Best HGV sat nav apps in the UK (2026): free vs paid, and when a phone isn't enough

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Every week someone on a driver forum asks the same thing. "Is there a free HGV sat nav app?" The replies are always a mix of people recommending Google Maps with a straight face and people who've been wedged under a bridge telling them not to. We've gone through the apps that actually claim truck routing in the UK, what they cost, and where a phone stops being good enough.

Short version: there's no free app we'd trust with your licence. But the paid ones are cheaper than a dedicated unit and worth knowing about.

What free actually gets you

Google Maps, Waze and Apple Maps have no HGV routing. None. You can't enter a vehicle height, weight or length, so they'll route a 4.2m double-decker under a 3.9m railway bridge without blinking. They're brilliant at live traffic and finding a Greggs, which is why so many drivers keep one running alongside the truck unit. As the only thing in the cab, they're a bridge strike waiting to happen.

The one genuinely free app we found with real truck profiles is Eurowag Navigation, which used to be called RoadLords. It's free because a fuel card company pays for it and would like you to fill up at its partner stations. Drivers we've read seem to get on with it for planning. We'd treat it as a backup rather than the thing standing between you and a low bridge, because when its restriction data is wrong, nobody's on the hook.

Beyond that, "free" means a trial. Sygic gives you 7 days of premium features before it asks for money. CoPilot's consumer app gives you 14 days. That's enough to test the routing on your usual run and not much else.

The paid HGV apps worth your money

Sygic Truck & Caravan

The most common recommendation on UK forums, and for good reason. You set up a vehicle profile with height, weight, axle count and hazardous load class, and it routes around restrictions with offline maps stored on the phone. The truck licence is a one-off purchase that's hovered around the £79 mark, with live traffic and speed cameras sold separately as yearly add-ons. Check the in-app price, because Sygic runs offers regularly. Works on Android and iPhone.

The gripes? It's a busy interface with a lot of menus, and as with any offline app the map is only as current as your last update. Still the best app-only option for an owner-driver.

TomTom GO Navigation with the truck plan

TomTom added a truck plan to its GO Navigation app as a subscription. It takes vehicle dimensions, cargo type and UN class restrictions into account, does multi-stop planning, and shows truck-relevant POIs like fuel stations and truck stops ahead of you. It launched on Android first, so check the listing before assuming it's on your iPhone. TomTom hasn't published a fixed UK price we'd want to quote, so treat the app store listing as the source of truth.

If you like TomTom's dedicated units but want it on a phone, this is the closest you'll get. The routing engine is the same family as the GO Expert Plus, which we cover in TomTom vs Garmin HGV sat navs.

CoPilot Truck

CoPilot used to be the go-to app for UK lorry drivers. It's now a Trimble product aimed at fleets, with pricing on request rather than a button in the app store. The consumer CoPilot GPS app still exists with its 14-day trial, but the truck-specific product is something your transport manager buys for the whole operation. If your firm runs it, use it. If you're an owner-driver, you'll spend a long time on hold finding out what it costs.

PTV Navigator

Same story, more so. PTV Navigator is a professional European truck navigation app built on TomTom map data and priced per vehicle per month. It's very good and it's not really sold to individuals. Worth knowing the name if your operator mentions it.

The apps that come up in searches but aren't for you

TruckMap and Trucker Path are American apps built for American roads. They rank in UK search results because "truck" is in the name. Neither has UK restriction data you'd want to bet a licence on. Skip them.

Side by side

App	What it costs	Truck profile	Who it's for
Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps	Free	No	Traffic and finding a bacon roll. Not routing a lorry
Eurowag Navigation	Free	Yes	Backup planning, not primary navigation
Sygic Truck & Caravan	One-off licence, around £79, extras yearly	Yes	Owner-drivers who want the best app-only option
TomTom GO Navigation truck plan	Subscription	Yes	Android drivers who prefer TomTom's routing
CoPilot Truck	Fleet pricing on request	Yes	Fleets, not individuals
PTV Navigator	Per vehicle per month	Yes	Operators running European work

When a dedicated unit beats a phone

We're not anti-phone. But a few things keep coming up in the reviews and forum threads, and they're worth being honest about.

Signal. Phone navigation drops in tunnels and on rural A-roads, which is exactly where a confident next instruction matters most. A dedicated unit like the Garmin dēzl LGV610 keeps its maps on the device and doesn't care.

Heat and vibration. A phone on a windscreen mount in July, running navigation for nine hours, will throttle or shut down. Truck units are built for a cab, and their mounts are designed for it. Your phone mount was designed for a Fiesta.

One device, three jobs. Your phone is also your tacho app, your calls to the office, and your way of photographing the delivery note. A dedicated sat nav means the navigation doesn't disappear every time the transport office rings.

Accountability. This is the big one. Garmin, TomTom and Snooper sell truck routing as the product. Their restriction data is the thing they're paid for and the thing they get sued over. A free app's restriction layer is a nice-to-have on the side.

Against all that, a dedicated unit costs £250 to £400 and an app costs £79 or a monthly fee. For a weekend driver or someone doing occasional 7.5-tonne work, the app might be the right call. For anyone driving a Class 1 or Class 2 all week, we'd buy the unit and keep Sygic on the phone as the backup.

What we'd do

If you only want an app, buy Sygic Truck & Caravan, set your vehicle profile carefully, and turn on the traffic add-on. If you're on Android and already like TomTom, the GO Navigation truck plan is a fair alternative. And if you're driving for a living, put a proper unit in the cab. Our guide to the best HGV and truck sat navs in the UK walks through which one, and the HGV sat nav product list has current Amazon prices for all of them.