The pledge, in writing
The Muddy Tires map will be free forever. Safety features — the live Canadian wildfire overlay, weather alerts, Crown-land and Provincial-Park tenure shading, cell-carrier coverage (when shipped), POI search and filtering, POI details, reviews, the per-field provenance API (/api/poi/<id>/provenance — source, observed-at, and confidence for every field on every spot, citable from outside the app), basic offline view of your saved POIs, and photo uploads — will never be paywalled.
This commitment is signed by the operator, published at the canonical URL https://muddytires.ca/pledge.html, and recorded in this site's public git history. Any future change to this commitment requires changing this page, which is publicly diffable and citable.
How we fund it
A free map on a Canada-wide scope is not a charity — it is a deliberate revenue mix that funds the runway without ever moving the map behind a paywall. Three lanes, in priority order:
- Amazon affiliate gear guides (live). 47 product guides covering vanlife kit, solar & lithium electrical, connectivity (Starlink, cell boosters, VPN), kitchen, and overlanding hardware. Honestly marked sponsored per the FTC/Competition Bureau standard. Every link is a small commission at no extra cost to the buyer; the buyer pays Amazon's standard price either way. Browse them at /guides.
- B2B verified-listing tier (planned, free-claim-first). Campsite operators, outfitters and provincial-park concessions will be able to claim, verify and add analytics to their own listings. Claim is free; verified + analytics + featured-in-region placement is paid. No paid placement ever displaces a free safety overlay or moves an unverified listing above a verified one based on price.
- Optional PRO tier (only if lanes 1–2 plateau). A $19/yr "Trail PRO" capped at offline region tile packs and saved-trip exports only — always cheaper than Park4Night's €9.99, Sēkr's $59, The Dyrt's $59.99 or Campendium's $59.99, and structurally incapable of paywalling anything in the safety covenant above. Trigger condition (specific so it cannot drift into an escape hatch): 18-month rolling revenue per monthly active user from lanes 1+2 stays below operating cost for two consecutive quarters.
No data sale lane exists. The mailing list is used to send you guides and road intel, nothing else. (See About for the same commitment in the longer-form trust narrative.)
What "free forever" specifically covers
- Live map view, all zoom levels, no account required
- POI search and category filtering
- Canadian wildfire overlay (CWFIS hotspots + perimeters)
- Environment Canada weather alerts
- Crown-land & Provincial-Park tenure shading
- Cell-carrier coverage overlay (when shipped)
- POI detail pages and reviews
- Provenance API (every claim's source + freshness + confidence)
- Basic offline view of saved POIs
- Photo uploads to community POIs
- Downloadable region tile packs (offline raster + vector packs sized to drive)
- Trip-planner advanced features (multi-stop optimisation, GPX/PDF export)
- Multi-account team workspaces (operator-level analytics)
PRO ceiling: $19/yr. Structurally cannot include any safety overlay in the left column, by the terms of this pledge.
How the category prices safety today
Every paid competitor sells the safety overlays we keep free as the headline feature of their PRO tier. The table below is pulled from the operator-tested pricing pages on 2026-06-22 — cells re-checked within 7 days when a competitor changes price.
| Product | Price | Offline maps | Wildfire overlay | Crown-land / public-land tenure | Cell-carrier coverage | Login required to view map? | Paywalls safety overlays? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muddy Tires (muddytires.ca) | $0 — optional $19/yr PRO ceiling, offline packs only | Basic offline view free; downloadable region packs may become PRO | Free (live CWFIS) | Free (BC + ON live, AB/QC in progress) | Free when shipped | No | No |
| iOverlander 2 | Free tier + paid features [source] | PRO | None | None | None | Yes (account for full app) | Yes — offline gated |
| Park4Night | €9.99 / yr Premium [source] | Premium | None (Europe-only) | None | None | Yes for full detail | Yes — offline gated |
| Sēkr | $59 / yr PRO [source] | PRO | PRO (smoke/AQI overlay) | PRO (public-land filter) | PRO | Yes | Yes — safety overlays gated |
| The Dyrt | $59.99 / yr PRO [source] | PRO | PRO (wildfire + smoke) | PRO (free-camping public-land filter) | PRO (cell-coverage maps) | Yes | Yes — wildfire + cell gated |
| Campendium | $59.99 / yr Roadpass Pro [source] | Pro | Pro (wildfire + smoke) | Pro (BLM/USFS shading) | Pro (cell-coverage by carrier) | Yes | Yes — wildfire + cell gated |
| DirectionRV / DirectionVR | Free (no disclosed PRO tier) [source] | Free (app-bundled) | None | None | None | No | No — but no safety overlays exist to gate |
Pricing pages re-verified on 2026-06-22 (DirectionRV row added 2026-06-23). Source URLs are recorded in each cell's data-source-url attribute and inspectable in page source. If a competitor changes price, this table updates within 7 days.
FAQ
What if you change your mind? We have committed publicly on this page, with a dated commit in the public repository history. Changing the pledge means changing this page, which is publicly diffable and citable. Any future Muddy Tires that paywalls safety has to first break this page — and will be held accountable to every press article, B2B contract, and investor diligence document that cited it.
How can a free map afford to stay free? Affiliate gear guides cover the largest share today (47 guides currently published, more being added by category gap — cell boosters, Starlink Roam, lithium battery rigs). Planned B2B verified-listing revenue will scale as Canadian operator supply is onboarded. The optional $19/yr PRO ceiling exists as a backstop, with a specific trigger condition above — not as a quiet roadmap intent.
Why a separate page instead of a line in About? Because a buried promise is not a binding promise. Pricing-as-moat works only when the commitment is publicly, durably and specifically committed at a canonical URL. Marketing copy drifts; a dated commit does not.
Are competitor prices honest? Each row above carries a source URL and an access date. The pricing is what shows on each competitor's own pricing page on 2026-06-22. If you find a mistake, email [email protected] and we will correct within 7 days — the bar for criticising competitors is higher than the bar for criticising ourselves.
Press & quote-ready language
Journalists, B2B partners and investors are welcome to quote any of the language below verbatim, with attribution to Muddy Tires and a link to this page. No prior permission required.
Signed
Questions, corrections, or B2B / press enquiries: [email protected].