Despite it's name which suggests a viewer, GPX Viewer is a very capable mobile app for navigation, route following and track recording. It is reliable, provides a useful set of features and a nice set of maps that are visually pleasing and useful for hiking. It comes in two versions on Android, the basic free version and the paid Pro version. On iOS it comes only as a paid version.
In this article we will review the Android Pro version, since it comes with a couple of important features that are not available in the free one:
- offline maps
- track recording
The Android Pro version is available for a one-time payment of around 8.50 USD, which in our opinion is well worth the price for a very handy offline navigation app.
Features
Maps
The free version of GPX Viewer supports online maps only, but the Pro version supports offline maps too. This means that you can download maps that cover your hiking area while you're within data coverage and then safely use the downloaded maps to navigate while you're offline in the wilderness.
The list of available maps is quite good and provides options for hiking as well as for other activities such as city walks, etc.
As can be seen from the screenshots, I mostly use the OpenTopoMap topographic map as an online map (the one on the right below) and the Topo offline map with vector, hillshade and contours displayed (the one on the left below).
In addition to the online maps that are available in the free package, there are "premium online maps" available for a 1.99€ monthly subscription which can be cancelled at any time. This subscription includes the following premium online maps:
- Mapbox online maps
- Thunderforest online maps
- HERE online maps
- mapy.cz online maps
- OpenWeatherMap weather overlays
Navigation
In it's simplest mode, without any tracks loaded, GPX Viewer can be used for basic navigation. Start the app, select a map, click the "Location button", which centers the map at your current location and you're good to go.
There are however a few options you can use to enhance your navigation, you get to them by selecting the "Follow GPS" setting in the left side menu, which gets a few items displayed on the screen:
From top to bottom and left to right:
- The rotate map option (this is a setting in the left side menu, which I've pulled out to the menu on top for quick access). Use this option to rotate the map towards the direction you're heading
- The compass button in the upper left corner. Use this to rotate the map north facing up.
- The location button. Click this to center the map at your current location
- The status bar at the bottom with handy information such as the current altitude, speed and bearing (azimuth)
You can experiment with settings in the Settings -> GPS section to tailor the behaviour to your needs.
It is also convenient and important that the scale is present on all maps at all times so you understand the distances involved.
Track Following
GPX Viewer excels at its track-following feature. In addition to the navigation described in the previous section, when following a track the app presents the followed track on the map, including any waypoints (if they exist) and distance markers. The bottom part of the screen displays an elevation graph of the whole track.
As you move, your location is updated both on the map and on the elevation profile. This allows you to easily get an idea of the elevation profile ahead of you and the distance remaining to the end of the track (I need to answer this often when hiking with my kids!). This is something that's not a regular feature of similar apps.
It may be worth mentioning that any GPX track can be opened, whether you create them yourself on your desktop or download from some service. You can open the track from your mobile file system or from a cloud based service such as Dropbox, etc.
You can even have multiple tracks opened in the background and select the one for which the elevation graph is displayed.
Track Recording
Track recording is only available in the paid version of the app.
The main stats of the recorded track are displayed in a red-ish bar at the top of the screen, with the elapsed time, covered distance and the number of waypoints added.
As can be seen from the above screenshot, it is possible to follow a track and record a new one at the same time, which is very useful if you're using the same app for both activitites.
Other Features
Apart from the main features overviewed in the last section, GPX Viewer provides good statistics, file management, weather info, route creation, etc. This video shows some of these.
Ventura Games, the company behind GPX Viewer, has also released Trackbook, a desktop app for creating routes. Synchronization with Trackbook is demonstrated in this video
Note that in this article we haven't covered any of the route creation options provided by Ventura Games, but we will try to cover those in another article.
Platform, Pricing and Rating
GPX Viewer is available on Android and iOS. It is available as a free and a paid (pro) version. The pro version is available for a one-time payment of around 8.50 USD
As of January 2025:
The free Android app has been downloaded 5M+ times, and has a rating of 4.8 out of more than 45K reviews
The paid Android app has been downloaded 100k+ times, and has a rating of 4.8 out of more than 7.5K reviews
Quite impressive and well deserved!
On the iOS side, there is only a paid version at a one time cost of $6.99. The app has a rating of 4.6 out of ~180 reviews:
Note that we've only tested the Android app.
Difference between the Free and Pro versions
The Pro version contains the following features that are not available in the free one:
- offline maps (free version only supports online maps),
- track recording
- weather forecast (powered by Pirate Weather)
- create and edit tracks
Final Verdict
This is a great app for day to day hikes. Very useful to just fire up when you need a quick reference of where you are and check the routes around, but also very practical for track following and track recording. Robust, visually pleasing and easy to use. Highly recommended!
