Best Tools for Geocaching
Geocaching has kept growing, and the question this post opened with has settled itself. In 2010 the interesting part was that a phone could replace a handheld GPS at all. Now more than three million people play, there are over 3.4 million active caches worldwide, and nobody argues about the hardware. What you pick is a question of how seriously you play.
Start with the official app. Geocaching.com's own app is free and is the right first move, because it handles the account, the logging and the hints without you learning anything. The catch is that the free tier only shows you easier traditional caches; the rest sit behind Premium at around $30 a year. If you find yourself walking past caches the app will not show you, that is the wall you have hit.
On iPhone, Cachly is the one people graduate to. A one-off $4.99, an official Geocaching HQ partner so it uses the same account, and it adds what you want on a long day out: worldwide offline maps, real filtering, CarPlay and a watch app. Offline maps are the actual argument here. Caches are often exactly where there is no signal.
On Android, c:geo is free, open source and carries no ads. It works offline and has a large community database. Less polished than Cachly, considerably more capable than the free official app.
A dedicated handheld still earns its place in two situations: multi-day trips where you cannot spare phone battery, and genuinely remote ground where you want something you can drop. Garmin still makes them. For an afternoon in a city park your phone is better in every way.
The original advice holds up better than the hardware did: do not buy anything until you have found a dozen caches with what is already in your pocket.
Part of the guide to gadgets and power.