Guru Maps vs Ascend Maps
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Guru Maps
Navigate the world without an internet connection using detailed offline maps and turn-by-turn GPS directions. Plan multi-stop routes, record your adventures, and discover millions of points of interest with rich 3D terrain views. Sync your data across devices for seamless exploration.
- Offline maps and navigation
- Turn-by-turn voice directions
- Multi-stop route planning
- GPS track recording
- 3D relief and terrain views
- Offline search for places
- Sync across devices
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Explore the world offline with Guru Maps — detailed maps, turn-by-turn navigation, and GPS track recording that keep working when you have no signal. Download maps once and use them anywhere (powered by OpenStreetMap). Plan routes, record adventures, save favorite places, and sync everything across devices. OFFLINE MAPS • Download maps for countries or regions and use them fully offline. • Rich detail and millions of places. Monthly map updates. NAVIGATION THAT WORKS OFFLINE • Voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions with automatic rerouting. • Lane guidance for clearer driving in complex junctions. • Modes: car, bike, truck, walk, plus straight-line navigation (great for sailing or off-road). ROUTE PLANNING • Build multi-stop routes with custom waypoints. • Choose fastest or shortest route and save your plans. • Export routes to GPX/KML to share or back up. TRUE 3D RELIEF & TERRAIN • Preview hills and valleys in True 3D Relief. • High-detail terrain: contour lines, hillshade, and topographic overlays. • Elevation profiles and slope charts for smarter planning. GPS TRACK RECORDING • Record tracks with one tap (even in the background). • Live stats: speed, distance, time, altitude. • Analyze tracks with interactive graphs and export to GPX/KML. FAST OFFLINE SEARCH • Search by name, address, category, or coordinates — offline. • Instant results as you type, with multi-language support. POI & ORGANIZATION • Save places with custom pins and icons. • Organize everything into folders and share with friends. OPENING HOURS • See opening hours for places when available. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES • Sync and back up your markers, tracks, and collections with one Guru Maps account across iOS, macOS, and other platforms. CARPLAY • Use Guru Maps on Apple CarPlay with offline maps and voice directions. NO ADS. PRIVACY FIRST. • No advertising. Your location stays on your device. Power features: one-finger zoom, compass & scale, coordinate grids (MGRS/UTM), GeoJSON overlays, MBTiles/sqlitedb import, and more. Upgrade to Pro for: • Unlimited offline map downloads • Unlimited markers and GPS tracks • Pro map sources, including Satellite and specialist layers (cycling, outdoors, marine, ski, etc.) Choose monthly or yearly subscription (7-day free trial) — or a one-time lifetime purchase. Download Guru Maps and explore with confidence — anywhere, anytime. Terms of Service & Privacy Policy: https://gurumaps.app/terms_of_service Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
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
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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 in-app purchases: Ascend Maps at none against Guru Maps's 6. Ascend Maps also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Guru Maps's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (2.9K vs 1). On price 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
Both are free to download. Guru Maps sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Ascend Maps asks for nothing beyond the download.
Ascend Maps holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Guru Maps has 2.9K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Guru Maps ships an update every 10 days, Ascend Maps every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and August 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Guru Maps | Ascend Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2.9K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2.9K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #183 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 123 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Evgen Bodunov | Matthew White |
Customer experience
Guru Maps
Ascend Maps
Bugs and requests
Guru Maps
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes after recent updates
- GPS not working reliably offline
- Incorrect map data in some areas
- Syncing issues between devices
Requested features
5 requests- Route planning and turn-by-turn navigation
- Elevation/terrain data display
- Ability to add custom waypoints and annotations
- Improved search functionality
- Easier map download and import process
Ascend Maps
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Guru Maps
- Guru Maps Pro Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Guru Maps Pro Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- One-Time Purchase$27.00
- One-Time Purchase$40.49
- One-Time Purchase$54.00
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- One-Time Purchase$89.99
Ascend Maps
No in-app purchases
