Every European maps & navigation tool reviewed
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Founded 2004
Free
Free
Best for: Developers and organisations needing map data they can own
OpenStreetMap is not an app, it is the map — a database of the world built by contributors and released under the Open Database License, free to use, download, modify and self-host. Eight of the other tools in this category are built on it, which makes understanding it the fastest route to understanding the rest.
Its coverage profile differs from commercial maps in a way that matters practically. Footpaths, cycling infrastructure, building outlines, public toilets, drinking fountains and small local features are frequently better mapped than on Google, because the people who use those things are the people adding them. Very recent commercial openings are sometimes slower to appear, which is the corresponding weakness. Humanitarian mapping efforts have made it the primary map for disaster response in places commercial mapping never covered.
For an organisation the decisive property is ownership: the data can be downloaded in full and served from your own infrastructure, so there is no API key, no per-request pricing and no vendor whose terms can change.
API access and a large ecosystem of tools and applications surround it. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is UK-registered. The trade-offs: no turn-by-turn navigation of its own, quality varies by region and contributor density, and using the data seriously means building or choosing a serving layer.
What OpenStreetMap does well
- Free map data under the Open Database License
- Downloadable and fully self-hostable — no API dependency
- Often better than commercial maps for paths and local detail
- Underpins most other tools in this category
- Large ecosystem of applications and tooling
Where OpenStreetMap falls short
- Not an app — no turn-by-turn navigation of its own
- Quality varies with contributor density by region
- Recent commercial openings can lag
- Serious use requires a serving layer
Standout feature. The map itself, free to download and run on your own servers — which is why eight of the others exist at all.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Free
Free
Best for: Commuters and travellers needing multi-modal navigation offline
HERE WeGo's offline capability is its standout, and it is more complete than the term usually implies. Full countries download with search, routing and turn-by-turn navigation intact, so the app works properly abroad without roaming data or in a basement car park — not a cached view of where you last were.
Multi-modal navigation is the other reason to choose it. Driving, public transit, walking, cycling and taxi options are compared in one view with costs and times, which is the daily-commute problem rather than the road-trip one, and it is where most navigation apps quietly assume you are driving.
HERE runs its own commercially maintained map data rather than building on OpenStreetMap, which is why it appears in automotive navigation systems and why its coverage profile differs — stronger on roads and commercial detail, less rich on footpaths. HERE Global B.V. is based in Amsterdam under GDPR, and the app is free. The interface is functional rather than elegant, offline downloads consume real storage, and its points-of-interest data is thinner than Google's on reviews and opening hours.
What HERE WeGo does well
- Full country offline downloads with search and routing
- Multi-modal: driving, transit, walking, cycling and taxi compared
- Own commercially maintained map data
- Free with no paid tier
- Dutch company under GDPR
Where HERE WeGo falls short
- Interface functional rather than elegant
- Offline maps consume significant storage
- POI data thinner than Google on reviews and hours
- Less footpath detail than OpenStreetMap-based apps
Standout feature. Download a whole country and keep search and routing — offline that actually works abroad, not a cached screenshot.
Berlin, Germany
Free
Free
Best for: Privacy-conscious users who want fast offline maps and outdoor routes
Organic Maps resolves the location privacy question by architecture rather than by policy. Everything runs on the device — search, routing, navigation — so nothing is transmitted, which means no location history exists to be sold, subpoenaed or breached. That is a categorically stronger position than a promise not to profile you.
It is also genuinely fast and lightweight, which matters on older phones and in the situations where you actually need it: no spinner, no waiting for tiles, no dependence on a signal. Built on OpenStreetMap data, it inherits the strong footpath and cycling detail, and hiking and cycling routes are properly supported rather than an afterthought.
It is Apache 2.0 open source and free with no paid tier and no advertising, developed from Berlin. The honest limits follow from the design: there is no real-time traffic because that would require a connection and a server, public transport information is limited, points of interest are thinner than Google's on reviews and opening hours, and offline maps take device storage that needs periodic refreshing.
What Organic Maps does well
- Everything runs on the device — nothing transmitted
- Fast and lightweight, works on older phones
- Strong hiking and cycling route support
- Apache 2.0 open source, free with no ads
- Built on OpenStreetMap footpath detail
Where Organic Maps falls short
- No real-time traffic by design
- Limited public transport information
- POI data thinner than Google on reviews and hours
- Offline maps consume storage and need refreshing
Standout feature. No location history exists because none is ever sent — privacy as an architecture, not a policy.
Amstelveen, Netherlands
Free (7 map downloads) / Maps+ €14.99 a year; OsmAnd+ €69.99 one-time
Free version
Best for: Outdoor enthusiasts who want depth and configurability offline
OsmAnd is the power-user offline map. Where Organic Maps optimises for speed and simplicity, OsmAnd optimises for capability: GPX import and export for planned routes and recorded tracks, an extensive plugin system, configurable map rendering styles for terrain, contours and specific activities, detailed POI search and an explore mode for discovering what is nearby.
That configurability is exactly what serious outdoor use requires. A hiker wants contour lines and trail difficulty; a cyclist wants surface types and gradient; a driver wants neither. OsmAnd lets each of them render the same OpenStreetMap data differently rather than accepting one compromise view, and routing profiles adapt to the mode.
Everything runs on the device, so privacy comes from the architecture rather than a policy.
It is open source, free in its base version with seven map downloads, with Maps+ at €14.99 a year or OsmAnd+ at €69.99 once unlocking unlimited map downloads and additional features, developed by OsmAnd B.V. in Amstelveen under EU jurisdiction. The trade-off against Organic Maps is directly the depth: the interface is denser and takes learning, and the initial configuration is more involved than an app you simply open.
What OsmAnd does well
- GPX import and export for planned and recorded routes
- Extensive plugins and configurable rendering styles
- Routing profiles per activity, all offline
- Open source, free base version; Maps+ from €14.99 a year
- Dutch company, EU jurisdiction
Where OsmAnd falls short
- Denser interface with a real learning curve
- Initial configuration is involved
- Map downloads consume significant storage
- No real-time traffic
Standout feature. Render the same map for a hiker, a cyclist and a driver differently — configurability nothing else here offers offline.
Bratislava, Slovakia
Free / Premium from €13.99 per year
Free version
Best for: Drivers wanting premium navigation features at a low price
Sygic is the driving specialist in this category and the feature list reads accordingly: offline maps so navigation works without data, speed camera alerts, real-time traffic, a head-up display projecting directions onto the windscreen for night driving, and a dashcam mode recording the road ahead.
The head-up display and dashcam are the two most people do not expect to find bundled. Both are typically separate purchases or built into more expensive vehicles, and having them inside a navigation app changes what the subscription is worth — particularly for anyone driving long distances at night.
Beyond the consumer app, Sygic offers fleet management and professional solutions, and Sygic Travel handles trip planning. Sygic a.s. is based in Bratislava under EU data protection. Premium starts at €13.99 per year, which is inexpensive for the feature set, on top of a free version. The considerations: it is driving-focused with weaker walking, cycling and public transport support, offline maps use substantial storage, and the full feature set requires the subscription.
What Sygic does well
- Head-up display and dashcam included
- Speed camera alerts and real-time traffic
- Offline maps for navigation without data
- Premium at €13.99 per year is inexpensive
- Slovak company under EU data protection
Where Sygic falls short
- Driving-focused — weak on walking and transit
- Offline maps use substantial storage
- Full features require the subscription
- Not open source
Standout feature. A head-up display and a dashcam inside the navigation app for €13.99 a year.
Budapest, Hungary
Free
Free
Best for: Drivers who want Waze-style navigation without the location history
Magic Earth is free with no paid tier and no tracking, which is an unusual combination in navigation because location data is normally how a free app is funded. It offers offline maps built on OpenStreetMap data, turn-by-turn navigation, traffic information and voice guidance — the everyday driving set, complete.
Its position is the closest thing here to a Waze replacement. Waze's appeal is live traffic and routing around it; Magic Earth provides traffic information and no-tracking navigation from Budapest, so the trip is routed without the trip being recorded against you.
Magic Earth operates from Hungary under EU data protection with platform support across mobile and integration options. The honest gaps: there is no crowd-sourced hazard and police reporting community, which is genuinely what makes Waze useful in dense traffic and is a function of scale rather than of software; it is not open source, so the no-tracking claim is a policy rather than something you can verify in code; and its POI data is thinner than Google's.
What Magic Earth does well
- Completely free with no paid tier
- Offline maps on OpenStreetMap data
- Turn-by-turn navigation with traffic and voice guidance
- Explicit no-tracking policy
- Hungarian company under EU data protection
Where Magic Earth falls short
- No crowd-sourced hazard reporting community
- Not open source — no-tracking is a policy claim
- POI data thinner than Google
- Smaller user base than the major apps
Standout feature. Waze-style driving navigation, free, from a company that does not want your location history.
Unterägeri, Switzerland
Free tier / from €25 per month
Free tier
Best for: Developers building maps into their own applications
MapTiler replaces the Google Maps API and Mapbox rather than a navigation app, and its offering is the developer surface: vector tiles that render quickly and scale cleanly, custom map styling so the map looks like part of your product instead of borrowed from someone else, geocoding and search for turning addresses into coordinates, SDKs for web and mobile, and 3D map capability.
The self-hosting option is the reason it belongs at the strategic end of this list. Running the tile service on your own infrastructure removes both the per-request cost curve that makes commercial map APIs expensive as an application grows, and the dependency on a vendor continuing to serve you on terms you can accept — the specific risk that made a generation of developers wary of map APIs.
Data sources include OpenStreetMap alongside other providers, so coverage and licensing are transparent. MapTiler AG operates from Unterägeri in Switzerland under an adequacy decision rather than EEA jurisdiction, with a free tier and paid plans from €25 per month. It is not open source, and for a project willing to build its own serving layer, raw OpenStreetMap data is free.
What MapTiler does well
- Vector tiles with custom styling and 3D maps
- Geocoding and search APIs with web and mobile SDKs
- Self-hosting removes the per-request cost curve
- Transparent data sources including OpenStreetMap
- Free tier, paid from €25/month
Where MapTiler falls short
- Swiss adequacy rather than EEA jurisdiction
- Not open source
- Raw OpenStreetMap data is free if you build the serving layer
- Aimed at developers, not end users
Standout feature. Self-host the tile service and the per-request bill disappears along with the vendor dependency.
Munich, Germany
Free plan with 500 requests/day; Basic €69/month (5,000/day), Standard €199/month (15,000/day), Premium €479/month (50,000/day); custom bulk pricing above that
Free tier, 500 requests/day, no credit card required
Best for: Developers who want an open-source routing engine
GraphHopper is the routing specialist next to MapTiler's tiles: a directions and route-optimization API built on the same OpenStreetMap data most of this category shares, with the engine itself open source under Apache 2.0 on GitHub.
A team can run it on its own infrastructure exactly as it can with raw OpenStreetMap data, or pay for the hosted API and skip the operational work — routing, route optimization, geocoding, map matching and isochrones are all included from the free tier up.
GraphHopper GmbH is based in Munich and operates under EU jurisdiction. The free plan allows 500 requests a day with no credit card, which is enough to evaluate the API properly; paid plans start at €69 a month for 5,000 requests a day and scale to €479 for 50,000, with custom bulk pricing above that.
The trade-off against a bundled platform like MapTiler is scope: GraphHopper does routing and nothing else, so a product that also needs styled map tiles is buying two subscriptions rather than one.
What GraphHopper does well
- Open-source routing engine, Apache 2.0 on GitHub
- Free tier with 500 requests/day, no card required
- Route optimization, map matching and isochrones included
- Self-hostable or hosted, with a white-label option
- German company, EU jurisdiction
Where GraphHopper falls short
- Routing only — no map tiles or styling
- Pricing climbs quickly past the free tier
- No published data residency beyond "Germany"
- Aimed at developers, not end users
Standout feature. The same open-source engine whether you self-host it for free or pay GraphHopper to run it for you.
Berlin, Germany
Free tier with 2,500 requests/day (testing only); X-Small €45/month (10,000/day) up to Large €900/month (300,000/day); custom Enterprise pricing from €1,800/month
Free tier, 2,500 requests/day, no credit card required
Best for: Developers who need addresses turned into coordinates and back
OpenCage does one thing: geocoding. Forward geocoding turns an address into coordinates, reverse geocoding turns coordinates into an address, and the API aggregates OpenStreetMap alongside other open datasets rather than maintaining a single proprietary index. For a product that already has its own maps and routing and just needs addresses resolved reliably, that focus is the appeal — nothing to configure that isn't geocoding.
OpenCage GmbH is registered in Berlin. Pricing is published in full and is unusually transparent for this category: a free tier of 2,500 requests a day for testing, then X-Small at €45 a month for 10,000 requests a day up to Large at €900 a month for 300,000, with Enterprise from €1,800 a month, all inclusive of VAT and with no surge pricing.
The limits are the flip side of the focus: no map tiles, no routing, and free-tier accounts are deleted after three months of inactivity.
What OpenCage does well
- Forward and reverse geocoding, nothing else to learn
- Built on OpenStreetMap and other open data sources
- Full price list published, VAT-inclusive, no surge pricing
- Free tier for testing, no credit card required
- German company, EU jurisdiction
Where OpenCage falls short
- Geocoding only — no tiles or routing
- Free-tier accounts are deleted after three months idle
- No certification published
- Aimed at developers, not end users
Standout feature. A geocoding-only API with every tier's price and its VAT status on the page, and no surge pricing to plan around.
Schönefeld, Germany
Free to plan routes, navigate your home region and use the community library; komoot Premium (multi-day routes, offline world maps, 3D maps, Garmin sync) is a paid subscription whose price is shown only after sign-in, not published on komoot.com
Best for: Hikers, cyclists and runners planning multi-day outdoor routes
komoot is a route planner built around discovery rather than turn-by-turn commuting: pick a sport — hiking, road cycling, mountain biking, bikepacking or running — and komoot generates a route tailored to it, drawing on a shared library of routes, photos and tips from its outdoor community.
Offline maps and turn-by-turn voice navigation cover the actual trip once it's planned, which puts komoot closer to Organic Maps and OsmAnd's offline category than to a driving app, but built for planning a day out rather than just finding your way.
komoot GmbH is registered just outside Berlin, in Schönefeld, Germany, under EU jurisdiction.
The app and core route planning are free; komoot Premium unlocks multi-day route planning, offline world maps, 3D maps and Garmin sync, but the price for that subscription is shown only after signing in rather than published on the pricing pages — a gap worth checking before assuming what it costs.
The trade-off against Organic Maps or OsmAnd is that komoot leans on its community and app ecosystem rather than working as a fully self-contained offline tool from the first download.
What komoot does well
- Sport-specific route generation, not one-size-fits-all
- Large community route library with photos and tips
- Offline maps and turn-by-turn voice navigation
- Free to plan and navigate your home region
- German company, EU jurisdiction
Where komoot falls short
- Premium pricing is not published; shown only after sign-in
- Built around community content rather than a fixed dataset
- Less of a fit for everyday driving than for outdoor trips
- No certification published
Standout feature. Route generation tuned per sport — the same hillside plotted differently for a hiker, a road cyclist and a mountain biker.
London, United Kingdom
Free app; Citymapper CLUB, formerly a paid membership tier, was made available to everyone for free (per a citymapper.com/news announcement)
Best for: City dwellers comparing transit options in real time
Citymapper is the transit specialist this category was missing: real-time public transport directions with bus, train, cycling, walking and taxi options compared side by side, aimed squarely at the daily commute rather than the road trip or the hiking trail. Where HERE WeGo compares modes as part of a broader offline-capable app, Citymapper is built around one problem — getting across a city right now — for a list of major cities rather than full country coverage.
Citymapper Limited is registered in London (company number 07370388), under UK jurisdiction, which sits outside the EEA on an adequacy decision like HERE's Norwegian neighbour SuperOffice sits inside it — a different flavour of European, not a non-European one.
Citymapper CLUB, formerly a separate paid membership tier, was made free for everyone, according to the company's own announcement, so the app is now free end to end. The trade-off is coverage: Citymapper works brilliantly in the cities it supports and is simply not present in the many smaller towns OpenStreetMap-based apps cover everywhere.
What Citymapper does well
- Real-time multi-modal transit directions in one view
- CLUB premium features now free for everyone
- Purpose-built for city commuting, not adapted from driving
- UK company, London-registered, adequacy-decision jurisdiction
- Free app end to end
Where Citymapper falls short
- Limited to a list of major cities, not full country coverage
- No offline mode comparable to HERE WeGo or Organic Maps
- Not built on OpenStreetMap, so it sits apart from most of this grid
- No certification published
Standout feature. One screen comparing bus, train, cycling and walking in real time — built for the commute this category otherwise assumes is a drive.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
TomTom App is free to download; in-app subscription pricing for premium navigation features is not published on tomtom.com
Best for: Drivers who want a long-established European sat-nav brand
TomTom is the category's best-known name and, unlike most of this grid, runs its own commercially maintained map database rather than building on OpenStreetMap — the same position HERE occupies, from the same city. The consumer TomTom App carries turn-by-turn navigation with live traffic, speed-limit alerts and EV charging-stop information, alongside the personal sat-nav devices and in-dash systems TomTom has sold for two decades, and a location-API business for automotive and enterprise customers sits behind the consumer app.
TomTom N.V. is registered in Amsterdam under EU jurisdiction. The TomTom App itself downloads free, but the subscription price for its premium navigation features is not published on tomtom.com — the pricing pages point to app-store checkout rather than listing amounts, which is a real gap in transparency next to Sygic's or Magic Earth's clearly stated prices.
TomTom is the safe, recognisable choice for a driver who wants a European alternative to Google Maps without evaluating a smaller company, at the cost of not knowing the premium price until checkout.
What TomTom does well
- Own commercially maintained map data, not third-party
- Live traffic, speed-limit and EV charging-stop alerts
- Free app download
- Two decades of consumer navigation experience
- Dutch company, EU jurisdiction
Where TomTom falls short
- Subscription pricing not published; only visible at app-store checkout
- Not built on OpenStreetMap, so it sits apart from most of this grid
- No certification published
- Consumer app is one part of a much larger enterprise business
Standout feature. A two-decade-old European sat-nav brand still running its own map data, the same position HERE holds from the same city.
