Waze
Ranked 3 of 10 navigation apps by recommenders
People recommend Waze for live traffic data, police alerts and routing that many rate above Google and Apple Maps, though critics cite ads and account prompts.
22 people recommended Waze in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 42 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 41 of those comments still count.
45 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- mixed feelings
- 5
- warn against or regret it
- 18
The record
Recommended in 10 of 12 months
In 18 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 18 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 14% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 40 of the 49 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better than Google and Apple Maps
“I’ve found Google, Waze, and Apple maps to be a lot better in this respect.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free” “This is one thing Waze I think seems to do better than the competition.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “DeepSeek Introduces Vision” “Apple Maps and Waze is better for directions.”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it” - Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Why is Meta destroying its engineering organization?”
- Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri”
- Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “My car's OTA update broke Android Auto, and it's a indictment of modern software”
- Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Organic Maps”
Best live traffic information
“nothing seems to come close to either Wave or Google Maps when it comes to traffic information”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Organic Maps” “Traffic changes while I'm driving and it automatically updates.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “How to disable or avoid intrusive AI” “in the end I use Waze for routing due to the traffic updates”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “CoMaps – FOSS Offline Maps”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ads and account prompts
“Waze does not care if they block my directions by blasting an ad on part of my screen”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Alarm overload is undermining safety at sea as crews face thousands of alerts” “without dark patterns or asking for an account like Waze or Maps do”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “StreetComplete on iOS is now in public beta” Weak car and CarPlay integration
“Waze in CarPlay mode (due to the restrictions on what can be shown on the phone screen) is simply more annoying to operate.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “CarPlay Is Additive” “Waze doesn’t pass this information to the car.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “CarPlay Is Additive” Routes through unwanted side streets
“I don't care if Waze thinks I should be on Harrison or Race.”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “What even is an OS now?”
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 | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Maps | 170 | 80 | 429 | 28% | 12 | — | — |
| Apple Maps | 86 | 45 | 192 | 31% | 11 | — | — |
| WazeThis page | 22 | 5 | 18 | 55% | 10 | — | — |
| MapQuest | 11 | 4 | 14 | 44% | 5 | — | — |
| Mapy.com | 10 | 2 | 1 | 91% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 49 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“without dark patterns or asking for an account like Waze or Maps do”
“CoMaps and Waze definitely work well on GrapheneOS”
“Waze works perfectly fine for me”
“Waze is almost melting the poor thing.”
“I don't care if Waze thinks I should be on Harrison or Race.”
“Waze does not answer my commute question for me.”
“I've tried Google Maps and Waze already, they were worse.”
“both Google Maps and Waze handles roundabouts excellently with zero issues”
“Waze to get there efficiently”
“Traffic changes while I'm driving and it automatically updates.”
“the Waze experience was better”
“Give me the ability to say "Avoid left turns" in your Maps and Waze directions.”
“google maps/waze is nearly unuseable for navigation”
“in the end I use Waze for routing due to the traffic updates”
“As great as Waze and Google Maps are for dynamic routing and responsive path-finding”
“nothing seems to come close to either Wave or Google Maps when it comes to traffic information”
“Waze is way better for that”
“That's not Android Auto, it's Waze doing that (and it would do it on Apple too”
“Waze doesn’t pass this information to the car.”
“Waze in CarPlay mode (due to the restrictions on what can be shown on the phone screen) is simply more annoying to operate.”
“This is one thing Waze I think seems to do better than the competition.”
“Waze is certainly the better consumer product”
“annoying prompts from waze legacy features”
“the incessant "police activity" shit from Waze”
“Apple Maps and Waze is better for directions.”
“Waze still provides that, and improving the utility of a system that provides this kind of navigation aid has always been a primary motivation for…”
“I don't want to actively compete; I just want to passively fix.”
“Tried to raise a feature request but it was such a pain”
“Single broken down vehicle on the single lane road can cause backpressure to the key places and make non-obvious variants MUCH better.”
“they do get acquisitions right”
“Waze is so much better at accurately alerting me to police”
“I don't use google maps, I use Waze”
“I find it more helpful than plain speedometer because sometimes you don't notice speed limit changes”
“this is the only reason I use waze!”
“it refused to give me the 1 hour, straight down the motorway route”
“waze shows this on the usual driving map quite well”
“Waze does not care if they block my directions by blasting an ad on part of my screen”
“Waze, also Google, is even better”
“I’ve found Google, Waze, and Apple maps to be a lot better in this respect.”
“I unistalled Waze once I knew it was Israeli”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.