Keeping Baseline Alive: Why the Free Edition Is Ending

Thanks for being here. I want to be straight with you about where Baseline Maps is and what is changing.

What the last month looked like

More people joined Baseline in the last month than in any month since launch. Rivers I had never heard of showed up in the flow alerts. Hunt units I had only seen on a map got tapped by people standing in them. The feedback box filled up with requests that were specific, useful, and clearly written by people who had been out there.

That is the whole reason the app exists, and I am grateful for it.

It also meant the bill went up. Every new member adds a little to the monthly cost, and a lot of new members add a lot.

What it costs to run

There are zero investors behind Baseline Maps and zero marketing. It is me, you, and this community. Nobody is paying the bills except members who decide the app is worth it.

Here is what the money goes to, in plain terms:

• Servers and storage (AWS). The river cache that refreshes 1,300 gauges every fifteen minutes, the tide and buoy feeds, the regulations service, user accounts, waypoint sync, photo storage, and the CDN that serves map tiles. This is the largest line item and it scales with members.
• Hunt and fishing intel (Bedrock). Every intel brief runs a large language model against live conditions, terrain, and regulations. Each request costs real money, which is why intel has always been a paid feature.
• Map tiles. Baseline bakes its own topo, hillshade, land-ownership, and satellite tiles and serves them from its own CDN. Baking is a one-time cost; serving them is not.
• Weather and marine data (Stormglass). Marine forecasts, swell, and the coastal weather behind the Buoy 10 dashboard and the clam dig guide are licensed per request.
• Agency data feeds. USGS, NOAA, state fish and wildlife departments, and county parcel data are free to read, but keeping them parsed, validated, and current is a constant job.
• Apple and Google. Both stores take their share of every subscription before it reaches me.

None of that is complaining. It is the cost of doing the thing properly. But it does not go away when a member is on a free plan.

What is changing

With the next update, the Free Edition ends. Baseline Maps becomes one edition, Professional Edition, with everything in it:

• $34.99 a year, with the first week free. Nothing is charged until the week is up, and you can cancel from your store settings before then.
• $7.99 a month, with no trial.

Every mode and every state, with no per-state surcharges and no “Elite” tier above it. That part has not changed and will not.

If you were on the Free Edition

You were here early, and that matters to me. So you get 20% off:

• $27.99 for your first year, or
• $6.99 a month.

Open the app after the update and tap Claim 20% off on the letter you see. The discount is applied for you. If you would rather do it by hand, enter KEEPBASELINE on the plans screen. The code is good through December 31, 2026.

Founders keep Founder’s Edition, free for life. Nothing changes for you.

What is not changing

No ads, ever. I will never sell your data or use it for anything other than running the app for you. The Development Queue stays public, the feedback box stays open, and I will keep building what you ask for.

If Baseline has earned a spot in your kit, this is the moment it needs you. If it has not, no hard feelings. Either way, thank you for being part of this.

Casey