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Maps · head to head

onX Maps vs Potree

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
Potree logo

Potree

Maps

Open source WebGL viewer for publishing very large point clouds in a browser

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Potree has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Potree there is no vendor, no support contract and no service level, so anything you build on Potree is your organisation’s responsibility to maintain when a browser update breaks rendering.
  • They diverge on capability: onX Maps covers Land ownership boundaries, Potree covers Octree streaming.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which onX Maps and Potree actually diverge.

Attributes where onX Maps and Potree differ
AttributeonX MapsPotree
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelSeparate per-product subscriptions, per user per yearOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsiOS, Android, WebWeb, Windows, macOS, Linux

Identical on both: 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 onX Maps

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

Only in Potree

  • Octree streaming
  • Large dataset rendering
  • Measurement tools
  • Clipping and profiles
  • Annotations
  • Attribute colouring
  • PotreeDesktop
  • Self-hosting

What people use each for

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

onX Maps

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

Potree

  • A drone survey firm delivering a point cloud to a client who has no desktop software, by publishing a browser viewer link instead of a 40 GB LAZ filenot onX Maps
  • A heritage or archaeology project publishing a scanned site for public access without paying per-gigabyte hosting to a commercial platformnot onX Maps
  • An engineering consultancy embedding a point cloud viewer inside its own client portal without licensing a commercial web viewernot onX Maps
  • A university or research group that needs measurement and profiling in a shareable viewer for a dataset too large to emailnot onX Maps

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Potree

  • There is no vendor, no support contract and no service level, so anything you build on Potree is your organisation’s responsibility to maintain when a browser update breaks rendering.
  • Conversion is a separate manual step with PotreeConverter, and building an automated publishing pipeline around it is engineering work the project does not provide.
  • Rendering quality and performance depend on the client machine and WebGL support, so a client on a locked-down corporate laptop with poor graphics may see a viewer that stutters or fails outright.
  • A WebGPU rewrite, Potree-Next, is in progress and is not a drop-in upgrade, so current integrations face an eventual migration with no vendor to manage it.
  • There is no access control, user management or audit layer; anyone with the URL sees the data unless you build authentication around the static files yourself, which is a real problem for confidential sites.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Potree

Free
  • PotreeFree
    • BSD-style open source licence
    • Unlimited datasets and viewers
    • Self-hosted on any static web server

Which should you pick?

Choose onX Maps if

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

Choose Potree if

  • You need octree streaming.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
  • You also want large dataset rendering.
Potree review

Questions people ask

Is onX Maps or Potree better?
Neither clearly leads. onX Maps starts at On request and Potree at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, onX Maps or Potree?
Potree has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for onX Maps and Free for Potree.
Does onX Maps or Potree run on more platforms?
onX Maps runs on iOS, Android, Web. Potree runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.
Can I use Potree for free?
Yes. Potree has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. onX Maps starts at On request.
What is onX Maps best used for?
onX Maps is most often used for a hunter who needs to know exact private and public land boundaries before crossing onto a property, an off-road driver planning a trail route with land ownership and access data, a backcountry skier or hiker wanting offline terrain maps without cell signal, someone who does two or more of these activities and needs to budget for two or three separate subscriptions. Of those, a hunter who needs to know exact private and public land boundaries before crossing onto a property and an off-road driver planning a trail route with land ownership and access data are not what Potree is typically brought in for.
What can onX Maps do that Potree cannot?
onX Maps covers Land ownership boundaries, Offline maps, Waypoint and track marking, Elite tier private land data. Potree covers Octree streaming, Large dataset rendering, Measurement tools, Clipping and profiles.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Potree: Does Potree cost anything?

No. It is open source and free. You supply the hosting, which for a static viewer is inexpensive.

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.

Potree: Is there commercial support?

No. There is no vendor and no support contract. Support is GitHub issues and the community.

onX Maps: Does onX work outside the US?

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

Potree: Who maintains it?

It originated at TU Wien and is maintained principally by Markus Schütz, with community contributions.

Potree: Can it handle very large clouds?

Yes, hundreds of millions of points, because PotreeConverter builds a multi-resolution octree that streams only what is visible.

Potree: Is my data private?

Only if you make it so. Potree serves static files with no built-in authentication, so access control is entirely your responsibility.

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