Is onX Hunt worth $99.99 a year?

If you hunt across multiple states or rely on the deepest available parcel data, the Elite tier earns its price. If you hunt one or two western states or also fish, you're paying for coverage you won't use.

What does onX Hunt offer that Baseline Maps doesn't?

Fifty-state hunting coverage, twelve-plus years of refined parcel data, and the most polished hunting-only UI on the market. It's the deepest national tool in the category.

What does Baseline Maps offer that onX doesn't?

Real fishing intelligence — 1,100+ rivers with live USGS flow — bundled with hunting and foraging in a single subscription. Plus a visible in-app Development Queue where users vote on what ships next.

Can I switch from onX to Baseline Maps without losing my waypoints?

Yes. Export your onX waypoints as GPX or KML, import into Baseline Maps in about 60 seconds, and every pin, line, and folder comes across intact.

Which app has better land-ownership data?

onX has deeper parcel data nationally, especially in the Midwest, South, and East. Baseline Maps' parcel layer is accurate where it exists (a focused set of Western states) but covers fewer states today.

Is onX Hunt Worth It? An Honest Comparison for 2026

Every hunting season the same question comes back: is onX Hunt actually worth the subscription, or are the cheaper options finally good enough? We’ve used onX for years. We also build Baseline Maps, which includes Ridgeline as its hunting mode. This is the fair-witness version of the comparison — where onX is the right pick, where it isn’t, and how to decide without buying into either marketing pitch.

The short answer

onX Hunt is worth it if you hunt in three or more states, rely heavily on private-parcel boundaries, or already have years of waypoints inside the app. It is not the best value if you hunt one or two western states, also fish moving water, or want one subscription that covers more than one outdoor mode. The honest answer is that “worth it” depends entirely on how many states you cross and whether you fish at all.

Where onX Hunt wins

onX has twelve-plus years of brand equity and remains the most polished hunting app on the market. Its parcel data is the deepest in the industry — owner names, parcel boundaries, and acreage cover all fifty states with a refinement that newer apps haven’t matched. The UI is fast, the offline maps are reliable, and the Hunt-specific layers (3D, wind, optics) are mature features built by a team that has hunted with the product for over a decade.

Where Baseline Maps wins

Baseline Maps bundles three outdoor modes — fishing, hunting, and foraging — into a single $34.99/year subscription. Its fishing intelligence is the real differentiator: 1,100+ rivers with live USGS flow, regulation overlays, and intel reports that onX doesn’t attempt. Features ship in days to a couple of weeks based on user requests through the in-app Development Queue, where the next states and layers in line are visible to every user.

Coverage compared

Coverage is where onX still leads on hunting and where Baseline Maps leads on fishing. onX Hunt covers all 50 states with parcel, public land, and GMU boundaries. Baseline Maps’ hunting mode covers nine Western states today (WA, OR, ID, MT, CO, WY, UT, AZ, NM), with additional states shipping as users in those states request them via the Development Queue. Fishing coverage is much broader — 1,100+ rivers across 13 US states plus British Columbia and Ontario. The choice depends on whether you cross state lines on hunting trips or stay close to home water.

Feature	onX Hunt	Baseline Maps (Ridgeline + Driftline)
Hunting state coverage	50 states	9 Western states (more on request)
Fishing state coverage	Not included (separate onX Fish sub)	WA, OR, CA, ID, AK, MI, NY, OH, UT, WI, PA, NV, MN + BC, ON
Parcel + owner data	All 50 states, deepest in industry	Select Western states
GMU / unit boundaries	All 50 states	9 Western states (WA, OR, ID, MT, CO, WY, UT, AZ, NM)
Public land layers (BLM/USFS/state)	Yes, nationwide	Yes, nationwide
Fishing intelligence (rivers + flow)	Not included	1,100+ rivers, live USGS flow
Marine / tide data	No	Yes (US Pacific Coast NOAA buoys)
Foraging mode	No	Yes (PNW)
Offline maps	Yes	Yes
3D map view	Yes	Yes
Waypoint import (GPX/KML)	Yes	Yes — 60-second migration
User-visible roadmap	No	Yes (Development Queue)
Average feature ship time from request	Quarterly releases	Days to two weeks

Pricing compared

Pricing is where the gap is widest. onX splits its lineup into separate subscriptions, so a multi-sport user buys more than one. A hunter who also fishes pays roughly $135 a year on onX once they need all-state Hunt coverage plus a Fish subscription. Baseline Maps charges $34.99 a year for every mode it offers. The math only favors onX if you exclusively hunt and need national parcel coverage.

Subscription	onX (per year)	Baseline Maps (per year)
Hunt — Premium, single state	$34.99	—
Hunt — Premium, two states	$49.99	—
Hunt — Elite (all 50 states + 3D, optics)	$99.99	—
Fish — Premium	$34.99	—
Hunt Elite + Fish (typical multi-sport)	$134.98	$34.99
All modes, all features	Not available in one sub	$34.99

Prices verified at onxmaps.com on 2026-05-26. Both apps offer a free trial. Baseline Maps’ trial runs 30 days with no paywall during it — every feature is unlocked the moment you create an account.

Parcel data: actual differences

This is where onX earns its reputation. Twelve years of cleaning county-level parcel records produces a dataset that is genuinely hard to match — owner names, boundaries, and acreage that line up with what’s recorded at the courthouse. Baseline Maps’ parcel layer is accurate where it exists (OR/WA/ID currently) but covers fewer states. For Midwest, Southern, and Eastern hunters, onX remains the right tool. Parcel quality also varies county-by-county in any app — both products inherit gaps where a county hasn’t digitized its records — but onX has spent more time patching those gaps than anyone else in the category.

Map layers: side by side

Both apps draw from similar public-data sources for the basics — USFS, BLM, state DNR, USGS topo — so the underlying base layers look comparable. The differences live in the specialty layers. onX leads on hunt-specific overlays (wind, optics, 3D terrain) for hunting. Baseline Maps leads on fishing layers (live flow, regulation zones, marine charts, tide stations). Hillshade quality on Baseline Maps comes from baked 3DEP 10m elevation tiles served through a custom CDN — it renders sharper on Western terrain than the default topo most apps ship, including onX’s standard hybrid view. Neither app is “better” at base mapping; they’re optimized for different work.

Fishing intelligence: only one app has it

This is the single largest functional gap between the two products. onX Hunt does not include fishing. onX Fish, sold separately for $34.99/year, covers lakes and basic stocking data but does not include live USGS hydrographs, regulation overlays parsed for current closures, or intel reports for moving water. Baseline Maps was built around fishing first — 1,100+ rivers with live flow, current regulations, and forecast windows are core to the app.

Switching from onX to Baseline Maps

Migration is intentionally painless. onX lets you export your waypoints as GPX or KML from the web app. Baseline Maps imports both formats in about 60 seconds with zero data loss — every pin, line, polygon, and folder structure comes across. Most users keep onX active for a season while they validate Baseline Maps in their actual hunting areas before deciding whether to renew the onX subscription. The overlap month is the point — there’s no honest way to know which app fits your habits until you’ve used both on the same trip, on the same gauge, on the same draw unit.

How to decide

The decision tree is simpler than either company’s marketing suggests. Three or more states a year, or hunting east of the Rockies — stay with onX. One or two western states plus any fishing — Baseline Maps will save you about $100 a year and consolidate two apps into one. Fish at all — Baseline Maps, because onX Fish is its own subscription.

Hunt 3+ states, or hunt east of the Rockies → onX Hunt. The parcel coverage and brand maturity earn the price.
Hunt 1–2 western states AND fish → Baseline Maps. One sub, both modes, less app-switching.
Fish at all → Baseline Maps. Fishing intelligence isn’t bolted on; it was the original product.
Already have hundreds of onX waypoints and don’t want to migrate → stay with onX. The data lock-in is a real cost.
Care about how fast a requested feature ships → Baseline Maps. The Development Queue is visible in-app and most accepted requests ship within two weeks.

The honest closing

onX Hunt is not overpriced for what it does — it is overpriced for what most users actually use. If you cross state lines every season and live inside parcel data, the $99.99 Elite tier earns its keep. If you mostly hunt at home and also fish a river or two, you are paying for fifty states of coverage to use three. That is the gap Baseline Maps was built to fill: one subscription, multiple modes, and a visible roadmap where the next features are decided by the people in the field using the app.

Migration takes about a minute. GPX or KML export from onX, import into Baseline Maps, every waypoint preserved. The 30-day free trial gives you a full month to compare in your actual hunting and fishing areas, with no paywall during the trial — every feature is unlocked from day one. If a state, layer, or feature you need isn’t shipped yet, the Development Queue is open inside the app. Vote on what matters, watch what ships, decide from there.