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Maps · head to head

Foursquare Spatial Studio vs onX Maps

Foursquare Spatial Studio logo

Foursquare Spatial Studio

Maps

The product formerly sold as Unfolded, now a Foursquare platform rather than a standalone company

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
onX Maps logo

onX Maps

Maps

Land ownership and offline navigation apps sold as separate subscriptions per activity: Hunt, Offroad, Backcountry

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Foursquare Spatial Studio unfolded no longer exists as a product or a contracting entity, so buyers researching under that name find documentation, pricing discussion and comparison material that no longer applies to what Foursquare sells; onX Maps hunt, Offroad and Backcountry are entirely separate subscriptions, so a user needing more than one activity pays for more than one product with no combined bundle discount.
  • They diverge on capability: Foursquare Spatial Studio covers Browser rendering at scale, onX Maps covers Land ownership boundaries.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Foursquare Spatial Studio and onX Maps actually diverge.

Attributes where Foursquare Spatial Studio and onX Maps differ
AttributeFoursquare Spatial StudioonX Maps
Pricing modelquoteSeparate per-product subscriptions, per user per year
PlatformsWebiOS, Android, Web

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Maps).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Foursquare Spatial Studio

  • Browser rendering at scale
  • H3 spatial indexing
  • Data joins
  • Time animation
  • Map sharing and embedding
  • Cloud data connections
  • Foursquare data access

Only in onX Maps

  • Land ownership boundaries
  • Offline maps
  • Waypoint and track marking
  • Elite tier private land data
  • 3D terrain view
  • Weather overlay

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Foursquare Spatial Studio

  • A retail property team comparing catchment overlap between candidate sites using hexagonal aggregation rather than drive-time polygonsnot onX Maps
  • A telecommunications planner visualising a national dataset of measurements in the browser without building a tile pipelinenot onX Maps
  • An analytics team that already writes deck.gl in-house and wants a hosted environment so non-developers can explore the same datanot onX Maps
  • A marketing group that wants Foursquare places and movement data joined to its own customer geography in one toolnot onX Maps

onX Maps

  • A hunter who needs to know exact private and public land boundaries before crossing onto a propertynot Foursquare Spatial Studio
  • An off-road driver planning a trail route with land ownership and access datanot Foursquare Spatial Studio
  • A backcountry skier or hiker wanting offline terrain maps without cell signalnot Foursquare Spatial Studio
  • Someone who does two or more of these activities and needs to budget for two or three separate subscriptionsnot Foursquare Spatial Studio

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Foursquare Spatial Studio

  • Unfolded no longer exists as a product or a contracting entity, so buyers researching under that name find documentation, pricing discussion and comparison material that no longer applies to what Foursquare sells
  • Pricing is not published at all, and because access to Foursquare datasets can be bundled into the same agreement, separating the cost of the software from the cost of the data requires explicitly asking for a split quote
  • Much of the visualisation capability exists in kepler.gl and deck.gl, which are free and open source, so the paid product must justify itself on hosting, collaboration and data rather than on rendering
  • Foursquare's core business is selling location data, which means the analytics roadmap follows what makes that data sell, and a customer using only its own data is not the priority segment
  • It is analysis and visualisation, not a spatial database or an editing environment, so organisations still need PostGIS, a warehouse or a GIS for the authoritative data and its maintenance

onX Maps

  • Hunt, Offroad and Backcountry are entirely separate subscriptions, so a user needing more than one activity pays for more than one product with no combined bundle discount.
  • Elite-tier pricing at roughly $99.99 a year per product is expensive if a buyer only occasionally needs the private land ownership data it adds.
  • The apps are US and Canada focused, with more limited usefulness for international travel compared to a global mapping product.
  • Land ownership data, while extensive, can lag real-world changes in property boundaries in fast-changing areas.
  • It is not a general-purpose hiking or trail-review app in the way AllTrails or Gaia GPS are, so casual hikers without a land-boundary need may find the focus narrower than expected.

Pricing, plan by plan

Foursquare Spatial Studio

On request
  • Foursquare Spatial Studio$undefined/year
    • Quoted by users, data volume and which Foursquare datasets you take
    • Cloud warehouse connections on the higher tier
    • Not published

onX Maps

On request
  • onX Hunt Elite$99.99/year
    • Nationwide private land ownership data
    • Recent satellite imagery
    • Offline maps
  • onX Offroad Premium$34.99/year
    • Trail and land ownership maps for off-road use
    • Offline maps
  • onX Offroad Elite$99.99/year
    • Everything in Premium plus nationwide land ownership and recent imagery
  • onX Backcountry$29.99/year
    • Backcountry ski and hike focused maps
    • Offline maps
    • Avalanche and terrain data

Which should you pick?

Choose Foursquare Spatial Studio if

  • You need browser rendering at scale.
  • You also want h3 spatial indexing.
Foursquare Spatial Studio review

Choose onX Maps if

  • You need land ownership boundaries.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want offline maps.
onX Maps review

Questions people ask

Is Foursquare Spatial Studio or onX Maps better?
Neither clearly leads. Foursquare Spatial Studio starts at On request and onX Maps at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Foursquare Spatial Studio or onX Maps?
Foursquare Spatial Studio starts at On request and onX Maps at On request.
Does Foursquare Spatial Studio or onX Maps run on more platforms?
Foursquare Spatial Studio runs on Web. onX Maps runs on iOS, Android, Web.
What is Foursquare Spatial Studio best used for?
Foursquare Spatial Studio is most often used for a retail property team comparing catchment overlap between candidate sites using hexagonal aggregation rather than drive-time polygons, a telecommunications planner visualising a national dataset of measurements in the browser without building a tile pipeline, an analytics team that already writes deck.gl in-house and wants a hosted environment so non-developers can explore the same data, a marketing group that wants foursquare places and movement data joined to its own customer geography in one tool. Of those, a retail property team comparing catchment overlap between candidate sites using hexagonal aggregation rather than drive-time polygons and a telecommunications planner visualising a national dataset of measurements in the browser without building a tile pipeline are not what onX Maps is typically brought in for.
What can Foursquare Spatial Studio do that onX Maps cannot?
Foursquare Spatial Studio covers Browser rendering at scale, H3 spatial indexing, Data joins, Time animation. onX Maps covers Land ownership boundaries, Offline maps, Waypoint and track marking, Elite tier private land data.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Foursquare Spatial Studio: Can I still buy Unfolded?

No. Foursquare acquired Unfolded in 2021 and sells the product as Foursquare Spatial Studio. There is no Unfolded contract.

onX Maps: Can I use one onX subscription for both hunting and off-roading?

No, onX Hunt, onX Offroad and onX Backcountry are separate apps with separate subscriptions.

Foursquare Spatial Studio: Is kepler.gl the same thing?

No. kepler.gl is the free open source visualisation library from the same original team. Spatial Studio is the hosted commercial platform built around it.

onX Maps: What does the Elite tier add?

Elite tiers add nationwide private land ownership data, more recent satellite imagery and partner discounts on top of the base Premium tier.

Foursquare Spatial Studio: What does it cost?

Foursquare does not publish pricing. Ask for the software and the data licences to be quoted separately.

onX Maps: Does onX work outside the US?

Coverage is strongest in the US and Canada; usefulness elsewhere is limited.

Foursquare Spatial Studio: Do I need Foursquare's data to use it?

No, you can load your own, but the commercial proposition is strongest for customers who also want the places and movement datasets.

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