2w ago

The Magic Earth application now comes with a charge

www.magicearth.com

Magic Earth

Recently, Magic Lane (the company that makes the Magic Earth application) completely renewed their interface and general operation.

To use the application, you now have to pay €0.99/year. Personally, I find this price more than reasonable for supporting a European alternative to Google Maps.

16 comments

The issue with all OSM based mapping apps so far (please correct me if I missed some developments): Neither of them has any traffic engine integrated so far. And that is the main feature that makes GMaps good for a lot of people.
On one side that's understandable,as this data comes at a price and for some people goes against the nature of FOSS as well - but it severely stops the adoption. I still can't understand that none of the big mapping players offers it as a paid feature.
For me the price isn't an issue. The biggest problem is that the payment has to be done through G playstore.
- Indeed...
  These parasites just taxing everything
I just use comaps
- For me, the CoMaps (or OrganicMaps) application is pretty good for the map side of things. On the other hand, when it comes to navigation, I find Magic Earth much more complete (speed camera display, better traffic management, optimized interface for landscape navigation, reporting of road events, better precision of lanes to follow, and I'm forgetting many others).
  
  @Gueoris @Dequei I agree. For example, in Toronto CoMaps only shows subway navigation to a certain destination, whereas Magic Earth displays a more precise mix of transit options (subway+tram/bus)
This price point makes me wonder what the purpose is: do they really have such a large user base that their 1 EUR/year subscription will add significant funds to develop the app further? I doubt. In which case the only effect will be to lose users who refuse to pay. Disclaimer: I use their app for navigation and I quite like it
- Indeed, that's a good question 🤔 An interesting solution might have been to leave the app free and make certain functions like speed cameras or real-time traffic accessible with the €1/year subscription. (I'm not saying it's a good solution, it's just an idea)
  For my part, I'm more concerned about the "subscription" aspect. I'd have been prepared to pay €10 to get Magic Earth for life. But at 99 cents a year, it doesn't seem like much, and there's no guarantee that it'll become monthly or more expensive, for example.
what about openstreetmap?
- OpenStreetMaps is not an app, just a map. Magic Earth (and Comaps, for that matter) uses OpenStreetMaps.
  Personally I never liked Magic Earth. It jumps into navigation mode too easily and I just find the interface to always do something else than I want it to. Personal preference I guess.
  
  Oh I see. Is it any better than osmandplus? I understand the pricing models if the support is worth it. I don't have playstore in my android though, so kind of empty question. Also, is it opensource? If yes, I could build it myself, how would the pricing work then? If not, does it comply with all the opensource licenses?
Now I may consider this app

16 comments