The Best Cycling and Mapping Apps for Bikers

Best Cycling and Mapping Apps for Bikers

Whether going on a short ride or traveling far distances by bike, there are many apps out there to help you! As the sport of cycling and adventure bikepacking grows, more niche (and often incredible) tools are being created to help explorers and athletes! Here’s our rundown of our favorite apps to use while out on the road or exploring by bike. 

We focused this article on North America, since that’s where most of our customers are (probably) riding. If you’re planning a trip out of the country though, you may want to look into other options, as different routes and sections of the globe have been charted with more or less accuracy across different platforms.

KOMOOT for android & iOS - $3.99-$29.99

This is my (Casey) favorite bike route planning app! It has offline capabilities and will offer you hiking, mountain biking, road riding, and bike touring maps, with elevation profiles included and a difficulty rating for each provided route. Routes can be saved offline easily and without headache. It makes planning a route simple and fun!

This app (and coordinating website!) will help you piece together roads, trails and everything in between to connect multiple points and create your dream route, using surface type, elevation, and other factors to create a ride that other mapping systems cannot do. It is based out of Europe and has incredible routes there, but it’s US capacities are quite effective as well, and growing. Komoot boasts around 8 million users globally, and the brand has put a lot of money into marketing their app and paying adventure cyclists to ride routes 

The planning mode uses routing algorithms to generate optimal routes between any number of points of your choice, which can be searched, selected on the map, or chosen from categorized listings of nearby places. You’ll need an active internet connection to do this step, but saved routes can then be followed offline. There is also a great desktop site that you can do all the planning in and then sync it to your phone or bike computer. 

In navigation mode, the app simply shows your map and route, as well as offers turn-by-turn audio navigation. The fact that this works offline for pre-planned routes is a big plus. Paying for the regions enables everything related to offline navigation, including keeping your phone in airplane mode to save battery power without giving up turn by turn directions and mapping. Regions are $3.99 each, or buy the whole world for a one-time $29.99 payment.

My favorite bike route planning app! It offers hiking, mountain biking, road riding, and bike touring maps, with elevation profiles included and a difficulty rating for each provided route. It makes planning a route simple and fun!

GOOGLE MAPS for android & iOS

We’d be foolish not to include Google Maps in this list! They are leading the game in the world of maps, and the offline functionality (ability to download a section of maps offline and still receive directions while traversing that area) is very powerful and helpful. Although not perfect, the cycling directions functionality on Google maps is pretty good, and we know a few cyclists who say this is their favorite bike directions app. Without cell service you can’t use the cycling function, but in a pinch, say on a tour or long ride, you can use the offline maps to get walking directions or driving directions (with highways and interstates turned off) to find your way home. 

This is my second favorite app! If I end up changing away from my planned Komoot route, I’ll just turn on Google maps and route a new plan to get home. I also like to use Google maps when planning a short ride around the city. It doesn’t have very good suggestions for getting around the heart of downtown Chicago, but everything else I’ve used it for around Chicago and the outer suburbs has been great! 

You can also use Google Street View to get an idea of the terrain you’ll be facing, or if you need a good idea of what your final biking destination will look like. 

Google Maps is are leading the game in the world of maps, and the offline functionality (ability to download a section of maps offline and still receive directions while traversing that area) is very powerful and helpful.

MAP.ME for android & iOS - free

Maps.Me was bought in 2014 and made all content free of charge. It’s an open source platform, with great data including cycle routes, integrated Uber options, walking, and cycling. It offers turn-by-turn directions and user-friendly search functions that make it easy to find locations for accommodations or restaurants. The interface is well-designed and easy to learn. It’s especially popular in South America, where Google Maps has not yet mapped every road accurately. 

Another perk is that you can look at real time traffic when you’re connected to the Internet. In addition, cycle directions from point A to point B will show you a visual elevation profile, a big benefit and useful tool when planning a bike route! However, some people have had much difficulty with the turn-by-turn directions, and would rather use another app or use their bike computer for that while using this one to get a feel for the lay of the land and surrounding areas. 

The crowd sourcing element will show you points of interest, and you can also save your own and they will be synched up to the database when you are back online and others can see and benefit from your points of interest, too! It also syncs with Booking.com and if you’re offline you can still see the rating and cost estimate of hotels around you. You can also import KML files downloaded from other sources, letting you follow other people’s maps and routes.

Cycle directions from point A to point B will show you a visual elevation profile, a big benefit and useful tool when planning a bike route!

RIDE WITH GPS for android & iOS - free for the online version, $10 a month for the premium package

Bikepacking.com uses this app for all of their guides, which makes it a very useful app if you’re trying to follow one of their routes! You can also search routes that others have completed and get detailed information about what to expect on your ride.  

There is also a nice route planning tool on their website. You can also share rides with friends, and track all your stats. However, this is mostly a tracking app, designed to follow your route, give you speed, distance, climbs, and all the data you want to know. It will work as a routing app if you’re willing to pay the $10 fee a month. RideWithGPS.com is a go-to app for road riders out for the weekend spin, but for long distance bike tourists, the app drains battery and costs a lot of money. It’s been focused specifically to fill the gaps left by Google in terms of offline mapping and routing, but you have to pay to be able to download maps and follow them without data offline.

Bikepacking.com uses this app for all of their guides, which makes it a very useful app if you’re trying to follow one of their routes!

STRAVA - android & iOS - free + paid deluxe version

This is more of a tracking app than a mapping app, but Strava still felt worth mentioning in this round up. You may have heard about Strava, the “social network for athletes” that’s grown massively popular since its launch in 2009. Strava can track runs, swims, and bike rides, as well as other activities, and you can add photos and notes about your workout and upload them for your friends and followers to see.  

You can create routes in the Strava app, but there are no turn by turn directions or audio directions to follow. Your phone will instead show an orange line for the route you planned a a blue line for the route you are taking. However, if you can link to a Garmin bike computer, the bike computer will give you turn by turn directions.

There is also the ability to look at other people’s routes and challenges they’ve marked out in the app and try them yourself! This can be fun when visiting a new place to see where the locals like to ride. The best feature of the app, however, might be the ability to keep track of your activity and see how much riding you’ve been doing over time! It’s neat to see all the riding you’ve been doing add up and look back on your favorite rides. 

Strava can track runs, swims, and bike rides, as well as other activities, and you can add photos and notes about your workout and upload them for your friends and followers to see.

GARMEN and WAHOO apps - android & iOS, free

If you have a bike computer, you probably have already downloaded the coordinating app with that brand to be able to use the full power of your technology. We won’t go into detail here, but it’s a great idea if you have a bike computer to use it for navigation! This can save your phone battery for if you really need it on the road, like if an emergency comes up, or if you need to route to an emergency donut stop at the end of the day! 

CONCLUSION of the Best Cycling and Mapping Apps for Bikers

There are many different types of rides you can take on a bike, and whatever kind of riding you prefer might influence the type of apps you’re looking for as well. I love to do long bike tours and need to know the type of terrain I’ll be facing and what roads and trails are available. If you’re planning short and fast group rides, Google maps might be your best friend. And at the end of the day, the best cycling and mapping apps for bikers are the ones that you actually use! So decide what you want to commit to learning and then get out there on a ride! 

We’d love for you to join us for a ride and let us know what your favorite apps are! We have monthly beginner rides, rides for our BFF Racing team, and sometimes even bike camping trips in the summer! Sign up for our newsletter or follow us on socials to get all the latest news, and join us soon!