Whether you’re scouting a hunting area, looking for a basemap, interested to find out about land ownership, or you want to be able to collaborate in real time with your hunting buddies, having access to a mapping app that’s designed for hunting can be a game changer.
Depending on the type of app, you can get access to a range of valuable hunting tools and information like private land boundaries, public land boundaries, information on property ownership, access to aerial map images and satellite images, and other location info.
If you’re looking for an app for hunters, then comparing HuntStand vs onX (two of the most highly-rated hunt mapping apps) should be high on your agenda.
An Overview of Online Hunting Map Apps and Tech Tools
These days, most hunters like to use technology to be more strategic when it comes to hunting. That means taking your smartphone along with your gun, ammo, and other hunting gear to stay in contact, get valuable insights and updates, and to log and access location-related data.
Hunting apps can help hunting buddies keep in touch, and are a way of accessing downloadable maps and satellite imagery. Plus they can help you navigate through the woods. Importantly, they can also show you where you are in real time, and warn you about hunting and property boundaries to keep you both safe and legal.
When you’re hunting, it’s always vital that you know exactly where you are, because you could be on private land, public land, or in areas that strictly prohibit hunting. Because of their great land ownership tracking abilities, these hunting apps can also be a great tool for landowners to manage their hunting stands and blinds.
Two of the top rated hunting apps are OnX and HuntStand. Below we’ll provide a comprehensive review of HuntStand vs onX in terms of their features and pros and cons.
HuntStand vs OnX: A Comprehensive Review
Whether you’re looking for boundary lines, public land maps, huntable land, or a land management app both onX and HuntStand offer amazing features and basic free membership (although with onX this is just as a limited-time trial) as well as premium membership options.
Below are comprehensive overviews of the HuntStand vs onX hunting apps as well as a list of key features to help you make a more informed choice about which app to download.
HuntStand Hunting App
HuntStand is a popular app that was created by hunters for hunters and uses very detailed maps in hunting areas that you can access via an android device, an iOS device, or any web browser. This advanced mapping tool is also popular with people who are keen to get access to land management data.
Millions of people have downloaded the app, which gives users access to valuable hunting data like interactive maps, satellite imagery, land use updates, and property boundary information.
Many hunters use the app to collaborate with their fellow hunters or members of hunting clubs, which helps them keep tabs on each other’s locations and share wildlife sighting data. There are also a range of advanced tools on the app, like HuntStand HuntZone, and you can get updated weather information and forecasts and buy high-resolution maps.
HuntStand Pro Key Features
If you’re keen to take advantage of additional features of the HuntStand app, then you can buy the upgrade and then have access to HuntStand Pro. Some of the key features of this pro app include:
- Provides users with data about public and private lands, such as ownership of land, land boundaries, and permitted uses on different categories of land
- Provides access to advanced mapping layers – these include databases which include tree cover, public hunting lands, hunting lands (like Wildlife Management Areas, explicit non-hunting lands etc.) Mapbox Vivid, map markers, measurements of areas and other datasets
- Access to 3D maps, which lets you explore areas virtually
- Access to trail camera data
- Monthly satellite data updates to the app to ensure the latest information is available (great for indicating recent timber thinning or forest clearing, fires, flooding, or agricultural activity)
- Offline access to maps and the ability to download maps
- Access to a comprehensive natural areas atlas that indicates where there are trails, 4×4 roads, forest roads, campgrounds, parks etc.
The Pros and Cons of HuntStand
Pros
- User friendly even if you’ve had limited experience with hunting apps
- Premium version available
- Standard version is free
- Connect with your fellow hunter on the app
- Real time
- Many in-field applications like being able to record sightings or create a map boundary
- Integrates with trail cams
- Weather updates and weather forecast included
- Aerial imagery and satellite imagery
- 3D mapping for virtual exploration
- Good reviews on Apple iTunes, with over 55,500 reviews and a 4.6-star rating and is ranked #31 in the sports category
Cons
- The pro version isn’t free – you have to pay to download it
- The ads can be annoying in the free version
Overview of the OnX Hunt App
The popular onX Hunt app has been downloaded by millions of people in the US and has countless positive reviews with a 4.7-star rating out of 5 on Apple iTunes.
The onX hunting app provides users with accurate and up-to-date map data about private and public land ownership, such as aerial view maps, topographical maps, and whether you’re on the boundary of a non-hunting reserve.
With onX you have access to information about 121 million properties across America. That means you get to view property lines on the map, and can easily find out who the landowner is, how many acres of land they own and even what their tax address is.
OnX maps span over 852 million acres of public land, 9,568 unique hunting units, over 400,000 miles of trails, and over 50,000 campgrounds and cabins. That’s a lot of data at your fingertips. Plus you can use any of the 421 map overlays to customize your map, which gives you a highly personalized mapping experience.
The app works as a GPS and can track and mark waypoints to help you navigate and remember where your car is parked or where your camp is set up. It also helps you to measure distances on a map, so you can calculate how far it is between tree stand hunt stands and blinds. And it also shows you points of interest (over 450,000 are mapped) and geographical features along your journey that you might find relevant and interesting.
The great thing about the app is that it works offline too, which means that if you have a GPS tracker built into your phone or device, then you don’t have to be connected to a cellular network to use the offline maps.
Many people are interested to know how to get the onX hunting app. There’s a free trial which lasts 7 days and which gives you a feel for what the premium membership is like. It’s best to install this when you know you’ll be using it on a hunt, so you can see how it performs and if you want to then purchase a membership or not.
There are two membership options: elite membership and premium membership. If you opt for the elite membership, then you’ll have access to the maps for all 50 states in the USA. You can pay for this as a once-off annual fee, or monthly in instalments.
We’ll detail the premium membership in more detail below, which will help you decide on whether to buy HuntStand vs onX.
OnX Hunt Premium Features
The onX premium membership is a paid service, which offers a range of benefits, including:
- Access hunting GPS maps which indicate if land is public land (e.g. Wildlife management Areas, Timber Lands etc.) or if they are private lands (providing the landowner name and property boundaries)
- You can search maps by looking for the name of a particular landowner or hunting property boundaries, which helps you find more places where you can hunt
- You can save maps so that you can access them even if you’re not in cell phone range when you use them
- Access to 3D maps
The Pros and Cons of OnX Hunt
Pros
- Shows your actual location in real time
- Works without cell service
- Free basic version available, with paid premium and elite membership options
- Thousands of good ratings on the Apple App Store
- Provides weather information and forecasts
- Provides data on current and forecasted wind speed and direction
- Built-in navigation tools like the GPS compass and a tracker feature that tells you where you’ve been in case you need to retrace your steps
- Access to offline maps, even if there’s no cell phone reception
- Satellite, topographical and aerial maps available
- Free trial version available
Cons
- The Elite and Premium memberships are rather costly
- Uses quite a bit of data to operate the app
- Maps may not be available for all counties
Final Thoughts
Apps for hunters have become a quintessential hunting accessory nowadays, thanks to innovative new smartphone technology. HuntStand and onX both provide incredible hunting map features and both have premium options available in addition to a free basic version.
Hopefully our comprehensive review of HuntStand vs onX will help you make a more informed decision on which app is right for you.
