Plot Routes vs HikeGPS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Plot Routes
Easily plan and navigate outdoor routes with custom drawing, turn-by-turn voice guidance, and offline Apple Watch support. Track your adventures, import GPX files, and share your journeys.
- Custom route drawing
- Turn-by-turn voice navigation
- Offline Apple Watch navigation
- Distance and elevation profiles
- GPX file import and export
- GPS adventure tracking
- Waypoint customization
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TouchTrails is an easy-to-use route planner for all your outdoor adventures. Simply trace your routes on the map with your finger to get accurate distance information and detailed elevation profiles. Plan routes for your next bike ride or multi-day hiking adventure. Then follow along with turn-by-turn voice navigation on your iPhone or navigate completely offline on your Apple Watch – no iPhone required. Plan and customize your routes: Draw routes anywhere with your finger. Snap to road keeps you on track, but you can also go completely off-road. TouchTrails gives you the flexibility to create routes that fit your needs. Split routes, erase parts or connect them. Navigation: Stay on course with powerful turn-by-turn navigation. Voice guidance helps you focus on your adventure while TouchTrails warns you if you leave the route. Apple Watch support: Leave your iPhone behind and navigate directly from your Apple Watch. TouchTrails provides fully offline navigation on Apple Watch, allowing you to follow routes, view essential route information, and stay on track even when your iPhone is not with you. Measure distance and elevation: Accurate distance measurements and detailed elevation profiles help you understand how far and how high your adventure will take you. Add and edit waypoints: Enhance your map with highlights, tips and points of interest with waypoints. An extensive library of waypoint icons lets you customize your map. GPS Tracker: Record your adventures with the GPS tracker. Save, edit or share your journeys with friends. GPX Viewer: Found the perfect trail on the web? Import GPX files from anywhere. Navigate along the routes, measure distances and analyze elevation profiles. Edit them as you wish. Multiple routes on one map: Your are not limited to a single route on a map. TouchTrails allows you to view multiple routes simultaneously on one map. The flexibility of TouchTrails also allows you to combine and connect routes from different sources. Share routes: Send your routes to friends and share your adventure with them. TouchTrails is the perfect route planning, GPS tracking and navigation app for all types of outdoor adventures, including: • Running, walking and hiking • Cycling and mountain biking • Motorcycling • Overlanding • Skiing • Mantrailing • and many more! TouchTrails Premium: Upgrade to TouchTrails Premium for even more extra power! • Snap to road ◦ TouchTrails instantly locks onto any road, bike path or hiking trail • Turn-by-turn Navigation ◦ Voice-guided directions ◦ Off-route warnings • Apple Watch Integration ◦ Navigate directly on your Apple Watch ◦ Fully offline – no iPhone required • Access 100+ symbols for waypoint customization • Save an unlimited number of routes • Export GPX files • Offline maps to use TouchTrails even when the internet is unavailable or unreliable Install TouchTrails now and pave your path to unforgettable adventures! Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
HikeGPS
Navigate trails with detailed offline maps and identify species using AI, all without a signal or account. Record your hikes, plan routes, and view key stats on your phone or Apple Watch. Enjoy a private experience with no ads or tracking.
- Detailed offline trail maps
- AI species identification
- Hazard warnings
- Hike recording and playback
- Route planning and GPX import/export
- Apple Watch integration
- Private by default
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HikeGPS records your hike and shows you the trail, even without a signal. No account is required. Hiking maps distinguish trails, tracks, steps and bridleways by line style and colour, with path names, summit elevations, water and trailheads. NAME WHAT YOU SEE, WITHOUT A SIGNAL Photograph a plant, bird, insect or fungus for an identification on your phone. A model covering 150,000 taxa runs on the device. No photo is uploaded and no connection is needed. See several candidates, their shared classification and warnings for known hazards. Save sightings with the photograph, location and time. Results are suggestions, not a guarantee of identification or safety. DOWNLOAD BEFORE YOU LOSE SIGNAL Tap download and the area you are looking at is proposed at once, its size in megabytes shown before you commit. Downloaded areas render in airplane mode, and the data stays on your device. PLAN BEFORE YOU GO Sketch a route by tapping the map or entering coordinates, save it, and follow it later as a dashed guide with no signal. Import or export a GPX track from Files as an editable plan. ON YOUR WRIST See distance, time, ascent and a map from your iPhone on Apple Watch. Pause, resume, finish or drop a waypoint from the wrist. HealthKit keeps the watch workout active and supplies live heart rate; nothing is saved to Health. A connected iPhone records the hike. FIND A TRAIL NEARBY Find nearby trails with length, climb and estimated difficulty. Filter by length, distance, type and grade, or search by name. Online search uses a trail index; offline browsing uses trails already loaded on your map. BRING YOUR OWN MAP Add a map by URL as an overlay or a base map. Switch maps in the layer sheet. Offline support depends on the source; the app explains which maps can be downloaded. RECORDING THAT DOES NOT LOSE YOUR WALK Record with the screen locked and the phone pocketed. Regular checkpoints help recover an interrupted hike. If saving fails, the finished recording stays available for another attempt. Auto-pause can pause while you stand still and resume when you walk. BUILT TO BE READ OUTDOORS Distance, time and ascent in large tabular figures, over a grid you choose and reorder: pace, moving and stopped time, grade, vertical speed, GPS accuracy, bearing, battery. High-visibility mode thickens strokes for bright sun, and elevation combines GPS with the barometer where there is one, so a wobbly fix is not counted as climbing. AFTER THE HIKE Every hike keeps its route, elevation profile, waypoints and statistics. Drag the profile and a marker traces the map. Name it, add notes, export it as GPX with timestamps intact. History groups by month, with totals and a weekly distance chart. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No advertising or cross-app tracking. Anonymous usage statistics record which screens are opened, never your routes or photographs. Finished hikes can sync to your private iCloud database. Turn sync off in Settings to keep using the app locally. ALSO INCLUDED • Live Activity and Dynamic Island, with a timer that respects your pauses • Widgets for the current hike, the last one and the week • Backtrack: your route in reverse, with the bearing to the trailhead • Metric and imperial, Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, dark mode • English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and both Chinese scripts PLEASE READ HikeGPS is a navigation aid. It does not replace navigation training, a paper map and compass, official trail and closure information, or emergency communication equipment. It routes over mapped paths with written turns, but has no spoken directions and no emergency or SOS capability. GPS position and elevation can be wrong, and continuous recording uses significant battery. Species identification is a guess from one photograph. Never eat or touch anything on the strength of it. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HikeGPS at none against Plot Routes's 10. HikeGPS also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 4 days). Plot Routes's advantage is iOS requirement (16.6 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Plot Routes sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. HikeGPS asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Plot Routes against 5.0 for HikeGPS. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
Plot Routes ships an update every 4 days, HikeGPS every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Plot Routes | HikeGPS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 178 MB | 344 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wolfgang Knecht | Beijing Qianjie Baichuan Application Software Development Center (Individually Owned Business) |
Customer experience
Plot Routes
HikeGPS
In-app purchases
Plot Routes
- Premium Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$3.991 Month
- Premium Subscription3 Days trial2 variants$3.997 Days
- Premium Subscription$4.991 Month
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- Premium Subscription14 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Premium Subscription$17.991 Year
- Premium Subscription7 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Premium Subscription3 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Premium Subscription7 Days trial$22.991 Year
HikeGPS
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Plot Routes free?
Is HikeGPS free?
Which has better reviews, Plot Routes or HikeGPS?
Do Plot Routes or HikeGPS have ads?
Which is updated more often, Plot Routes or HikeGPS?
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