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How does Organic Maps differ from Maps.Me (which it also mentions), or PocketEarth mentiond in comments here? Or CoMaps for that matter? I've had Maps.Me on my

How does Organic Maps differ from Maps.Me (which it also mentions), or PocketEarth mentiond in comments here? Or CoMaps for that matter? I've had Maps.Me on my phone for some years; it's often not as accurate or polished as the commercial offerings (Google, Here Technologies), but it's pretty nice. What might make me switch?

thinkingemote 4mo ago
CoMaps is a fork/spin-off of Organic Maps, which in turn is a fork of Maps.ME
- einpoklum 4mo ago
  Ok, but - how is Organic Maps better than Maps.ME (and is Comaps better than Organic Maps in some way other than the transparency issues)?
  - Markoff 4mo ago
    Didn't use Maps.me for years, but does it have colored hiking trails for instance? OM does, CM doesn't.
  - pastk 4mo ago
    Feature-wise projects grow more and more different. Ultimately it'd depend what exact features are important to you. The following overview might help a bit: https://www.comaps.app/support/how-do-the-features-differ-from-those-of-organic-maps https://www.comaps.app/support/how-do-the-features-differ-fr... https://www.comaps.app/support/how-does-the-comaps-project-differ-from-organic-maps-and-maps-me https://www.comaps.app/support/how-does-the-comaps-project-d...
palata 4mo ago
In terms of forks, I believe it was Maps.Me -> Organic Maps -> CoMaps. So all forks of the same project. Maps.Me is not open source anymore (I think?), and CoMaps was started by a subset of the Organic Maps community that wasn't happy with the Organic Maps governance. > What might make me switch? Different reasons for different people, but OpenStreetMap is a great community project, for one. What I really like with those apps (I am now using CoMaps) is that they are open source, offline first and the UI is quite minimal and clean.
- johnsea 4mo ago
  Organic Maps was founded by two of the Maps.Me authors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Maps#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Maps#History). With CoMaps I don't think, there are any original authors involved (?). In any case I prefer organic, the original. Donated and very grateful that this app works so well (except for search where I sometimes use another app).
  - palata 4mo ago
    I didn't say "founders", I said "community". The community is more than just the founders. If anything, the part of the community that left did it because of their disagreeing with the founders.
    - int_19h 4mo ago
      What was the nature of the disagreement?
      - palata 4mo ago
        I think mostly transparency about how the donations are being used by the project.
      - pastk 4mo ago
        [dead]
cmdoptesc 4mo ago
> What might make me switch? Google Maps will always have better POI data because they have a larger userbase and they've gamified adding POIs with the "Local Guides" badge. The main reason to switch is to have an offline-first experience. Google Maps does not provide offline maps everywhere, e.g. South Korea. And if you've ever tried using the Google Maps app on a weak connection, it's frustrating because it still tries to download remote tiles instead of using the ones you've downloaded. Lastly any contributions you make in OpenStreetMap will show up in Organic Maps / CoMaps for everyone. Personally, I use Google Maps on a daily basis, but have Organic Maps and regions downloaded for travel and just switch between the two. It's good to have a reliable fallback.

thinkingemote 4mo ago

CoMaps is a fork/spin-off of Organic Maps, which in turn is a fork of Maps.ME

einpoklum 4mo ago
Ok, but - how is Organic Maps better than Maps.ME (and is Comaps better than Organic Maps in some way other than the transparency issues)?
- Markoff 4mo ago
  Didn't use Maps.me for years, but does it have colored hiking trails for instance? OM does, CM doesn't.
- pastk 4mo ago
  Feature-wise projects grow more and more different. Ultimately it'd depend what exact features are important to you. The following overview might help a bit: https://www.comaps.app/support/how-do-the-features-differ-from-those-of-organic-maps https://www.comaps.app/support/how-do-the-features-differ-fr... https://www.comaps.app/support/how-does-the-comaps-project-differ-from-organic-maps-and-maps-me https://www.comaps.app/support/how-does-the-comaps-project-d...

palata 4mo ago

In terms of forks, I believe it was Maps.Me -> Organic Maps -> CoMaps. So all forks of the same project. Maps.Me is not open source anymore (I think?), and CoMaps was started by a subset of the Organic Maps community that wasn't happy with the Organic Maps governance. > What might make me switch? Different reasons for different people, but OpenStreetMap is a great community project, for one. What I really like with those apps (I am now using CoMaps) is that they are open source, offline first and the UI is quite minimal and clean.

johnsea 4mo ago
Organic Maps was founded by two of the Maps.Me authors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Maps#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Maps#History). With CoMaps I don't think, there are any original authors involved (?). In any case I prefer organic, the original. Donated and very grateful that this app works so well (except for search where I sometimes use another app).
- palata 4mo ago
  I didn't say "founders", I said "community". The community is more than just the founders. If anything, the part of the community that left did it because of their disagreeing with the founders.
  - int_19h 4mo ago
    What was the nature of the disagreement?
    - palata 4mo ago
      I think mostly transparency about how the donations are being used by the project.
    - pastk 4mo ago
      [dead]

cmdoptesc 4mo ago

> What might make me switch? Google Maps will always have better POI data because they have a larger userbase and they've gamified adding POIs with the "Local Guides" badge. The main reason to switch is to have an offline-first experience. Google Maps does not provide offline maps everywhere, e.g. South Korea. And if you've ever tried using the Google Maps app on a weak connection, it's frustrating because it still tries to download remote tiles instead of using the ones you've downloaded. Lastly any contributions you make in OpenStreetMap will show up in Organic Maps / CoMaps for everyone. Personally, I use Google Maps on a daily basis, but have Organic Maps and regions downloaded for travel and just switch between the two. It's good to have a reliable fallback.