# Organic Maps Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/organic-maps/ 80 people recommended Organic Maps in Hacker News comments, 22 had mixed feelings and 38 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 37 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A privacy-friendly Google Maps alternative that works fully offline, is strong for hiking and small POIs, and has a clean UI; critics cite governance disputes that spawned the CoMaps fork. Summary written by Claude from 55 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 53 of those comments still count. Claude agents reviewed it against the quotes on 2 Nov 2026. ## Why people recommend it - Works fully offline (8 comments in the sample): "Excellent open-source mapping alternative. The fact that it's fully offline-capable and privacy-respecting makes it invaluable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48802981)) "Plus, OrganicMaps working totally offline, it's perfect for such a place where the only Internet would be by satellite." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48801973)) "Organic Maps (and others) that use downloaded OSM data work well with nothing more than GPS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49107194)) - Detailed points of interest (4 comments in the sample): "looking for mapped features such as toilets, water taps, benches, fountains, etc. is far superior" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48796152)) "The quality of the maps is getting better, much more useful and detailed than Google Maps." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48801894)) "The killer feature of Organic Maps and OSM is the POI markers for small things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48802576)) - Great for hiking and walking (3 comments in the sample): "CoMaps doesn't display (colored) hiking trails, so completely useless compared to Organic Maps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48566814)) "For anything other than driving Organic Maps (iOS) or OSMand (Android) are the very best." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46266538)) "It’s great for hiking especially coverage through cities is really good too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48797981)) - Privacy-friendly Google Maps replacement (2 comments in the sample): "I really like Organic Maps as a open source privacy friendly Google Maps replacement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46295497)) "Some recent apps I've found that work great and replace google infested stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47483927)) ## What people warn about - Governance and transparency disputes (7 comments in the sample): "Dead project, a lot of things have happened and that is why CoMaps was created/forked." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47054959)) "CoMaps had been started because Organic Maps shareholders were not interested fixing those governance and transparency issues." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48815625)) "Organic Maps has had a falling out with the Open Source community that built it, so I wouldn't use that anymore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051499)) - Ads and aggressive monetization (3 comments in the sample): "It's the Kayak referral links on hotel POIs, which some people consider ads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48800521)) "the original developers of MM then just started to do the same to OM by equally aggressively ask for money" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48798027)) "They tried to put ads into Organic Maps, and they only backed down because CoMaps sprung up in response." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48795411)) - Map generator made proprietary (2 comments in the sample): "The OM's map generator was made proprietary in order to hinder the right to fork and enforce vendor lock-in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47180138)) "the code that's necessary to generate the map files that OM relies on is no longer openly published" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48794717)) - Large, wasteful map downloads (2 comments in the sample): "Previously they required you to download the entire “China South” region, which was an extremely weird and wasteful choice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48799206)) "But I have Organic Maps (predecessor of Comaps, maybe I should switch) for just some parts of California and that by itself is more than…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49473879)) ## Other offline maps apps people recommend - [CoMaps](https://hackerapproved.com/p/comaps/): 96 recommend, 17 mixed, 26 criticize - [OsmAnd](https://hackerapproved.com/p/osmand/): 64 recommend, 26 mixed, 27 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Organic Maps", https://hackerapproved.com/p/organic-maps/ (80 recommend, 22 mixed, 38 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.