Comparison

NPS Parks App vs NP Maps

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

Head to head
About

NPS Parks App

Discover and plan your visits to all National Park Service units with this interactive guide. Explore attractions, get directions, and track your experiences. Collect digital stamps for visited parks and share your adventures with others.

Highlights
  • Interactive NPS unit guide
  • Digital park stamps
  • Detailed park information
  • Searchable things to do
  • Personalized to-do lists
  • Mapping and directions
  • User-generated tips and photos
Read full description

TripBucket brings you an interactive guide to ALL the NPS National Parks “Units” and 1,000’s of things to do both inside and outside of the parks. TripBucket is a fun and easy way to Plan, Do and Share those "Must-Do" experiences that you dream about. 

- Get Stamps for each park you have visited 
- Entries have descriptions, map, local weather, relevant articles, Tips and Things to Do
 - 1,000’s of photos show you what to expect at each location 
- Search for things to do or find them by categories 
- Read about and see photos of what others have done 
- Build and Track your personal list you want to do while in the parks 
- Utilize Detailed mapping and directions capabilities 
- Add your personal Tips, Things To Do and Photos  
- Keep your family and friends informed as you go 
- Make Recommendations to the TripBucket community
 - And lots more! Have questions or comments? Send them to membersupport@tripbucket.com and we will get back to you within 24 hours.

About

NP Maps

Access official National Park Service and USGS topographic maps for offline GPS navigation on iOS devices. Download maps for all US national parks, monuments, and preserves, along with extensive topographic coverage across the USA. Ideal for wilderness travel where internet service is unavailable.

Highlights
  • Download NPS and USGS maps
  • Offline GPS and location tracking
  • Geospatial integration with Apple Maps
  • Waypoint and route creation
  • GPX file import and export
  • High-resolution map rendering
  • GPS location and elevation display
Features
Read full description

Download official National Park Service maps and USGS topos on your IOS devices for GPS** and offline use! NP Maps app offers 150 NPS park, recreation area, monument and preserve maps for download and 60,000+ official U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps covering all of the USA and Island Territories.* Have maps anytime, anywhere, for your travels to all parks in the USA. Because many of these wilderness regions have no data service, download maps while online so you can enjoy using this app as it was intended: no internet connection. Logical and intuitive to use. Maps are geospatially integrated with Apple Maps for a familiar interface. An visual catalog of map footprints indexes an extensive library covering all the USA for you to select maps to install all with a simple touch along your planned route of travel. Purchase a subscription for unlimited map downloading. A subscription stops ads and doesn't auto-renew. The first few map download are complementary. Features: • Downloads from a library of over 67,000 maps from NPS, USGS, US Forest service. • Full rendering high resolution maps • Shows your current GPS location & elevation** • Powerful geocode search of worldwide geographic features (online) • Waypoints with AR finder • Route path creation • Track path GPS location recording** • Ruler with line + path measuring • Full app use while maps download • Footprint index with quadrangle names • Multi-datum coordinates • Automatic map download for location • Statute, Nautical, Feet, Meter and km • MGRS, UTM and geodetic Latitude and Longitude coordinates. • Import and GPX files (and KML place marks) • Integrated help manual • Email and SMS text waypoints, tracks and routes as GPX, with subscription purchase. Some park maps available for download, National Parks: Acadia Arches Badlands Big Bend Biscayne Black Canyon of the Gunnison Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Carlsbad Caverns Channel Islands Crater Lake Cuyahoga Valley Death Valley Denali Everglades Gates of the Arctic Glacier Bay Glacier Grand Canyon Grand Teton Great Basin Great Sand Dunes Great Smoky Mountains Guadalupe Mountains Haleakala Hot Springs Isle Royale Joshua Tree Katmai Kenai Fjords Kobuk Valley Lassen Volcanic Mammoth Cave Mesa Verde Mount Rainier North Cascades Olympic Petrified Forest Pinnacles Point Reyes National Seashore Redwood Rocky Mountain Saguaro Sequoia and Kings Canyons Shenandoah Theodore Roosevelt Virgin Islands Voyageurs Wind Cave Yellowstone Yosemite Zion National Recreation Areas: Amistad Big South Fork Nat. River Boston Harbor Islands Chickasaw Golden Gate Lake Mead Lake Meredith Lake Roosevelt Santa Monica Mountains Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Monuments: Aniakchak Bandelier Canyon De Chelly Capulin Volcano Craters of the Moon Dinosaur Devils Tower Fort Pulaski Grand Canyon - Parashant Lava Beds Mount Saint Helens Natural Bridges Organ Pipe Cactus National Preserves & Reserves: Big Cypress Big Thicket Catoctin Mountain Park City of Rocks Greenbelt Park Mojave National Historical Parks: Antietam Brown v. Board of Education Cumberland Gap Ebey's Landing Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania French Quarter Gettysburg Harpers Ferry Herbert Hoover Horseshoe Bend Kennesaw Mountain Kings Mnt Lowell Manassas Minute Man Monocacy Morristown Richmond San Antonio Missions Saratoga Valley Forge Vicksburg National Seashores, Lakeshores and Scenic Rivers: Apostle Islands Assateague Is. Canaveral Cape Hatteras Cumberland Is. Indiana Dunes Missouri New River Gorge Niobrara Ozark Padre Is. Sleeping Bear Dunes St. Croix Nat. Parkways & Trails: Blue Ridge Parkway George Wash. Mem. Parkway Potomac Heritage Nat. Scenic Tr. * Not preloaded with maps. WiFi recommended. Downloading queue does cap at around 25 maps. ** Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Location feature may not function on iPod and wifi-only iPad devices without GPS hardware.

Screenshots

NPS Parks App4 screens
NP Maps4 screens

Verdict

The call

NPS Parks App and NP Maps both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 75% of NP Maps's written reviews are positive against 38% of NPS Parks App's. NPS Parks App's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (676 vs 195). On price, rating, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. NP Maps sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. NPS Parks App asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for NPS Parks App against 4.6 for NP Maps. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 676 and 195 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 38% of NPS Parks App's written reviews are positive against 75% of NP Maps's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

NPS Parks App ships an update every 2 months, NP Maps every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and August 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
NPS Parks App versus NP Maps: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNPS Parks AppNP Maps
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (676 ratings)4.6 (195 ratings)
Positive reviews37.5% of reviews75.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings676 — better195
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS14.014.0
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB16 MB
Age rating17+4+
Developeri2a Solutions Inc.Delcartes LLC

Customer experience

NPS Parks App

All ratings676 ratings
Positive92.2%
Neutral3.6%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews48 reviews
Positive37.5%
Neutral10.4%
Negative52.1%

NP Maps

All ratings195 ratings
Positive94.4%
Neutral2.1%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews16 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%

Bugs and requests

NPS Parks App

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Maps don't work
  • Crashes for me too
  • Crashes
  • App Crashes
  • Blank (no content)
Show 2 more
  • Freezes a lot but awesome app!
  • frozen app

Requested features

2 requests
  • Add friends on the app
  • Complete list of the parks

NP Maps

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

NPS Parks App

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

NP Maps

One-time3
  • 90 Day$1.99
  • 1 Year$5.99
  • Lifetime$23.99

Questions

Is NPS Parks App free?
NPS Parks App is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is NP Maps free?
NP Maps is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, NPS Parks App or NP Maps?
NPS Parks App and NP Maps are both rated 4.6 out of 5 on the App Store, from 676 and 195 ratings respectively.
Do NPS Parks App or NP Maps have ads?
Neither NPS Parks App nor NP Maps shows ads.
Which is updated more often, NPS Parks App or NP Maps?
NPS Parks App ships an update every 2 months, and NP Maps every 3 months. Most recently, NPS Parks App was updated on September 14, 2026 and NP Maps on August 25, 2026.

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