Top Google Maps Alternatives for Privacy and Efficient Navigation (Updated List – 2024)

What comes to your mind the moment you hear the word ‘’navigation app”? 

Google Maps, right? It’s absolutely a no-brainer!

Simplicity and convenience are what have transformed Google Maps into the go-to choice for navigation today. 

In fact, “Google Maps boasts over 1 billion monthly users globally and was the most downloaded map and navigation app in the United States in 2023.”

However, popularity doesn’t always equate to perfection.

While Google Maps is undeniably popular, have you ever been concerned about how it uses your private location data? Or left clueless in poor network areas while using it? 

If YES, it’s time you started looking for Google Maps alternatives. 

This blog walks you through navigation options besides Google Maps while offering flexibility, efficiency, and enhanced privacy.

By adhering to these criteria, we’ve curated a list of the top 15 Google Maps alternatives that not only address the limitations of Google Maps but also cater to diverse user needs and preferences.

4 Primary Reasons Why You Should Consider Alternatives to Google Maps

As we rely more on mapping technology, it is essential to be aware of potential drawbacks. 

Google Maps, while widely used and trusted, has several limitations that make considering alternatives essential:

1. Privacy Concerns

Google Maps’ convenience comes at a cost—user privacy. Google’s data collection practices, including location tracking, have raised significant concerns among users and regulatory authorities.

2. Lack of route optimization and customization features

Google Maps imposes limitations on route planning, such as a maximum of 10 stops and a lack of built-in route optimization for multi-stop journeys.

Other navigation apps similar to Google Maps offer enhanced route optimization and customization options for setting priority stops, time windows, and other time and distance-related constraints.

3. Offline use unreliability

Downloading offline maps using Google Maps can be unreliable, especially in remote areas. This can be a problem for users who need navigation without a stable internet connection.

4. Navigation issues

Some users have reported inaccuracies in turn-by-turn directions, particularly in complex urban environments. 

Additionally, Google Maps might not be suitable for planning outdoor activities like hikes or bike rides. Users have been reported to encounter inaccuracies or nonexistent trails.

Now that we know why considering Google Maps alternatives is crucial, it is time to delve into the details of the top 15 alternative navigation apps.

Best Google Maps Alternatives that are Privacy-focused

1. Apple Maps

Best for: iOS users seeking a privacy-focused navigation solution with a clean interface 

Star rating: 2.7/5 (24.6K)

Apple Inc. released Apple Maps on September 19, 2012, making it the default map system for iOS or MacOS users. This web mapping service provides a clean and simple user interface for navigation and works smoothly across any Apple device. 

The best part is that it provides turn-by-turn navigation guidance based on real-time traffic data and suggests a detour in case of heavy congestion. 

Another USP is its high level of privacy, which is better than Google Maps, as it doesn’t require a sign-in using your Apple ID. Hence, it doesn’t keep a history of where you visited.

Key Features:

1. Route planning: Based on the estimated traffic, it generates accurate estimated times of arrival (ETAs) for your future journeys. It also alerts you about upcoming exits and turns with lane guidance to avoid wrong turns or missed exits.
2. Transit support: This feature shows real-time information about public transport vehicles like buses or trains, including their arrival and departure times, to make navigation around a town easier. 
3. Advanced search capabilities: It leverages ultra-specific filters like price or distance to find restaurants, hotels, or clubs. You can also tap on Nearby to locate petrol stations, hotels, groceries, and coffee shops in your vicinity.

2. Open Street Map

Best for: Free and open-source mapping solution with collaborative editing for up-to-date and detailed maps worldwide

Star rating: 4.7 (3)

Open Street Map (OSM) is a free and collaborative platform maintained and updated regularly by a community of volunteers. 

These volunteers leverage data they collect from surveys, aerial imagery, and licensed geodata sources to maintain up-to-date geographic databases in maps.

Key Features:

1. Worldwide coverage: Supports over 96 languages to provide localized navigation experience across the globe.
2. Editable and adaptable: Facilitates easy edits on Maps based on volunteers’ inputs to maintain accurate and up-to-date detailed maps.
3. Security: It doesn’t require you to sign up or log in to access features, making it safer.

Best Alternatives to Google Maps for Offline Navigation

1. OsmAnd

Best for: Open-source offline navigation with customizable map styles and vehicle-specific routing preferences

Best for: 4.4/5 (173k)

OsmAnd, an offline world map application based on OpenStreetMap (OSM), enables you to navigate roads based on preferred roads and vehicle dimensions. You can also take into account inclines and slopes to plan routes accordingly. 

Being an open-source app, it doesn’t require your email address to sign in and lets you control the data you want to provide access to. Further, it supports map styles tailored to activities, including touring view, nautical map, desert, or off-roading. 

Key Features: 

1. GPS Navigation:  OsmAnd has better GPS than Google Maps. It allows for plotting a route without internet connectivity for cars, motorbikes, cyclists, pedestrians, or boats. 
2. Routing and recording: This lets you plan multi-stop routes using multiple navigation profiles and record them using GPX tracks.
3. Easy search by category: This enables you to choose places by name, coordinates, or category and find the easiest routes to them.

2. HERE WeGo

Best for: Offline navigation and multi-stop route planning, ideal for both local and international travel

Star rating: 3.3/5

HERE WeGo Maps is one of the go-to navigation apps to help you during local or foreign trips. It provides interactive guidance to reach any intended destination on foot, in a car, or using public transit. 

HERE WeGo Maps also lets you add waypoints along your route as you traverse it to optimize it accordingly. 

Besides, this app keeps you updated on real-time traffic alerts and ensures fuel-efficient and time-saving trips. 

You can also get information on the nearest parking spots for a hassle-free parking experience using this online map tool.

Key Features:

1. Offline access: This lets you download map data of not just regions but also entire countries or continents to avoid an uninterrupted journey even when offline. 
2. User-friendly interface: Provides a decluttered and intuitive user interface to facilitate easy navigation.
3. Turn-by-turn voice guidance: Gives you accurate driving directions while driving and easily comprehensible walking guidance when you are on foot.

3. Sygic GPS Navigation & Maps

Best for: High-resolution 3D offline maps, speed camera alerts, and advanced safety features for secure navigation

Star rating: 4.2/5  (1.76M)

Sygic is among the most popular route planner apps, loved by 200 million drivers worldwide. It provides high-resolution 3-D offline maps for countries worldwide and precise information on speed camera alerts and live traffic situations. 

With a database of millions of Points of Interest (PoI), Sygic Maps also lets you look up your intended destination in the satellite view. Its voice-guided navigation directions make it easy to get around new places easily and efficiently. 

You can also save on your roaming charges by leveraging the offline maps Sygic offers.

Key Features:

1. Advanced safety features: Displays speed limit alerts, dynamic lane assistance, head-up display (HUD) projects, sign recognition, and dashcam cords combine to secure your trip.
2. Hands-free navigation: This lets you connect your phone to your car’s built-in display to avoid distractions.
3. Live fuel and parking prices: Shows live fuel and parking prices in your proximity to help you find the most affordable fuel stations and parking areas.

4. Maps.Me

Best for: Offline navigation with detailed maps, hiking trails, and travel content integration for global adventurers

Star rating: 4.1/5 (1.18M)

Trusted by over 140 million travelers globally, this mapping app leverages data crowdsourced by OpenStreet contributors to maintain current maps. 

Equipped with routing guidance for driving, walking, and cycling, it partners with travel content creators to provide travel guidance to hundreds of destinations globally.

Not only that, but Maps.me offers detailed maps even in offline mode, saving your memory and data while ensuring uninterrupted navigation in poor network areas. 

It also lets you bookmark and share your favorite locations with your friends for group trips.

Key Features: 

1. Accuracy in maps: Relies on OpenStreet Maps to make sure maps are updated and accurate all the time to enhance your navigation experience.
2. More detailed maps: Maps.me has one of the best online maps for directions. It displays points of interest, hiking trails, and unique places that any other online map tool may not have. It also indicates uphill or downhill terrain while cycling or walking.
3. Third-party app integrations: Integrates with travel apps like Booking.com to let you book hotels without any additional travel app.

Best Google Maps Alternatives for Route Planning and Optimization

1. Upper

Best for: Multi-stop route planning and optimization with advanced privacy controls and extensive customization options

Star rating: 4.3/5 (287)

Upper is the go-to software for route planning and optimization and can prove to be an intuitive alternative to traditional mapping services, including Google Maps. 

Upper allows you to easily create routes with unlimited stops, providing effective navigation without any restrictions. Using its advanced route optimization, you can save time and fuel on multi-stop trips. 

A noticeable aspect is that it respects your data privacy and doesn’t engage in extensive data collection practices like Google Maps. Moreover, Upper offers customization options to tailor routes to your specific needs, from priority stops to time windows and service times.

Key Features

1. Multi-stop route planning: Upper helps you overcome Google Maps’ 10-stop restriction. It allows you to plan routes with an extensive number of stops, making it a go-to solution for businesses with multiple destinations.
2. Advanced route optimization and scheduling: Upper goes above and beyond by including built-in route optimization for multi-stop routes. Rather than following a strict stop sequence, Upper ensures that your routes are as efficient as possible, saving you time and fuel. It further enables you to schedule routes ahead of time by simply importing a list of stops and drivers. 
3. Enhanced privacy control: In a world prioritizing data privacy, Upper respects your boundaries. It doesn’t engage in extensive data collection practices, such as location tracking, giving you peace of mind. It focuses on what matters most—efficient route planning and optimization—without compromising your privacy or bombarding you with ads.
4. Customization excellence: Unlike Google Maps, Upper empowers you with extensive customization options. You can set priority stops, time windows, and other distance- and time-based constraints to meet your specific needs and ensure on-time deliveries. 
5. Independence from Google ecosystem: With Upper, you’re not tied to an extensive ecosystem of Google services. You can enjoy route planning and optimization without creating dependency on associated Google app(s) or products.

2. MileMaker by RandMcNally

Best for: Trucking and logistics companies requiring load planning, compliance reporting, and traffic-enabled routing

Star rating: 0/5 (0)

Having already carved a niche for itself in the industry of traditional paper maps, RandMcNally has evolved to compete with today’s emerging online mapping tools. Using it, you can plan the most efficient route for your drivers based on traffic constraints, load types, or transit distances.  

It is specifically beneficial if you are a truck fleet dispatcher. This is because it lets you ensure your drivers’ safety by avoiding routes with specific weight or height constraints. 

Besides, MileMaker offers traffic-enabled routing to ensure accurate ETAs to enhance your customer experience.

Key Features:

1. Load planning: This lets you plan your load based on your vehicles’ specifications and send them on routes that maximize their payload capacity utilization.
2. Route saving: This helps save your favorite stops, vehicle profiles, and optimal routes for your recurring trips.
3. ITFA compliance: Ensures compliance with International Tax Freedom Agreement regulations through regular state mileage reports.

For a detailed comparison between Google Maps and Upper, refer to the following table:

Features	Google Maps	Upper
Maximum Stops	Up to 10 stops per route	Unlimited stops
Route Optimization
Data Privacy
Customization	Limited customization features	Extensive customization options
Multi-Vehicle Routing
Time Windows & Service Times
Accurate ETAs
Proof of Delivery (POD)
Proof of Delivery (POD)
Reverse Route Option
Drag & Drop Editing
Reports & Analytics
		Try it Free!

3. MapQuest

Best for: Turn-by-turn voice navigation and route optimization based on traffic constraints 

Star rating: 4.2/5 (62.9k)

Launched in 1966, MapQuest is the trailblazer of web-based mapping services and a great turn-by-turn GPS navigation app. Equipped with voice navigation capabilities, it guides you through your routes when driving or cycling. 

Furthermore, it also serves as a route planner that allows you to optimize routes based on traffic constraints and reduce your driving distance, time, and fuel costs.

It also features a speedometer that enables you to compare your actual speed against the maximum legal speed along your route to ensure compliance. 

This online mapping tool also facilitates comparing prices at nearby gas or fuel pumps to help choose the most cost-effective station.

Key Features

1. Multi-Stop Route Planning & Optimization: Allows for setting a start point other than your current location, adding multiple stops, and optimizing them based on traffic and toll/highway avoidance preferences
2. Multiple Route Choices: It generally displays two or three similar route options and ETAs for you to choose from based on your urgency and route preferences.
3. Favorites: Lets you save your favorite routes to addresses, like home, office, or shop, for quick referencing whenever needed.

4. Bing Maps

Best for: Enterprises requiring localized mapping solutions with customizable map styles

Star rating: 4.4/5 (209)

Bing Maps, formerly known as Live Search Maps or Windows Live Maps, is a web mapping service provided by Microsoft’s Bing. It provides not only the standard road map styles but also Aerial, Bird’s eye, Grayscale, Canvas Dark, and Canvas Light.

Bing Maps also auto-suggests real-world locations as you type the first few characters of your intended address, expediting your search. It even provides density maps (or heat maps) that help you visualize your data points when they are high in number to assess their density easily. 

Additionally, the navigation app also shows real-time traffic conditions and incidents on your map.

Key Features

1. Enhanced localization: Supports over 79 languages to localize your navigation experience.
2. High contrast support: Auto-renders a high-contrast version of your road maps when you switch to a high-contrast module.
3. Custom map styles: This enables you to customize the appearance of your road maps to align them with your applications, user interface, or company branding.

Best Google Maps Alternatives for Outdoor Enthusiasts

1. KoMoot

Best for: Outdoor enthusiasts seeking adventure-specific route planning for hiking, cycling, and mountain biking expeditions

Star rating: 4.3/5 (309K)

KoMoot can be your go-to and popular Google Maps alternative if you are fond of excursions and adventure trips. 

It leverages the hand-picked collections of outdoor trip experiences from renowned travelers to generate ready-to-use routes for you. It even offers you topographic routing guidance to know and prepare for what lies ahead in your adventure journey. 

Be it hiking, bike touring, mountain biking, or road cycling, Komoot can be your go-to app to make it unforgettable. It also provides offline navigation to keep you on track in far-flung areas with poor network coverage.

Key Features: 

1. Activity-specific route planning: This tool generates sport-specific routes based on the topography of a destination, such as a bike trip, mountain biking, hiking, or road cycling.
2. Seamless navigation: Gives voice instructions to guide you through uphill or downhill paths or narrow passages along your routes to stay prepared.
3. Customization: This feature allows you to add every point you wish to visit along your route, allowing you to customize your trip according to your interests.

2. CityMapper

Best for: Urban mobility solutions, comparing transit modes, and real-time routing for driving, walking, or cycling in major cities

Star rating: 4.8/5 (268K)

With over a decade of experience, CityMapper has emerged as a leading urban mobility solution. It lets you compare all your travel options and transit modes in real time to make an informed choice. 

Furthermore, your city provides turn-by-turn instructions for easy navigation whether you are driving, walking, or cycling.

CityMapper displays live wait times and ETAs for public transit vehicles to ensure you are on time to catch a train, bus, or ferry. It also evaluates all the possible transit modes to come up with the best route you can take for your trip. 

Key Features:

1. Exhaustive routing guidance: This feature provides three different map views and step-by-step guidance tailored to your mode of travel, helping you avoid tolls or no-parking zones.
2. One-shop mobility: We collaborate with leading cab and bike-sharing service providers like Uber, Lyft, JUMP, and Scoot to help you compare fares, book a cab, or locate the nearest e-scooter.
3. Live trip sharing & personalization: This lets you share your live trip to keep your travel partners informed about your progress and archive daily routes to your office or retail store.

3. inRoute

Best for: Intelligent routing with traffic-aware ETAs, weather alerts, and advanced charting for trip planning

Star rating: 4.6/5 (7.8K)

inRoute can be your intelligent routing partner whether you go on a trip or drive on the road. Equipped with traffic-aware routes and layovers, it provides accurate ETAs and severe weather alerts to ensure your safe travel. 

You can add multiple stops up to 150 and determine the most optimal route to cover them. Moreover, inRoute lets you find routes along your route by miles or hours of driving. Its turn-by-turn voice navigation is possible through your dashcam or iOS device.

Key Features: 

1. In-depth charts: Displays route elevation, descent, curviness, and weather conditions including temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed/direction) and sunrise/sunset times for better planning. 
2. Offline storage: This lets you store routes on your device, access them even without internet connectivity, and ensure seamless travel.
3. Route import: Facilitates importing prebuilt routes from XLSX, GPX, and KML files so you can use them from within your app.

Best Google Maps Alternatives for Community-Driven Real-Time Updates

1. WAZE

Best for: Community-driven real-time traffic updates and road alerts for efficient and safe navigation

Star rating: 4.1/5 (8.45M)

Waze is among the most popular community-driven navigation apps. It provides real-time road alerts based on continuous input from drivers. 

These alerts can include information on traffic congestion, construction, accidents, police, or speed cameras. You can use them to pick the fastest and safest driving route while ensuring legal compliance.

It further considers factors like weather, live traffic, and roadblocks to provide accurate ETAs and schedule your journey accordingly. It also lets you leverage directions from celebrities or experts to customize your road trip. 

Key Features: 

1. Information on cheapest gas stations: This page shows all gas stations in your vicinity and their prices to help you choose the most cost-effective option.
2. Waze map editor: Allows the community of Waze Map Editors to edit the map globally to keep it accurate and up-to-date.
3. Live speedometer: This displays your actual driving speed, helping you comply with the legal speed limit and avoid penalty charges.

2. Navmii

Best for: Community navigation with real-time traffic and safety alerts, smart rerouting, and robust search functions

Star rating: 3.5/5 (103K)

Navmii is a globally renowned free-to-use community navigation app that lets you transform your navigation experience with easy access to voice-guided routing and up-to-date maps. 

With over 24 million drivers using it, Navmii is a proud supporter of OpenStreetMaps, the free Wiki world map.

You can also add multiple waypoints to plan your routes optimally. Navmii lets you use maps offline, reducing your dependence on a stable internet connection. It also provides reports & analytics to analyze and score your drivers’ and overall trip performance.

Key Features: 

1. Real-time traffic and safety alerts: Provide you with turn-by-turn routing navigation using live traffic information. Sends you speeding and safety camera alerts to prevent expensive tickets and ensure safe driving.
2. Robust search functions: This lets you search for a destination precisely using 3-word addresses (what3words) containing the city, street name, and ZIP code.
3. Automated smart rerouting: Generates a detour immediately based on changes in road conditions to prevent congestion and delays.

Go Beyond Google Maps to Redefine Your Navigation Capabilities

Google Maps can arguably be the undisputed champion in the mapping and navigation app industry in general. However, when it comes to meeting specific navigation requirements for different audiences, like bikers, hikers, or truckers, it falls short of the desired functionalities. Therefore, it’s time to evaluate and list your navigation needs and pick the best Google Maps alternative that ticks all your expectations from a navigation map.