onX is a private American technology company that develops digital mapping applications for outdoor recreation. It was founded in
Missoula, Montana
Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers in western Montana and at the convergence of five ...
in 2009 as a hardware company, developing chips that extended
Garmin
Garmin Ltd. is an American multinational technology company based in Olathe, Kansas. The company designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes GPS-enabled products and other navigation, communication, sensor-based, and information ...
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
devices with land ownership data for the purpose of hunting.
In 2013 it pivoted to the development of mobile applications, and in 2024 announced a $87 million dollar series-b from
Summit Partners
Summit Partners is an American investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm focuses on investing in technology, healthcare, life sciences and other growth industries.
Background
Summit Partners was founded in 1984 by E. Roe Stamps ...
.
Products
onX develops four products: onX Hunt, onX Offroad, onX Backcountry, and onX Fish.
onX Hunt
onX Hunt was onX's first application. While it has received praise for expanding access to outdoor recreation and raising awareness of
landlocked
A landlocked country is a country that has no territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie solely on endorheic basins. Currently, there are 44 landlocked countries, two of them doubly landlocked (Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan), and t ...
public lands, it has also received numerous criticisms regarding user privacy and the erasure of 'secret spots.'
In 2023, the owners of
Elk Mountain Ranch filed a lawsuit against four Wyoming
corner crossers, alleging that their activities devalued the ranch by $7.75 million dollars. As part of the lawsuit, the owners subpoenaed onX and discovered a point named 'Waypoint 6' on the property, and attempted to use the point as evidence of tresspassing. A spokesperson for onX stated that “One could drop a waypoint for any reason at all and one has not necessarily been to the places where he or she has dropped a waypoint.”
When asked if it would consider selling the data users provide to the service, onX explained that it believes the users creating the points retain ownership of them.
onX Backcountry
onX Backcountry is a mapping application for backcountry ski touring, hiking, climbing, and mountain biking.
In 2021, onX acquired the rock climbing database
Mountain Project
Mountain Project is a website that serves as a guidebook to more than 300,000 climbing routes across the world. The website is operated by Adventure Projects Inc., a Boulder, Colorado-based company, founded by Nick Wilder and Andy Laakmann in 200 ...
for its expansion into climbing. onX promised to continue operating the site without a paywall, however later shut down its API and filed a DMCA takedown against competitor Open Beta, despite claiming in its terms that users own the data.
onX Fish
To develop onX Fish, onX purchased TroutRoutes.
Access Initiatives
onX has funded a number of environmental stewardship projects.
* $5,000 microgrants for trail maintenance in collaboration with
Toyota
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...
* "secure
ngor improve
ngpublic access to 154,000 acres, and support
ngthe maintenance and building of 255 miles of trails"
* A program to enroll 10,000 acres of
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...
land for walk-in access for $25 per acre.
References
{{Reflist
GPS sports tracking applications
Hunting equipment