Koomot v Ride With GPS

[Aushiker]

For a long time, I have been a Ride With GPS user for planning out touring routes, which I then exported to my Garmin Edge 1030 for use on the bike. I do not tend to use the RWGPS phone app. I tended to pay for a month's premium membership as needed.

I have just started exploring Koomot but have yet to purchase a year's premium membership, which is currently discounted to USD $ 29.99 for the first year.

I am yet to decide whether to stick with RWGPS or move to Koomot. The collections feature in Koomot is particularly appealing.

I would value your thoughts if you have experience with Koomot or both.

[PaulF]

I only use RWGPS to plot routes and it does what I need.

What features does RWGPS lack that you want? Does Komoot have these features? If you move to Komoot what will you lose?

In your position without compelling answers I’d stick with what I know.

[LateStarter]

I don’t keep many rides and I don’t have a lot of routes of my own, mostly use a club library but I notice RWGPS also has a collections facility https://support.ridewithgps.com/hc/en-us/articles/7795141585307 , don’t know how that compares to Koomot (which I don’t use either)

[MattH]

Komoot has discounts very regularly, I wouldn't feel pressured into buying into it now if you're not sure and on a budget. I've also not had any need to go beyond the basic freebie offering (other than buying the whole world map set - at a discount, obviously). At the moment I find it hard to see the value in the premium version, but that may just be how I use it - and I've never even looked at collections, which you say you find interesting, so my experience is probably totally irrelevant!

[Aushiker]

I don’t keep many rides and I don’t have a lot of routes of my own, mostly use a club library but I notice RWGPS also has a collections facility https://support.ridewithgps.com/hc/en-us/articles/7795141585307 , don’t know how that compares to Koomot (which I don’t use either)

Thanks for the heads-up. I had missed that.

[Lightning Phil]

Collections are a bit like folders. Going on a tour, create a collection for it, and add all relevant routes in.  They are also not like folders in that a route can belong to more than one collection. For instance add a route to your 100km route collection, and a particular tour collection. You can also share a collection with others. Collections are available in the free level.

Once collection I have is gritted routes. The routes also belong to collections by distance.

[Aushiker]

Komoot has discounts very regularly, I wouldn't feel pressured into buying into it now if you're not sure and on a budget. I've also not had any need to go beyond the basic freebie offering (other than buying the whole world map set - at a discount, obviously). At the moment I find it hard to see the value in the premium version, but that may just be how I use it - and I've never even looked at collections, which you say you find interesting, so my experience is probably totally irrelevant!

I agree with you. If I change it I will just pay the one-off for all the regions. At the moment I am just playing with the freebie. I have found one niggle and that it does handle taking a non-mapped track and coming back on the same track.

[Pingu]

Here's an example of one of my RWGPS collections for you to check.

[Hot Flatus]

I find RWGPS very easy to use, and there is nothing I need that can't be had on the free version. I tried Komoot, but very quickly couldn't be arsed with it..

[D.A.L.E.]

Komoot is for people who post content.

[IanDG]

I'm a RWGPS user. Tried Komoot and didn't get on with it - don't remember why but I think I found it clunky on route plotting off-road.

[mzjo]

I find RWGPS very easy to use, and there is nothing I need that can't be had on the free version. I tried Komoot, but very quickly couldn't be arsed with it..

I also find RWGPS very easy to use. I also use the app for navigating on the road and love being able to plan on the pc and find my route on the phone without needing to do anything to synchronise it. The only thing it won't do for me is record the trace and any deviations while I'm riding it (Open Runner will do this but the trackpoint penality is too much to pay). Phone battery life is the only thing that will persuade me eventually to have another go at mastering the eTrex.

I looked at Komoot (which has quite a following in some of the more eclectic gravel and endurance riders in France. The trial offer was one free region. The region was in fact one département and the others were quite expensive I thought, especially since I would regularly need six. I stopped there! But the 200 magazine regularly publishes routes that are on Komoot (they just use a flashcode or something similar).

[chrisbainbridge]

I found Komoot more difficult to use for extending a route and just basic plotting on the bike.

I use it for hiking in conjunction with OSMaps.

[Pickled Onion]

I've not tried RWGPS, so can't compare & contrast, but Komoot has a bunch of bugs/idiosyncrasies in it which can be extremely irritating and they don't seem to be in any hurry to fix them. I could list them but might descend into rant territory.

The premium subscription doesn't seem to offer much of any use over pay once for the maps.

[SpaceBadger]

I’ve used RWGPS for many years and had a premium subscription for the last two. It does all I need. I did take a look at Komoot but didn’t see anything I liked. Having to have a Komoot account to look at a ride when someone shares one with me makes me less inclined to entertain the unnecessary data hoovering.

Friends who use Komoot seem to like it because they can put their faith it in creating a route for them. I only use a route I have carefully explored or manually plotted, so I’m not about to head out on a Komoot route based on its algorithms.

[trundle]

Having used both, I much prefer neither: I use https://cycle.travel/ which is run by a keen cycle tourist, who is also a cartologist by day.

The strap line is, "Life is too short to ride bad roads".

I've used Komoot, ridewithgps, and Strava. I found their routes were always compromised in different ways, so would work through them painstakingly to remove the obvious mud lanes, awful main roads, or strange convoluted Town bisections.

It's free to use with some extra features for not much money. I pay £2.99/month to get the ordnance survey maps.

Cycle.travel had the street view feature years before komoot. I also like the geograph feature - which on byways usually has a picture somebody has taken so I can see how muddy it might be, or not.

He really sweats the details about road surface, and folds in traffic data to find the lanes with lowest traffic. That traffic data is probably his magic sauce for building really nice routes, that seldom need tweaking.

cycle.travel is the only app I frequently route, then go. It throws up the least number of, "Why did you pick this?", objections.

I'm in danger of being a fanbois - but it's not that well known, and I consider it head and shoulders above the others for routes with nice lanes.

[quixoticgeek]

I used to have RwGPS but when Strava started charging for route planning, I stopped paying for RwGPS.

I also have Komoot. I like the collections feature, it makes planning big trips so so so so much easier. I also like that it actually knows what a ferry and a movable bridge is. It also makes it very easy to share stuff with other people.

J

[SpaceBadger]

Can you share stuff without the other person needing an account to look at it?

[grams]

Komoot lets you view other people’s routes but you can only download a GPX if you have an account and you’ve paid for (or otherwise have access to) the relevant region. It definitely has walled garden tendencies.

RideWithGPS lets  anyone anonymously grab a GPX from any public route, with the caveat that you (maybe) won’t get the waypoints/POI if you aren’t a paying member. Very old school public internet.

[JonBuoy]

There is an Android app that I have used that lets you save a GPX from Komoot.  I think you may need to have a free account but you definitely don't need the relevant region.

[grams]

The official Komoot app or a third party scraper?

[JonBuoy]

Third party: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spark71.komoottogpx&hl=en_GB&gl=US