what3words
For travelers, logistics professionals, and emergency responders requiring exact coordinates for locations without standard street addresses.
what3words: Navigation & Maps
Snapshot
Who is what3words?
Providing a global grid of three-word addresses to enable precise location sharing and navigation where traditional addresses fail.
Target audience
Portfolio
Free 2Last updated
what3words: Navigation & Maps
vVARY
6mo ago
Publisher DNA
What defines what3words?
Publisher DNA
Primary focus
Precision geocoding and navigation infrastructure
Scale
indie
Target audience
Travelers, logistics professionals, and emergency responders requiring exact coordinates for locations without standard street addresses.
Signature Patterns
- •Proprietary 3m x 3m grid addressing system across all products
- •Focus on utility and safety-critical use cases like emergency services
- •Free-to-use consumer model supported by a B2B/Developer API ecosystem
- •Clean, map-centric UI designed for rapid location sharing and saving
Portfolio momentum
The publisher maintains an active development cycle with 9 updates in the last 6 months, focusing resources on the flagship navigation title.
Portfolio
What does what3words ship?
Apps
2 apps analysed
Find any exact location with a what3words address - for easy navigation and more
Distributed across 20 markets, strongest in Europe.
Based on 1 of 2 apps with localized market data, more coverage rolling in as scans complete · last scanned .
Americas (4)
- Brazil1 / 1
- Canada1 / 1
- Mexico1 / 1
- United States1 / 1
Europe (9)
- France1 / 1
- Germany1 / 1
- Italy1 / 1
- Netherlands1 / 1
- Portugal1 / 1
›+4 more europe markets
- Spain1 / 1
- Sweden1 / 1
- Turkey1 / 1
- United Kingdom1 / 1
Asia-Pacific (7)
- Australia1 / 1
- India1 / 1
- Indonesia1 / 1
- Japan1 / 1
- Singapore1 / 1
›+2 more asia-pacific markets
- South Korea1 / 1
- Vietnam1 / 1
Core markets (1/1 apps)
Rivals
Who does what3words compete with?
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
Both apps compete for the same navigation-focused user base, though Waze targets daily commuters via real-time traffic data while what3words provides precise location identification for hard-to-find destinations.
Contenders(6)
Both apps target users requiring precise location identification in remote or hard-to-reach environments, though they utilize different technical mechanisms to solve the navigation problem.
DelM8 targets the same professional courier and field service audience as what3words by solving the high-friction problem of locating rural properties that standard mapping tools miss.
known for
MapXplorer: Map Radar Navigate
Both apps target travelers and commuters requiring navigation assistance, creating a direct overlap in the utility-focused mapping category.
Both apps compete for the same navigation and location-sharing audience, with Google Maps providing broad discovery while what3words offers high-precision addressing for specific locations.
Both apps target travelers and commuters needing navigation, with what3words focusing on precise location identification and MapQuest on turn-by-turn driving guidance.
Both apps compete for outdoor navigation utility, specifically where users require precise location identification for safety and route planning in remote environments.
Same space(20)
Argo provides marine-specific trip planning and chartplotter functionality for boating navigation.
BaseMap provides specialized hunting layers and parcel boundaries for rural navigation.
calimoto provides curvy-road algorithms for scenic routing, serving the motorcycle navigation niche.
Spoke Route Planner optimizes multi-stop delivery routes, addressing the logistics use case where what3words provides precise destination coordinates.
Citymapper provides transit-first routing that complements what3words' precise location pinning by solving the last-mile urban transit gap.
known for
Qibla Finder 100% اتجاه القبلة
Qibla Finder provides directional guidance for prayer, serving as a specific navigation utility that complements what3words.
Detecht provides safety tools for motorcyclists, complementing what3words' navigation with crash detection and security features.
Hunting Points provides parcel data and property lines for rural navigation utility.
Geocaching uses location precision to drive community-based exploration, serving as a gamified alternative to what3words' coordinate system.
Footpath Route Planner allows users to create custom paths, complementing what3words' point-based navigation for outdoor activities.
NAVER Maps provides localized navigation and business booking in South Korea, serving as a regional alternative to what3words.
onX Hunt provides proprietary land ownership data that what3words users need for precise rural navigation.
Organic Maps provides privacy-first offline navigation for users who require what3words-style precision without data tracking.
Savvy Navvy integrates marine-specific weather and tides, providing environmental context that what3words lacks for water-based travel.
Sygic GPS Truck & Caravan provides dimension-aware routing for large vehicles, serving the professional navigation niche.
Sygic GPS Truck & Caravan provides dimension-aware routing for large vehicles, serving the professional navigation niche.
Gaia GPS provides high-fidelity topographic data that what3words users require for professional-grade backcountry navigation.
CoPilot provides vehicle-specific routing logic that what3words users require for commercial transport and heavy-duty navigation.
Real-time GPS Location Sharing provides the social coordination layer that what3words users need for meeting up.
Wikiloc provides a massive community-verified trail database that offers the route-specific data what3words lacks for outdoor navigation.
New entrants(1)
Kintra provides real-time location sharing for social coordination, serving as a simple utility for meeting up.
The Analyst's Read
The bottom line on what3words
Bottom line
what3words is a specialized infrastructure player that has successfully turned a proprietary coordinate system into a recognized navigation standard. Their strength lies in B2B integrations and emergency service adoption rather than competing directly with general-purpose map providers.
Frequently asked questions
How many apps does what3words publish?
What kind of apps does what3words make?
What is what3words's top app?
In how many countries are what3words's apps available?
What fed this analysis
- Apps analyzed:
- 2
- With full intel:
- 0
- With overview:
- 2
- Website scraped:
- yes
- Social presence:
- yes