Trail Explorer vs Ascend Maps
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Trail Explorer
Read full descriptionHide full description
Trail Explorer is a web and mobile app to explore any destination, discover new places and trails, plan adventures, and enjoy the outdoors. For any point on the map, Trail Explorer helps you find the best spots for hiking, sightseeing, climbing, kayaking, scuba, and many more, pairing well with any adventure style and adrenaline level. We compile extensive lists of thrilling experiences by country and category, and offer a set of tools to research any location: • Millions of hiking trails and Places of Interest • Multiple map types to match your adventure style • 3D maps: - topo - satellite - city • Trail analysis and Elevation Profile • 3D flyover along a trail or around a selected landmark • Hike Along tool • Drive Mode in 3D • AI chat • Local video and nearby webcams • The weather • Adventure sports and travel news… Trail Explorer helps you understand any environment even before you go, build awareness of the terrain, the level of difficulty, time, gear, and resources required to reach your adventure objective. We aggregate data from a wide range of sources to help you plan a safer, and more enjoyable experience. Top features: ▶ Search millions of hiking trails and POIs — explore, save, and share with a single tap ▶ Choose from a range of maps — hiking, running, cycling, and more ▶ 3D maps — topo, satellite, and city views ▶ Browse a giant collection of thrilling experiences — sourced by country and category ▶ Explore any place in detail — hiking trails, attractions, adventure options, huts, hotels, and more ▶ Generate a hiking snapshot of any location — popular trails and geo-POIs: peaks, lakes, volcanoes, outdoor sports, videos, webcams, and more ▶ Drive Mode in 3D — explore routes with rich POI detail, adventure hotspots, and intel from AI, Wikipedia, video search, webcams, and weather ▶ 3D trail flyovers and circular landmark animations — realistic route previews and mountain/natural landmark peeks ▶ Hike Along mode — live 3D position tracking with trail data along the elevation profile ▶ Tap any point on the map — instant info on trails, POIs, weather, save and share routes or locations ▶ Search POIs in 20+ categories — huts, water sources, gas stations, geo-objects, and more ▶ Tap any trail on the map — detailed stats, charts, and trail highlights ▶ Tap any POI marker — detailed info, save, share, or generate a hiking snapshot ▶ Check the weather forecast directly from the map ▶ Read news and videos across 20+ categories — hiking, mountaineering, climbing, biking, kayaking, scuba, sailing/boating, adventure, extreme, and many more
Ascend Maps
This app provides customizable outdoor maps with offline capabilities. It features 3D terrain, track recording, saved places management, and the ability to save map tiles for offline use. Explore the outdoors with detailed, personalized navigation tools.
- Offline search
- 3D terrain
- Track recording and editing
- Saved places management
- Customizable map styles
- Offline map tile saving
Read full descriptionHide full description
Ascend is an open source app for vector and raster maps. Features include 3D terrain, offline search, track recording and editing, managing saved places, saving map tiles for offline use, and more. CUSTOMIZABLE * Includes a simple, customizable style for OpenStreetMap vector tiles with modes for hiking, biking, and transit. * Overlay customizable hillshading, shaded relief, contour lines, and slope angle shading calculated in real-time over any base map. * Supports plugins for search, routing, map sources and more. * Add new online map sources and combine layers to create new maps. * Generate and import your own vector tiles. COMPREHENSIVE * Offline search * Wikipedia search * Manage saved places * Show geotagged photos from your Photo Library. * Create and edit routes * Record and edit tracks for hiking, fitness, and more * Save map tiles for offline use Learn more at https://github.com/styluslabs/maps
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Trail Explorer at every 2 weeks against Ascend Maps's every 6 months. Ascend Maps's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Trail Explorer ships an update every 2 weeks, Ascend Maps every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Trail Explorer | Ascend Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 72 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Evgueni Stoilkov | Matthew White |
In-app purchases
Trail Explorer
No in-app purchases
Ascend Maps
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Trail Explorer free?
Is Ascend Maps free?
Do Trail Explorer or Ascend Maps have ads?
Which is updated more often, Trail Explorer or Ascend Maps?
Other comparisons















