Spyglass vs CourseSpeed
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Spyglass
This app is a comprehensive offline navigation tool for outdoor and off-road adventures. It combines a high-tech compass, GPS receiver, and augmented reality display with numerous tools for tracking, measuring, and celestial observation.
- Offline GPS and maps
- Augmented reality display
- Advanced compass and gyrocompass
- Waypoint tracking and navigation
- Sun, Moon, and star finder
- Optical rangefinder
- Camera with GPS data overlay
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Spyglass is an essential offline GPS app for outdoors and off-road navigation. Packed with tools it serves as binoculars, heads-up display, hi-tech compass with offline maps, gyrocompass, GPS receiver, waypoint tracker, speedometer, altimeter, Sun, Moon and star finder, gyro horizon, rangefinder, coordinate converter, sextant, inclinometer, angular calculator and camera. It saves your custom places and waypoints, navigates precisely to them later, shows them on maps and using real-time augmented reality displays detailed GPS info, measures distances, sizes, angles, and does a lot more. COMPASS & GYROCOMPASS Accuracy improvement techniques, special compass modes and calibration methods available in Spyglass only make it a real instrument – the most advanced and accurate digital compass. FINDER, TRACKER & AR NAVIGATION Spyglass operates in 3D and uses augmented reality to show real-time object positions, info and directions to them overlaid over camera or maps. Save current position, add points from maps, manually enter location coordinates and bearings, add stars by hand or use a built-in star catalogue. Find saved places and objects later simply by following directional arrows. Spyglass tracks multiple targets simultaneously and shows their info – distance, direction, azimuth, elevation and estimated time of arrival. Copy, paste and share locations, coordinates and map links using many supported formats. GPS, SPEEDOMETER & ALTIMETER Find and track your location and get detailed real-time GPS data – coordinates in dozens of formats, altitude, course, current, maximum and vertical speed, using imperial, metric, nautical and surveying units. OFFLINE MAPS See your and targets’ positions on maps using different map styles and alternative map providers – plan waypoints and measure distances. Offline maps optimized for retina displays are available for download. TRACK STARS, SUN AND MOON & NAVIGATE BY STARS Track positions of stars, Sun and Moon with arc second precision – use them as a reference to calibrate compass for maximum accuracy. OPTICAL RANGEFINDER Measure distances to objects in real time with a rangefinder reticle similar to sniper sights. SEXTANT, ANGULAR CALCULATOR AND INCLINOMETER Find out heights of objects and distances to them – measure visually and calculate dimensions and distances. CAMERA Take pictures overlaid with all available GPS, positional and directional data. DEMO & HELP Videos: http://j.mp/spyglass_vids Manuals: http://j.mp/spyglass_help If you need specific map sources for hiking, cycling, skiing and many more outdoor activities, feel free to enjoy Spyglass PLUS. At confirmation of the Spyglass PLUS purchase, payment will be charged to your iTunes account, and it will be charged for renewal within 24-hours before the end of the current period. Automatic renewal can be turned off at any time in your Account Settings after purchase. After the cancellation of the renewal, Spyglass Plus will expire at the end of the current period. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at https://spyglassnav.com Privacy Policy: https://www.unblip.com/tmp/privacy_and_terms/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.unblip.com/tmp/privacy_and_terms/terms.html
CourseSpeed
This navigation app provides real-time course, speed, and position data on a clear display. It offers turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts, map overlays, and the ability to save tracks and points of interest. Additional features include sunrise/sunset times, horizon distance calculation, and specialized functions for sailing and geocaching.
- Real-time course, speed, and position display
- Turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts
- Map view with track history and waypoints
- Save and load track history and points of interest
- GPX file export for computer viewing
- Sunrise/sunset times and horizon distance calculator
- Anchor watch and geocaching search functions
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App Summary: Although the CourseSpeed App was developed for boating, the App can be used anywhere, for example Boating, Hiking, Bike Riding, and Geocaching. The app was developed to conveniently have Course, Speed, and Position available on one screen in sufficiently large fields to be seen several feet away from the iPhone as well as to show the current position on a map. However, it also provides other views that perform the following, additional useful functions: 1. Allows the current position to be followed on any of three map types and, from the map, get Turn-by-turn navigation directions with voice prompts to anywhere. The current track history can be displayed along with user entered waypoints along the track line. Both the track history and waypoints can be saved to a history file. Saved history files can be loaded to the map later for reference. 2. Allows Point-Of-Interest map pins to be added to the map. These are also saved to a file and displayed whenever the App is started and are independent of the track history Waypoints. The Map Point-Of-Interest pins can be edited or deleted. 3. Saving track points in a GPS Exchange Format (GPX) file which can be moved to a computer. The GPX track may then be viewed on any mapping program/web site that reads GPX files. 4. For the current location, displays the times of sunrise and sunset as well as the current Sun azimuth and elevation for the current day, or any other day with user date input. 5. Provides a Horizon Distance Calculator that calculates the distance an observer can see for any height of an observer and any height of an object. 6. Provides the capability to add a Mark point on the Map to which Speed-Made-Good and bearing is displayed. (Useful for sailors, geocachers, hikers) 7. Provides a Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward indication for sailers. 8. Provides an "Anchor Watch" function for boaters to determine if their anchor is "dragging". 9. Provides a Geocaching search function to use a user entered "Mark" as a geocache location. 10. Allows the management of track history files, and GPX files; i.e. renaming or deleting them. 11. Allows the following settings to be saved automatically whenever the user changes them. The settings are selectable from either the "Settings" view or other views. All are saved to a file on the iPhone and restored when the App is restarted: 1 Speed smoothing enabled 2 Course smoothing enabled 3 Course smoothing type 4 Use fractional speeds when speed less than 10 enabled 5 Enabling the recording of a GPX format track file. 6 Latitude/Longitude display format 7 Elevation Display Mode 8 Course display format 9 Speed display format 10 Map type 11 Horizon Distance units 12 Enabling/disabling Speed-Made-Good function 13 Wind Direction 14 Anchor Distance The CourseSpeed iPhone App supports Apple's "Light" and "Dark" modes. The CourseSpeedWatch App is also available for use with a paired iPhone running the CourseSpeed App. The CourseSpeedWatch App functionality is a subset of the iPhone App functionality and contains only data fields and buttons but no mapping capability. The following data fields/buttons are visible on a single, scrolling, screen: 1 Position (Latitude & Longitude) 2 GPS receiver Accuracy (Horizontal & Vertical) 3 Course 4 Speed 5 Altitude 6 Trip 1 Odometer value 7 Trip 1 Odometer Start/Pause/Resume button 8 Trip 1 Odometer Reset button 9 Trip 2 Odometer value 10 Trip 2 Odometer Start/Pause/Resume button 11 Trip 2 Odometer Reset button 12 Distance to a user entered Mark 13 Bearing to a user entered Mark 14 Start/Stop/Clear track button 15 Save track button 16 Current track distance 17 Sunrise time 18 Sunset time The CourseSpeedWatch App supports one watch face "complication" called "Sun Rise/Set". A detailed description of all the functions and options is available from the App's "About" page and also on the web at santuit-sw.weebly.com (Then click on the CourseSpeed App and CourseSpeedWatch App)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: CourseSpeed at none against Spyglass's 4. CourseSpeed also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Spyglass's advantage is ratings volume (3.9K vs 2) and chart position (#135 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. Spyglass sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. CourseSpeed asks for nothing beyond the download.
CourseSpeed holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spyglass has 3.9K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Spyglass ships an update every 6 weeks, CourseSpeed every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Spyglass | CourseSpeed |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3.9K ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3.9K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #135 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.4 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 66 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pavel Ahafonau | David Jennings |
Customer experience
Spyglass
CourseSpeed
Bugs and requests
Spyglass
Reported bugs
3 issues- Compass not always accurate or consistent
- Freezing or unresponsive issues after updates
- Difficulty syncing waypoints and locations
Requested features
5 requests- Improved waypoint and location management
- Larger text and UI elements for better readability
- Integration with popular mapping and navigation apps
- Offline elevation data and terrain analysis
- Apple Watch companion app for on-the-go use
CourseSpeed
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Spyglass
- Spyglass Plus$3.991 Month
- Spyglass Plus (Month)3 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Spyglass Plus (Year)7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Spyglass Pro (Lifetime)$39.99
CourseSpeed
No in-app purchases









