Most hiking navigation apps can record your track while you hike. So why install a separate GPS logger?
There are a few good reasons. You may want a lightweight application whose only job is to record your position, without maps, routing and other navigation features consuming resources. You may want a reliable GPX recording running independently from the app you use for navigation. Or perhaps you want a detailed recording that you can later analyze, edit or process with other tools.
For this article I tested two free and open-source Android applications designed specifically for this job: