Comparison

Useful Local Navigaiton vs Scenic Map

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

Head to head
About

Useful Local Navigaiton

Quickly discover nearby restaurants, shops, and attractions using a map or augmented reality view. Save favorite searches and locations, and get directions via popular mapping services. Supports offline map downloads and route history.

Highlights
  • AR view for direction guidance
  • Map and place list interface
  • Save favorite searches and places
  • Offline OSM map downloads
  • Route history tracking
  • Google Place Search integration
Features
Read full description

Useful Local Navigation helps you quickly find nearby places, including restaurants, shops, and sightseeing spots, around your current location or any point you choose on the map. Hold up your iPhone and use the AR view to understand direction at a glance, even in unfamiliar areas. Over 500,000 downloads across the Useful Local Navigation series. With Useful Local Navigation, you can: - Find places quickly by tapping keywords in the list menu. - Save frequently used keywords as Favorite Search Words. - Set a search center point (orange marker) or use your current location (blue marker). - Sort search results by straight-line distance from the selected center point. - Move and set the search center from a selected destination using "@#" in the search box. - Use Google Place Search for high-quality place results. - Search by Google Place categories with Category Search, regardless of language. - Save Favorite Places by long-pressing a list item or long-pressing on the map. - Register your current location or search center point quickly with the Reg button. - Open detailed information for shops and facilities from the Detail button. - Start route guidance to your destination with the Navi button via Apple Maps, Google Maps app, or Google Maps web. Features: - A linked three-pane interface with AR view, map view, and place list. - AR direction guidance makes it easier to understand where results are located. (AR view is not supported on iPod touch.) - Move the map by typing "@placename" or "@address" in the search box. - Supports the URL scheme: aroundunavi:// - Footprints (pink location history markers) help you retrace your route and avoid getting lost. - Import KML or KMZ files from the web and view their spots offline after import. - Share your current location, search center point, or destination by email with map links, address information, and app launch URL. - Download and display offline OSM maps. Notes: - Recommended in areas with 3G, 4G, 5G, or Wi-Fi coverage. - GPS location may be difficult to obtain in some environments, such as indoors. - Compass direction may be less accurate in some situations, such as inside trains or cars. - Continued GPS use can increase battery consumption.

About

Scenic Map

Explore the world with detailed 3D topographic maps, accessible even offline. Stream and cache global maps for use without cell service. Features include satellite overlays, customizable map styles, and GPS tracking for navigation and route replay.

Highlights
  • Global 3D topographic maps
  • Offline map caching
  • Satellite image overlays
  • Customizable map styles
  • GPS tracking and route replay
  • GPX track import/export
Features
Read full description

A 3D topo map with coverage of the entire world. The map is streamed directly from Apple's servers and cached on your device for use when there is no cell coverage. Use Scenic Map in a car, a boat, a plane or while hiking. It is like having the entire Earth in your pocket. Satellite image overlays add breathtaking detail and realism to the maps (tap preset 2 or 4). You can use them as you travel to see what is hidden from view at ground level. This takes moving maps to a whole new level. To get started, tap the arrow button in the toolbar to begin GPS tracking and center the map at your current location. The spinner in the status bar shows that the map is being loaded. The spinner stops when the map is fully cached at that location. You can scroll around the map or tilt the map with a two finger vertical swipe to see it in 3D. Use the two finger vertical swipe gesture to tilt the map for a 3D view. Scroll like a map or fly like a flight simulator. Enable Joystick Gestures in the Settings menu and then fly around the terrain using a virtual joystick. Prefer only 2D maps? Enable the 2D Map option in the Settings menu. Scenic Map is simply the best 3D topo map available for a mobile device. You will see incredible detail while scrolling, rotating and zooming perfectly smoothly. You will see every road even if you zoom out to the altitude of a satellite. As you zoom in, you will see every small bump and hollow of the Earth and terrain features as small as ten meters. Unlike old fashioned topo maps, Scenic Map’s roads and trails are up to date thanks to OpenStreetMap.org. It contains polygons for urban areas, shopping malls, an ever growing number of buildings and many other features, The best lake, pond, stream and rivers from the USGS and Canadian public databases are also included. Your tracks can be replayed with video like controls to speed up, slow down, pause, restart or skip to the end. You can display existing tracks while recording another if you want to retrace your route. When online, you can automatically create a route from your current GPS location to any other point on the map. Tracks can be received from or sent to other apps in GPX format. GPS recording stops automatically after you have remained stationary for some time or you can choose to manually stop tracking by tapping on the top track in the Tracks view. Never before have maps been this customizable. For example, you can turn on or off the roads. You can change the lighting direction or remove terrain shading entirely. You can display contour lines even over satellite images. There are five presets which let you quickly switch between map styles. Use Metric, English or Nautical units and choose one of four different coordinate displays including UTM. Want to learn more about a map feature? Tap the target icon and center the feature under the compass rose to display its name, type, urban area, county, state, elevation and coordinates. You will also see a bearing line back to your current GPS location or from your location to a selected waypoint. The status bar shows the bearing direction and distance along with the map and GPS elevation, the track length, and your current speed and direction of travel. In-app documentation is provided in the Help section at the top of the Settings menu. Links are provided in the documentation to detailed coverage maps, tutorial videos, installation guide and blog at ScenicMap.com Map data © OpenStreetMap and contributors under the Open Database License Scenic Map supports GPS tracking while the app is in the background. Caution: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

Screenshots

Useful Local Navigaiton4 screens
Scenic Map4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Useful Local Navigaiton at none against Scenic Map's 1. Useful Local Navigaiton also leads on review sentiment (95% vs 67%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Scenic Map's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Scenic Map sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Useful Local Navigaiton asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Useful Local Navigaiton holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of Useful Local Navigaiton's written reviews are positive against 67% of Scenic Map's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Useful Local Navigaiton ships an update monthly, Scenic Map every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Useful Local Navigaiton versus Scenic Map: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUseful Local NavigaitonScenic Map
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.7 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews95.2% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings33
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.1
Further details — not scored
Size144 MB66 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerkatapu.netGrangerFX

Customer experience

Useful Local Navigaiton

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews21 reviews
Positive95.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.8%

Scenic Map

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

Useful Local Navigaiton

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Scenic Map

One-time1
  • Scenic Map Features$4.99

Questions

Is Useful Local Navigaiton free?
Useful Local Navigaiton is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Scenic Map free?
Scenic Map is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Useful Local Navigaiton or Scenic Map?
Useful Local Navigaiton is rated higher. Useful Local Navigaiton averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Scenic Map averages 4.7 from 3 ratings.
Do Useful Local Navigaiton or Scenic Map have ads?
Useful Local Navigaiton shows ads; Scenic Map does not.
Which is updated more often, Useful Local Navigaiton or Scenic Map?
Useful Local Navigaiton ships an update monthly, and Scenic Map every 3 months. Most recently, Useful Local Navigaiton was updated on October 29, 2026 and Scenic Map on October 23, 2026.

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