# MapQuest

16 Hacker News commenters recommended MapQuest and 14 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for free directions without an account, its clean look, and its camera-location display; critics say its owner is an ad firm and its CarPlay voice is choppy.

## Why people recommend it

- Shows surveillance camera locations (2 comments): "show us where obtrusive technology is so we can avoid it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50135594)) "Nice render on their map - even shows camera direction" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50131546))
- Clean, charming, basic design (2 comments): "Nice render on their map - even shows camera direction" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50131546)) "It's basic and has a charming theme" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822353))
- Back in regular use (2 comments): "This is one unexpected comeback." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50131959)) "I still use it regularly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47948955))

## What people warn about

- Choppy CarPlay voice guidance (2 comments): "It's decent but the voice over through CarPlay is choppy and cuts off words." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49558910)) "it gave me weird routes and the audio was extremely stuttery" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49524997))
- Ad-heavy, owned by ad company (4 comments): "They're owned by System1, a bottom-of-the-barrel advertising company where 1990s web brands go to die" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49524668)) "They are owned by bottom feeders of a sort that makes Bending Spoons look like the FSF." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50131637)) "not photos of food at restaurants, ads for fast food, etc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50132688))
- Slow, crashing, full page reloads (3 comments): "it was too slow with the directions updates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137955)) "it was hanging and crashing left and right" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50131697)) "it fully reloaded the page with each move" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47435970))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Waze](https://hackerapproved.com/p/waze.md): 27 recommend
- [HERE WeGo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/here-wego.md): 6 recommend
- [HERE Maps](https://hackerapproved.com/p/here.md): 5 recommend
- [ABRP (A Better Route Planner)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/abrp.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.mapquest.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "MapQuest", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mapquest/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).