Magic Earth
Shares rank 7 of 12 navigation apps by recommenders
People recommend it for free turn-by-turn navigation with good traffic handling and dynamic routing. The main caveat is that it moved to a paid subscription, and critics say it became less privacy-respecting.
People recommend it for free turn-by-turn navigation with good traffic handling and dynamic routing. The main caveat is that it moved to a paid subscription, and critics say it became less privacy-respecting.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good traffic and dynamic routing
“Free with traffic and navigation, and strong privacy promises”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “GrapheneOS has been ported to Android 17 and official releases are coming soon” “Magic Earth is fairly decent at traffic and dynamic routing.”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “CoMaps – FOSS Offline Maps” Works well for daily use
“using Magic Earth as my navigation app”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “StreetComplete on iOS is now in public beta” “has worked pretty well for me so far”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Seen as greedy after changes
“They all start "for the community", become too big, go greedy, and forget that projects/company is nothing without users.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “OsmAnd's Faster Offline Navigation” “CoMaps replaced Earth Magic that got completely destroyed to greedy”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”
Other navigation apps people recommend
The four most recommended other navigation apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Maps | 272 | 479 | 36% | 12 | 14 yrs4 owners | — |
| Apple Maps | 145 | 206 | 41% | 12 | 9 yrs5 owners | — |
| Waze | 27 | 19 | 59% | 10 | — | — |
| MapQuest | 16 | 14 | 53% | 7 | — | — |
| Magic EarthThis page | 7 | 3 | 70% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“using Magic Earth as my navigation app”
“Magic Earth is fairly decent at traffic and dynamic routing.”
“Only recently they've introduced a (very reasonable, I think) Premium subscription to cover their costs.”
“It used to be really good, and then it went to a subscription model”
“this has a 1.7 rating on Android based on 42k reviews”
“Free with traffic and navigation, and strong privacy promises”
“has worked pretty well for me so far”
“Both are imho inferior to (non-foss) Magic Earth but consume much less power.”
“They all start "for the community", become too big, go greedy, and forget that projects/company is nothing without users.”
“CoMaps replaced Earth Magic that got completely destroyed to greedy”
“being closed and not as privacy-respecting as the former”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.