I'm about to purchase one of these. Are the two comparable for navigation abilities? I'm making my first trip to the bay and want good ability to read contours out of whichever I buy, for both bay and nearshore. Fishing hot spots seems to have much more in the way of angling aids, and it's also much cheaper. It's important to me to have as much hazard detail as possible, as well. So how comparable overall are they in both the fishing information and the navigation of bay and coastal waters out to 30 miles? Which would you recommend out of the two? The price is always an item, but I won't let the difference here keep me from purchasing the better product.

Either or will get you where you are going, most importantly as any angler on the coast will tell you, no navigation equipment can substitute for experience on the water.

Absolutely, unfortunately to end up with experience I have to start somewhere. Have plenty of experienced anglers around me to help though. Trying to give myself the best chance to succeed with quality assistive products.

What sonar do have? I would rec the Navionics +. If your sonar is capable of running SonarCharts it will be a bonus. Go to the web app and click on the Nav + tab and it will show you the are covered.
http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp