Relief Maps vs Map Data Explorer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Relief Maps
Navigate mountain adventures with detailed 3D maps and offline GPS capabilities. Plan routes, discover points of interest, and access specialized tools for hiking, skiing, paragliding, and more. Explore terrain, check weather, and track your progress even without an internet connection.
- 3D map visualization
- Offline GPS navigation
- Route planning and export (GPX)
- Points of interest discovery
- Specialized tools for paragliding and ski touring
- Augmented reality terrain analysis
- Detailed weather forecasts
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Relief Maps is your ultimate guide to all your mountain adventures. Whether you're hiking, skiing, trekking, paragliding or even mountaineering, our 3D map makes it easy to find your way. See the USGS maps as you've never seen it before in 3D! Hiking to an area with no internet connection? No problem! Our gps app offers offline maps so you can continue your navigation even without a network. You can download USGS maps and use them in offline mode, so you'll always be sure of your position and direction. Hiking : Find hikes nearby, our route catalog will help you find interesting trails all around you, whether you just want to go for a stroll or a sporty hike. Our route planning system also lets you easily plot your own routes, then export them to GPX. Mountaineering : Consult camp-to-camp and skitour topos with GPS tracks and easily find the start of your dream route! From Mont Blanc to Aiguille Verte via the whymper couloir, climb every peak in the Alps! Enjoy the best 3D visualization available on Chamonix and the French Alps. Climbing: Stop searching for hours for the start of a route! Find the start of a route with the GPX tracks available in the app. Trek : A trek lasting several days? You can plan your adventure easily with Relief Maps. Find a list of points of interest that will help you, refuges, free parking lots, water points, toilets, campsites & bivouacs etc. Find the best paths on our topo and IGN maps, and calculate the distance, altitude difference and duration of your route easily. Whether you're trekking on the PCT or on the Appalachian Trail Relief Maps goes everywhere with you! Ski touring : Explore the mountains on skis with our ski touring tools. Analyze the terrain with augmented reality or 3D slope maps. Take advantage of detailed weather forecasts with snowfall, temperatures by altitude, etc. Consult skitour and camp-to-camp topos all over France and Europe. Enjoy the best 3D visualization available on Chamonix and the French Alps. Paragliding : Used by many Xalps athletes, the app offers you all the tools you need for paragliding: - Precise paragliding weather, wind, thermals, etc. - Map of the best-known thermals - Glide ratio calculator - Live tracking - Track replay Downhill skiing: - Find the piste maps of major resorts such as Park City, Breckenridge, Jackson Hole and many others. Free features : - 3D map consultation - Route planning - Nearby routes - Hiking, walking, mountaineering, climbing, ski touring, mountain skiing, walking and paragliding routes - Points of interest (refuges, water points, free parking, etc.) - Track recording - GPX track replay - Track synchronization with Suunto watch - Augmented reality - Glide calculation (paragliding) Premium : - Off-line maps - Livetracking - IGN map - Weather forecasts - Route saving/tracking - Slope maps (for avalanche risk in ski touring) - Winter map - USGS Maps - GPX import/export Maps: - USGS topo - USGS satellite - 3D terrain - IGN free map - IGN scan - IGN satellite - Avalanche slope - Satellite - Swisstopo - Swisstopo satellite - osm summer - osm winter -- Premium subscription : 29.99€/an Terms of use: https://reliefmaps.io/terms.html Privacy policy: https://reliefmaps.io/privacy.html
Map Data Explorer
This advanced mapping application supports various data formats including GeoJSON, MBTILES, and GPKG. It offers tools for drawing, editing vector data, and collecting dynamic information. Visualize terrain in 3D and utilize a suite of navigation and measurement features.
- Vector tile basemaps
- User-loaded GeoJSON, MBTILES, GPKG data
- Map catalog support
- Vector data drawing and editing
- 3D terrain and building visualization
- Advanced data collection forms
- Coordinate conversion and measurement tools
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Map Data Explorer is a advanced mapping app powered by vector tile basemaps (TMG OSM vector tiles, MapBox and others) with configurable stylesheets Supports user loaded device GeoJSON,Raster tiles from MBTILES and GPKG and vector tiles from MBTILES. Supports user loaded Map Catalog (JSON) of internet mapping content (with catalog building screen) XYZ PNG/JPG Raster Tiles PBF Vector Tiles GeoJSON Local map tiles in mbtiles and gpkg Includes additional layers users can enable: vector overlays (Reference Grids, TimeZones and US State Boundaries) Draw/digitize vector data and support editing and assigning attributes. Map Supports Tilting to display 3D terrain and 3D Buildings (only some basemaps support 3D buildings ) Currently, terrain is not available offline. Map Tools: - Search - places, addresses - Advanced dynamic data collection forms with form builder - Draw/Digitize Data Creation and Editing and export as GeoJSON - Information Box for geojson data - Measure linear and Area - Geolocation & Coordinate Widget (Lat Long and MGRS and zoom level) and share location - Go to Lat Long - Placemarks (spatial bookmarks) (with import and export of Waypoints GeoJSON, KML and GPX) - Basic Route Planning with import of Waypoints (KML and GPX) - Connection to other Navigation Apps - GPS Recorder with background recording and export or track - View Spot Elevation - Display Military Symbology (App6/MilSpec2525C) GeoJSON Schema easily shared with other apps - Radius Ruler/Range Rings - Coordinate Converter (to/from projected coordinates or geographic and GRIDS - MGRS, GARS, WHAT3WORD) Includes an in-app vector converter to convert GIS data (Shapefiles, GPKG, GPX, KML, CSV, WKT to GeoJSON) must be 4326 Includes in-app coordinate converter to convert to /from different coordinate systems and GRIDS (MGRS,GARS, etc) Wifi Sharing - access device files from web browser File Manager To manage files Create Forms with in-app or web form designer with JSON Schema Load a form design and swap between forms Collect any form data Other features: Vector Conversion and Publishing API to convert local vector GIS Data and also publish to PostGIS database tables. Added Button links to TMG Map Data Explorer website for all in-app purchase screen Serve OGC GPKG -GeoPackage with Vector Tiles new OGC extensions Support for any SRS for raster tiles in GPKG (tested with 3857 and 3395) Support for any SRS for Vector Tiles in GPKG (tested with 3857 and 3395) Real-Time Data Module (Network Link KML and Internet KML, ESRI GeoServices REST API and GeoRSS) display on the map and update at set frequency Button to view attributes from GPKG Vector Features 2nd Non Map View – Office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), PDF Viewer, EPUB Viewer, User links web pages and File Manager User loaded GeoJSON support for simple style spec and Marker Symbols ESRI GeoServices REST API (FeatureServer) in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise Sync – download GeoJSON and Synchronize edited GeoJSON. Elevate API - submit geojson point and return back with Elevation, MGRS, GARS, What3Words, PlaceKey, Pluscode properties GeoRequest Area of Interest API for submitting jobs for offline data Pre-staged data downloading of ready to download data Area of interest downloading of online map data: Tile Downloader that supports building mbtiles from tile layers (XYZ/TMS, WMTS and Dynamic and cached mapping services (ESRI MapServer, ImageServer, OGC WMS) and downloading GeoJSON from WFS and MapServer and FeatureServer. Terms of Use: https://mapexplorer.techmaven.net/eula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Relief Maps at 69% against Map Data Explorer's 0%. Relief Maps also leads on rating (4.6 vs 2.0) and ratings volume (166 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Relief Maps sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Map Data Explorer sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Relief Maps holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Relief Maps has 166 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of Relief Maps's written reviews are positive against 0% of Map Data Explorer's.
Relief Maps ships an update fortnightly, Map Data Explorer every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Relief Maps | Map Data Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (166 ratings) — better | 2.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 69.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 166 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 226 MB | 138 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Batiste Vonderweidt | Tech Maven GeoSpatial LLC |
Customer experience
Relief Maps
Map Data Explorer
Bugs and requests
Relief Maps
Reported bugs
17 issues- Crashes on entry
- Cannot sign in for trial
- App crashes frequently (7 out of 10 times)
- Live tracking cannot be turned off
- Route from a past race opens by default
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- Bugs when viewing downloaded map
- Random jumping long distances accidentally in 3D navigation
- Some pro features on desktop not working
- Map download fails
- Downloaded map cannot be loaded for later use
- App closes without reason
- Cannot download map tiles
- Screen goes all white or all black
- Cannot login or set up an account
- GPS continues to be active in the background
- Display issue: 'Burger' menu clipped, vertical menu too small and unreadable on iPhone 16 Pro
- Satellite photograph tiles blank out when zooming
Requested features
19 requests- Lidar usage instructions
- Desktop version
- Integration of avalanche bulletin
- More routes
- Simulation of wind in mountains for paragliding
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- Option to prevent phone from sleeping during activity (e.g., MTB)
- Stats for km, d+, time
- Direct synchronization with Garmin watches
- Display indicators every X km on a track
- Track merging
- Color-gradations for avalanche layer down to 20 deg and up to 55 deg
- Both summer and winter satellite images
- Medium-resolution thumbnail of downloaded map area
- Memory for orientation shading settings
- Ability to open map and have many/all saved pins automatically turned on
- Improve accuracy of trajectory capture
- Color scale for avalanche filter up to 27-28 degrees, reduced color scaling
- More practical and readable direction view (North, West, South, East)
- Color scale displayed when a track is loaded
Map Data Explorer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Relief Maps
- USGS Monthly7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Premium Monthly7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- USGS Yearly7 Days trial$4.991 Year
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- Premium Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Premium Yearly$8.991 Year
- Premium Yearly7 Days trial$9.491 Year
- Premium Yearly$12.491 Year
- IGN Yearly7 Days trial$13.991 Year
- Premium + IGN -30%$19.991 Year
- Premium Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Premium Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Premium Lifetime$13.99
- Premium Lifetime$26.99
Map Data Explorer
- TMG Elevate API7 Days trial$4.991 Year
- Map Data Explorer Subscription7 Days trial$4.991 Year
- TMG Vector Conversion API7 Days trial$14.991 Year
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- MapBox RGB PNG Elevation Tiles7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- GeoRequest Area of Interest7 Days trial$99.991 Year
- Pre-Staged Data Downloading7 Days trial$199.991 Year
- Tile Downloader Module$4.99
Questions
Is Relief Maps free?
Is Map Data Explorer free?
Which has better reviews, Relief Maps or Map Data Explorer?
Do Relief Maps or Map Data Explorer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Relief Maps or Map Data Explorer?
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