Best Free Golf Apps for 2026

The word "free" does a lot of work in the golf app market. It shows up in the App Store description, in the headline of every roundup article, and in the conversation on the first tee when someone asks what you're using for GPS.

What it frequently doesn't mean is what you, the consumer, hope it means.

Most "free" golf apps are simply demos. The free tier gives you enough to understand what the app does and not quite enough to make it worth keeping. The digital caddie app functions like GPS work. Scorecard is there. And then the thing you actually want, whether that's stat tracking, strokes gained, club recommendations, or green maps, sits behind a paywall at $8 to $15 a month. You downloaded a free app, and now you're looking at an annual subscription.

That model isn't misleading, exactly. It's just worth understanding before you commit to an app ecosystem. If you're searching for a free golf GPS app with no subscription required, the answer depends almost entirely on which features you actually need on the course, and which ones you can live without. This guide covers the seven most relevant golf apps in 2026, what each one actually gives you for free, and where the wall is. Some of the walls are reasonable. Some of them will annoy you by the third round.

18Birdies

18Birdies is one of the most downloaded golf apps in the world, and the free tier is genuinely good — which is exactly how a freemium model is supposed to work. GPS yardages to front, center, and back of the green across a massive course database, a digital scorecard, basic handicap tracking, and a social layer where you can connect with playing partners and share rounds. The interface is polished. The hole maps are accurate. If all you want is a GPS and scorecard, the free version of 18Birdies does the job without complaint.

The wall shows up when you want to do more with your data. Strokes gained analysis, the AI swing analyzer, advanced shot tracking, and 3D green maps are all Premium features at $9.99/month or $79.99/year. The free tier tracks your stats in the basic senses, fairways, greens, putts, but the analysis that tells you what to do with those numbers costs extra.

For the golfer who just wants reliable GPS and a scorecard, free 18Birdies is a legitimate answer. For the golfer who wants to understand their game, it's the beginning of a conversation about upgrading.

What's free: GPS, scorecard, basic stats, handicap tracking, social features What costs money: Strokes gained analysis, AI swing analyzer, advanced shot tracking, 3D green maps ($9.99/month)

TheGrint

TheGrint's identity is handicap tracking, and that's exactly what the free tier delivers. GHIN-certified scoring, meaning rounds posted through the app count toward your official World Handicap System index. Clean handicap history, transparent differential calculations, and the GrSk community ranking system that lets you compare yourself against other active TheGrint users. For competitive amateurs who need their handicap to be official — club events, tournaments, anything WHS-governed — TheGrint free is a complete solution.

The GPS is functional but not the strongest in the field. Front, center, back yardages, basic hazard distances, overhead hole view. It works. It's not the reason people download TheGrint.

The stat tracking free tier covers the basics; deeper analytics and premium GPS features are behind TheGrint Plus ($7.99/month) and TheGrint Premium ($14.99/month). The strokes gained analysis that serious amateurs want lives in the Premium tier.

Worth noting: TheGrint free is one of the better free tiers in the market for what it does — if what you need is certified handicap posting, you're not getting upsold on that. The wall shows up when you want the analytics to go deeper.

What's free: GPS, scoring, GHIN-certified handicap posting, basic stats, GrSk community rankings.

What costs money: Advanced analytics, strokes gained, premium GPS features ($7.99-$14.99/month)

SwingU

SwingU calls itself the world's #1 free golf GPS app, and the GPS is genuinely strong — accurate yardages, a clean interface, and a club recommendation feature that factors in wind and slope on the premium tier. The free version gives you GPS distances across 40,000+ courses and a basic scorecard. It works well as a yardage tool, and the Apple Watch integration is smooth if you prefer your distances on your wrist instead of your phone screen.

The analytics and coaching content are where SwingU earns its subscription revenue. Strokes gained analysis, AI-powered distance recommendations that factor in conditions, and access to instruction content from Top-100 teachers are all Clubhouse+ features at $9.99/month. The free tier has enough to play a round, but the improvement-focused golfer will hit the wall quickly.

SwingU's free tier is best for the golfer who primarily wants reliable GPS without a lot of additional complexity. Clean, fast, accurate. The instruction content behind the paywall is genuinely good if coaching is part of what you want from an app.

What's free: GPS yardages, basic scorecard, basic stats

What costs money: Strokes gained, slope/wind-adjusted distances, coaching content, advanced analytics ($9.99/month)

Golfshot

Golfshot has been around since the early days of smartphone golf apps and has the feature depth to show for it. The free tier gives you GPS yardages and a basic scorecard. The augmented reality flyovers, 3D green maps, auto-hole recognition, and club recommendations are all in the paid tier at $9.99/month or $49.99/year.

The voice caddie feature — where the app reads your yardages aloud so you can leave your phone in your pocket — is one of Golfshot's most useful features for golfers who don't want to be staring at a screen mid-round. That's a premium feature. So is the Watch integration at a useful level.

Golfshot's free tier is more limited than some others on this list. If you're primarily evaluating it as a free app, the wall comes relatively fast. As a paid app, it's one of the more complete packages available. Think of free Golfshot as a long trial rather than a complete product.

What's free: GPS yardages, basic scorecard

What costs money: Augmented reality, 3D green maps, voice caddie, club recommendations, auto-hole recognition ($9.99/month)

GolfLogix

GolfLogix's claim to fame is its green reading technology — 3D maps of greens that show slope and break, designed to help you read putts the way a caddie with a green book would. That feature is premium. But the free tier is more complete than you might expect: GPS distances to the green and hazards across 36,000+ courses, a basic scorecard, and fundamental stat tracking, all free. Hole flyovers are a premium add-on.

The green maps are the reason serious golfers pay for GolfLogix. If you've ever wanted to know the actual slope of a green before you read a putt, the 3D feature is legitimately useful — not just gimmicky. At $12.99/month, it's positioned as a premium product for golfers who are serious about shaving strokes with better putting strategy.

Free GolfLogix is a capable GPS and scorecard app with decent stat tracking. The technology gets more interesting when you pay for it, but the foundation is solid.

What's free: GPS, scorecard, basic stats

What costs money: 3D green maps, slope-adjusted distances, hole flyovers ($12.99/month)

Hole19

Hole19 is a clean, well-designed GPS app with a free tier that covers the basics competently: GPS distances, digital scorecard, basic stat tracking, and a social feed where you can follow friends and share rounds. The interface is one of the more intuitive in the market — quick to set up, fast to navigate mid-round, doesn't make you dig through menus to find a yardage.

Premium ($6.99/month) unlocks auto-hole recognition, shot tracking, club recommendations, and augmented reality features. The free tier is a legitimate daily driver if your needs are GPS and scorecard. The pricing is among the more accessible in the market if you do want to upgrade.

What's free: GPS, scorecard, basic stats, social features

What costs money: Auto-hole recognition, shot tracking, club recommendations, augmented reality ($6.99/month)

GolfN

GolfN approaches "free" differently than every other app on this list, and the difference is structural rather than marginal.

The full digital caddie feature set: GPS yardages across 40,000+ courses, digital scorecard, complete stat tracking, and AI-powered club recommendations — is free. Not a 30-day trial. Not a crippled version to push you toward premium. The caddie features that other apps charge $8-$15 a month for are GolfN's baseline.

The AI club recommendations are worth singling out because they're not a standard free-tier feature anywhere else. After 10-15 rounds, GolfN is suggesting clubs based on how you actually hit them — your distances, your tendencies, your history on the app. On a 158-yard uphill par 3, it'll tell you to hit more club than the yardage suggests because it knows your 7-iron. That's a feature 18Birdies charges for.

Handicap tracking is manual for now: you enter your current index and the app uses it for course handicap calculations during rounds. GHIN integration is on the roadmap. If you need certified handicap posting for tournament or club play, TheGrint or GHIN is still the answer for that specific need (which must be purchased from a USGA-sanctioned official home club).

Then there's the thing no other app on this list has: rewards. Every round you log earns points. Check-ins at courses earn points. Daily activities, challenges, social engagement all earn. Those points are redeemable in GolfN's marketplace for equipment and apparel from brand partners, including Cobra, Bettinardi, and L.A.B. Golf. A free user who plays twice a week will accumulate enough points over a season to redeem for real gear — a sleeve of balls, a hat, a training aid, potentially more — without ever paying a membership fee. They're just playing the rounds they were going to play anyway. MORE: How GolfN works

Paid tiers — Green ($16/month), Silver ($50/month), Gold and above — multiply your earning rate rather than unlocking features you don't otherwise have. That's the inversion of the standard freemium model. You're not paying to access the full product. You're paying to earn faster from a product that's already complete.

What's free: Full GPS, full scorecard, full stat suite, AI club recommendations, manual handicap tracking, rewards earning

What costs money: Accelerated rewards earning rate, expanded marketplace perks ($16-$50/month)

Best Free Golf Apps: The Final Summary

If you run all six free tiers side by side, the pattern is consistent: most of these apps give you GPS and a scorecard for free, then charge you for the features that actually help you improve. The free tier is a door. The analytics, the shot tracking, the club recommendations — that's what's inside, and it costs money to get there.

GolfN is the exception. The full feature set is free, and the rewards program means the app gives you something back for every round, rather than waiting for you to upgrade.

For golfers who need official GHIN handicap certification: run The Grint (or GHIN app) alongside GolfN. Both are free at the base tier. Use The Grint to post scores officially, use GolfN for everything else (until GolfN's GHIN integration is complete).

For everyone else: there's no version of "I want a free golf app with real features" where GolfN isn't the starting point in 2026.

Download GolfN free and start earning on your next round. Get it on Apple and Play Store.