entirely true. Live traffic updates are only available some places. They are not available in New Zealand, and that makes the app unusable even though I've paid for it. What is available is the driver's ability to update others on traffic. Helpful, but not when you're sitting in it. The way this is messaged to potential customers isn't fair. If live traffic updates were available, and the app was more honest, it'd be an easy five stars. ### 4/5 — Gut! Aber… *2026-06-22* Ich hab das Abo jetzt schon mehrere Jahre! Bisher pro Jahr 0,99 € und nun eine echt satte Erhöhung auf 14,99 € pro Jahr!!!??? Da frage ich mich schon ein wenig, wo dafür die Rechtfertigung ist? Aber nun gut. Allerdings muss ich auch sagen, dass im direkten Vergleich mit der TomTom App hier die GPS Ortung entweder ungenauer ist oder einfach die App langsamer darauf reagiert! Es kommt oft vor das die Ansage zb. Zum Abbiegen oder auch bei einer Autobahnausfahrt erst dann kommt wenn man schon fast daran vorbei ist! Das funktioniert bei der TomTom App um einiges besser und liegt somit ganz klar an der App Programmierung! Besser ist aber hier, dass man alle Warnungen und Hinweise mit Sprache bekommt und nicht wie in TomTom nur mit einem nervigen Warnton! Eine Verbesserung in Bezug auf das GPS Signal wäre sehr wünschenswert! ### 3/5 — Carplay *2026-06-13, version 9.4.2* Has problem ! Cutting off the music that was playing ### 4/5 — Great - One Flaw *2026-05-28, version 9.4.0* Perfect alternative to "big tech" apps. This is my go to, and it has everything I need. The one draw back is that is overheats the entire phone within 10 min if it's the summer and within 30 min if the car is cool. Doesn't matter if the phone is or isn't charging or where it's sitting. It's just the app. Once that's fixed, this is 5 stars. ### 4/5 — Très bien *2026-05-23* Je l’utilise souvent comme GPS poids lourds. Je ne sais pas sur quelle base de données il puise pour savoir ou non les interdictions, mais il fonctionne très bien. Parfois il invente des radars, mais comme il n’y a aucun symbole de radar sur la carte ne ne voit pas comment le corriger. ### 4/5 — Map download glacial *2026-05-14, version 9.3.4* On a full 5G connection will only download one map and that extremely slowly. Then have to restart the app to get it to download another. ### 2/5 — Pretty good *2026-05-06, version 9.3.4* 05/06/2026 Traffic reporting still doesn’t work in my area. Since traffic is the main reason I use navigation this app is still pretty useless. I’m a premium subscriber but won’t renew without good traffic information. 04/01/2026 Overall works well still. The biggest problem I have is there really isn’t traffic calculated into routes. If they are only using their own app crowd sourcing traffic data it won’t work as there isn’t enough users. Since this is a paid application now I would need good reliable traffic data to keep using this application. Overall it’s pretty good. Sometimes when I search for a place it will shows me other places with the same name but are not the place. Also when searching on car play the keyboard always shows so you can’t see anything except the first result which is annoying. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — No more free *2026-06-27, version 9.4.3* Useless, used to be free. I’d not mind paying but all my downloaded maps are no longer available ### 1/5 — Inaccurate out of date data *2026-06-23, version 9.4.3* Best avoided. It cannot be relied on. Even the premium version is not worth it. The data is over a decade old in the UK maps for example. ### 1/5 — Best offline turn by turn navigation app *2026-06-14, version 9.4.2* Best out there. Hands down. Lost my support due to subscription fees. ### 1/5 — Got stuck towing using this *2026-06-05* Tried this app because I’m towing 3.2m, caravan and bikes. And it took us to a dead end street that was super fun to get out of. Going back to google maps and just check the route before I leave. And it also kept trying to divert us to ridiculous routes that made no sense. Divert us off a hwy and trying to make use go through towns before getting back on, the very thing it’s suppose to not use. Total joke. Paid for premium. Do not use. ### 1/5 — From an Android and IOS user *2026-05-28, version 9.4.0* Due to circumstances outside of my control I have had to switch phones twice in the last few months. Their process for accessing your paid premium features on a new device absolutely sucks. You have to click a link that is supposed to email you a new code you have to activate on your new device to get the features you paid for. The big problem is both times I’ve needed to switch I’ve had to contact support because I straight up don’t get a link to my email. I’ve tried every email and alias I have. Support can’t offer any help either, they just resend the same link. Eventually when I had to switch the first time it worked after several weeks of trying. This time I had trouble again and I think I’m giving up on the app. Check the Google Play store reviews. They’re much different. They remade their entire app and started charging subscriptions for it while it was half baked, using customers as beta testers. It crashed on me every single drive no matter how long, the search sucks and the app overall still leaves a lot to be desired. They slowly started improving on the crashes but they still have a looooong way to go before the product they present actually lives up to the promises to their customers. CoMaps is under active community development and will take a while to get live traffic updates but when they do it will be a much better option for people ### 1/5 — Sucks *2026-04-13, version 9.2.8* The map itself looks terrible, very low quality and slow to load when zooming in, and it shows the North and South poles as just two big black circles connected by a long black line going down the globe. Downloaded only because I heard that it still had Palestine and some cities in Lebanon, and from the pictures on the App Store it looked promising. Then I read the reviews and saw the app itself. Apparently it costs $20 a year when it used to cost $1 a year, and it doesn’t work right without paying. I have deleted this app now. ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2026-04-10, version 9.2.8* Why take a good product and spoil it with an upgrade ### 1/5 — Can’t delete app there is a bug *2026-03-15, version 9.2.6* Don’t install there is a bug you can’t uninstall ### 1/5 — No longer free for offline maps *2026-03-12, version 9.2.6* Was free now annual membership only and even though the map source is free. No option for weekly or monthly subscription. No longer useful for casual large vehicle users. ### 1/5 — Ancient maps 23+ years old *2026-02-14, version 9.2.2* That satellite images are over 23 years old! I looked my house everyone does, and I noticed that a large oak tree had fallen in hurricane Isabelle(2003) was still standing, and a nearby road that opened in 2002 was still under construction… Don’t waste your money! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Awesome app. *2026-08-04, version 9.4.5* Great substitute for Waze. I prefer apps that don’t support genocide. Works well. Has all the things. Thank you. 🙏 ### 5/5 — There is no trade-off! *2026-06-01, version 9.4.0* Five Stars just for this statement from their website: “Everything in Magic Earth is grounded in PRIVACY. There is no trade-off between using the product and protecting your identity.” As an American, I take my Fourth Ammendment Rights SERIOUSLY Apple! ### 5/5 — De très loin la meilleure application de navigation ! *2026-05-28* Cette application coche absolument toutes les cases d’un grand GPS et y ajoute des fonctionnalités très utiles. Cette société est un pionnier de longue date dans ces outils de navigation et de plus il s’agit d’une société européenne ! Tout d’abord les cartes sont telechargeables pour une utilisation dans les zones sans réseau ou à l’étranger pour économiser votre forfait. Ensuite elle prévient intelligemment des zones de danger afin de vous permettre de conduire en toute quiétude tout en respectant les limitations routières. Un retour sur l’Apple Watch permet par exemple en moto de garder son iPhone dans la poche tout en étant guidé. Le type de route et donc l’état du revêtement est très utile pour nous motards. Evidemment il est possible d’afficher les POI désirés. La recherche d’une destination est rapide et très complète. Finie de se retrouver au milieu d’un champ…. Les notifications peuvent être vocales ou juste signal sonore. L’interface n’est pas surchargée comme beaucoup d’autres applications de ce type. L’interface est ultra fluide et très esthétique. Le tout pour un abonnement annuel très économique. Magic Earth est donc devenue mon application de navigation après en avoir tester une petite dizaine. Enfin aucun traceur intégré pour revendre votre vie privée. Cette application est très respectueuse de vos données. Merci à l’équipe de Magic Earth pour ce très bel outil de navigation. PS: je n’ai aucun lien avec cette société. Je ne suis qu’un utilisateur ravit. ### 5/5 — Great offline map *2026-05-15, version 9.3.4* I hardly use it at all. Got it just for emergency when I forgot to download googlemap ahead. It was free in the first year, then I paid $1/yr for past 2 yrs. It is $20/yr now. I may not renew the subscription based on how rarely I use it. Anyway, it’s a very good offline map to have (I’ve tested out in city, small town and trails) Highly recommend. ### 5/5 — Great! *2026-04-23, version 9.3.2* Great! ### 5/5 — Crashed on iPad *2026-04-20, version 9.3.1* My favorite map app but update crashes on iPad when attempting to update a map. ### 5/5 — Excellent alternative to US tech giants *2026-04-11, version 9.2.8* Love it. Might slightly underestimate traffic congestion (Belgium user) but hey, privacy is priceless. Thanks for this and keep up the great work ! ### 5/5 — Top of the line *2026-01-24, version 9.2.0* Perfectly work in Europe and USA.. ### 5/5 — Great offline map *2026-01-13, version 9.1.8* I hardly use it at all. Got it just for emergency when I forgot to download googlemap ahead. It was free in the first year, then I paid $1/yr for past 2 yrs. It is $20/yr now. I may not renew the subscription based on how rarely I use it. Anyway, it’s a very good offline map to have (I’ve tested out in city, small town and trails) Highly recommend. ### 5/5 — Great Map App *2026-01-08* This app deserves more recognition being so good. There’s some really great features and the graphical interface is better than the rest. Do yourself a favour. Pay to be a premium user to help this team out. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*