Goat Maps vs onX Backcountry

The short version

onX Backcountry is the content-heavy app: curated "Adventures", trail and ski-line guides, climbing areas, avalanche tools and weather, built on the land ownership maps onX started with for hunters. Its features are split across three tiers, and the land and imagery layers sit in the most expensive one.

Goat Maps is the tool-focused app: a topo map, the terrain and land layers to read it, a route planner, and one membership that unlocks all of it.

Goat Maps is the better fit if you:

• want private land ownership and recent satellite imagery without paying $99.99 a year for onX Elite. Both come with Goat Maps membership at $29.99.
• want public land and slope angle shading for free.
• plan off-trail routes and want to draw them by hand.
• prefer one simple membership to three tiers and add-ons.

onX Backcountry is the better fit if you:

• want curated routes: about 1,500 guidebook-style Adventures, ski lines and climbing areas.
• ski in avalanche terrain and want forecasts, observations, ATES ratings and SNOTEL on the map.
• want weather forecasts for any point, which onX gives free.
• use Android.

Price

onX Backcountry has three tiers:

• Basic, free: satellite, topo and hybrid maps, track recording, limited waypoints, one offline map, and point weather forecasts.
• Premium, $29.99 a year: unlimited offline maps, the Route Builder, guidebook Adventures, trails, ski lines and climbing areas, public land, slope angle and aspect, avalanche tools, active wildfires and SNOTEL.
• Elite, $99.99 a year: everything in Premium, plus private land boundaries with owner names, recent satellite imagery, dispersed camping and partner discounts.

At the time of writing, onX's pricing page offers a discounted first year on both paid tiers. onX also sells a separate onX SOS rescue add-on for $49.99 a year. Memberships are per app, so onX Backcountry, onX Hunt and onX Offroad are each paid for separately.

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

At the same price as onX Premium, Goat Maps includes the two layers onX keeps for Elite. onX Premium includes far more curated content, which Goat Maps doesn't have at any price.

Land ownership and public land

Both apps show US public land and private parcels with owner names, the layers that tell you where you're allowed to go.

	Goat Maps	onX Backcountry
Public land	Free	Premium
Private land and owner names	Membership ($29.99)	Elite ($99.99)

onX's land data is its heritage, and it's a polished product. onX's paid tiers take their map layers offline. Goat Maps' private land layer is online only, so you need signal to check who owns a parcel.

Terrain and imagery

Both apps have slope angle shading. In Goat Maps it's free and customizable: use the built-in scheme for avalanche terrain or set your own angle ranges and colors, for example to find flat ground for a tent. In onX, slope angle and aspect come with Premium, alongside avalanche-specific tools: ATES terrain ratings, potential release areas, an avalanche simulator, and forecasts and observations.

For imagery, Goat Maps members get two global satellite layers from Sentinel, updated about every 14 days, one of them filtered for clouds. onX Elite's Recent Imagery updates about every one to two weeks.

Route planning

onX's Route Builder snaps to trails and has a "Point Draw" mode for freehand lines, with elevation gain and loss as you go. It's a Premium feature, and onX's own FAQ says it needs cell service or Wi-Fi.

Goat Maps' route planner is similar in what it can do and in its limits. Add points by tapping or draw with your finger, turn snapping on or off for each segment, and mix trail-snapped and off-trail segments in one route. Each segment can have a name, color, notes and travel mode, with stats for every leg. Snapping needs a connection for now in Goat Maps too.

Curated content

This is where onX pulls ahead. Premium includes hundreds of thousands of miles of trails with condition reports, over 300,000 climbs, thousands of ski lines, and about 1,500 guidebook-quality Adventures. If you want to open the app and be told where to go, onX does that.

Goat Maps has no guides. Trails come from OpenStreetMap and show on the topo map, rebuilt at least once a month. Goat Maps is for people who'd rather work out the route themselves.

Navigation, weather and platforms

Both apps record tracks and show your position on a route. Neither documents spoken turn-by-turn directions.

onX gives point weather forecasts on every tier, including the free one. Goat Maps doesn't have weather.

onX Backcountry runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web. Goat Maps runs on iPhone, iPad and the web, and Android is in development.

Switching from onX to Goat Maps

onX exports your Markups as one GPX file from its web map, at any membership level, and Goat Maps imports them for free. Import them into a new project in Goat Maps to keep them together. Moving from onX Backcountry to Goat Maps has the steps, and what doesn't come across.

Questions

Is onX Backcountry free?

onX Backcountry has a free Basic tier with maps, tracking, limited waypoints and one offline map. Unlimited offline maps and route building need Premium at $29.99 a year, and private land ownership needs Elite at $99.99 a year.

Does Goat Maps show who owns private land?

Yes, in the US. The Land Ownership overlay shows parcel boundaries and owner names. It comes with membership and works online only.

Which is cheaper for land ownership maps?

Goat Maps. Private land ownership comes with Goat Maps membership at $29.99 a year. In onX Backcountry it needs Elite, at $99.99 a year.

Is onX Backcountry only for the US?

onX's maps and content focus on the US. Goat Maps' public and private land layers are US only too, but its satellite imagery is global.