TrackHound vs Apple Maps
TrackHound is a European alternative to Apple Maps: same consumer products use case, headquartered in Belgium and governed by EU GDPR, while Apple Maps (Apple) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Plan curvy, fastest or unpaved routes on the phone itself, with downloadable offline regions, GPX import and export, roadbook navigation and CarPlay.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- Yes
Driving, transit and cycling routes with elevation, plus Look Around street imagery, with location history kept off your Apple Account and personalisation handled on the device. There is no subscription and nothing to pay beyond the Apple hardware it runs on. Apple Inc. is headquartered in California and its Maps terms name California law by default.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
TrackHound vs Apple Maps at a glance
| TrackHound | Apple Maps | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Belgium | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need consumer products built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Apple ecosystem |
Choose TrackHound if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You want to start free and scale up later
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Apple Maps if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Apple ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About TrackHound
TrackHound is an offline navigation app for iPhone for drivers and riders who care how a road feels. Routes are calculated on the device with the Valhalla engine, so planning works in airplane mode, and four presets (Shortest, Fastest, Curviest and Unpavediest) can be drawn on the map together to compare a quick run with a twisty or gravel alternative.
Vehicle profiles cover motorcycle and car or 4x4, plus bicycle, walking and camper modes. A loop generator builds round trips to a target distance, a track editor snaps GPX files to the line you actually rode, and navigation runs either as a roadbook with a heading compass or as a live map with speed, ETA and speed limits. CarPlay puts the moving map and manoeuvre cards on the car screen.
Key benefits:
- On-device routing that needs no signal once a region is downloaded
- Curviest and Unpavediest presets for motorcycle touring, gravel tracks and 4x4 days
- Compare All view drawing every route style on one map
- Loop generator for round trips of a chosen distance
- GPX import, export and track editing for sharing and refining rides
- CarPlay and Apple Watch support, with rides saved to a Trip Log
- No analytics or tracking SDKs, with routes and trips kept on the phone
TrackHound is developed by Michel Storms, an independent developer registered as a sole trader in Ingelmunster, Belgium. Its App Store privacy label reads Data Not Collected, and the privacy policy states that location never leaves the device. Map tiles come from OpenFreeMap, which is built on OpenStreetMap data.
Route planning with the first downloaded region is free. TrackHound Pro, sold as a subscription or a one-time purchase, adds turn-by-turn navigation, more regions, GPX import and CarPlay navigation. The app first shipped in June 2026.
Why choose TrackHound over Apple Maps?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Apple Maps is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
TrackHound removes that overhead. As a Belgium-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.