Comparison

Floating Maps vs hearthmap

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

Head to head
About

Floating Maps

Experience historical aerial photography overlaid on beautiful map art using augmented reality. Scan a QR code on a wall print to see a 3D rendering of your town, showcasing landscape changes from 1938 to 2019.

Highlights
  • Augmented Reality (AR) visualization
  • Historical aerial photography
  • 3D town renderings
  • Elevation accurate landscapes
  • View changes over time
  • New towns added weekly
Features
Read full description

Floating Maps uses Augmented Reality (AR) to float historical aerial photography over beautiful map art for your home. With a wall print from Floating maps, you can scan the QR Code and bring it to life! Floating in front of you will be an elevation accurate 3D rendering of your town. You can see how the landscape has changed starting with photography from 2019 and going all the way back to black-and-white photographs from 1938. We are working hard to add new towns each week.

About

hearthmap

Explore the United States with a data-driven map to find the best places to live. Analyze over 100 data points like schools, crime rates, and housing costs at various geographic levels. Filter and rank locations based on your personal priorities.

Highlights
  • 100+ data points for location analysis
  • Map visualization of data across the US
  • Filter locations by budget, commute, and more
  • Rank regions based on personal priorities
  • Drill down to block group resolution
  • Data from trusted public sources
Features
Read full description

100+ data points. Every neighborhood in America. One map. hearthmap is a free, data-only map for deciding where to live in the United States. No listings, no agents, no spam. Just the facts about a place, shaded across the whole country, so you can see at a glance where the good schools, low crime, affordable homes, and clean air actually are. EXPLORE Shade the map by any of 100 data points and watch the whole country light up. Zoom from states down to your exact block group and the map redraws at the right level of detail automatically. FILTER Hide everywhere that does not fit. Show only the places with homes under your budget, a commute under 30 minutes, a school rating above your bar, or any combination you set. RANK Tell hearthmap what matters to you and how much it matters. It scores every region in the country by how well it fits, then colors the strongest matches so your next home rises to the top. WHAT YOU CAN MAP - Housing: typical home value, asking price, rent, total monthly payment (PITI), property tax rate, days on market, and a one-year home value forecast - Cost of living: median household income, childcare cost, homeowners insurance, poverty rate - Schools: district ratings, math and reading proficiency, SAT scores, graduation rates, spending per student - Safety: violent crime and property crime rates - Environment: air quality, drinking water, wildfire, flood, hurricane, tornado, heat, and drought risk, radon, noise, temperature, humidity, rainfall, and sunny days - Demographics: population, density, growth, age mix, household size, families with kids, education levels - Lifestyle: walkability, transit, parks, restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, gyms, and libraries - Plus commute times, employment, political lean, life expectancy, and more SIX LEVELS OF DETAIL See any metric at state, county, town, ZIP code, census tract, and block group resolution. Compare a whole state at a glance, or drill all the way down to a single block. DATA YOU CAN TRUST Every number comes from a named public source: the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the Department of Education, FEMA, the EPA, NOAA, the CDC, Zillow Research, Redfin, and more. Tap any region to see the value and where it came from. FREE AND PRIVATE hearthmap is completely free. It is a research tool, not a real estate brokerage: it does not list homes, broker deals, or sell your data. Create a free account to save the places and searches you care about, or just open the map and start exploring. Where should you live? Find out with data.

Screenshots

Floating Maps4 screens
hearthmap4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Floating Maps at weekly against hearthmap's fortnightly. On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Floating Maps against 5.0 for hearthmap. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Floating Maps ships an update weekly, hearthmap fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Floating Maps versus hearthmap: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFloating Mapshearthmap
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings4 — better2
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFloating Maps LLCCHRISTOPHER PATRICK FAXON

Customer experience

Floating Maps

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

hearthmap

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Floating Maps

No in-app purchases

None

hearthmap

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Floating Maps free?
Floating Maps is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is hearthmap free?
hearthmap is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Floating Maps or hearthmap?
Floating Maps and hearthmap are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Floating Maps or hearthmap have ads?
Neither Floating Maps nor hearthmap shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Floating Maps or hearthmap?
Floating Maps ships an update weekly, and hearthmap fortnightly. Most recently, Floating Maps was updated on October 12, 2026 and hearthmap on October 5, 2026.

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