Adventure Cache vs MapLayers
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Adventure Cache
Discover and create hidden treasures, log personal items with photos, and plan expeditions with interactive maps. Connect with a community of explorers, earn badges, and share your discoveries.
- Discover and create caches
- Log items with photos and categories
- Plan adventures with interactive maps
- Earn badges for achievements
- Create private notes
- Comment on user content
- Apple Watch integration
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The ultimate mobile companion for adventurers and explorers. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, geocache hunter, metal detectorist, or a hobbyist looking to discover new horizons, this app is your passport to extraordinary experiences. Key Features: Caches: Discover Caches shared by others or create some of your own! Adventure Cache unveils a world of hidden treasures, from remote hiking trails and picturesque viewpoints to historic landmarks. Items: Flexible feature for the user to log information and/or images of their choice. Customizable categories and subcategories allow the user to log detailed information about their items and sort them accordingly. Link to an Adventure or just utilize the Item feature for its organization. Plan Your Next Escape: Organize adventures by linking any item you've previously created. Add Caches you want to find and view the pins of your adventure on a map for easy navigation. Interactive Maps: Our user-friendly maps guide you through your adventures, helping you explore with ease. Get both walking or driving directions, discover points of interest, or create new records as you are walking. Badges: Earn badges for various actions and achievements in the application. Badges are displayed on the users personal profile page along with their individual progress. Notes: Quickly create private notes for your private records. Including 500 characters of text each, an optional image, and category. Make notes on a Cache, Adventure, or Item already in the application or utilize them as a unrelated way to log something for later. Commenting: Users are able to comment on a variety of things in the application. Let others know what you think of the Cache they hid or just compliment a user on their collection of nature photos. Capture the Moment: Share your favorite items with the Adventure Cache community and showcase your epic photos. Connect with like-minded explorers and share your adventures with the world. Get featured on the weekly explore page! Kudos: Give users virtual Kudos, a way of spreading positive feedback to a user or to an item that you think is cool. All just for fun! Privacy Matters: Your safety and privacy are paramount. All items, caches, and adventures created by you are private by default. You are in control of what you share. Apple Watch: See up to 20 public caches near you, pick one, and follow the arrow. Save finds and visits from your wrist, play Crown Lock with the Digital Crown, and keep the nearest cache on your watch face. The watch app works on the watch alone, with no account, and needs watchOS 11 or later. It usually installs by itself with Adventure Cache. If it doesn't, open the Watch app on your iPhone and look under Available Apps. Download now and let the adventures begin! Explore, connect, and create memories that will last a lifetime.
MapLayers
Access a wide variety of maps for outdoor activities, including USGS and Bureau of Land Management charts. Import custom GeoPDF maps and overlay them with different base layers. Track your GPS location and record your travels for review.
- GPS tracking and logging
- Multiple map types
- Custom GeoPDF import
- Map overlays
- Compass navigation
- View current location
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MapLayers is a collection of maps for outdoor activities and more! New in Version 1.4: Compass for navigating to any point on the map New in Version 1.2: App URLs to open individual charts either in app or on the web. New in Version 1.1: GPS Track Logging. You can now record and review your travels!. Discovering and downloading maps for your adventures is easy and fast. Multiple types of maps are available and multiple maps can be viewed at the same time. Custom maps can be imported as GeoPDF and we are adding more maps constantly. Featuring maps from the USGS, Bureau of Land Management and more! Each map is viewable on our custom, spherical based map engine and can be overlaid with various base maps. Your current location can also be shown on the map. SUPPORT We can help! Email team@cartolake.com LEGAL End User License Agreement: https://www.cartolake.com/about/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.cartolake.com/about/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Adventure Cache at none against MapLayers's shown. Adventure Cache also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, rating, 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. Adventure Cache sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and MapLayers sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $24.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Adventure Cache against 5.0 for MapLayers. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.
Adventure Cache ships an update every 8 days, MapLayers every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Adventure Cache | MapLayers |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 88 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Earl Hayes | CartoLake, LLC |
In-app purchases
Adventure Cache
- Small Tip$1.00
- Medium Tip$5.00
- Large Tip$10.00
MapLayers
- Basic Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year







