The Privacy-Respecting Alternative to Google Maps: Organic Maps Surpasses 6 Million Installations Worldwide

Organic Maps

Organic Maps reached 6 million installations in December 2025. The navigation app, developed by the same team that previously created MapsWithMe and Maps.Me, aims to be a free and uncompromising alternative to the most popular mapping platforms, which monetize every user movement through advertising and data collection.

The app relies entirely on data from OpenStreetMap, a collaborative mapping project that often includes points of interest not found on commercial maps. Once the map of one’s region is downloaded, the app works 100% offline: turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance, cycling routes, hiking trails, contour lines, and altitude profiles remain available even without an internet connection or SIM card. CarPlay and Android Auto are also supported, along with subway maps and offline searches on already downloaded data.

Travelers can import or export bookmarks in KML/KMZ, GPX, and GeoJSON formats, while the listings for the most popular places integrate excerpts from Wikipedia. To complete the experience, there is a dark mode designed for users checking maps at night, on a bike, or during a hike.

An App Designed to Leave No Traces

The real distinguishing feature remains the management of privacy. Organic Maps declares zero advertising, zero tracking, and zero data collection: no mandatory registration, no push notifications, no sending of information to the developers' servers. The application has been verified by the Exodus Privacy Project and, on the iOS front, by TrackerControl, while the requests for permissions to the operating system remain limited to the essentials compared to many competing apps in the same sector.

The code is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, and development proceeds thanks to contributions from the open-source community, as well as some institutional sponsors. Among these are the European fund NGI0 Entrust, which has financed the improvement of the search engine and fonts, the Google Summer of Code program (active from 2022 to 2025 on projects such as integration with Android Auto), the British provider Mythic Beasts, which provides up to 400 TB per month of free bandwidth for map distribution, and 44+ Technologies, which supports a server dedicated to coverage in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

The economic model, in the absence of advertising and subscriptions, relies on voluntary donations from users, in line with the philosophy of a project that defines itself as indie and community-driven.

The app is available for download on App Store, Google Play, Huawei AppGallery, as well as alternative repositories such as Obtainium, Accrescent, and F-Droid, in addition to a beta version for Linux desktop. For those looking for a way to navigate without leaving digital footprints, in a market dominated by giants that rely on advertising profiling, Organic Maps represents one of the few proposals that manage to keep the promise of functioning entirely offline, battery permitting.