# You Need A Map — user reviews > 88 indexed App Store user reviews of You Need A Map by GrangerFX, rated 4.40/5 from 53 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/you-need-a-map/id415545903/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/you-need-a-map/id415545903.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 39 · 4★ 7 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 5 ## What do users think of You Need A Map? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🗺️ Excellent offline maps - ⛰️ Detailed terrain and 3D view - 📸 Useful for photography planning - ✈️ Great for pilots and aviation - 🌲 Ideal for backcountry/remote areas - 💡 Innovative features like sun simulation - 👍 Easy to use interface - ✅ Reliable in no-signal areas - 💯 Professional and well-made app - 🌟 World-class customer service - 🔄 Seamless GPX file import - 🧭 Tracks and navigation features - 💰 Great value for price **Cons** - 💾 Large file size - 🔋 High battery consumption - 🗺️ Missing specific locations (e.g., Isle Royale) - 📉 Outdated map data in some areas - ❓ Unintuitive at times - 🗄️ Difficulty organizing waypoints - 🎨 Graphics could be improved - 🌐 Limited to USA (for some users) - 🎛️ Cluttered interface reported by some **Commonly reported bugs** - Dark mode alphanumeric display issue - App crashes when touching GPS icon - App won't open after update - Download issues - 3D feature purchase unavailable **Most requested features** - Prioritize favorite waypoints - Update satellite imagery - Improve search functionality for towns/streets - Add BLM and state trust land overlays - Add Retina display graphics for new iPads - Provide a user guide within the app - Add status icon for GPS signal acquisition - Make maps selectable by region to reduce download size - Improve street name alignment/readability ## Newest reviews (17 of 88) ### 4/5 — Excellent *2020-08-24* I’ve used this flying across the country as a pilot and in the mountains hiking. No cell signal needed and the ability to leave a track so you can follow it back out. ### 4/5 — Thanks *2017-03-13* I like the user interface, very easy and intuitive! Thank you for the app! ### 5/5 — Works well offline *2016-12-23* This is not the most beautiful app I've seen, but it does exactly what it says. Five stars ### 5/5 — You need to have this map! *2016-12-06* Every well-prepared person needs to have this map. Also note it takes 3 1/2 GB of space. ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2016-12-05* Really useful app with great design. Highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Useful! *2016-11-30* Professionally made app, easy to understand and use. I've been waiting for something like this app. Incredibly useful and well-designed app with great UI/UX! Thanks:) ### 5/5 — Can be very helpful *2016-08-15* I got lost once in the woods returning from hunting at night. This app helped me navigate my way back out of the woods. I love the option of tracking where you have been so you don't backtrack. ### 5/5 — Great offline navigation! *2016-08-07* Excellent! Just used this app on a scenic mountain drive. Not having to worry about losing date in the mountains is a great piece of mind and the 3D topo greatly enhances situational awareness. I also find not using turn by turn directions to be less intrusive, especially for a spontaneous drive. Just use the GPS location and the ground track to make sure you don't make a wrong turn somewhere. Can't wait to take this hiking. ### 5/5 — This app rocks! *2016-03-30, version 1.8.2* I can't say enough good things about this app. I've been using it while hiking in remote locations and it is awesome to be able to have a map combined with GPS while off-line. The maps are very high-quality with details of backroads and hiking trails even. Highly recommended! ### 5/5 — Good for travel *2016-03-01, version 1.8.2* Secure your maps during your trip. It could rescue your life! ⛑ ### 5/5 — Very interesting *2016-02-22, version 1.8.2* This app provides offline maps. When you go to rural area, you sometimes can not access the internet. Yes, it could be helpful. ### 5/5 — Awesome free gps mapping!!! *2015-10-15, version 1.7.4* This is a free gps map app that you can use while you are offline. I use it for off-roading, flying, hiking, fishing and mountain biking. Most map apps require you to be online which is useless for what I need a map for. If you just need directions to the grocery store, this is not for you. This app is quite large because you download all the maps to your device. I've used it on both my iPhone and iPad and it works great. Thanks for the great app! ### 3/5 — You Need a Map *2015-08-28, version 1.7.4* Used to be better at pointing out natural landmarks. Example, I used to be able to slew over and it would name rivers and lakes. Now when I slew it persists in naming what county the slew pointer is in. Even major rivers it will not name like it used to. County identifiers is turned off. I could care less what county I am flying over. All other improvements are a plus. I really like the track data display. ### 3/5 — WAS good. *2015-08-09, version 1.7.4* After latest update, it will not open. ### 3/5 — You Need a Map *2015-06-08, version 1.6.2* The app is crashing every time I touch the GPS icon to center the map. ### 5/5 — 3D Maps *2015-04-17, version 1.6.2* I love this app the only issue I have is NONE ! ! ! ! It's the only 3D map App the works as advertised I've tried 4 so far as this one works off-line it's great with my I-Pad and I-Pad Mini ### 5/5 — Great app! Easy to understand and use! *2014-12-31, version 1.6.2* Great app! Easy to understand and use! David Lorea Farrington ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Looks good and I would love to try it *2017-05-17, version 1.8.4* But it won't download.i tried hundreds of times to get it to download.its not my iPad because I checked so it has to be the app.please fix so I can try this app.thank you. ### 1/5 — Updates TOO BIG!!! *2017-05-02, version 1.8.4* You download this app when you purchase, and it’s huge. That’s understandably because it’s a bunch of maps. Then GrangerFX discovers “minor bugs” and their solution is to have everyone download the ENTIRE THING again. We’re talking IN EXCESS OF 2GB for EVERY update. Monumental waste of bandwidth! These guys need to go back to school and redesign this entire thing, so it doesn’t need to be such a pain. Until that happens IT IS NOT WORTH IT!!! Update: here's the response I got from GrangerFX, MONTHS LATER: "Please consider using the free stand alone Scenic Map app. It has a very small download and gets map data from the cloud". So their answer (to the challenge put forth to reduce their bandwidth footprint by fixing how they update their app) is "Thanks for giving us your money, now go back and use the free version". There is a trend with developers to abandon the traditional elegance of coding using minimal code. With this app it goes to the extreme. Updates that consume gigabytes of bandwidth is lunacy. I still say AVOID THIS APP and I'll now go further: I'd recommend avoiding ANYTHING from this developer. Not only do they lack skill -- they have no respect for their customers, no understanding of the iOS environment, and no grasp of their profession. Hey GrangerFX: "Please consider another business model away from mobile devices - something where bandwidth doesn't matter. As for your treatment of customers, you are right up there with United Airlines. CONGRATULATIONS!" ### 1/5 — Houston We Have A Problem *2014-09-30, version 1.6.2* I'm a prospector and thought this would be a good app for finding creeks, rivers, and roads in the State of Oregon. It seems like this app has all the bells and whistles but it couldn't even find Albany Or USA or Cottage Grove Oregon or lakes such as Dorena Lake or creeks such as Brice Creek or Brice Creek Rd all in southern Oregon just off of I5. I promptly removed it from my iPhone and for those reasons I give it 1 star. Even though it's free for me it's not helpful at all. Thanks but no thanks. ### 1/5 — Delete *2014-07-11, version 1.6.2* Can't delete it. ### 1/5 — No 3d *2013-12-24, version 1.5.1* The program will not allow me to buy the 3d feature (ain't that a hoot) offered for sale. It always says the App Store is not available now. ### 1/5 — Now I have got a map *2013-08-04* Yess I have got a map ### 1/5 — Bad app *2013-06-04, version 1.5.1* This is a horrible app. We used it on a road trip on the east coast and deleted it by the end. It is not searchable by town, road, city etc. If you move the map or zoom in it takes 5-10 seconds to reload-a long time if you must choose an exit/bridge/highway. The graphics are also ugly, looking like the original version of Civilization 20 years ago. ### 1/5 — Watch out! *2013-05-25, version 1.5.1* Be careful about downloading this monster! It's 1.8 GIG's and has so far tied up my computer with the download for two hours. At 5 - 10 times the size of other apps I can find better use of my memory. ### 1/5 — Doesnt work in Canada. *2012-05-22* Booooo! Wish it would have said that before I downloaded 1.8 gig not to mention I had to clear over 5 gig just to get it to download. Doesn't deserve the whole star. ### 1/5 — Weak *2011-11-27, version 1.2.1* Ultimately it is a nice interface for the open source OpenStreetMap data which is a decent offline map. But the app advertises itself as an offline map with GPS. I don't know how it is maybe intended to work, but it fails for me as an offline GPS map. The few times I tried it, the GPS function simply doesn't work when I'm offline. It only has been working for me when I'm in wifi range. Otherwise I get a "GPS function unavailable" error message. But if I'm within wifi range, I might as well use the built-in Google Map since it a much better overall map anyway. I looked at the developer's page but that was no help. Nothing about that problem (if it is a problem and not an intended design feature) in the FAQ or known bugs pages. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — An offline map of USA in your pocket *2024-03-17* I love this app and highly recommend this app. Each family member Carrie’s this on their phones for those just in case times you can’t get a signal for typical online only maps. In addition, it has lots of features for exploring areas and seeing the terrain near you. It helps me plan photography shots too! You can turn on 3D view, put up an imaginary sun, and see where shadows vs sunlight will be. Just an excellent map app. ### 5/5 — Great in so many ways *2021-12-18, version 1.8.17* Key use cases for me… 1. Security- a map at all times of the US downloaded on your phone. I keep an old iPhone 5 loaded up and stored kn the glove compartment. Doesn’t need any cell, just some power. Find your way anywhere in US when cell towers aren’t around. 2. As a photographer- I plan shots ahead of time, especially important for elevation simulation along with sun / shadow simulation. Amazing for this. 3. As an semi outdoorsy enthusiast- an always available map for the backwoods, kayaking, any remote areas. 4. Just plain fun. Visit areas and see the topography in ways others apps just don’t. 5. I have not uploaded GPX files, but I should. Could be cool to see my recorded mountain bike rides from Motion X (GREAT GPS app) Thanks for building this app! ### 5/5 — Dark Mode glitch *2020-07-15* Hey developers, When using dark mode, all alphanumeric values in ‘tracks’ will not display. The portion of tracks that I can edit will only display emojis and nothing that I have written or what is programmed to be there prior to edit. The bottom segment of tracks that I can’t edit remains visible in either mode. Just thought I’d let ya know😎 ### 5/5 — YNAM *2020-02-06* The best in Canada AND elsewhere. ### 5/5 — Excellent update for an excellent app. *2019-10-09* The latest update is great! You can add GPX files directly from safari downloads via the share sheet. I couldn’t be more impressed with the app. I really appreciate the customer service. Prompt responses to emails and delivering the goods World class work. Thank you ### 5/5 — Isle Royale, MI *2019-05-09* Great app. But where is Isle Royale, Michigan? The roads are there but the island is missing. ### 5/5 — Name says it all *2018-09-25* I know if I have this app on my phone and my phone in my pocket I can just start driving down a new trail some where in the bush and use this to get back later. ### 5/5 — Powerful tool for Helicopter Search & Rescue *2018-08-11* UPDATED 10-AUG-2018: I LOVE THIS APP- I’ve been utilizing this app as a back up (honestly, primary) to the onboard navigation equipment on a Navy MH-60S specifically for SAR Ops and identifying names and locations of local landmarks, roads, and popular trails such as the Pacific Crest Trail which is well marked within the app. UPDATE: I've also used all over the Pacific, midway, Japan, Indo, Vietnam, Singapore, Sri Lanka, PI, Indo-Asia area with zero issues. I've found that if I know where I'm going ahead of time, I'll get on Wi-Fi or data and conduct a map study, zoom in, and then cache the maps with the necessary zoom in detail as required for my flight missions. The only downside to this app is that it requires around 2GB of memory on your device to store the 3D maps (UPDATE: I got a new phone so memory is no longer an issue). But for what I do, even if I was limited on memory, I’m more than willing to give up that space on my phone/ipad for this app and the cached map data. Although I give it 5 stars, there is always room for improvement. For instance, I've got a lot of stored waypoints. I'd like to be able to prioritize my favorite waypoints towards the top of my list instead of having to scroll all the way to the bottom just to access my most frequently used ones. (If there is a way to already do that, I haven't figured it out). Also, I'd like to see the satellite imagery updated. For the price of the app and In-app Purchase, this is the best tool for the SAR community that I’ve used so far. I’ve paired my phone with a Bad Elph GPS Rx’r for better SAT reception when the phones onboard Rx’r just won’t cut it. The app eats up battery quick so when using it for extended searches/Nav, make sure you’ve got an external battery. ### 5/5 — Great for back road travel *2017-04-06* If you just need city and big highway maps then download anything. They're all the same. BUT if you get off-road or deep into the back country GET THIS APP. I've tried many. This beats them all. ### 5/5 — Awesome *2017-02-09* Great map 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 2026-08-28.*