CoHunt vs onX Hunt

Most onX Hunt subscribers don't think about who owns their hunting app. Here's what they're paying into. On November 3, 2025, onX Maps Inc. announced a strategic investment from TCV - Technology Crossover Ventures - the growth-equity firm whose pre-IPO portfolio includes Netflix, Airbnb and Spotify. TCV layered on top of Summit Partners, which led a $26M round in 2018 and an $87M follow-on in 2021. Add in Madison Valley Partners and Cross Creek and onX is now a twice-institutionalized growth-equity platform with four named institutional investors on the cap table. onX's own blog post quoted the investment thesis explicitly: "nearly tripled ARR" over the next phase.

That ownership chain shapes how onX prices, what onX builds, and where every $99.99 Elite subscription actually goes. The product has stable, deeply-marketed core features (maps, property boundaries, web access, MeatEater partnerships) - but it has not added the modern tools hunting parties actually need in 2026: encrypted messaging, off-grid mesh communication, a built-in ballistics calculator, GPS dog collar integration, real-time party tracking. Those gaps aren't accidents. They're priorities.

CoHunt is the opposite. Independently developed by Diamondback Consulting in Idaho and Norway. $24.99 a year, flat. No PE firms on the cap table. No ARR thesis. No growth-stage funding round to feed. Encrypted chat, Bluetooth mesh, Meshtastic LoRa, ballistics, dog tracking, Spypoint trail-camera AI and international property data - all included.

Where Does Your $99.99 Actually Go?

onX Maps Inc. was founded in 2009 by Eric Siegfried as a small Montana startup. It is now, in 2026, structurally a different company. Here is the full ownership stack as of November 2025:

• TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) - strategic investment announced November 3, 2025. ~$20B AUM across 350+ tech companies. Pre-IPO portfolio includes Netflix, Airbnb, Spotify, Facebook, Peloton, Believe and Toast. Woody Marshall from TCV joined the onX board.
• Summit Partners - led the original $26M institutional round in 2018, followed by an $87M follow-on in 2021. Colin Mistele remains on the board.
• Madison Valley Partners - early backer, still on the cap table.
• Cross Creek - joined in the November 2025 round.

And from onX's own announcement, the investment thesis: "nearly tripled its ARR over the last three years." The next phase is targeting another tripling. That's the explicit, public goal.

None of that is hidden. It's all on onxmaps.com and in the November 2025 press release. But almost no $99.99 Elite subscriber knows about it, because onX doesn't lead with it. They lead with MeatEater partnerships and elk migration content. The financial structure is the part you don't see on the marketing page.

What this means for the product

A hunting app built around an ARR-tripling thesis has structurally different incentives from an indie app built by hunters. Three things you can verify on onX's own website:

• Marketing partnerships are central to the strategy. onX has been MeatEater's exclusive map sponsor since 2018, elevated to "Official Partnership Program" status in 2024. SIG SAUER and Moultrie are co-partners. These are real deals that funnel hunters into Elite subscriptions - and they have to be paid for. Your $99.99 includes a slice of that marketing budget.
• Feature priorities favor scale, not depth. onX has expanded into onX Backcountry, onX Offroad and onX Fish (the last via the 2024 TroutRoutes acquisition). Each new vertical adds total addressable market - and each new vertical means engineering hours that don't go into Hunt-specific features like real-time party tracking, encrypted messaging or a built-in ballistics calculator.
• Group coordination is still a 2018-era feature. onX's "sharing" in 2026 still means: send a waypoint via text/email/Bluetooth → recipient gets a link that drops a pin on their map. There is no real-time party tracking, no in-app messaging, no group chat. onX's own support docs suggest pairing with a Garmin inReach for off-grid messaging - which costs another $14.99/month on top of the $99.99 Elite fee.

This is what an ARR-growth machine looks like from the outside. The product expands sideways into new verticals, the marketing partnerships get bigger, and the core hunting workflow - the part that matters when you're actually in the timber with three friends and no cell signal - quietly stops getting investment.

Quick Comparison Overview

Why Hunters Switch to CoHunt

Independent - no growth thesis to feed

CoHunt is built by Diamondback Consulting in Idaho and Norway. There is no PE owner. There is no growth-stage funding round to prepare for. There is no ARR target on a slide deck. The roadmap is set by hunters who use the app, not by board members optimizing for a valuation. If a feature exists in CoHunt, it is there because hunters asked for it, not because it expands the addressable market for the next investment round.

Real group coordination, including off-grid

onX's "sharing" in 2026 is still: text someone a waypoint link. CoHunt has actual real-time party tracking - your hunting party's positions live on your map, updating as they move. Layer in:

• End-to-end encrypted chat, peer-to-peer, never stored on a server
• Bluetooth mesh messaging via BLE - passes chat and positions hunter-to-hunter with no cell, no WiFi, no internet, no infrastructure
• Meshtastic LoRa radio integration - your team carries small, cheap LoRa nodes that mesh together over kilometres of forest. No other hunting app integrates with Meshtastic.

onX's own support docs solve this gap by suggesting you buy a Garmin inReach Messenger Plus and pay another $14.99/month ($179.88/year) for off-grid messaging on top of your $99.99 Elite subscription. CoHunt builds it in.

A built-in ballistics calculator

onX has no native ballistics calculator. The January 2026 Horus integration is a one-way waypoint handoff that requires you to buy the Horus app and a Horus rangefinder separately. CoHunt includes a full ballistics calculator: any caliber, automatic correction for wind, temperature, humidity, altitude and atmospheric pressure, with DOPE card PDF export. Replaces a separate paid ballistics app.

GPS dog tracking built in

onX has no integration with any GPS dog collar system. Bird hunters, hound hunters and houndsmen who want their dogs on the same map as the team need a separate dog tracking app or a dedicated handheld. CoHunt supports Tractive GPS in real time, shared with the entire hunting party, included in the $24.99 plan.

75% lower cost

$24.99/year vs $99.99/year is a $75/year saving per hunter. Over five years that's $375 - and CoHunt includes encrypted chat, Bluetooth mesh, Meshtastic LoRa, ballistics and dog tracking that onX doesn't offer at any tier. You pay less and you get more. For a four-hunter party, that's $300/year back in the team's pocket every season.

Privacy by default

onX's privacy policy explicitly enables targeted advertising, names advertising and analytics partners, and describes personalized ads using "demographic and interest-level information." CoHunt requires no account, collects zero personal data, has no advertising business model, and has published a transparency report stating it has never received a government data request - because there's no data to hand over.

International coverage in one plan

onX covers all 50 US states plus government layers in Canada (with property data "where available"). CoHunt covers the United States, Sweden, Norway, Finland and New Zealand in a single $24.99 plan. If you ever hunt outside the US, onX stops at the border and you start over with a different app.

Pricing that hasn't moved

onX is currently working its second growth-equity round in seven years toward an explicit "nearly tripled ARR" target. CoHunt is independently developed and has held the same $24.99/year all-features price since launch. There is no PE firm at the table optimizing for the next valuation. Your subscription pays for engineers and servers, not a marketing budget or a board's growth thesis.

What onX Still Has

Being straight about what onX offers that CoHunt doesn't:

• Web / desktop access. onX has a Hunt.onX browser app, CarPlay support and Android Auto support. CoHunt is mobile-only today. If you do most of your hunt planning on a desktop monitor and need to sync to mobile, onX still has the more complete planning surface.
• Lidar slope-and-terrain layers. onX Elite includes a Lidar layer with high-resolution slope-angle shading. Useful for sheep hunters and Western backcountry hunters working steep ground.
• 50-state property depth and Canadian coverage. onX has been building out US parcel data since 2009 and now covers 161.5M+ private parcels and 1.8B+ acres of public land across all 50 US states, plus government layers in Canada. That's a real depth advantage if your hunting is exclusively in North America.
• MeatEater partnership content. If you're already deep in the MeatEater ecosystem, onX is the integrated map.

For most hunters, none of those are worth $75/year on top of the missing modern features.

Common Questions

Has onX raised its prices recently?

No - that's not the angle. onX's $99.99 Elite price has been stable. The story isn't a price hike. The story is who owns the company that's collecting the $99.99 and what they want to do with it.

Can CoHunt replace onX for property maps?

For US property boundaries, yes - CoHunt covers all 50 US states with parcel data. Where onX has the depth advantage is in Canadian government layers and in Lidar slope shading. For most hunters, CoHunt's US parcel coverage is sufficient.

Can I import my onX waypoints?

Yes. CoHunt supports standard GPX import and export, so waypoints, tracks and hunt areas can be transferred. The two apps speak the same coordinate format.

Does CoHunt have a desktop or web app?

Not today. CoHunt is mobile-first (iOS and Android). Most hunting work happens in the field, not at a desk, but if a desktop browser app is critical to how you plan your hunts, that's a real onX advantage.

What about the off-grid messaging that onX suggests buying a Garmin inReach for?

That's the headline. onX's own support docs recommend pairing onX Hunt with a Garmin inReach Messenger Plus for off-grid messaging - which adds another $14.99/month ($179.88/year) on top of the $99.99 Elite fee, plus a $300+ piece of hardware. CoHunt builds Bluetooth mesh and Meshtastic LoRa directly into the $24.99 plan. No separate device required. No second subscription.

Why should I care who owns onX?

Because ownership shapes the product. A hunting app owned by four growth-equity firms with a stated ARR-tripling target has a structural incentive to expand into adjacent verticals, raise prices in the long run, optimize for new-subscriber acquisition over existing-subscriber feature depth, and prepare for a future liquidity event. An independently developed hunting app with no PE owners has none of those incentives. The features you see and the integrations that exist all flow from who's at the cap table.

How to Switch

1. Export your onX data as GPX - waypoints, tracks, hunt areas. Keep a local copy.
2. Install CoHunt from the App Store or Google Play. No account required.
3. Import your GPX files. Property boundaries appear automatically across the US and the four other countries CoHunt covers.
4. Pre-download offline maps for your hunting grounds.
5. Pair your hunting party via QR contact share. Real-time tracking, encrypted chat and waypoint sharing come on automatically.
6. If you run Meshtastic LoRa nodes, pair them via Bluetooth for off-grid messaging across kilometres of terrain.
7. Cancel onX at the end of your billing period - and keep $75/year in your own pocket. For a four-hunter party, that's $300/year saved.

The Bottom Line

onX Hunt is a $99.99/year subscription owned by four institutional investors - TCV (since November 2025), Summit Partners (since 2018), Madison Valley and Cross Creek - with an explicitly stated ARR-tripling thesis. The product has real strengths in property depth, web access and partnership content. It also has stable, decade-old gaps in everything modern hunting parties need: real-time tracking, encrypted messaging, off-grid mesh, ballistics, dog tracking. Those gaps haven't been filled because the priorities are elsewhere.

CoHunt is $24.99/year, independently developed, with no growth thesis to feed. It includes the modern features onX doesn't, costs 75% less, and the price has held flat since launch because there's no board pressure to move it.

You can keep paying for onX, or you can pay $24.99 for an app that exists to be used, not to be sold.