Organic Maps

Organic Maps is an offline map and navigation app built on OpenStreetMap. Its README says it was “Created and maintained by MapsWithMe (MAPS.ME) founders”: after MAPS.ME was sold and went closed-source in 2020, the open-source version was forked and renamed Organic Maps in 2021. It is published by Organic Maps OÜ, a company in Estonia, with releases about once a month.

What it does

• Maps you download by country or region, which then work offline, including search and routing.
• Turn-by-turn navigation for driving, cycling and walking, with spoken directions through your phone’s text-to-speech voice. Since this version it can reorder stops for the best route.
• Outdoor layers: hiking and cycling routes, contour lines, peaks and elevation profiles.
• Metro routes and public-transport route numbers at stops; the project says live schedules and routing are “currently in development”. There is no live traffic.
• Wikipedia articles for places, which come inside the downloaded map files.
• Bookmarks and tracks, including recording your own, imported and exported as KML, KMZ, GPX or GeoJSON.
• Editing OpenStreetMap with an OpenStreetMap account, and Android Auto.

On mobile data it asks before downloading anything, and won’t use the network while roaming unless you allow it.

What goes online

• The project’s meta server, served through Cloudflare, when you download maps. It receives the app version, the map data version and your language, and returns the list of download servers. Its reply also controls the donation request that can appear on place pages; on 12 October 2026 it offered $5.49 a month or $36.99 a year.
• Map downloads from Organic Maps’ own servers, when you start them.
• Your phone’s assisted-GPS data, which the app asks the system to refresh, and your edits to OpenStreetMap when you make some.

There are no analytics or crash-reporting libraries in this build, our scan found no trackers, and the app turns off Google’s Safe Browsing checks and usage statistics in its web views.

Licences and disputes

F-Droid marks the app NonFreeAssets: “Compiled binary data files (including but not limited to .mwm map files) under a non-FOSS license.” The project’s data licence lets anyone use and redistribute those files, but requires the credit “Map data © OpenStreetMap and Organic Maps” and adds: “Any white-labeling or rebranding use requires explicit written permission from the Organic Maps team.” The project disputes the label and asked F-Droid to remove it; F-Droid kept it. In this APK, the files under that licence are the map style rules and region outlines; the maps themselves are downloaded. After a complaint to the OpenStreetMap Foundation in 2025 that the licence was incompatible with OpenStreetMap’s, the project updated its data licence and attribution.

Two bundled items have unusual terms. One of the fonts, Code2000, is listed in the app’s own credits as “© 1998–2003 James Kass; Shareware”, and its current licence is unclear. Some map icons come from Freepik under its own free licence, which asks for credit.

In 2025 a group of contributors published an open letter asking the company’s shareholders for transparent governance and finances, and went on to start a fork, CoMaps, a separate app. They also said part of the code that builds the map files isn’t published. Both sides have made accusations against each other. We don’t take sides; the app here is Organic Maps itself.

About this file

• This is F-Droid’s build of version 2026.09.29, compiled from the source and signed with F-Droid’s key, with Google and Firebase code removed before building. Google Play’s edition has the same package name but another key, so neither updates the other.
• The 63.8 MB file runs on Android 5.0 and later, on ARM and x86, 32- and 64-bit, with OpenGL ES 3.0, and declares 16 permissions: location for maps, navigation and track recording, background services for navigation, recording and downloads, internet, and Android Auto.
• The app’s code is under the Apache License 2.0; the map data is under the data licence described above.
• The screenshots are the ones F-Droid lists, from the project.

Flagged by F-Droid:

• NonFreeAssets: Contains non-free assets.

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017); armeabi-v7a (32-bit ARM, older and budget phones); x86 (32-bit Intel, emulators); x86_64 (64-bit Intel, emulators and Chromebooks).

Versions currently kept in the F-Droid repository. We host and check only the newest one. Full changelog.