Are you searching for Best hiking apps for your smartphones? Hiking apps allow hikers to navigate on trails and find a short route to the destination. It also enhances hiking experience up to the next level. If you are a hiking lover then you must have a hiking app on your smartphone.
There are many apps for hiking available on the app store and play store. But not all are accurate and good for hikers. In this article, I have shared the list of best apps for hiking activities. All these apps are available for both android and iOS smartphones. The list has both free and premium apps, you can select as per your need. This article is based on my personal research and knowledge.
Table of Contents
What is Hiking App?
Hiking is full of adventures and safety concerns. In this modern world, you can use your smartphone as a hiking guide with advanced technology. A Hiking app is an application for smartphones that help hikers in hiking adventures. It can enhance the hiker’s experience to the next level.
It helps hikers to know the trail’s distance, elevation, shortcuts, and also the dead-zones. Some app also provides security features like live tracking and distress signal phone call and SMS. If you are a hiker then it is a must-have app for you. Read this article until the last to find more.
List of Free Best Hiking Apps For Android and iOS
Here is the list of top six best hiking apps that help you in hiking. This list is based on apps features, accuracy, ease of use, and battery consumption. If any of these apps are not working then please let me know in the comment box. I will update it with a new one soon.
1. Cairn
Cairn is one of the best hiking apps that ensure adventure experience as well as security. It allows users to follow or create trails for free. Users can download offline maps for offline mode adventures. Ciaran also shows dead-zones that you must avoid while hiking. Hikers can use safety features like live tracking and automated messages to emergency contacts. It shows your live location to your friends and relatives. Apart from this It also sends automated messages to emergency contacts in case you lost from the group.
The interface is very attractive and easy to use. The security features come up with premium membership. so you need to buy a membership to use security features.
2. AllTrails
AllTrails is another one of the best hiking apps for iOS and Android users. This is a very famous app to find a less known hiking trail. It has more than 5 million app installs and more than 40,000 positive reviews in the play store. Users can search trail from more than 1 lakh trails by length, activity, type, and traffic. Once you choose the trail you can also read other hiker’s reviews and experiences.
Apart from these, it also has some more amazing features like GPS Activity Tracker, GPS direction driving. It also has a premium version app that has more features related to security and safety. The interface is also simple and looks good.
3. Gaia GPS
Gaia GPS is a premium outdoor planning app for hikers and campers. It comes up with full power-packed features. Gaia has maps of existing roads as well as off trails data. It will also show live weather information to hikers. Users can also find new trails by reading other Gaia user’s experiences.
The membership plan is both free and premium but the free version has very limited features. Basic membership starts with $20 per year which is very negligible as compared to its features. The interface is also very simple and easy to use. Developers claim that it consumes very less battery as compared to others. The only drawback is that it is mainly focused in the US region. So, you might face difficulties if you are a Non-US user.
4. Google Earth
Google Earth is another one of the best hiking apps for smartphone users. It is developed by Google to support its google map platform. You can also download a location map for offline use. It shows hikers the satellite and 3D view of a map, using which you can search for any trails. Hikers can easily calculate elevation gain and loss, trails distance.
This is a 100 percent free app. You can also send your live location to anyone using this app. The interface is very simple and secured by Google.
5. Komoot
Komoot is one of the best hiking apps recommended by many hikers. You can use this app for hiking as well as any journey. It has both free and premium membership options. Users can use first planning for free But you need to pay for other plannings. The cost is $3.99 per additional plan and $34.20 is a one-time amount for unlimited use. It has a Voice navigation feature that means you don’t have to have your phone out in hands every time.
Basically it downloads an offline map of your adventure place and navigates you accordingly. It also highlights nearby shops, peaks, and points of interest to users. Komoot also allows users to share his/her experience in its platform. According to reviews, it consumes very little battery while hiking.
6. Offline Survival Manual
I added this app as a bonus but this is a must-have the best app for hikers. Basically it is an Offline Survival Manual guide that includes many survival techniques. It has all basic stuff like tying knots, building a fire, info about poisonous plants, and many more. Offline Survival Manual is completely free to use that consumes very little memory. So you can keep this app to survive various environments and weather conditions in case of an emergency.
Final Words
That’s it for this article. You can use these best hiking apps for planning a hiking adventure. In my opinion, Cairn and AllTrails are best among all these. If you found this article useful then don’t forget to bookmark this post URL for future uses.
I hope you will like this article on Best Free Hiking Apps for Android and iOS. Let me know which app is your favorite in the comment box. Don’t forget to share this article with your friends and relatives. Keep visiting… 🙂
Piyush Kumar is a passionate blogger and web developer. He is the Admin of Geekyduniya and loves to write about tech content.
