Comparison

Map Dots vs Great Circle Map

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Map Dots

Record your path by leaving a trail of dots as you travel. Revisit your routes for hiking, exploring, or simply finding your way back. This app works offline and keeps your location data private on your device.

Highlights
  • Record your path with dots
  • Review past routes
  • Works offline without data connection
  • Keeps data private on your phone
  • Useful for hiking, biking, and exploring
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Find your way back by following the dots marking how you came. Bushwhack through the woods. Canvas a neighborhood marking which streets you’ve gone down. Review the route you took to your destination For hiking, camping, hunting, biking or just exploring the neighborhood Works even when you don’t have a data connection or visible map Data is kept private on your phone and not sent to the cloud.

About

Great Circle Map

Features
Read full description

A globe you can turn in any direction, including straight over the poles. Great circle routes cross the poles, so we built a globe that follows them there. Enter two airports and the shortest path between them is drawn on the Earth itself, with distance and bearing on every leg. A Globe With No Pole Clamp Most map apps clamp the view at the poles. North stays up, and the globe stops turning right where great circle routes go. Great Circle Map uses a quaternion arcball instead. Drag in any direction and the globe follows, straight over the North or South Pole. Drag along the outer edge and the view rolls, so any direction can face upward. Find Any Airport • Search the full OurAirports database by IATA code, ICAO code, or city name. • Enter two airports and the great circle between them is drawn with its distance. • Recent routes save automatically and recreate with one tap. Waypoints and Weather • Double-tap anywhere on the globe to drop a waypoint. Double-tap it again to delete it. • Add as many waypoints as you want. There is no limit. • Every waypoint shows current conditions, temperature, and wind direction and speed in knots, from Open-Meteo. Distance on Every Leg • Each leg carries a sliding distance label and its initial bearing. • A running total stays pinned at the top of the screen. • Units switch between kilometers, nautical miles, and statute miles. Choose Your Earth • NASA Blue Marble satellite imagery or Natural Earth relief. • Toggle borders, airports, labels, and the grid. • View the globe in perspective or orthographic projection. Share the Route • Create Map exports your route as a flat map projection image. • The map unrolls across the antimeridian, so polar routes render cleanly. Privacy There are no analytics and no tracking. Weather requests send only waypoint coordinates to Open-Meteo. The privacy policy is at https://greatcirclemap.app/privacy-policy-great-circle-map Learn More The guide at https://greatcirclemap.app/guide.html walks through every feature.

Screenshots

Map Dots4 screens
Great Circle Map4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Great Circle Map at monthly against Map Dots's every 8 months. Great Circle Map also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and price ($0.99 vs $1.99). Map Dots's advantage is chart position (#173 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (13.6 vs 15.6). On ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Map Dots costs $1.99 and Great Circle Map $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Map Dots ships an update every 8 months, Great Circle Map monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Map Dots versus Great Circle Map: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMap DotsGreat Circle Map
Price$1.99$0.99 — better
Rating4.1 (9 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings9 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#173 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS13.6 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size0 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWilliam HauseThe NFC Mint LLC

In-app purchases

None

Map Dots

No in-app purchases

None

Great Circle Map

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Map Dots free?
Map Dots costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Great Circle Map free?
Great Circle Map costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Map Dots or Great Circle Map have ads?
Neither Map Dots nor Great Circle Map shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Map Dots or Great Circle Map?
Map Dots ships an update every 8 months, and Great Circle Map monthly. Most recently, Map Dots was updated on October 6, 2026 and Great Circle Map on October 3, 2026.

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