Comparison

MapShifter vs MavGCS

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

Head to head
About

MapShifter

Transform your everyday maps into stylized, game-inspired worlds with turn-by-turn navigation and offline capabilities. Explore millions of places with customizable skins and track your journeys.

Highlights
  • Customizable game-inspired map skins
  • Turn-by-turn navigation (driving, walking, cycling)
  • Offline maps for any region
  • Real-time place search
  • Journey tracking with achievements
  • Apple Watch and CarPlay support
  • Home Screen widgets
Features
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Your city, but reskinned by video games. Same streets. Same GPS. Whole different vibe. MapShifter replaces your everyday map with hand-crafted, game-inspired worlds — and gives you turn-by-turn navigation, place search, and offline maps inside each one. A map that evolves as you explore. FEATURES • Swap live between six map skins without losing your route • Turn-by-turn navigation for driving, walking, and cycling • Real search — restaurants, ATMs, landmarks — millions of places from OpenStreetMap • Offline maps — download any region and roam without a signal • Journey tracker — visited countries, history, streaks, and achievements • Apple Watch companion — the map on your wrist, in your favorite skin • CarPlay — your themed map, position arrow, route, search, and turn-by-turn guidance on the car display • Home Screen widgets — a live mini-map styled to match your theme SKINS AT LAUNCH • Old Wild Frontier II — sepia tones, serif typography, trail dust • Great Street Empire: SA — bold, graffiti-flavored urban cartography • Great Street Empire V — modern, dark style • Voxel Realm — pixelated, cubed, lush green biomes • Cybershock 2099 — dark, modern, glowy districts • Wastefield 4 — phosphor-green glow, radiated terrain New skins drop regularly. PRIVACY FIRST • No accounts. Install, open, go. • No ads, ever. • Anonymous product analytics and crash diagnostics; no advertising, attribution, or tracking SDKs. • We don't operate a server that logs your location. • We don't build behavioral profiles or sell data. MapShifter is an independent indie project — a love letter to the games that made us fall in love with maps. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any game studio, publisher, or franchise referenced. Every skin is original artwork and typography inspired by broader cartographic styles. All trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Built on open foundations: OpenStreetMap (map data, © OSM contributors, ODbL), MapLibre (rendering), Project OSRM (routing), Photon + Nominatim (search), Wikidata (place info). Huge thanks to the communities behind each. Download free. Pick your world. Start exploring. Support: support@mapshifter.com Website: https://mapshifter.com/ Privacy: https://mapshifter.com/privacy.html Terms: https://mapshifter.com/terms.html

About

MavGCS

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MavGCS is a ground control station for drones and model aircraft that use the MAVLink protocol: ArduPilot, PX4 and INAV. Connect your iPhone to your aircraft's telemetry and see everything that matters on one landscape screen. No drone at hand? Open Settings, choose Demo and tap Connect: a simulated aircraft takes to the air so you can try every screen and button. FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS • Artificial horizon with airspeed and altitude tapes, heading, climb rate, throttle and wind • Battery voltage, current and remaining charge, with a battery gauge • Systems panel: gyro, accelerometer, compass, barometer, GPS, rangefinder, airspeed and EKF, each green, yellow or red • EKF and vibration health at a glance • Sixteen live readings: speeds, altitude, distances, satellites, attitude, wind and pressure MAP • Satellite imagery, with place names and roads in Hybrid view • The aircraft, home and the path flown, with lines for heading, track, where it is steering and where it will be • Weather radar for 50 km around the aircraft • Terrain is kept on your phone, so the terrain instruments work without a signal; choose how much in Settings TERRAIN AWARENESS • Terrain radar: the ground ahead, coloured by how much clearance there is • Live AGL: the ground along your track, your height above it now and the smallest gap ahead • Compass rose showing the way home, your course over the ground and the wind CONTROL • Arm and disarm with hold-to-confirm buttons • Change flight modes, fly to any point by tapping the map, and set speed, altitude and loiter radius • Choose how often telemetry is sent, to suit slow radio links • ETA to the next waypoint, and directions to the aircraft in Google Maps CONNECTS OVER • UDP or TCP: WiFi telemetry bridges such as mLRS and ELRS, LTE telemetry, or a simulator (SITL) MavGCS is open source (GPL-3.0). Always fly within the law and keep your aircraft in sight: MavGCS is an aid, not a certified navigation or collision-avoidance system. Created by Derin Hakan Karakurt.

Screenshots

MapShifter4 screens
MavGCS4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: MapShifter at 3 against MavGCS's 1. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
MapShifter versus MavGCS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMapShifterMavGCS
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (15 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings15 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size116 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFilipp BazunDerin Hakan Karakurt

In-app purchases

None

MapShifter

No in-app purchases

None

MavGCS

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MapShifter free?
MapShifter is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MavGCS free?
MavGCS is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do MapShifter or MavGCS have ads?
Neither MapShifter nor MavGCS shows ads.

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