Google Maps vs Apple Maps vs Waze for multi stop days
Comparisons of these three usually argue about traffic data and map detail. For a day with a dozen addresses that is the wrong argument. What decides it is how many stops each one takes and whether anything puts them in a sensible order.
Short answer
For a single trip, pick on traffic and habit: Waze for live road reports, Google Maps for coverage, Apple Maps if you live in the Apple ecosystem. All three are good.
For a day of many addresses the ranking is decided by two numbers:
| Stops per route | Puts them in order | |
|---|---|---|
| Waze | 1 | no |
| Google Maps | 9 plus your start | no |
| Apple Maps | up to 14 along the route | no |
Apple Maps takes the longest list. None of the three decides the sequence. That second column is the same for all of them, and it is the one that costs you miles.
The one question that decides it
Ask what problem you actually have:
- "What is the best way to get there?" Any of the three. This is the problem they were built for, and they solve it well.
- "Which of these fourteen places should I go to first?" None of the three. Not badly, not approximately. They do not attempt it.
Most comparison articles never separate those two questions, which is why they end up arguing about map detail while the reader loses half an hour a day to backtracking.
Google Maps for a working day
Nine stops plus your start. Stops are added before the destination and driven in the order you typed. The drag handles let you reorder by hand, and the desktop site is the easier place to do it.
Strong points for this use: the best place data, so a badly written address still usually lands correctly, and the route moves to your phone cleanly.
Weak point: ten addresses is a short day, and the moment you go over you are running two plans that never see each other.
Apple Maps for a working day
Up to fourteen stops along a route, which is the most generous of the three, and multi stop has been there since iOS 16. Routes built on a Mac send to the phone, and stops can be added by voice mid drive.
Strong point: the extra headroom genuinely covers more real days than Google Maps does.
Weak point: the longer the list it accepts, the more the missing sequencing hurts. Fourteen stops in typed order is where the miles really start to add up. And in CarPlay a stop cannot be removed once added.
Waze for a working day
One stop. That is the whole story, and it is documented behavior rather than a limitation to work around.
Strong point: nothing else matches it for knowing what the road ahead is doing in the next ten minutes.
Weak point: it cannot hold your day. Used for a delivery run it becomes a sequence of separate trips with a decision to make at every doorstep.
Where MapQuest fits
Worth naming because it breaks the pattern: MapQuest's web route planner takes 26 stops and will reorder them, via a checkbox that optimizes for shortest time or shortest distance.
It is a desktop web page, addresses go in one at a time, and there is nothing to hand a driver. But if the question is purely "which free map service will sequence my stops", MapQuest is the answer among the classic four.
What none of the big three do
Seven addresses in the order the jobs came in run 57 miles. The same seven in a computed order run 39 miles, about 31 percent shorter.
No amount of traffic data closes that gap, because it is not a traffic problem. Every one of those legs can be routed perfectly and the day still takes an extra hour, because the order was never the thing being optimized.
How to pick in ten seconds
- One destination, bad traffic: Waze.
- One destination, unfamiliar area: Google Maps.
- Up to five stops, iPhone: Apple Maps.
- Six to fourteen stops in a fixed sequence: Apple Maps, or Google Maps if you can fit it.
- A list where the order is yours to choose: compute the order first, then drive it in whichever of the three you like.
FAQ
Which app allows the most stops?
Of the three, Apple Maps, with up to 14 stops along a route. Google Maps allows nine plus your start, and Waze allows one.
Does any of them optimize the stop order?
No. All three drive the list in the order you entered it. Among the wider set of free map services, MapQuest is the one that will reorder stops.
Which has the best traffic data?
Waze is generally preferred for live incidents because its reports come from drivers a few minutes ahead of you. Google Maps has the broader historical picture.
Can I plan in one app and drive in another?
Yes, and for a long day that is the sensible pattern: decide the order somewhere that takes the full list, then drive the stops one at a time in your usual app.
Is Apple Maps good enough for delivery work?
For up to fourteen stops in a sequence you have already decided, yes. If choosing the sequence is part of the job, it will not help you there.
Why not just use the app with the most stops?
Because capacity and sequencing are different things. Fourteen stops in the order you typed can easily take longer than nine stops that were properly ordered.