Digital Compass GPS Navigator vs OnlyTrails
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Digital Compass GPS Navigator
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Regular updates with new features, themes, and improvements based on user feedback. Download Smart Compass today and discover why it's the highest-rated compass app on the App Store! Questions? Contact us at support@smartcompass.app
OnlyTrails
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Your hike is saved on your phone before anything else. Not in an account, not after a sync: the recording, the route and the map are on the device in your hand from the moment you press start. It works with no signal and no account. Download a trail’s topo tiles once and follow it with the radio off. Finish and save a hike with no session, no server and no bars. Apple Watch runs the same navigation, not a remote control for it — the route, the off-route alarm and the eyes-free cues are on the watch, and stay there when the phone is in your pack. OFFLINE TOPO MAPS • OpenTopoMap tiles with true contour lines and hillshade, plus USGS Topo and standard basemaps • Download the tile corridor along the whole route, not a rough box around it • Trail lines colored by steepness, with an elevation profile and grade chart NAVIGATION THAT SURVIVES THE DAY • Off-route alarm plus a saved breadcrumb log for retrace and where-am-I, offline • Eyes-free mode: spoken and haptic fork cues on a near-black glance screen • Adaptive GPS drops to coarse between forks and counts steps with the motion coprocessor, waking full GPS at the decision points • A battery-versus-ETA budget that tightens power saving as your charge drops BRING YOUR OWN ROUTE • Open any .gpx from Files, AirDrop or another app • Draw a route on the map, snap it to real paths, or fork someone else’s and edit it • Automatic distance, elevation gain and drop, grade and difficulty ALWAYS FREE, NEVER GATED • Starting, finishing and saving a recording • Opening an offline map you have already downloaded • Exporting your own routes and recordings as GPX • Following a route, the off-route alarm, retrace and where-am-I • Watch navigation of a route on the phone • The app itself, without an account, offline, indefinitely THE CATALOG, HONESTLY The community catalog is deepest in Chiang Mai and northern Thailand today — that is where the hikers and the verified routes are. Anywhere else, bring your own: import a GPX, draw a route, or just record as you walk. Recording, navigating and saving work the same everywhere on earth. COMMUNITY • Share and discover routes, with crowd difficulty voting and reviews • Junction markings (Bee · Thorn · Slippery · Fork) and “What-the-Fork” photos pinned to confusing forks • Group hikes and events, with a poster you can paste straight into a chat Map tiles © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA) and © OpenStreetMap contributors. USGS Topo tiles courtesy of The National Map.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: OnlyTrails at none against Digital Compass GPS Navigator's shown. Digital Compass GPS Navigator's advantage is iOS requirement (14.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Digital Compass GPS Navigator ships an update every 3 days, OnlyTrails every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Digital Compass GPS Navigator | OnlyTrails |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 62 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chandan Gadhavi | MEET SOFTWARE COMPANY LIMITED |
In-app purchases
Digital Compass GPS Navigator
No in-app purchases
OnlyTrails
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Digital Compass GPS Navigator free?
Is OnlyTrails free?
Do Digital Compass GPS Navigator or OnlyTrails have ads?
Which is updated more often, Digital Compass GPS Navigator or OnlyTrails?
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