Top 4 Free Driving Direction Apps

For those who are constantly on the move, driving direction apps will be a great way to help you find the shortest route to the destination and avoid traffic congestion. Therefore, knowing the most useful driving direction applications will be very crucial.

This article aims to provide and review top free driving direction apps for you. All of driving direction apps suggested here are selected based on both using experience of the author and user ratings of the selected apps in App Store and Google play store. After carefully reviewing and selecting, only four apps are recommended. The others are not freely provided or not rated highly by other users in App store and Google play store.

Here are the four best free direction apps you might suit you: Google Maps, Waze, Here we go, and Maps.me. All of these four apps will be discussed in details in this article.

 Google Maps 

General information

• Offered by: Google LLC
• Rate: App store: 4.7/5, Google play store: 4.3/5
• Writer’s rate: 4.7/5
• Website: http://maps.google.com

What are good aspects of the app?

Considered to be one of the leading digital map services, Google maps not only provides driving directions with maps in 220 countries and territories, it also supports cyclists as well as walkers.

It has a great number of features such as giving us real-time GPS navigation, traffic, transit, details about millions of places; estimating arrival time and also directing the shortest route.

Moreover, if you have an Android device, you can download Google Street View app from Google play store to discover natural wonders, step inside locations such as museums, restaurants, and famous sights around the world.

Google maps are available for both iOS and Android.

Drawbacks

Some features are not available in some countries, few errors in the newest version.

Selected user reviews:

Craig Fat (****): Brilliant, Never lets me down. Use as my satnav in my car… Great and useful app.

Subhajit Chakra(*****): Three years and continue using Google maps. Nothing to complain. Lots of useful features.

A google user: Best map app ever. This is by far the best map app I have ever used. It never steer me wrong whether I am driving, bussing, biking or walking. It’s smooth and always up to date, even if I make a wrong turn.

Overall review:

• Perfect digital maps service with lots of features.
• Turn-by-turn directions and offline map are available.
• Easy to use.
• Less battery draining.

 Waze

General information

• Offered by: Waze Inc.
• Rate: App store: 4+/5, Google play store: 4.6/5 (editor’s choice)
• Writer’s rate: 4.6/5
• Website: https://www.waze.com

What are good aspects of the app?

Besides Google Maps, Waze is a navigation app that is well worth considering.

Waze was a business rival for Google Maps and was acquired by Google in 2013 but continuing to exist as a separate app from Google Maps.

Waze allows users to search for any location by using the real-time map. This app provides voice navigation and automatic up-to-date map that helps drivers commute easily.

Your friend and family’s information will also be displayed on the map.

Moreover, you can get information about the nearest gas station and check the gasoline prices.

Waze is available for both iOS and Android.

Drawbacks

• Waze doesn’t have an option that lets you download maps and use them offline.
• It consumes high amount of battery power and data resources.

Selected user reviews:

A Google user: Helpful. Waze is so cute and helpful, I love their little prompts and how personalized the app is…

Diane Becker (**): Dependable trustworthy. … It is the best navigation app I’ve ever used. I love the alerts and alternative routes…

Abe Sher (***): very good maps. Tells you where a reported cop is. Whatever you are looking for, it is there.

Overall review

• It is quick and easy for getting most places.
• This app is an alternative choice of Google maps.
• Best for real-time traffic.
• Easy to use
• Can alert about traffic, police, hazards and more on your drive

 Here we go – Offline maps & GPS

General information

• Offered by: HERE Apps LLC
• Rate: App store: 4+/5, Google play store: 4.4/5
• Writer’s rate: 4.4/5
• Website: https://wego.here.com

What are good aspects of the app?

Ranked the #1 Navigation app with 150,000+ five-star reviews and 18 million+ installs.

HERE Maps delivers a user-friendly, easy-to-use experience on any OS platform. HERE Maps has maps of more than 100 countries, public transit info for 1,300 cities, real-time traffic and crash information for more than 40 countries, voice navigation, and even when you’re not connected to the Internet, you can use the map feature. It provides lots of points-of-interest and services shared by nearby users.

HERE maps is available for both Android and iOS

Drawbacks

It takes quite a while (about one minute) for the app to start, the starting up duration will be different, depending on country that you are currently locating.

Selected user reviews

Thomas W***: Best GPS & even offline use. This is the best GPS out there. Easy to use and can download maps for offline use.

Diego Par***: Love it. It is very useful, even I am in Taiwan I could easily navigate. Double thumbs up.

Princeton K**: Honestly best navigation app. Voice navigation sounds great and easy to use! Save my life couple times. Highly recommended…

Overall reviews

• Easy to use and can download maps for offline use
• Voice navigation sounds great and easy to use

 Maps.me

General information

• Offered by: My.com B.V.
• Rate: App store: 4.5/5, Google play store: 4.5/5
• Writer’s rate: 4.5/5
• Website: https://maps.me

What are good aspects of the app?

Maps.me is another free navigation and GPS app.

It is a free, fast, detailed and entirely offline map with turn-by-turn navigation – trusted by over 70 million travelers worldwide. It helps users making hotel bookings via Booking.com directly from the app and also sharing location via text message or social media.

MAPS.ME is available for both Android and iOS.

Drawbacks

• Recent updates have made downloading the maps extremely tedious
• The offline maps require a lot of storage

Selected user reviews

Richard F: Incredibly useful app. Maps can be downloaded for offline use, and you can set the storage location to SD card…

Jill O***: Great app for free navigation of the whole world.

Overall review

• Easy to use
• Offline navigation is available
• All features are free

These above navigation apps are selected based on the objective ratings of writer and app users.

The overall reviews are based on the positive comments of users about the app and its features.

I want to bring the new users choices that best fits their needs and also no-cost. Hope that these free driving direction apps will really help you.

Please share with me any good and free driving direction apps and please also share with me your experience on using those apps.