Waze vs Google Maps: Which one is Better?
Although google maps and Waze are owned by the same parent company “Google” both of them work independently and occupy a significant market share of maps and navigation industry.
In this article, we will analyze the services provided by Waze and Google maps, their differences and figure it out which can be more suitable for you.
What's Inside?
What is the Waze app?
Waze is an awesome free smartphone app which assists you to avoid traffic. It is a navigation app which is available for Android, iOS and Windows platforms.
Waze relies on internet connectivity and GPS to provide dynamic route guidance. It provides turn-by-turn navigation information along with travel times and route details.
Waze defines its app as a community-driven GPS navigation app, which is free to download and use.
Its users can take active participation by sharing road reports on accidents, police traps, or any other hazards along the way which can help other users traveling in the same location about what’s to come while traveling.
Waze app also monitors your driving speed and notify when your car is over speeding.
How Waze was started?
Waze was established by Shabtai in 2008 in Israel with an objective of providing crowdsourcing assistant to community users along with a free digital database of Israel map.
Acquired by Google in 2013 for over a billion dollars, Waze had around 50 million users at that time.
How to use Waze?
You can download Waze for your iPhone or for your Android phone form Appstore and play store respectively. All you need to do is set up an account and log in and get multiple benefits from the Waze app.
Waze app can be as a reminder set up for leaving home or office. It will assist you to determine how long it will take to get from point X to point Y during peak hour. You can also use the Waze app to find parking, gas stations, food, coffee and more along with prices.
Waze is also useful to determine the fastest possible route to reach your destination by analyzing information that it pulls in from other drivers around you.
What is Google Maps?
Google Maps is a powerful web mapping service developed by Google. It is used by over 1 billion people, and over the years the app has become more efficient at suggesting routes, offering detailed options for public transit, nearby points of interest, and much more.
Google Map is currently available in over 220 countries and territories with transit directions included for over 15,000 major cities around the world.
Although Waze and Google Maps provide many similar features they have some differences.
Some of the major difference between Waze and Google Maps are as follows:
|
| Waze | Google Maps |
| 1 | Waze provides live traffic update provided by a user. | Google maps provide directions for biking, driving, walking, and using public transportation. |
| 2 | Waze offers alert each other about traffic incidents, road closures, and police checking. | Google maps do not include all these features of alert and police checking. |
| 3 | Waze requires a data connection and does not work offline | Google maps are available in both online and offline. |
| 4 | Waze is a community-based, crowd-sourced social network, dynamic and more of real-time information. | Google maps are more of data-based and lack real-time information compared to Waze. |
| 5 | Waze app can assist you to avoid traffic and speed traps. | Google maps are helpful in finding local business and restaurants. |
| 6 | Waze is more beneficial for car drivers and owners. | Google maps provide similar value to bikers, drivers and to understand directions. |
| 7 | The interface of Waze is fancier, includes celebrity voices and ads. | The interface of Google map is very basic and simple and does not have ads. |
Waze Over Google Maps
The reason behind using Waze is that it provides more real-time traffic status, traffic incidents, road closures, and police checking through a community-based social network which is still lacking in google maps. This can save you a lot of time especially for car users.
On the other hand, google maps cover a wider range by providing similar value to bikers, drivers and to understand directions. Along with that Google maps is helpful in finding local business and restaurants and supports online and offline mode.
As both the app are owned by the same renowned company and both have some advantages and disadvantages over one another.
Conclusion: Waze vs Google maps
We have also compared the features, benefits, and limitation of both app and we leave it to our readers to figure it out which one is more suitable for you.
