Free Software Collection
Free Offline Maps and Navigation Apps
Free commercial maps have a price: every address you search and every route you take returns to a server, adding up to a fairly complete record of your movements. They also simply stop working abroad without roaming or in the mountains without signal. OpenStreetMap-based apps change the structure — maps download by region, then search, routing and voice guidance all run on the device, airplane mode included. The three here share ancestry: OpenStreetMap data and two forks of one code base, differing in governance and depth.
3 curated recommendations
Selection Criteria
- Map data downloads to the device; search and navigation work with no connection.
- No account required and no location history collected.
- Built on open map data such as OpenStreetMap.
- Any free-tier download allowance is stated per app.
Recommended Tools
Organic Maps
An offline map that works with the network off — no account, no ads
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
CoMaps
The community fork of Organic Maps — same code, not-for-profit governance
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
OsmAnd
The heavy-duty outdoor navigator — contours, tracks and layers included
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
FAQ
- Which of the three?
- For "get me from A to B without getting lost," install Organic Maps or CoMaps — nearly identical, usable immediately, with no download allowance. For hiking and off-road, contour lines and GPX tracks, or routing tuned to a vehicle type, take OsmAnd, which is built for people treating a map as a tool rather than a search box.
- Why do Organic Maps and CoMaps look the same?
- Because they are the same code. In April 2025 a group of contributors published an open letter about governance and financial transparency, the dispute being that a small set of shareholders decided commercial partnerships and spending without community involvement. Talks failed, and the contributors forked the Apache-2.0 code into CoMaps as a not-for-profit. Both ship updates; which you pick depends on whose governance you prefer. CoMaps adds a Linux desktop build.
- Is the free OsmAnd enough?
- It depends how far you go. The free tier downloads seven maps, and one map is typically a province or a mid-sized country — fine for commuting and domestic travel, not enough for a long international trip, after which Maps+ is required. Installing from F-Droid does not lift the cap.
- What do offline maps cost you?
- Two things. Business listings are less fresh than commercial maps, so a shop that opened last month may wait for a volunteer; and anything requiring a connection — live traffic, transit arrivals — is absent. In exchange, hiking paths and mountain tracks are often better covered, because OSM's outdoor data was walked in by volunteers.