Comparison

Compass ⊘ vs Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.

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

Head to head
About

Compass ⊘

This app transforms your device into a highly accurate and elegantly designed compass. It offers instant navigation, showing your location, altitude, and orientation with a user-friendly interface. Perfect for outdoor adventures and everyday use.

Highlights
  • Instant navigation with location, altitude, and orientation
  • Rustic and elegant antique compass design
  • Precision accuracy using device sensors
  • User-friendly interface
  • Suitable for outdoor adventures and everyday use
Features
Read full description

A beautiful compass that just works. Compass ⊘ puts a brass antique compass in your pocket. Open it and the needle is already pointing north — no account, no setup, no clutter. FIND YOUR BEARING • A large, readable dial you can take in at a glance • Your heading in degrees, from 0° to 359°, named as a compass point • A gentle tap as you cross north, east, south and west, so you can hold a bearing without staring at the screen • True north or magnetic north, whichever you navigate by SEE IT IN THE REAL WORLD • Hold up your device and the compass points float on the horizon, over the live camera • Or set a 3D compass down on a table, a rock or the floor, and walk around it • Useful for orienting a paper map, siting solar panels, aiming a dish, or settling an argument about which way is north KNOW WHERE YOU ARE • The street and town you are standing in • Your altitude, in both feet and metres • A satellite map that turns as you turn MADE FOR THE OUTDOORS • The needle needs no signal, so it works far from any tower • Six compass faces to choose from • Built for iPhone and iPad Free to use. One optional purchase, never a subscription, removes the ads and unlocks the map and the other compass faces. Accuracy depends on your device's sensors. Keep it away from magnets, speakers and metal for the steadiest reading, and wave it in a figure eight when iOS asks to calibrate. WHAT PEOPLE SAY "Does what's supposed to do in a beautiful and straightforward way. The graphic interphase is impeccable! Great Job!!" — Abruna "As a boater I can reference position of our boat. I then determine the direction of wind/rain and effect it will have on mooring lines." — Popeye, SF Bay "Had the grandsons out hiking and found moss and confirmed north. Very handy app." — Moon water 62 "Use it a lot when showing houses. I'm able to see which direction the front door, bedroom windows etc are facing. Very accurate, I highly recommend it." — Ijdeluxe1 "Super easy to use and accurate. Use it to know where to spot the Space Station and it is spot on." — DirtDawgGolfer "Downloaded this app while in the middle of swamp in order to prove which direction was north. Won 20 bucks. Great app." — Fuzzyrc1

About

Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.

This navigation app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for land, air, and marine use. It includes a detailed map, compass, GPS coordinates, altitude, distance, speed tracking, and route planning. Advanced features like offline maps, GPS track recording, and sensor integration are available through an upgrade.

Highlights
  • GPS coordinates in 6 formats
  • Advanced waypoint editor
  • Speedometer with speed tracking
  • Offline map downloads
  • GPS track recording and sharing
  • Magnetic declination calculation
  • Sunset and sunrise times
Features
Read full description

Compass 55 is an offline-capable GPS map and navigation toolkit for hiking, off-road travel, fieldwork, aviation, and marine use—with a compass, waypoints, routes, coordinate tools, and video recording. + Advanced target/waypoint editor. Can be also used as a coordinates converter. You can use map to check or set waypoint location and add photo or audio note. + Share your location via email, text message, Facebook or Twitter. This includes UTM, MGRS and Latitude/Longitude (MENU>Share my location). + You can use UTM, MGRS or Lat/Long, just pick your preference in settings (Coordinate Format). + Speedometer. Shows you the speed and pace. Speedometer also gives you options to control average and max speed and pace counters (MENU > RESET and PAUSE/RESUME counters). + Compass. Instant reaction compass, no delays. Automatically pickups the direction based on magnetic or GPS course. If you mostly walk or drive, you can change this automatic mode in app settings > Compass or GPS course. NATO mils? Same place in settings to set. + Magnetic declination δ for the current location and any location on the map (via World Magnetic Model, WMM, no need for data/internet). + Sunset and sunrise. So you can plan your travel better. + Arrow pointing to your target waypoint. Distance and bearing to it. + Create/measure routes and areas. + Barometric Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI, IVSI) in both scale and graph forms. + Integration of bluetooth sensors: Cycling cadence, Heart rate, Cycling speed. + Video recording for action and fieldwork. Add real-time G-Cross, map, QR code, and pitch & roll overlays as needed, then replay your recordings. The basic version stores one video and exports a branded 15-second clip. All above belong to a basic version. PRO Pack upgrade will add following capabilities: + Recording and sharing GPS tracks. + Moving waypoints between folders. + Showing ETA to a target as this requires GPS tracking. + Native Google map with fantastic terrain map, amazing 3D and real night mode. + Adding own/custom tile map servers. + Downloading offline maps. Offline maps import in .sqlitedb, rmaps, mbtiles formats. Support for overzoom and underzoom - offline map is shown even for zoom levels that are not downloaded. + GPX import and export for waypoints, tracks and routes. + Google Earth KML support for waypoints and tracks import/export. KMZ support for waypoints and tracks export, waypoints import. + Ground overlays. Import KMZ ground overlay or draw your own on the map in the app and share as kmz files! + CSV import/export for waypoints. + Voice coach to tell you active track distance and duration, current speed and altitude without need to open the app. + Support for Siri shortcuts in IOS 12 for starting and stopping GPS tracks. + From version 4.2 - support for OSGB (including grid shifts) and SK 42 in the coordinates converter. + Unlimited saved videos and full-length exports of stamped or original video. + BACKGROUND MODE. App will work in background automatically when tracking. You can use other apps while Compass 55 does its job in the background! + PRIVACY. Compass 55 never shares your location data with 3rd parties or ad agencies. Location data is used solely for telling you direction to a target and recording GPS tracks and never leave the app unless you decide to share by means of a track export. It always lets you know when background mode is on and never runs in background unless the track is being recorded. ! You can use this app on your iPhone as well as on any cellular iPad. **App will not work properly on iPods and wifi only iPads as they don't have GPS (external GPS module is required). As quite a lot of us are using external GPS modules, app is available for wifi only iPads and iPods. ! Please note that as with all GPS apps, continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Compass ⊘2 screens
Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. at none against Compass ⊘'s shown. Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. also leads on review sentiment (91% vs 62%). Compass ⊘'s advantage is ratings volume (6.3K vs 1.5K). On price, rating, update cadence and in-app purchases 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. Compass ⊘ sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Compass ⊘ against 4.7 for Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.3K and 1.5K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 62% of Compass ⊘'s written reviews are positive against 91% of Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Compass ⊘ ships an update every 3 weeks, Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. monthly. Both last shipped on October 2, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Compass ⊘ versus Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCompass ⊘Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (6.3K ratings)4.7 (1.5K ratings) — better
Positive reviews62.1% of reviews90.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6.3K — better1.5K
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.6
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB89 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChristophe PereiraKalimex-Consulting s.r.o. @Blocoware & Stanislav Dvoychenko

Customer experience

Compass ⊘

All ratings6,263 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral4.2%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews643 reviews
Positive62.1%
Neutral10.0%
Negative28.0%

Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.

All ratings1,545 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral3.8%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews396 reviews
Positive90.7%
Neutral5.3%
Negative4.0%

User reviews

Compass ⊘

From 6.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Useful
  • 🚀 Works great
  • 🗺️ Helpful for navigation
  • 🔍 Good for direction finding

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inaccurate readings
  • 🤷‍♀️ Inconsistent performance
  • 🔍 Struggles with direction
  • 🔌 Requires specific device orientation

Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Best Mapping and Navigation tool
  • 👍 Great, simple inexpensive GPS
  • 👍 Accurate GPS and navigation
  • 👍 Useful for various activities
  • 👍 Offline maps and navigation

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Compass direction issues
  • 💡 Desire for more language support (Turkish, Polish, etc.)
  • 💡 Need for more map options (Yandex, IGN, etc.)
  • 💡 Improvements to interface and customization
  • 💡 Difficulty with some features and learning curve

Bugs and requests

Compass ⊘

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Compass needle not moving
  • Incorrect north direction
  • App crashes on launch
  • Compatibility issues with certain devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to calibrate compass
  • Option to switch between true north and magnetic north
  • Altitude display in feet
  • More customization options

Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Issues with GPX file import and tracking
  • Occasional crashes or freezes
  • Inaccurate GPS positioning in some cases

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to download and cache more map types
  • Option to show map grid coordinates
  • Elevation profile for planned routes
  • Apple Watch app support
  • Faster map updates
Show 1 more
  • More coordinate system options (e.g., PZ-90)

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Compass ⊘

One-time1
  • Upgrade to full version$2.99
3 purchases

Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.

Subscriptions2
  • Pro pack.$1.991 Month
  • Pro pack.$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro pack$14.99

Questions

Is Compass ⊘ free?
Compass ⊘ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. free?
Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Compass ⊘ or Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.?
Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. is rated higher. Compass ⊘ averages 4.6 out of 5 from 6.3K ratings, while Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. averages 4.7 from 1.5K ratings.
Do Compass ⊘ or Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. have ads?
Compass ⊘ shows ads; Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. does not.
Which is updated more often, Compass ⊘ or Compass 55. Map & GPS kit.?
Compass ⊘ ships an update every 3 weeks, and Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. monthly. Most recently, Compass ⊘ was updated on October 2, 2026 and Compass 55. Map & GPS kit. on October 2, 2026.

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