onX Offroad vs Gaia GPS

Written & researched by Briar Callahan Overlanding & Power Systems Editor

Published Sep 29, 2026

At a Glance

Core Focus: Vehicle Trails vs General Backcountry Maps

onX Offroad's feature set is aimed at motorized travel. It filters trails by vehicle type (4x4, side-by-side, ATV, dirt bike, snowmobile), shows Forest Service MVUMs, and carries trail reports where users post current conditions and closures. Gaia GPS is organized around its map catalog. Its Premium list names Backroad Mapbooks Canada, France IGN and SwissTopo alongside US land and hunting overlays, so the same app works for a drive, a hike from camp or a trip abroad.

Land Ownership: Where the Two Really Differ

Both apps can show public and private land, but they package it differently. onX Premium includes public and government land boundaries. Private land boundaries, landowner names and acreage are Elite-only, and onX describes that layer as nationwide. Gaia GPS lists private and public land overlays among its Premium maps. The difference matters most where public and private parcels are mixed together. There, a boundary line alone tells you where you can drive, while an owner's name tells you who to ask. Whichever app you use, the land layer has to be part of the offline download to be there when you need it.

Trail Data and Difficulty Ratings

onX rates many of its Featured Trails Easy, Moderate or Difficult, based on terrain type, obstacles and elevation, often with photos and descriptions. It also has Route Builder, which snaps a planned route to roads and trails. Gaia GPS's documentation doesn't describe a vehicle difficulty system; its trail information comes from whichever base maps and overlays you enable. If your main question is whether a specific 4x4 route suits your vehicle and experience, onX answers it more directly.

Map Choice and Layering

Gaia GPS Premium unlocks over 250 maps and overlays, lets you stack layers, and adds overlays such as hill-shading, contour lines and slope angle. Layered maps can be downloaded together, and layer order and opacity can still be adjusted offline. onX Offroad offers satellite, topo and hybrid basemaps, and Elite adds Recent Imagery, which onX describes as frequently updated satellite images showing ice, snow and wildfire burns from the prior two weeks.

Offline Downloads Compared

Both apps download a chosen area at Low, Medium or High resolution. Gaia's guidance is that Medium may be enough for driving, while High suits hiking. Gaia adds a few specifics:

• Mapbox sources are capped at 10,000 tiles per download and 160,000 in total.
• On iPhone the app must stay on screen while downloading.
• Test downloads in airplane mode before the trip.
• Routing data downloads automatically, so you can plan routes offline.

With onX, onX says the offline app shows your GPS location, saved trails, waypoints and tracks.

Subscription Tiers

onX Offroad has Free, Premium and Elite. Gaia GPS has Free, Premium, and Premium with Outside+, which adds Outside's digital content, courses and the Trailforks app. Gaia says one membership works on several devices under the same login but offers no family plan. It also says that a lapsed membership drops to the free level, locking downloaded maps, though tracks, routes and waypoints are kept. Prices change, so check each company's current plan page before subscribing.

Moving Routes Between Apps and People

Gaia GPS imports GPX, KML, KMZ, GeoJSON and FIT files on gaiagps.com. onX's import and export article, written for its Hunt app, which shares the same markup system, describes moving waypoints, lines, shapes, routes and tracks as GPX or KML. Imports must be 4 MB or less with no more than 3,000 items, KMZ isn't accepted, and importing needs a paid membership. onX's markups don't sync automatically between its Hunt, Offroad and Backcountry apps; you export from one and import to the other. Either way, only position and name transfer, not colors or icons. onX also offers folder sharing and real-time location sharing within a group.

Choosing by Trip Type

Pick onX Offroad if your trips are about vehicle trails: which ones exist, how hard they are, whether they're open, and whose land they cross. Add Elite if landowner names matter where you drive. Pick Gaia GPS if you want the widest choice of base maps, travel outside the US, or leave the truck to hike and camp. Because both import GPX and KML and both run on CarPlay and Android Auto, some drivers use onX for trail planning and Gaia for its topo layers.

How We Compare These Apps

This comparison is drawn from onX's and Gaia GPS's own feature pages, FAQs and help-center articles. We haven't used either app ourselves. See how we rank, and the onX Offroad review and Gaia GPS review for each app on its own.

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