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Thera are a ton of OSM apps that are quite good but Google Maps still wins with the search function.


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Yeah, for navigation Google Maps is hard to beat.

Everything else I strongly prefer OSM though: their maps are (at least around here) way better, esp. if you aren't driving, they are offline, the apps are less laggy, ...


OSM-based apps are better for cycling and walking directions than Google. Citymapper is great for urban public transport. Google Maps has a compelling advantage in car directions, but not so much in other ways of getting round.

For OSM powered apps:

- Organic Maps

- OsmAnd

- mapy.cz

Note: Google has clearly better car routing and shop listings.

But for cycling or hiking OSM is typically superior.


Still not as good as Google Maps, but I find maps.me (also open-source and based on OSM data) significantly nicer than the default OSM client for Android (I think it's called OsmDroid or something similar).

All the apps I have seen have terrible search. In Google I can type in "xxx Street Burbank" and will get a result. In OSM I have to go through state, city, zip and know all that stuff. Much worse than google Maps.

Some osm apps have good navigation, but they don't have the same data, e.g. on traffic. 'Here' isn't bad. And in doubt there's always Google maps by browser.

There are many other maps apps, such as HereWeGo for HERE maps, and MAPS.ME for OpenStreetMaps. Both work well and have very good coverage, OSM generally a lot better than Google at least in Europe.

Downsides are that they don't contain such a wealth of place info as Google Maps does, and surely do some tracking too (from which you should be able to opt out thanks to GDPR).


OSM with a good theme is pretty good... But it's the other features people use Google Maps for. If you use Android, you might want to try Locus, it can do online and offline maps, online routing from multiple providers and a ton of other stuff.

I find all those apps to be outstanding. Except you can't beat Google Maps.

Google Maps, very very good. Honourable mention , Apps from 37Signals.

It has pretty clunky point of interest search. The main thing Google Maps does for me right now is "search for destination that I know exists, but whose exact address I don't have on hand, then navigate there." The entire flow when performing that task is quite polished. So far, I haven't found an OSM app that comes anywhere close to being as usable. Organic Maps gets close, but the spoken navigation is pretty bad.

Google maps does tend to be better than OSM when it comes to route finding, I use !gm when I want routing. On my phone I use apple maps though.

Gmail is painful compared with OWA (work) and zoho (home), I stopped using my gmail account for new stuff about a year ago.


Especially navigation. Google can plan my trip from start to end, perfectly. There's not a single OSM-based thing that comes even close.

When in Tokyo lately I've used OSM and found it suprisingly good. What I did miss compared to the Google Maps app is the direction the device is pointing towards.

Routing would also be nice :-)


For navigation to a known address, OSMAnd works great. Google Maps is better at search, particularly for commercial destinations, and has a slicker interface. For everything else, particularly navigation off road (on trails or otherwise) OSM excels. OSM has much more detail than Google Maps for things like parks and trails, frequently even having the locations of water fountains (this has saved my ass a few times.)

I guess my point is the alternatives to Google Maps aren't perfect but they have a lot more to offer than many people assume. When I drove across Canada, from Ottawa to Anchorage, OSM never let me down. It's a viable alternative.


RE Google maps, /e/OS ships with this: https://www.magicearth.com/

I've found it to be more than good enough. There's also various OSM based apps:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Android_ap...


I used to use Navfree (which uses OSM) when I had an Android phone. It was as good as Google maps. Neither were perfect, and made errors every so often, but neither drastically more than the other. I am in Spain, so I don't know if that makes a difference.

I agree. Both OSM and Sygic are way better navigation apps than Google Maps, even more so if you don't have internet connectivity.

From my experience, Google is better for "I''m in a big western city and need to find a supermarket and check its up-to-date opening hours".

OSM-based apps are much better for "I'm in a middle of nowhere and want to understand the detailed topography of the place, and see what's available in the village".

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