Comparison

Ascend Maps vs Piningo

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Offline search
  • 3D terrain
  • Track recording and editing
  • Saved places management
  • Customizable map styles
  • Offline map tile saving
Features
Read full description

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

About

Piningo

Features
Read full description

Piningo is a private map for places you want to remember. Drop pins at your current location, organize them with your own categories, and come back later when you need them. Use it to keep track of cherry trees in bloom, public toilets, water fountains, bookstores, picnic spots, brunch places, or any other real-world place that is useful to you. Piningo is designed as a personal memory tool: - your pins stay on your devices - no account is required - no social feed or public sharing is built into the app - no cloud backend is used for pin storage On iPhone you can: - save a pin at your current location - assign one or more categories to the same pin - add notes - filter the map by category - edit pin notes, categories, and location later - customize categories with names, icons, and colors On Apple Watch you can: - quickly check your location - save a pin from your wrist - choose a category fast - create a category directly on watch - keep collecting pins offline and sync them back when your iPhone is nearby again Piningo is for building a map that is truly yours.

Screenshots

Ascend Maps4 screens
Piningo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Piningo at every 4 days against Ascend Maps's every 6 months. Ascend Maps's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ascend Maps ships an update every 6 months, Piningo every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Ascend Maps versus Piningo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAscend MapsPiningo
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS12.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMatthew Whitebambooapps

In-app purchases

None

Ascend Maps

No in-app purchases

None

Piningo

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ascend Maps free?
Ascend Maps is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Piningo free?
Piningo is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Ascend Maps or Piningo have ads?
Neither Ascend Maps nor Piningo shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ascend Maps or Piningo?
Ascend Maps ships an update every 6 months, and Piningo every 4 days. Most recently, Ascend Maps was updated on October 27, 2026 and Piningo on October 25, 2026.

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