# Avenza shows free users the door, and a card game studio catches them on the way out: NomadTracks and the "alternative" business

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/play_com.mcw.nomadtracks.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> The long-running Avenza suddenly stopped letting free users import their own maps, and its map store stopped getting updates. It had already written "Avenza alternative" pages and migration tutorials ready for people to search for, and it had trail associations that lost their store send hikers straight over.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · Android · written 11-6

NomadTracks: PDF Maps & GPS · DonkeyCat Games

# Avenza shows free users the door, and a card game studio catches them on the way out: NomadTracks and the "alternative" business

**What it is** Turns your own PDF maps, GeoTIFFs, or photos of paper maps into maps on your phone that you can use offline for location and track recording. Import your own maps freely, for free.

**Why it blew up** Veteran app Avenza suddenly stopped letting free users import their own maps and froze its map store. The indie dev that built NomadTracks had already published "Avenza alternative" pages and migration guides for people to find, and trail groups that lost the store started pointing hikers straight to it.

**B** **How you could play it** Don't build another free viewer. Either copy the playbook: watch for the next old tool that kills its free tier or shuts down, and catch those users with comparison pages and migration guides. Or take the side Avenza explicitly isn't serving: the publisher side, meaning hosting, paid access, copy protection, and analytics, where you charge the publishers.

B grade: the play is clear and almost nobody knows about it, and the publisher side is still open. But five or six competitors already fight for the user side, the spillover is small (about a tenth of Avenza's weekly volume), and the window depends on one-off events like Avenza closing its store. Few people know about it yet

Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-07-25 · 11-07 installs 9,517

Android · Total installs worldwide

Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 9 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.

In March 2026, Avenza Maps, the offline map app outdoor people had used for over a decade, stopped letting free users import their own maps. In April the company was acquired, and its map store stopped accepting new maps. In June, a small Austrian studio that makes card games released a replacement with "unlimited free import." By Nov 6, it had about 9,500 installs on Google Play. The numbers are still small. What's worth watching is the playbook: it wrote in advance whatever people searching after being pushed out would look for, and it built an exit for map publishers who lost the store.

### A trail association's web page

Strafford is a small town in Vermont, and its trail association has a simple website. When I opened it in Nov 6, the text under the map said:

> Using Avenza- No longer allows custom maps without subscription Suggest using NomadTracks

Step-by-step instructions followed: install the free NomadTracks from the app store ("open it, ignore the sign-up invite"); open this site on your phone, download the north or south section map file, and share it to NomadTracks; you can see where you are on the trail with no signal. "If it complains about no compass, don't worry, you don't need one."

San Juan Huts in Colorado, which runs the Sneffels Traverse hut route, also says in its route notes that georeferenced maps can be downloaded to NomadTracks for offline use.

Both are small. But they show something: some of this app's users didn't find it on their own. Map publishers pointed them there directly.

### What happened to Avenza

Avenza Maps is a long-running app for opening georeferenced PDFs on your phone and showing where you are on the map. It launched in 2013 and has about 8.23M total installs on Google Play. National parks, trail associations, forestry departments, and hunting areas all use it to distribute maps.

- **March 2026** : The free version can no longer import custom maps, and maps already imported are marked "inactive." Plus costs $34.99 a year and allows only 20 maps. Unlimited requires Pro, about $169.99/year per device. Sources: Avenza's official FAQ and a BorealMaps comparison page (pricing as of August).

- **April 2026** : Avenza merged with Blue Marble Geographics, backed by private equity. Management changed and staff were cut, and the new company shifted toward professional GIS users.

- **Map store frozen** : The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference announced in June 10 that this was "completely unexpected." Over the past 2012 years they had distributed nearly 500k maps through Avenza. Now "we can no longer add or update maps, because the developer has stopped all map publisher listings and updates," and the store "will close at some point in the future." The announcement ended with a form asking users to recommend replacement apps.

During those months, r/gis, r/forestry, the Esri community, and Facebook outdoor groups were full of posts asking "what's a replacement for Avenza?"

But Avenza hasn't collapsed. In Nov 6 it still added about 16k installs a week on Google Play and ranked #2 on Canada's grossing chart for maps. It's still collecting paid revenue. What got pushed out is the group that just wanted to open a few free PDF maps.

### What it is, and why it can catch them

In one sentence: NomadTracks turns a georeferenced PDF, a GeoTIFF, or a photo of a paper map into a map on your phone that can locate you offline, and it records tracks. The developer, DonkeyCat Games, is an Austrian studio making card and board games with about 14M installs combined on Google Play. This is its first utility app. The iOS version launched in June 5 and Android in July 25, right in the months when people were looking for replacements.

It priced directly against Avenza's new policy:

|  | NomadTracks | Avenza Maps (after 2026-03) |
|---|---|---|
| Import your own GeoPDF / GeoTIFF | Unlimited, free | Free version can't import; Plus $34.99/year for 20 maps |
| Georeference a photo of a paper map | Yes, place a few control points, shows error (meters) | No, maps must be georeferenced beforehand |
| Account | Not needed | Store and sync need an account |
| Map store | None | Yes |
| Paid | Free core + Pro subscription (route planning, base maps, Dropbox, etc.) | Limited free + subscription |

Source: NomadTracks' website comparison page (read 11-06, stating "as of June 2026"). The thing migrating users care about most, opening their own maps, costs nothing; the money is in the add-ons. On Play, in-app purchases range $3.69–$94.99, and an annual Pro option was added in October 1.29. Revenue isn't public.

In product terms, it adds a layer beyond a pure viewer: full track recording (barometric altitude), standalone Apple Watch recording without the phone, and sync to your own Nextcloud or Synology. Over two months it went from 1.21 to 1.29, roughly one release every one to two weeks, with matching version numbers on both platforms.

### Where users come from

**First, search.** The site map of nomadtracks.app has 222 pages: 73 German pages, 47 "track stories," and 17 tutorials, plus 13 "NomadTracks vs X" comparison pages (Avenza, Gaia GPS, CalTopo, AllTrails, onX, Komoot, Wikiloc, and more). Even discontinued products like FATMAP and ViewRanger got replacement pages. The "Avenza alternative" page exists in English, German, French, and Indonesian, and there are long-tail pages like "how to move Avenza maps over", "offline BLM maps", and "offline national park maps". Search "Avenza alternative" and its pages show up alongside Reddit help threads. Every download button carries an attribution link tagged with the page it came from, which suggests they're measuring conversion page by page.

**Second, map publishers.** The site has a dedicated "For map publishers" page that opens: "Avenza's store no longer accepts new maps or updates. NomadTracks works the other way: you host the files, you share the link, and your users open them for free." It can go on the website, on QR codes at trailheads, on visitor center flyers, or in group chats. Updating a map just means swapping the file behind the link, with no review. It also defines a .nomadmap format that bundles a scanned image with its georeferencing parameters, so a publisher georeferences once and every user sees it aligned. The trail and hut examples at the start came from this. One publisher brings in all of its hikers at once, and they're people about to head into the mountains who actually need the map.

**Third, Indonesia (inferred).** The Play listing and the website both have Indonesian versions, and the listing mentions use cases like concession maps for forestry and plantations. The only chart where it consistently appears is Indonesia's free maps chart (#147–193,10-29 to 11-06); the other is Canada (#176–198). I haven't found out exactly who is using it there.

**Barely contributing:** the YouTube channel has 10 subscribers and 23 videos; the TikTok account has 30 video views; release posts on the official Reddit community get single-digit engagement. Searching Meta's and Google's ad libraries by name turned up no ads, and the curve is flat, which doesn't look like paid acquisition (unverified).

### How much it grew

Google Play installs (third-party estimates plus daily scraping): Aug 20 about 342, Oct 1 3,607, Nov 6 9,517. Over the last 7 days +1,424, about 200 a day. In October a few days jumped to 400–600 in a single day, but there was no single spike. On the US iOS store it has 11 ratings at 4.36 stars, and in Canada 11 ratings (11-06).

Another way to see it: its weekly new installs are roughly a tenth of Avenza's over the same period. On X, nobody mentioned it for 120 days, and no media covered it. **It grabbed the position, but the volume hasn't taken off.**

### Who it's competing with

This category isn't empty, and most rivals are bigger:

| Product | Launched | Google Play installs (11-06) | Compared with alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlpineQuest | 2010 | Lite 5.27M + paid version 320k | Has long allowed free use of your own maps; dated UI, no iOS |
| Locus Map | 2010 | 7.03M | Feature-heavy, skews toward Android enthusiasts |
| Gaia GPS | 2010 | 4.28M | Sells subscription layers; importing your own PDFs isn't the main flow |
| CalTopo | 2020 | 340k | Strongest for planning on desktop; mobile isn't a PDF viewer |
| ArcGIS Field Maps / QField | — | — | Top-voted answer in forestry and GIS help threads |
| FO Maps | 2026-03 | About 97k | Spanish-language field forestry, team collaboration, roughly ten times its size |
| GeoPDF Maps | 2026-06 | about 5,900 (est.) | Pure GeoPDF viewer, capturing the same wave |
| BorealMaps | 2026 | — | Based in Quebec, 10 free maps and C$39.99/year for unlimited; also has an "Avenza alternative" page |

Nobody is copying NomadTracks. A group of people rushed into the gap Avenza left, all at the same time. Its "unlimited free import" isn't unique either: AlpineQuest and Locus have supported it for years. It wins by putting this selling point in search results and in front of publishers, not through a feature moat.

### The part it doesn't do

NomadTracks itself has a "confession" section on its publisher page: no hosted map directory, no copyright protection for paid maps, and publishers can't see who opened their maps. "If you sell maps and need licensing controls, a store model still suits you better."

This one matters. Big publishers like the NY-NJ Trail Conference sell a lot of their ~500k maps, and they were still collecting alternatives in June. Which one they picked isn't visible from outside. Five or six players are already crowded on the free-user side. **On the publisher side, where you host, take payment, prevent copying, and see download data, nobody appears to be doing it seriously yet.**

### If it were you

**In short:** Building another "free Avenza alternative" is already too late. What's worth doing is one of two things: copy the playbook for the next "old product removes its free tier" event, or build the publisher side in this category, which the leader openly doesn't do.

**Good fit for:** a team of 1–2 people with experience in maps, GIS, or outdoor tools who can write their own GeoPDF parsing and georeferencing, and who are willing to pitch trail associations, parks, hunting areas, and trail race organizers one by one. Or someone good at writing "X alternative" comparison pages and multilingual landing pages.

**Bad fit for:** anyone counting on an app store to deliver organic volume for a viewer app (AlpineQuest and Locus have been around for over a decade); anyone who wants to build mainstream outdoor navigation (that's Gaia, onX, and AllTrails territory); and anyone expecting quick revenue. This crowd left Avenza precisely because they don't want to pay.

**How to build it:** If you take the publisher route, give publishers a back end: upload a PDF and have it georeferenced automatically, generate links and QR codes, optionally charge or add basic copy protection, and show download and usage data. Keep the user side free to open. Charge publishers an annual fee or a revenue share, not the hikers. If you take the playbook-copy route, pick an old tool that just announced it's removing a free feature, raising prices, or shutting down, and within two weeks ship a comparison page, a migration guide, and an import tool, in at least three or four languages.

**How to get customers:** For the publisher route, the list is already in the Avenza replacement threads and trail association announcements. The NY-NJ Trail Conference publicly solicited replacements, so fill out that form and write to them directly. Win one publisher, and you get a long-term entry point through its map pages and trailhead QR codes. For the playbook-copy route, rely on search: "X alternative," "how to export from X," "X free version removed."

**Deadline:** Avenza's map store says it "will close at some point in the future." When it does, a second wave of publishers and users will come looking, so be ready before then. At the current pace, the window for publishers to switch platforms is before the spring hiking season in 2027 (3–April).

**Signs you've misread this:** (1) A large publisher like the NY-NJ Trail Conference announces a new platform that is an established big name like Gaia or CalTopo: the publisher side has been taken by a major player. (2) Blue Marble restores free import or reopens the map store to new listings: the gap has closed. (3) NomadTracks is still at 10,000–20,000 installs on Google Play, adding a hundred or two hundred a day, by early 2027: the spillover was only this big to begin with, too niche to justify a dedicated effort.

---

Data & sources: Google Play installs and charts are third-party estimates plus our daily scrapes (as of 11-06); iOS ratings from the App Store (11-06); Avenza changes from Avenza's official FAQ, an NY-NJ Trail Conference 2026-06-10 notice, and a DroneLife 2026-04-07 report; NomadTracks pricing, features and publisher notes from its website (read 11-06); Strafford Trails and San Juan Huts pages read 11-06. Anything marked 'est', 'inferred' or 'unverified' is an estimate or inference.

[Android store page ↗](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mcw.nomadtracks)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avenza Maps | iOS | 2013 | Play 8.23M installs, 7 days +16k, #2 on the Canada maps Top Grossing chart | Big map stores exist, but the free version from 2026-03 can't import custom maps and Plus is $34.99/year for just 20 maps; NomadTracks has unlimited free custom maps and can geotag photos |
| AlpineQuest | Android | 2010 | Lite 5.27M + paid version 320k | Veteran offline GIS, also opens your own maps, but the UI is dated and there's no iOS app. NomadTracks: both platforms, modern UI, more complete track recording and sync |
| Locus Map | Android | 2010 | 7.03M | Feature-heavy and aimed at enthusiasts. NomadTracks sells one thing, 'your own maps', so the barrier is lower |
| Gaia GPS | iOS | 2010 | Play 4.28M | Sells subscription layers; importing your own PDF isn't the main flow |
| CalTopo | Web | 2020(Play) | 340k on Play | Strong for desktop planning and exports GeoPDF, but the phone app isn't a PDF viewer |
| ArcGIS Field Maps / QField | Other | — | Not checked | Professional GIS tool, the default pick in forestry and GIS circles. NomadTracks targets casual outdoor users and small orgs, no account needed |
| FO Maps - FaenaOffline GIS | Android | 2026-03-29 | 97k on Play | Spanish-language field and forestry GIS with team collaboration, about ten times the size. NomadTracks is more personal outdoors |
| GeoPDF Maps(GeoKyma) | Android | 2026-06-15 | About 5,900 (AppstoreSpy estimate) | Pure GeoPDF viewer. NomadTracks adds photo georeferencing, track recording, Watch support and iOS |
| BorealMaps | Android | 2026 | Not in our database | Local to Quebec. Free for 10 maps, C$39.99/yr for unlimited. NomadTracks is free and unlimited |
| OsmAnd / Organic Maps | Open source | 2010 / 2021 | 15.7M / 7.65M | OSM-based navigation; doesn't georeference your own PDFs |

Where users come from

- **Confirmed** **SEO / content site (Avenza alternative and migration pages, 13 vs-pages, multilingual)** : nomadtracks.app sitemap has 222 URLs, including /nomadtracks-vs-avenza-maps/ (in English, German, French and Indonesian), /how-to/import-avenza-maps/, and FATMAP/ViewRanger replacement pages. Download buttons all go through Singular attribution links with pcn=website

- **Confirmed** **Map publisher referrals (trail and hut groups that lost the Avenza store)** : the San Juan Huts route page offers georeferenced maps 'for use in the NomadTracks app'. The Strafford Vermont trail site says 'Avenza no longer allows free custom maps; we recommend NomadTracks'. The website has /for-map-publishers/ and the .nomadmap format

- **Confirmed** **Owned community and short video (r/NomadTracks, Discord, YouTube, TikTok)** : YouTube @nomadtracksapp has 10 subscribers and 23 videos; TikTok @nomadtracks has 30 views; release posts on r/NomadTracks get single-digit engagement

- Inferred **Recommendations in Reddit/Facebook threads asking for Avenza alternatives** : r/forestry, r/gis, r/algonquinpark and Facebook outdoor groups have lots of 'need an Avenza replacement' posts, but the highly upvoted recommendations we could read were Field Maps and similar. NomadTracks was not commonly recommended

- Inferred **Indonesian localization + store search** : the Play listing and website have Indonesian copy that mentions concession maps. Its only steady chart presence is in Indonesia's maps Top Free, at #147–193

- Inferred **Paid ads** : nothing in the Meta or Google ad libraries, though those libraries only track listed products. The growth curve is too smooth to look like paid acquisition

## NomadTracks: PDF Maps & GPS (com.mcw.nomadtracks), why it's working

> Research date 2026-11-06. Sources: our googleplay database (app_profile / app_day / app_day_ext / chart_rank; app_day_ext figures are AppstoreSpy estimates), iTunes lookup, the official website and third-party pages (read via Jina / Exa / Brave).

### One line

An offline map app from DonkeyCat, a card game studio in Austria. Import your own GeoPDF / GeoTIFF or photos of paper maps, show your GPS position on them and record tracks. It caught the **Avenza Maps 2026 3–April 'self-destruct'** (acquisition, free tier losing custom map import, map store frozen). Using 'unlimited free import', a full set of Avenza migration SEO pages, and direct links from map publishers who lost the Avenza store, it picked up a small spillover of traffic. Still small (about 9.5k total on Play, 11 ratings on iOS). It hasn't 'taken off' yet. It's a successful land grab, but the volume hasn't arrived.

### 1. The event: Avenza pushed its free users out

- **2026 March** : Avenza's free tier stopped supporting custom map import, and custom maps already imported were marked inactive. Plus is $34.99 a year for only 20 maps; unlimited needs Pro (about $169.99/yr, per device). Sources: Avenza's official FAQ [store.avenza.com/pages/avenza-maps-changes-faqs](https://store.avenza.com/pages/avenza-maps-changes-faqs); BorealMaps comparison page [borealmaps.com/en/avenza-maps-alternative.html](https://borealmaps.com/en/avenza-maps-alternative.html) (2026-08 pricing).

- **2026-04-07** : Avenza merged with Blue Marble Geographics (backed by Eterna Growth Partners of Boston, a private equity owner that brought in investment and cut staff), and shifted toward professional GIS users. Sources: [www.bluemarblegeo.com/newsroom/](https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/newsroom/)..., [dronelife.com/2026/04/07/blue-marble-avenza-geospatial-platf…](https://dronelife.com/2026/04/07/blue-marble-avenza-geospatial-platform/), and the Kroll transaction page.

- **Map store frozen** : no new publishers accepted, and existing maps can no longer be updated. The NY-NJ Trail Conference (2026-06-10) announced it 'can no longer add or update maps' and asked for replacement apps: [www.nynjtc.org/news/avenza-maps-changes-impact-trail-confere…](https://www.nynjtc.org/news/avenza-maps-changes-impact-trail-conference-digital-maps/). Superior Hiking Trail Association, the Esri community (2026-05-07), r/gis, r/forestry, r/algonquinpark, Facebook outdoor groups and nwhikers forums were all asking for alternatives.

- The demand is real, but Avenza isn't collapsing. In our database Avenza Play is still gaining 16,420 installs over 7 days (2026-11-06), and it ranks #2 on the Canada maps Top Grossing chart, so it's still collecting paid users. What's spilling over is people who only want to open a few PDF maps for free.

### 2. Competitors (doing the same job: opening georeferenced PDF/TIFF on a phone and showing your position)

| Product | Where | Launched | Scale (Play cumulative installs, googleplay library 2026-11-06) | How NomadTracks differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avenza Maps | iOS/Android | 2013 | 8.23M, 7 days +16k | Has a big map store; the free tier no longer imports custom maps |
| AlpineQuest | Android | 2010 | Lite 5.27M + paid version 320k | Veteran all-in-one offline GIS with custom map support. Dated UI, no iOS app |
| Locus Map | Android | 2010 | 7.03M | Feature-heavy, skews toward Android enthusiasts |
| Gaia GPS(Outside) | iOS/Android | 2010 | 4.28M | Mainly subscription layers; importing your own PDF isn't the main flow |
| OsmAnd / Organic Maps | iOS / Android / open source | 2010 / 2021 | 15.7M / 7.65M | OSM-based navigation; doesn't georeference PDFs |
| CalTopo | iOS/Android/web | 2020(Play) | 340k | Strongest for desktop planning; the phone app isn't a PDF viewer |
| Topo GPS, Guru Maps, the onX family | iOS/Android | — | 820k / 2.21M / onX Hunt 9.28M | Each has its own base maps and subscriptions; custom PDF georeferencing is weak or paywalled |
| ArcGIS Field Maps, QField | iOS / Android / open source | — | Not checked | Professional GIS tools, the 'proper' alternative in forestry and GIS circles (top-voted answers on r/forestry and the Esri community) |
| BorealMaps | Android + web | 2026 | Not in our database | Local to Quebec. Free for 10 maps, C$39.99/yr for unlimited. Also built an 'Avenza alternative' landing page |
| GeoPDF Maps(GeoKyma) | Android | 2026-06-15 | 5,914 (AppstoreSpy est., 2026-11-05) | Pure GeoPDF viewer. It's chasing the same demand, and its growth is about as slow as NomadTracks' |
| VN GeoPDF(GFD) | Android | 2026-06-25 | 6,142 | Used for engineering and surveying in Vietnam |
| FO Maps(FaenaOffline) | Android | 2026-03-29 | 96,680 | Spanish-language forestry and field GIS with team collaboration, about ten times NomadTracks' size |

Takeaway: the lane isn't empty. Veterans (AlpineQuest, Locus) and new entrants (FO Maps, GeoPDF Maps, BorealMaps) are all here. NomadTracks isn't the only one catching the spillover, and it isn't the biggest.

### 3. Growth data

- Play cumulative installs (app_day_ext, AppstoreSpy estimates + our own collection): 2026-08-20 342 → 09-03 1,149 → 10-01 3,607 → 10-20 7,056 → 11-06 9,517. Daily growth ran between 70 and 200. In October there were a few single-day jumps of 400–600 (10-04, 10-08, 10-25), but no breakout spike.

- 7 days +1,424 (+17.6%), roughly 200/day. Chart presence: only at the tail of the maps Top Free chart in Indonesia (#147–193) and Canada (#176–198) (chart_rank 2026-10-29 to 11-06).

- iOS (id6764303399,2026-06-05, launched earlier than Android): US store 11 ratings 4.36; Canada 11, Austria 4, Australia 3 (iTunes lookup 2026-11-06). iOS is small too. The Play rating count is blank (too few to display).

- In-app purchases run $3.69–$94.99,1.29. The version from October just added an annual Pro plan, so monetization has only just started. Revenue isn't public.

### 4. Where users come from (evidence)

1. **SEO / content (confirmed, main channel)** : the nomadtracks.app sitemap has 222 URLs: 73 German pages, 47 'track story' pages, 17 tutorials, 13 event pages, and 13 'NomadTracks vs X' comparison pages (Avenza, Gaia, CalTopo, AllTrails, onX, Komoot, Wikiloc, Topo GPS, Bergfex, Outdooractive...), plus replacement pages for FATMAP and ViewRanger (both shut down). The Avenza replacement page is available in English, German, French and Indonesian, and there are long-tail pages like 'migrating from Avenza', 'offline BLM maps', 'offline national park maps' and 'opening GeoPDF'. When searching 'Avenza alternative', its page and a Reddit thread appear side by side (Jina search results). Every download button goes through a Singular attribution link (nomadtracks.sng.link, pcn=website / youtube), which suggests they're measuring by channel.

2. **Map publisher referrals (confirmed, the most interesting one)** : once the Avenza store froze, organizations that had published PDF maps there needed a new outlet. NomadTracks built a 'for map publishers' page (/for-map-publishers/, with an Indonesian version) and the .nomadmap format, which bundles the map with its georeferencing. Two sites were found pointing users to it:
    - San Juan Huts (Sneffels Traverse hut route in Colorado): 'You can download georeferenced maps for use in the NomadTracks app', [sanjuanhuts.com/sneffels-traverse-route-details/](https://sanjuanhuts.com/sneffels-traverse-route-details/)
    - Strafford Vermont trail system: 'Avenza no longer allows free custom maps; we recommend NomadTracks', [straffordtrails.yolasite.com/](https://straffordtrails.yolasite.com/). This is B2B2C: one publisher can bring all of its hikers over at once.

3. **Owned community and short video (confirmed, but very small)** : r/NomadTracks (the official subreddit, where release posts get single-digit engagement) and Discord; YouTube @nomadtracksapp has 10 subscribers and 23 videos; TikTok @nomadtracks has 30 video views. These contribute almost nothing.

4. **Reddit / Facebook recommendation threads (unconfirmed)** : Threads like r/forestry could not be read in full by 403; the top-voted answers we found recommend ArcGIS Field Maps and TreeTracker, and we did not directly see NomadTracks being widely recommended.

5. **Paid ads (unconfirmed)** : Meta's ad library turned up no DonkeyCat or NomadTracks ads by name, and Google's ad library has no record of this advertiser. But these libraries only track a set list of products, so "not found" doesn't mean they aren't advertising. The growth curve is flat, which doesn't look like paid acquisition.

6. **Indonesia (inferred)** : The Play listing and website are both localized into Indonesian, and the description mentions "concession map" and "forestry and plantation plots." The Indonesian map chart is where it consistently charts. Indonesia has a low barrier to entry, and GeoPDF is common for plantation and forestry mapping, so this may come from localization plus store search. We have not verified the specific source.

7. **Developer's existing audience (inferred, possibly weak)** : DonkeyCat has roughly 14M installs across its Google Play developer account, but they are all card and board games, so the user bases don't overlap. We see no evidence of cross-promotion.

### V. Why this one (the reasons)

- **Timing** : Avenza 2026-03 removed free import, 04 was acquired, and the stores froze. That pushed out a group of free users and map publishers who lost their distribution channel. NomadTracks launched on iOS 06-05 and Android 07-25, right in the months when search demand peaked.

- **Pricing that runs the other way** : "Unlimited custom maps, free, no account" is a direct counter-positioning to Avenza's new policy. Pro only sells route planning, base maps, and Dropbox, not the maps themselves. The thing migrating users care about most is free.

- **More than a plain viewer** : It can georeference photos of paper maps using control points and show the RMS accuracy (Avenza can't), record full tracks, record independently on Apple Watch, and sync to self-hosted Nextcloud or Synology. That appeals to outdoor users who care about privacy and still use paper maps.

- **Shipping pace** : In two months it went from 1.21 to 1.29, shipping a release every 1–2 weeks with the same version number on both platforms. 222 multilingual SEO pages. The small team's diligence is visible.

### VI. What the differentiation is, and whether it's why it took off

The differentiation = "free unlimited import of your own maps + photo georeferencing + full track recording + no account." The first point is what actually matters. It is a direct response to Avenza's new policy, and every SEO page and publisher referral centers on it. But this differentiator is **not exclusive** : AlpineQuest and Locus have long let you open your own maps for free, and new apps like GeoPDF Maps are free too. BorealMaps gives away 10 maps for free. So it took off because of "differentiation × timing × getting this point across in search results and to publishers," not because of a feature moat. At scale, it has picked up only about 1/10 of Avenza's weekly new installs, so it has not broken through yet.

### 7. Visibility and copycats

- Visibility: **Few people know about it yet.** The X corpus (x-radar, 120 days) shows 0 mentions. No press coverage. Revenue is not public. YouTube and TikTok have barely any views. The only third-party mentions are on pages from two small trail organizations.

- Copycats: We haven't seen anyone copying NomadTracks. A batch of similar "Avenza alternatives" appeared at the same time (BorealMaps, GeoPDF Maps, VN GeoPDF, FO Maps). They entered in parallel, not in imitation of it.

### VIII. Takeaways

- **Watch for events where established products drop free tiers, get acquired, or shut down** : When users are pushed out, they actively search "X alternative," and comparison pages, migration guides, and multiple languages can catch them at low cost. NomadTracks even built replacement pages for shut-down products like FATMAP and ViewRanger.

- **Find suppliers who lost their channel** : After the Avenza store froze, parks, trail associations, and hut operators all needed a new way to get maps to users. Offer them a setup where they self-host the PDF, share a link or QR code, and users open it for free (/for-map-publishers/ + .nomadmap). One partner brings a whole batch of users, and they are high-intent with long retention.

- **Charge only where it doesn't undermine the migration motive** : Core needs are free, and paid features are add-ons.

### IX. Uncertainties

- Whether it has run paid ads (our ad library doesn't cover it). The Singular attribution links indicate it has channel measurement, but no spend is visible.

- Where the Indonesian volume comes from (localized SEO, store search, or a particular forestry or plantation community). Unverified.

- How many more map publishers have switched to it. Which large organizations, such as the NY-NJ Trail Conference, ended up choosing what, is unknown.

- Retention and paid conversion: the annual Pro plan only launched in October, and revenue is entirely unknown.

- AppstoreSpy's early curve is an estimate, so single-day figures shouldn't be taken at face value.

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.