EVE Online Wormhole Mapper Comparison:
Nexum vs Pathfinder vs Tripwire vs Wanderer

An honest look at the leading wormhole mapping tools for EVE Online.

Last updated 27 May 2026 · maintained by the Nexum team

If you scout or live in J-space, a good wormhole mapper is essential. Nexum is a modern, open-source mapper — use the free hosted version or self-host your own — that covers the full workflow: real-time chain mapping, signatures and mass tracking, and then goes further with a proper wormhole rolling calculator, whole-region map seeding, standings & sov overlays and Discord alerts. Below it's compared with the other common choices — Tripwire, Pathfinder and Wanderer. We make Nexum, so naturally we think it's the strongest pick for most corps — but we've kept the competitor facts accurate and linked so you can judge for yourself.

At a glance

Core comparison. Verified May 2026 — competitor features change; follow the links to confirm.
  Nexum Pathfinder Tripwire Wanderer
Open source Yes Yes Yes Yes (MIT)
Self-hostable Yes (Docker) Yes Yes (Docker) Yes (Community Edition)
Managed cloud option Yes — free public instance at eve-nexum.com, plus self-host Community-run instances Public host closed 2024 Yes — official “Wanderer Cloud”, managed by the devs
EVE SSO login Yes Yes Yes Yes
Real-time multi-user sync Yes Yes Yes Yes
Signature paste & tracking Yes Yes Yes Yes
Wormhole mass / rolling Dedicated rolling calculator (±10% variance, stranding warnings) Mass status tracking Mass status tracking Mass status tracking
Tech stack TypeScript · React · Node · Postgres PHP · MySQL PHP · MySQL Elixir · React · Postgres
Cost Free Free Free Free (hosted & self-host)

Where Nexum goes further

All four handle the basics well. These are the capabilities Nexum builds in that the others generally don't offer as documented, out-of-the-box features — the reasons corps choose it:

Nexum's distinctive features. “—” means it isn't a documented, built-in headline feature of those tools (features change — use the links below to verify).
Feature Nexum Pathfinder · Tripwire · Wanderer
Wormhole rolling calculator — models the ±10% mass variance, cold/hot roller with side tracking, and warns before a pass strands your roller or collapses the hole Basic mass-status tracking
Seed a map from an entire EVE region — Dotlan-style auto-layout with every in-region stargate pre-drawn
Merge two maps into one, de-duplicating systems and folding in signatures, structures and notes
Discord notifications — inbound K162 and new-connection alerts pushed to your channel, even when no one's watching the map
Standings & sovereignty overlay driven by your own EVE contacts — hostile/friendly tinting across the chain, killboard and sov halos
Live map-viewer presence — a dot for everyone viewing the map, not just your fleet — plus fleet positions Fleet positions vary
Environmental intel layers — null-sec storms, A0 suns, ice belts, chain wormhole effects, and incursion / insurgency proximity alerts
Corp suite — roles, shared maps, admin dashboard, users & systems reports, audit log, and per-character attribution Varies

The tools in detail

Tripwire

The classic, signature-first wormhole mapper a huge share of J-space players grew up with. It's fast, focused, and the workflow is muscle memory for veterans. The long-running public instance (tripwire.eve-apps.com) shut down in mid-2024, but Tripwire is open source, so it lives on through self-hosting and community-run instances.

Best for: groups who want the familiar Tripwire signature workflow and are willing to self-host. Source →

Pathfinder

The most mature and feature-dense self-hosted mapper. It pioneered a lot of what wormholers expect — rich wormhole data, Thera connections via EVE-Scout, a live zKillboard killstream, a plugin API and more. The trade-off is operational weight: it's a PHP/MySQL stack that takes more effort to set up and keep updated than a single-container app.

Best for: groups who want maximum features and don't mind running a heavier stack. GitHub →

Wanderer

The modern challenger, billed as a light, fast alternative to Pathfinder. Built on Elixir/Phoenix with a React front end and open-sourced under MIT, it's the only one of the four with an official managed cloud version — so a group can use it without running any infrastructure — while still offering a free self-hosted Community Edition.

Best for: groups who want a polished UI and the option to skip self-hosting entirely. Website → · GitHub →

Nexum

A modern, open-source, self-hosted mapper built corp-first. It covers the core workflow — real-time collaborative mapping (live edits for everyone on the map), signature paste with wormhole aging, and connection tracking — and layers on extras aimed at running a corp's chain:

It runs as a small Docker stack (React + Node + Postgres) and logs in with EVE SSO — use the free public instance at eve-nexum.com, or self-host your own. As the newest of the four it has a smaller community.

Best for: corps who want a modern mapper with rolling, region seeding, standings and Discord built in — hosted for you or self-hosted. Get started now → · GitHub →

Which should you choose?

For most corps setting up fresh, we'd start with Nexum. It's modern, stands up in minutes with Docker, and bundles the rolling calculator, region seeding, standings overlays and Discord alerts you'd otherwise have to piece together — all in a real-time, collaborative map. Get started now and see for yourself.

The others are good tools too, and may fit better in specific cases:

Frequently asked questions

What is the best wormhole mapper for EVE Online?

It depends on your group, but for a modern self-hosted setup we'd recommend Nexum — it bundles the most built-in features (a wormhole rolling calculator, whole-region map seeding, standings overlays and Discord alerts) in a real-time, collaborative map. Tripwire is still the classic signature tool, Pathfinder is the most mature and feature-dense option, and Wanderer adds a managed cloud version.

Is Tripwire still available?

The long-running public instance shut down in mid-2024, but Tripwire is open source, so you can self-host it or use a community-run instance.

Is Pathfinder still in development?

No — not actively. The original Pathfinder (by exodus4d) has had no new release since 2020, and the community fork that continued it last saw a commit in early 2025, with no release since. Active development has effectively stopped — one of the reasons newer, actively-maintained mappers like Nexum exist.

What is a good open-source alternative to Pathfinder and Tripwire?

Nexum and Wanderer are both modern open-source mappers. Nexum is self-hosted with EVE SSO, real-time collaboration and corp tools; Wanderer is MIT-licensed and offers self-hosting plus a managed cloud version.

Can I self-host an EVE Online wormhole mapper?

Yes — Nexum, Pathfinder, Tripwire and Wanderer's Community Edition can all be self-hosted. Nexum runs with Docker on Postgres and logs in with EVE SSO.

Are these wormhole mappers free?

Yes — all four are free. Pathfinder and Tripwire are self-hosted; Nexum and Wanderer each offer both a free public hosted version and self-hosting.

Nexum is free. Use the hosted version or self-host your corp's chain in minutes.

Get started now   Get it on GitHub