The best free golf GPS apps are Golf Pad GPS and Hole19, because both give you front, middle and back distances plus hazards without paying, and Golfshot and 18Birdies close behind. Every one of them charges you in a different currency: an account, ads over your hole map, and a steady stream of upgrade prompts. Yardage takes the opposite deal. Your first round is free; after that it is $1.99, with no ads and no account.
This page goes through what each free tier actually includes as of October 2026, what it costs you in attention, and the math on when a couple of dollars beats free. No app is scored on accuracy, because they all read the same GPS chip in your phone.
On this page
What “free” means in a golf GPS app
There are three kinds of free. The first is a genuine free tier: distances you can use for life, with ads and a sign-up. Golf Pad, Hole19, 18Birdies, Golfshot and SwingU are this. The second is a trial dressed as free: the app is “free to download” but the useful parts stop after seven days or three holes. GolfLogix leans this way. The third is a free round, which is how Yardage works: the first round costs nothing and shows you exactly what you would be buying, then you pay by the round, month or year.
What free almost never means is private. A free tier needs your email to exist, and in most cases it funds itself with advertising, which means your use of the app has a value to someone. That is not a scandal. It is just the trade, and you should know you are making it.
The best free golf GPS apps for iPhone
1. Yardage: best for golfers who want the number and nothing else (first round free)
Honesty first: Yardage is not a free app. It is listed first because its free round is a complete, unrestricted version of the product, and because what you pay after is small and optional. Yardage puts one number, the live distance to the center of the green, on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island for the whole round. No account, no ads, no location data leaving the phone, 14,987 US courses built in, and it works with no signal once the course is loaded.
Cost after the free round: $1.99, $5.99 or $29.99. Platform: iPhone only, iOS 18 or later. The catch: center of the green only, US courses only, no scoring or stats, and the free part ends after 18 holes.
2. Golf Pad GPS: the most generous free tier
Golf Pad gives away more than anyone: front, middle and back distances, hazards and layups, offline course maps, a scorecard for four, automatic shot tracking, round history and Apple Watch yardages. The free tier is ad-supported and Premium removes the ads along with adding 3D greens, strokes gained and plays-like distances. Golf Pad’s support site lists Premium at $29.99 per year; the App Store shows tiers from $19.99 to $49.99, so check in-app. Platform: iPhone (iOS 16+), Android, Apple Watch. The catch: the ads, an account, and a look that has not changed much in years.
3. Hole19: free front, center and back with good maps
Hole19‘s free tier covers front, center and back of the green plus hazards and targets on 42,000-plus courses, with Apple Watch distances included. Ads are part of the free deal; “ad-free experience” is a listed Premium feature. Premium Pro is $12.99 per month or $69.99 per year on the US App Store. Platform: iPhone (iOS 18+), Android, Apple Watch. The catch: ads and an account, and a home screen that wants you to do more than find a number.
4. 18Birdies: free distances plus a scorecard and handicap
18Birdies includes GPS to greens and hazards on 43,000-plus courses, a digital scorecard, an automatic handicap, stats, side games and Apple Watch features on its free plan. Premium (listed at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, with other prices appearing in promotions) adds shot tracking, an AI swing analyzer and 3D green maps. Platform: iPhone (iOS 16+), Android, Apple Watch. The catch: an account, an ad-supported free tier, and a feed of social content between you and the yardage.
Notice the pattern so far. Each free tier gives a different slice of the same three numbers, and each asks for the same two things in return. The center number, the one Yardage shows and the one most amateurs should be aiming at, is free in every app on this list.
5. Golfshot: free center distance and solid stats
Golfshot's free tier gives GPS distances, shot tracking, scoring, statistics, 3D hole previews, handicap linking and Apple Watch GPS. Front, center and back together, hazards and the ad-free experience are Pro features, and the App Store lists several Pro plans with annual options roughly between $50 and $80. Platform: iPhone (iOS 17+), Android, Apple Watch. The catch: the free number is the center of the green, which is fine, but you are looking at it through ads.
6. SwingU: free GPS with lessons on the side
SwingU Basic is free and gives GPS distances and scoring. Plus is $4.99 per month or $59.99 per year and Pro is $99.99 per year; both are mostly about instruction, plays-like distances and the club caddie. Platform: iPhone, Android, Apple Watch. The catch: the free tier is ad-supported and the upgrade prompts are frequent.
7. Simple Golf GPS: actually free, actually no ads, but no course database
Simple Golf GPS, from a small developer, is the one true free-and-clean entry: no ads, no registration, no course downloads. The trade is that it has no course database either. You look at satellite imagery, tap where the green is, and it tells you the distance from your position to the tap. It needs a wireless signal to load the imagery. Platform: iPhone (iOS 13.2+). The catch: you are the mapper, every hole, and no signal means no map.
Free tier comparison
| App | Best for | Price | Platform | Shows distance to | Account required | Ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yardage | The number only | First round free, then $1.99/round, $5.99/mo, $29.99/yr | iPhone | Center of green | No | No |
| Golf Pad GPS | Most generous free tier | Free; Premium about $29.99/yr (check in-app) | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch | Front/middle/back, hazards | Yes | Yes (free tier) |
| Hole19 | Free maps and watch | Free; Premium Pro $12.99/mo or $69.99/yr | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch | Front/center/back, hazards | Yes | Yes (free tier) |
| 18Birdies | Free scorecard and handicap | Free; Premium $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr (listed) | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch | Front/center/back, hazards | Yes | Yes (free tier) |
| Golfshot | Free stats | Free; Pro subscription (annual roughly $50–$80) | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch | Center (free); front/back on Pro | Yes | Yes (free tier) |
| SwingU | Free GPS plus lessons | Free; Plus $59.99/yr; Pro $99.99/yr | iPhone, Android, Apple Watch | Front/center/back | Yes | Yes (free tier) |
| Simple Golf GPS | No ads, no account, tap-the-map | Free | iPhone | Wherever you tap | No | No |
The real cost of free
Count the taps. On a typical free tier, getting a yardage goes: wake the phone, unlock, find the app, open it, wait for the hole map, sometimes dismiss an ad or an upgrade sheet, read the number. Call it five to seven actions and ten seconds, 70 or so times a round. That is a few minutes of your round staring at a screen, which is fine if you enjoy the screen and a drag if you do not. Your playing partners will tell you which you are.
Then there is the data. An account means your rounds, your email and, in ad-supported apps, your usage pattern are stored somewhere other than your phone. Again, not sinister, but not nothing. If that bothers you, the two apps in the table with "No" in both the account and ads columns are the whole list, and only one of them has a course database.
When $1.99 beats free
Here is the arithmetic. A golfer who plays eight rounds a year would pay $15.92 on Yardage's per-round plan for the season, or nothing on a free tier. A golfer who plays twice a month is at $47.76 per round-by-round, which is why the $29.99 annual plan exists. Against that, the paid tiers of the free apps run $30 to $100 a year once you decide the ads have to go.
So the honest answer is: if you are price-first and tap-tolerant, Golf Pad's free tier is hard to argue with. If you want the number on the Lock Screen without signing up for anything, the free round of Yardage will tell you in 18 holes whether that is worth two dollars a round to you. And if you are still weighing an app against a $150 laser, the do you need a rangefinder guide and the cost calculator will settle it faster than this paragraph.
What free apps get right, and the one thing they all share
Every app here gives you a number good enough to pick a club. Your iPhone's GPS is typically within about 5 meters (16 feet) under open sky, per GPS.gov, and that is the floor for all of them, free or paid. The course maps differ in freshness, which is why how courses are mapped matters more than any accuracy claim on a download page. A rebuilt green on a course nobody has remapped will be wrong in every app at once.
Pick a free tier if you like the extras and can live with the trade. Pick the free round if you want to find out whether one number on the Lock Screen is all you ever needed. Either way, you are five minutes from a yardage on the first tee, and that was the point.
Questions
What is the best free golf GPS app?
Golf Pad GPS and Hole19 have the most generous free tiers, with front, middle and back distances plus hazards at no cost, in exchange for an account and ads. Golfshot and 18Birdies give free distances too, with more held back for paid plans. If you want no ads and no account, Yardage gives you a free first round and then charges $1.99 per round, which is a different kind of deal.
Is there a free golf GPS app with no ads?
Simple Golf GPS is free with no ads and no registration, but it is a map you tap rather than a course database, and it needs signal to load imagery. Every major free tier (Golfshot, Hole19, 18Birdies, Golf Pad, SwingU) is ad-supported, and removing the ads is a paid feature. Yardage has no ads but is only free for the first round.
Why do free golf GPS apps need an account?
Because the free tier is the top of a funnel. An account lets the developer store your rounds, email you about upgrades, and in some cases sell advertising against your profile. It also enables real features like syncing to a watch or a handicap. None of that is sinister, but it is why a free app asks for your email before it shows a yardage.
Do free golf GPS apps show the distance to the front and back of the green?
Some do. Golf Pad, Hole19 and 18Birdies include front, middle and back on the free tier. Golfshot's free tier shows the center and holds front and back for Pro. Yardage shows only the center by design. For most amateurs the center is the right target anyway, so the missing numbers matter less than they look.
Can a free golf GPS app work without cell service?
Yes, as long as the course map is already on the phone. GPS positioning needs no signal. Golf Pad offers offline maps on the free tier; others cache the course when you start the round. Yardage includes all 14,987 US courses in the app, so once the course is loaded it works with no signal at all.