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HuntStand, OnX, Spartan Forge - thoughts? compare and contrast?

Huntstand user, equally disappointed with their update and I let them know. They acknowledge the screw up and are working to fix it. I'm going to give them some time to clean up the mess.
 
yeah i used huntstand for years and loved it. Never really liked onx. Now huntstand trying to be onx and I'm hating it
 
I really do want to like OnX. I try. :) Most people I know use it; would be nice to use the same app as my friends. But I just don't like it. I don't like it even for the 1-state price of $35. It has really good map overlays for a bunch of different types of things - that's about all I like about it. Imagery is poor compared to the other apps. And the user interface isn't all that great either -- the interface in other apps are just as good if not better. Then throw in the fact you need to spend $100 for the elite features and 50-state information and it isn't worth it to me.

Right now, I'm either going to stay with HuntStand or go with Spartan Forge. SF is double the price of HS, so I'm going to wait and see about SF's next upgrade - they have some issues that I would like them to fix before I switch. I have too much data in HS to abandon it for another app that is twice the price but has some things that are missing that I want (the big one for me is the inability to organize pins and traces into hunt areas in SF - I hope they add that feature soon; I most likely will switch to SF if they do, even with some other bugs and problems I've seen with it).
 
From my experience the biggest differences between the two to me is that onxmaps is a lot more user friendly. It also has more features way more than spartan forge. Spartan has 2 big features that I really love Lidar mapping and predicting deer movement. In my opinion spartan forge is not very user friendly compared to onxmaps. If your hunting hill country habitat I strongly recommend spartan forge. If you can afford it I would get them both, that's what I did in the past . If you put a gun to my head I would choose onxmaps all day. If onxmaps ever gets Lidar mapping spartan forge would go out of business.

If you have garmin gps for hunting I would strongly recommend you backup your onxmaps waypoints to your garmin map . From my experience my onxmaps was hacked into a few times and I lost my waypoints. So it's always good to backup your waypoints when possible. If you really want accurate waypoints use your GPS and your hunting app . One important fact I didn't mention is that Garmin maps are free once buy there GPS . Garmin maps is not very detailed but it's a great backup plan.
 
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kidneystones_3000 said:
onxmaps is a lot more user friendly
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I have the complete opposite opinion of the user-friendliness... But I realize that is mainly personal preference. User experiences usually comes down to being subjective.

I find I can navigate SF easier and like the look-n-feel better than OnX. There are a couple of issues I have with the UI in SF that OnX is better at (which I reported to the SF folks, not sure if they are going to fix those) but overall, I like the SF interface better than OnX. It just "looks" better to me for some reason (back to being subjective).
 
kidneystones_3000 said:
So it's always good to backup your waypoints when possible.
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That's one big thing I didn't realize I was missing in HuntStand, until I needed it. Once I realized I might want to move off of HuntStand, I realized they don't give you an option to export your data. I even emailed them to ask about it and was told point-blank "you can't do it".

That kind of vendor lock-in doesn't sit well with me. I'm basically looking for a reason to switch off of HuntStand now (for a variety of reasons, that being one of them).
 
mazzgolf said:
That's one big thing I didn't realize I was missing in HuntStand, until I needed it. Once I realized I might want to move off of HuntStand, I realized they don't give you an option to export your data. I even emailed them to ask about it and was told point-blank "you can't do it".

That kind of vendor lock-in doesn't sit well with me. I'm basically looking for a reason to switch off of HuntStand now (for a variety of reasons, that being one of them).
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I do like spartan forge satellite image better than onxmaps forsure , I personally like Google maps without leaves the best. I don't like swiping spartan forge button over and over again to direct me the right screen. It's very irritating from my experience but every one is different. I do like Spartan forge overall its a good hunting app. I never used hunt stand and I seen a lot youtube reviews on it, and still not interest me.

I recommend getting a GPS for a backup for your maps and waypoints. For example you transfer waypoints maps and waypoints to onxmaps and can transfer waypoints tracks waypoints to your Garmin maps . I dropped my cellphone in the water and my cellphone had a waterproof cover. So luckily I had my GPS I don't know about you but loose a alot of crap in the woods and marshes.One important fact I didn't mention is that Garmin maps are free once buy there GPS . Garmin maps is not very detailed but it's a great backup plan.
 
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My vote is Spartan Forge. I ran OnX for a few years and got tired of the pricing. Are there some things I don't like about Spartan Forge, sure but what I do like outweighs the negatives by a large margin.
 
For mobile I use SF after switching from OnX. In my opinion the LiDar is worth its weight in gold. I agree with what others have said about the waypoints and management but I can also say SF is pretty solid on updates and upgrading their software, so I have every confidence in its continuous improvement.

When I am e-scouting on a desktop I absolutely love CalTopo. Very underrated tool. The free version does everything you need.

I also use Google earth. There simply isn’t anything better for historical imagery.

If the Caltopo mobile app was easier to navigate I would probably use it exclusively.

As it is SF is certainly my favorite mobile app.
 
I made the switch this month - did not re-subscribe to HuntStand (still have my old data, so that's nice - but they do not provide any way to export your data, so they try to lock you in from leaving. That's a big red flag to me - I hate when vendors try to lock you in).

I switched to Spartan Forge. There are some things I'm not crazy about with SF, too, but overall it is better than HS in my opinion. I'll see how it goes this year using that app.

Here's something that I found cool in SF. You cannot do this kind of thing in HunStand (I kinda mumble through this video - turn on CC - closed caption - to get what I'm saying :blush: ) I actually submitted an enhancement request to the SF folks to add some kind of better feature that does the same thing (like the feature to draw a line or a boundary, only they should have a "draw a circle"), but for now, this is really helpful to me when bow hunting close to houses.

 
I find that SF is frequently missing public lands from its maps. Looking at Nebraska, Calamus Reservoir SRA isn't showing even with all public access options on. I've noticed similar gaps in LA.

Screenshot 2025-06-28 at 11.36.55.pngScreenshot 2025-06-28 at 11.37.03.png
 
mschultz373 said:
I find that SF is frequently missing public lands from its maps. Looking at Nebraska, Calamus Reservoir SRA isn't showing even with all public access options on. I've noticed similar gaps in LA.
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Yup. I noticed that, too. There was a large tract of publicly huntable land here in NJ that SF did not highlight, but HS did. I keep meaning to report it to the SF folks, butv keep putting it off.
 
Probably yall know this but I just noticed cal topo has a public lands overlay option now. Appears accurate thus far
 
mschultz373 said:
Probably yall know this but I just noticed cal topo has a public lands overlay option now. Appears accurate thus far
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I just installed it and created an account. Funny thing - CalTopo shows 2 public lands (not WMAs, but publicly huntable) that SF is missing, but CalTopo is missing some public WMAs that SF (and everyone else) has. But its free, so, I'll keep it installed on my phone as a backup :)
 
When I'm actively in the woods navigating I primarily use the free CapTopo with its Shaded Relief topo as I navigate primarily by terrain. I bounce back and forth between this with my HuntStand which has all my data points (hunting spots, trails, beds, etc.) in it. If I need to log a path or mark something of interest I use HuntStand but the CalTopo is much more useful for me for pure navigation. The CalTopo also shows property boundries with the MapBuilder Overlay is turned on.
 
Wow. Cal topo has that range-circle thing out of box ..I had to hack something for SF and it's just not possible in HS. But cal topo has an awesome feature.. You can draw any number of circles of any distance you want, and you can make different colors, and styles of lines for the circle. This is really cool when you need to map out your safety zones.
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