# PackLight for Backpacking — user reviews > 145 indexed App Store user reviews of PackLight for Backpacking by Mark Oliveira, rated 4.80/5 from 991 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/packlight-for-backpacking/id1054845207/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/packlight-for-backpacking/id1054845207.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 834 · 4★ 115 · 3★ 30 · 2★ 5 · 1★ 7 ## What do users think of PackLight for Backpacking? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Easy to use - 👍 Helpful for planning and organizing gear - 👍 Useful for tracking gear weights - 👍 Great for creating custom packing lists - 👍 Simple and intuitive interface - 👍 Excellent for backpacking and hiking - 👍 Comprehensive gear inventory **Cons** - 🔍 Lack of custom categories - 🔍 No ability to add notes or details to gear items - 🔍 No option to track purchase price or date - 🔍 Inability to easily share lists with others - 🔍 No cloud sync or backup functionality **Commonly reported bugs** - Occasional issues with alphabetical sorting of lists - Reported bug with displaying the correct list when selected **Most requested features** - Add ability to track purchase price and date for gear items - Implement custom category creation - Include option to add notes and details to gear items - Implement cloud sync and backup functionality - Add sharing capabilities to easily collaborate with others ## Newest reviews (16 of 145) ### 5/5 — Know Thy Weight *2025-06-07, version 4.0* I work at REI and share this with backpackers all the time. Often we think of items as “that’s not so heavy” but it adds up quickly! ### 5/5 — Love it! *2025-05-15, version 4.0* Such a helpful, great app! ### 5/5 — Great App *2025-05-01* Excellent app for keeping track of gear weights and various setups for changing seasons. The ability to create your own gear categories and multiple lists really makes this app great. With the share feature you can create a customized list to be shared with members of your backpacking group so everyone can make sure they have what they need for whatever trip you are planning. Everything this app does it does well and with some new additions it has become even more useful. I’ve recommend to many and continue to do so when I come across gear and weight conscious hikers. Give it a try and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. If you really enjoy it consider supporting with the one time fee that unlocks supporter edition. I’m not affiliated with the developer. I just believe in supporting excellent products especially when they come from a small developer. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — Thanks *2025-04-09, version 3.9* It helps organize my gear. I wish there was a column to quickly add up cost. Otherwise it’s 👍 ### 5/5 — Perfect App For Hikers *2025-03-27, version 3.9* This app does everything I need it to do. Allows me to create gear list with weights and use that list to build packing list for different types of hikes. Hike on!!! ### 5/5 — Best Gear Planning App Ever! *2025-03-22* I’ve been using PackLight to plan my gear, consumables, and food for my last four thru hikes. Organizing gear is simple and intuitive, and I particularly appreciate its offline functionality. One non-obvious use of the app is to calculate total calories for a planned section. I do this by imputing calories as grams when adding the weight for food items. The only functionality I would love to see added would be a food list option that tracks both calories and weight. Thank you for creating such a useful app for the backpacking community! **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — Best backpacking gear tracker *2025-03-21* PackLight is my favorite gear list app. It’s simple to use, easy to edit lists, and the inventory feature is flawless. I love that I can create custom categories, which really helps keep everything organized. Unlike other apps that get overly complicated, PackLight keeps it straightforward and easy to use. The only small issue I’ve run into is not being able to easily send my list to another PackLight user, but that’s a minor problem compared to how perfect this app is. I can’t say enough good things about it. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — Excellent simple tool *2025-03-14* Amazing little app which does exactly as it says on the tin. Really easy to navigate and use. Adding new categories is very simple and it has been very useful for me and my friends to share a list between ourselves to plan while camping. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — Learning the weight of items *2025-02-26* This app motivates me to document the weight of my bushwalking items. It’s surprising how the clothing items quickly add up. I am now in a better position to assess what is essential and what’s optional according to the walk location and weather conditions expected. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — Excellent *2025-02-23* Not only can you create usefully lists (and understand where you can but weight) but it’s a great inventory of what you actually have. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — Two thumbs up!! *2025-02-11, version 3.9* Easy, effective way to keep track of your pack weight down to the last once!! Highly recommend :) ### 5/5 — Muito bom! *2025-02-10* O aplicativo é extremamente útil para planejamento da carga a ser levada na mochila para cada atividade. Falta apenas uma melhor integração com a interface web. ### 5/5 — Great App *2024-12-30* Excellent app for keeping track of gear weights and various setups for changing seasons. While it has been a while since an update there really hasn’t felt the need. I’ve recommend to many and continue to do so when I come across gear and weight conscious hikers. Give it a try and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. ### 5/5 — Superb app for planning lightweight hikes. *2024-12-22* UPDATE Superb app offline app for planning lightweight hikes. Can indicate which items you will be wearing (either included or omitted from total weight) and see what effect using alternatives will have. My earlier review was negative due to an unknown bug which no longer appears. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — Best Pack / Gear Weight Tracker *2024-09-28, version 3.9* I use this app to keep track of all my hiking gear. It was very helpful planning for my 2024 JMT thru hike. Can track different load outs for different trails / number of people / or weather. Highly Recommended. ### 5/5 — Great tool! *2024-09-06, version 3.9* Makes packing for a back country adventure easy. Helps me get my pack weight exactly where I need it 💪🏼💪🏼 ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Alphabetical sorting of lists not working *2024-10-23* I love this app. Great for the purposes listed. However I cant add to an existing list because when I select the list I am given the wrong one, out of order. Can you use list names beginning with a numeral? I have several eg 4WD. Perhaps this is affecting the sort order. ### 2/5 — It’s fine I guess *2026-04-12, version 4.0.1* I wish there was a way to link to a webpage of gear items and then the app would pull the specs for you ### 2/5 — Very very very basic *2017-07-31* This app is very basic. Needs to be improved to allow for functionality of using metric versus English weight, ability to store multiple items such as tent spikes. It would be nice to be able to store The quantity owned. Additionally, you cannot inventory the condition of the equipment in the notes or comments section. It's good this app is free as it really needs more functionality to be competitive on a paid market. Good idea if all you want is to log certain items and get a total weight. Not a good inventory app. You can do this basic functionality on the spreadsheet just as fast. **Developer response:** Thanks for the rating! I recently made some updates that you might like. Please try out the latest version and let me know what you think. ### 3/5 — Good but needs a simple upgrade *2024-06-15, version 3.9* Great app , easy to use and build lists Only shame is you can’t easily send gear and lists between devices or share with friends. You have to download lists from lighter pack. Wish you could do it straight from the app ### 3/5 — Very Useful *2023-08-12, version 3.9* I like everything about this app EXCEPT your lists cannot be exported to a web browser and shared. For example, I can't export to the Pack Light website. The CSV format is completely different. I suppose one could view the list in Google Sheets and share that publicly, so it can be published in that format. ### 3/5 — Needs better sharing capabilities *2022-09-10, version 3.9* I hate that you can only share this via a text file instead of a link option. What’s great about lighterpack is that you can share a link to a gear list with notes and links attached. ### 3/5 — Useful app! *2022-08-17, version 3.9* I got this app because it just seemed a lot quicker to compare weights on with an app on my phone, rather than logging into lighterpack every time. It works great so far. My only gripe with it is that it asked me for a review three times in five minutes even after I clicked not now ### 4/5 — Brilliant app, one recommendation *2025-07-09* Awesome app for tracking equipment and making different packs for different trips from the same gear. One recommendation as I use it for my photography gear too… would be really good to have fields for the date an item was bought and the purchase cost at the time… will makes things so easy to look back when selling/trading equipment to remember how much you paid for it and when. Would also be very useful in the circumstance of things needing to be claimed on travel insurance (maybe add a file upload feature for invoices to attach to an item too as another idea). Then if the above is implemented… a way to switch the column in the gear inventory from weight to purchase price/date for easy glancing at. Would love to see these features!! **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review and the feature requests. Much appreciated! ### 4/5 — Very Good *2025-01-29, version 3.9* Great App for easily tracking and making loadouts for different adventures. One additional item that would be nice is to have a spot to put the price of the items so I can track cost of gear. ### 4/5 — Lists *2024-06-23, version 3.9* Straightforward and functional. Prepopulated drop downs for most common items would be nice. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Know Thy Weight *2026-06-15, version 4.0.1* I work at REI and share this with backpackers all the time. Often in we think of items as “that’s not so heavy” but it adds up quickly! ### 5/5 — PackLight *2026-06-08, version 4.0.1* This app is an awesome organization tool. I love using it for making a list for my trip and deciding what to take and not to take. ### 5/5 — Love it! *2026-05-25, version 4.0.1* Such a helpful, great app! ### 5/5 — Wow *2026-05-21, version 4.0.1* Actual free functional app 🎉!! Love the evolution of the packerthals on the app lol ### 5/5 — Quality Straightforward App *2026-04-01* The application has a great set of features and works well. I love the simple interface. The ability to have multiple gear lists and to sort them makes it easy to pick sets of gear or individual items to create a pack. I wish there was implementation to sync info between multiple devices and an iPad app would be nice, maybe in the future. The app is well worth the price for premium benefits. ### 5/5 — Great organizer *2026-03-29* This app will keep track of your gear and its weight. You can very easily plan a trip from there. ### 5/5 — Very Good *2025-09-21* Great App for easily tracking and making loadouts for different adventures. One additional item that would be nice is to have a spot to put the price of the items so I can track cost of gear. Also a wishlist feature would be handy. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for the great review :) I just put out a huge update for PackLight's 10th anniversary. I hope you find the new features useful! ### 5/5 — So useful *2025-09-04, version 4.0* Great ability to categorise anything you need to record. Love the ability to build lists, then take the built ones and make tweaks to create new ones. Still a work in progress to see full item descriptions when inside lists, but when that happens, it will be excellent. Five stars for effort so far. ### 5/5 — Backpacking Dream List *2025-08-23, version 4.0* Incredible Gear Load Out Software for Backpacking ### 5/5 — Great App - For me, Meets all my needs and then some! *2025-08-12, version 4.0* I've been using PackLight for a while now and have not found a better tool for maintaining gear inventory weights and the more I use it the more I like it, lots of options to create packing lists and so handy to have the total weights. I would highly recommend this app. --- *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 2026-09-09.*