Goat Maps vs CalTopo

The short version

CalTopo is the most powerful backcountry planning tool there is. Search and rescue teams run their operations on it, and serious ski tourers and mountaineers plan in it. It's at its best on a big screen with a mouse, and its depth comes with a learning curve.

Goat Maps covers the parts of that most people use on a typical trip, built around the phone in your pocket: a readable topo map, slope angle shading, land ownership, recent satellite imagery, and a touch route planner. It's quick to learn and quick in the field.

The two overlap more than any other pair we compare, and they work well together: plan in CalTopo at home, carry the route in Goat Maps.

Goat Maps is the better fit if you:

• plan and navigate mostly on your phone.
• want an app you can learn in an evening.
• want private land ownership and recent satellite imagery for $29.99 a year rather than $50 for CalTopo Pro.
• want map downloads that run in the background while you get on with your day.

CalTopo is the better fit if you:

• plan at a desk and print maps. CalTopo Pro prints up to 36 × 48 inches.
• need team tools: shared live maps, travel plans, search and rescue features.
• want avalanche forecasts and observations, weather forecast layers or LiDAR-based slope shading on the map.
• use Android, or want the cheapest offline maps. CalTopo Mobile is $20 a year.

Price

CalTopo's plans are all annual:

• Free: the full web planner, core maps and tools, and letter-size printing. No offline maps.
• Mobile, $20 a year: offline maps in the app.
• Pro, $50 a year: premium layers, including live satellite imagery and parcel data, plus advanced planning tools, 3D (Pro only since January 2025), and printing up to 36 × 48 inches.
• Desktop, $100 a year: the offline desktop app for Windows and Mac, plus GIS tools.

Goat Maps membership is $29.99 a year, with one tier: offline maps, the route planner, private land ownership and recent satellite imagery.

So it depends on what you need. For offline maps alone, CalTopo Mobile is cheaper. For private land and recent imagery as well, Goat Maps costs $20 a year less than CalTopo Pro. CalTopo's free tier is generous on the web, where you can plan without paying. Goat Maps' free tier is generous in the app, where topo, satellite, public land and slope shading are free but route planning isn't.

Route planning

CalTopo's web planner is the most capable we know of. Draw lines and polygons freehand, snap them to OpenStreetMap trails, Forest Service roads, streams or your own existing lines, build travel plans with time estimates, and pull up a profile of any line. Snap-to on mobile arrived in July 2025 and, per CalTopo's own docs, needs a data connection.

Goat Maps' route planner is designed for a touchscreen. Add points by tapping or draw with your finger, and turn snapping on or off for each segment: snap along the trail, draw the off-trail part exactly where you want it. Name and color segments, set a travel mode for time estimates, and see stats for each leg in a table. Snapping in Goat Maps also needs a connection for now.

If you plan a big objective over several evenings with a mouse, CalTopo will do more. If you plan on the couch, the bus or the tailgate, Goat Maps is quicker.

Maps and layers

CalTopo's layer catalog is huge and specialized: its own MapBuilder topo, scanned USGS and Forest Service maps, NAIP and weekly Sentinel imagery, slope angle shading with LiDAR where available, sun exposure, avalanche forecasts and observations, fire history and activity, weather forecast layers, snow and stream gauges, and parcels with Pro.

Goat Maps has a smaller set:

• Topo, Satellite and Hybrid basemaps. The topo map was designed from scratch for readability on a phone, in feet or meters.
• Slope angle shading: free, with custom angle ranges and colors.
• Public land (US), free, and private land ownership with owner names, for members.
• Recent satellite imagery, updated about every 14 days, with a cloud-free option. Members.
• Historic wildfires, USFS motor vehicle use maps and USFS timber harvests.

Both apps make slope angle shading free. If you need forecasts, observations or weather on the map, CalTopo has them and Goat Maps doesn't.

On your phone

This is where the two differ most. CalTopo began as a web tool for search and rescue, and its mobile app brings that power to the phone, including offline maps, track recording, live tracking on shared maps, and navigating along a line. It's a lot of tool to carry.

Goat Maps was built for the phone first. The map is readable at a glance. Downloads are a grid of squares you tap and forget: they run in the background and notify you when they're done. Overlays download in one go. There's less to learn, because there's less in the way.

Goat Maps doesn't give turn-by-turn directions, and CalTopo doesn't document any.

Printing and desktop

CalTopo prints. Its free plan prints letter-size pages, and Pro prints large-format sheets and geospatial PDFs. The Desktop plan adds a Windows and Mac app that works offline, though without track recording or navigation. Goat Maps doesn't print, and has a web map rather than a desktop app.

Using CalTopo and Goat Maps together

CalTopo exports lines and tracks as GPX, and Goat Maps imports GPX, so you can plan in CalTopo and take the route with you in Goat Maps. Goat Maps exports GPX too, so your recorded tracks can go back into CalTopo. See how to import GPX files, or moving from CalTopo to Goat Maps to bring over whole maps.

Questions

Is CalTopo free?

The CalTopo web planner is free, including core maps, drawing tools and printing. Offline maps in the app need the Mobile plan at $20 a year, and premium layers like parcels and live satellite imagery need Pro at $50 a year.

Which is better for backcountry skiing?

Both have free slope angle shading. CalTopo adds avalanche forecasts, observations and weather layers on the map, which makes it the stronger planning tool for ski touring. Goat Maps' custom slope shading and recent satellite imagery are quick to check from your phone on the morning of the trip.

Can I use CalTopo routes in Goat Maps?

Yes. Export the route from CalTopo as a GPX file and import it into Goat Maps from the My Data tab.

Does Goat Maps print maps?

No. If you need printed maps, CalTopo is the better tool.