Apple Maps vs Earth Maps
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Apple Maps
Navigate and explore the world with detailed maps, turn-by-turn directions for driving, cycling, and walking, and real-time traffic information. Discover places with photos, ratings, and curated guides, and access offline maps for uninterrupted exploration.
- Turn-by-turn navigation
- Offline maps
- Real-time traffic
- Place discovery
- Curated guides
- Augmented reality walking directions
- Topographic maps
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Apple Maps is the best way to navigate and explore the world - all with your privacy protected. What's new: • Local Lists uses intelligent insights from Apple Maps to surface locally relevant places for meeting friends, dining, and more. • Enhanced Flyover combines aerial imagery with AI to enable you to view cities in stunning detail. Get around with ease. • Plan up to 15 stops with multi-stop routing, and sync routes from Mac to iPhone automatically. • Follow easy voice and lane guidance to stay in the correct lane before your next turn. • Avoid delays with real-time traffic incidents like accidents and road closures. • View speed limits and get alerts for speed and red-light cameras along your route. • Report and see incidents like accidents, hazards, and speed checks. • Download offline maps to your iPhone or Watch for places information like hours and ratings, and turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, cycling, or transit. • Get real-time transit updates so you never miss a bus, train, or ferry. • Follow bike lanes, paths, and roads with cycling directions that include elevation information • Get AR walking directions that overlay step-by-step guidance onto the real world around you. • Create and save custom walking routes for easy offline navigation. • Explore topographic maps with contour lines, hill shading, and trail information for hikes in select parks around the world, and save them for offline access and turn-by-turn navigation. Explore and discover places • Explore the world with an interactive 3D globe featuring enhanced terrain details. • Navigate major cities worldwide with detailed 3D features like elevation, landmarks, and crosswalks. • Experience immersive ground-level exploration with Look Around. • Discover places to eat, shop, and explore with curated Guides by trusted publishers. • Search using natural language queries like “pet-friendly restaurant with free wifi.” • Make reservations, view menus, or order directly within Maps. • Ask Siri to find places you'd like to go. • Save places and add personal notes in Places Library. • Revisit your history anytime with Visited Places. • Rate and add photos to places you've visited. • Find directions to your gate at the airport or your favorite store in a shopping mall with indoor maps. Maps on CarPlay • Access your favorite and frequent destinations with one tap. • Report incidents such as accidents, hazards, speed checks, and more. • Share your ETA with friends and family members with ease. Apple Business is a free tool that allows businesses to claim their locations and take control of how their information is seen across Apple. Owners can add details like a logo, business hours, address, photos, promotions, events, and more. Visit business.apple.com for more details. *Availability and features vary by country, region or device.
Earth Maps
Explore Earth with high-definition satellite imagery and historical street views. This app offers a detailed 3D globe, allowing you to virtually travel the world and examine terrain, buildings, and roads with exceptional clarity. Discover places online without leaving your home.
- High-definition 3D globe
- Historical street view
- Latest satellite imagery
- Measure area distance
- Oriental compass function
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1. High-definition 3D globe 2. Load map tile data 3. Oriental compass function 4.historical street view 5.Measuring area distance 6.latest satellite imagery World Satellite Map allows you to view any place on Earth using photos taken from satellites. The advantage of the world satellite map over other maps is that the satellite map allows you to consider the surface terrain, forests, rivers, lakes, buildings, roads in sufficient detail with a high degree of detail. With satellite maps, you can travel the world online without leaving your phone. From world satellite map.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Earth Maps at 79% against Apple Maps's 15%. Earth Maps also leads on rating (4.8 vs 2.2) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). Apple Maps's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and ratings volume (63K vs 1.2K). On price, ads 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. Earth Maps sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Apple Maps asks for nothing beyond the download.
Earth Maps holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Apple Maps has 63K ratings behind it against 1.2K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 15% of Apple Maps's written reviews are positive against 79% of Earth Maps's.
Apple Maps ships an update every 4 months, Earth Maps every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Apple Maps | Earth Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.2 (63K ratings) | 4.8 (1.2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 14.6% of reviews | 78.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 63K — better | 1.2K |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 14.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 78 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Apple | FOXPOI PTE. LTD. |
Customer experience
Apple Maps
Earth Maps
User reviews
Apple Maps
From 63K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent navigation
- 🗺️ Beautiful and intuitive UI
- ⏱️ Accurate ETA and traffic updates
- 🔍 Helpful search and location features
- 🌐 Seamless integration with iOS ecosystem
Room to improve
- 🐛 Inaccurate or outdated map data
- 📍 Incorrect location pinpointing
- 🚦 Delayed or confusing turn instructions
- 🗺️ Lacking detailed information for some areas
- 🔍 Poor search and POI database
Earth Maps
From 1.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great app
- 👍 Helpful for finding locations
- 👍 Useful for travel
- 👍 Excellent graphics
- 👍 Precise location information
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitchy performance
- 🐛 Crashes and freezes
- 💰 Paywall for historical imagery
- 💰 Too many ads
- 🤔 Not available in some countries
Bugs and requests
Apple Maps
Reported bugs
3 issues- Frequent app crashes or freezes
- Inconsistent route recalculation
- Incorrect lane guidance information
Requested features
5 requests- Offline map downloads
- Customizable route preferences
- Integration with other navigation apps
- More detailed traffic and incident reporting
- Enhanced business information and reviews
Earth Maps
Reported bugs
2 issues- Historical imagery not loading
- Compatibility issues on older devices
Requested features
3 requests- Dark mode option
- More frequent updates
- Improved historical imagery access
In-app purchases
Apple Maps
No in-app purchases
Earth Maps
- Week$5.19
- month$14.99
- year$24.49
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- Lifetime$36.49
Questions
Is Apple Maps free?
Is Earth Maps free?
Which has better reviews, Apple Maps or Earth Maps?
Do Apple Maps or Earth Maps have ads?
Which is updated more often, Apple Maps or Earth Maps?
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