Cycling's best free and paid apps: There's a lot more than just Strava

Image shows a rider using a cycling app.

(Image credit: Future)

Jump to category:

Best cycling apps (free and paid upgrade)
Best free cycling apps

last updated 6 April 2023

With at least one app for pretty much everything these days, if not more, it’s often difficult to work out which ones are best suited to your needs. Whether you want to record your ride, monitor your training, improve your performance through nutrition, or hassle your local city council to improve the roads, there’s something to suit.

We’ve picked out a selection of the best and, although most are designed to be used on your smartphone, many also integrate with cycling computers and smartwatches, or can be used on your desktop computer.

The segment leaderboards are a key paid feature. You can compare your times to friends, followers, pros, and to your previous times, on specific climbs or sections. You can see exactly where you rank with leaderboard percentage ranking, which allows you to filter rankings by age, gender or weight. 2024 saw an overhaul of the segments feature, in which duplicate segments were removed, providing a nicer user experience.

Simply select your discipline (e.g. road, MTB, run or hike), pick your start and endpoints, and Komoot will provide the distance, elevation, profile, estimated time to complete, and more. It’ll show you the road surface, and which routes are suitable for different bikes. Discover, available on desktop, IOS and Android, allows you to search for a route anywhere, based on a number of filters including surface, length and elevation.

It turns your phone into an incident detection, prevention, and easy-to-use near-miss reporting device and it’s gaining popularity with cyclists. If a user is involved in an incident, Flare gives them 30 seconds to move or respond. If there is no response, or an SOS is activated, a location is sent to emergency contacts so help can arrive quickly. An SOS can be sent any time that a user is feeling threatened or vulnerable.

The incidence avoidance network means that users are alerted to the presence of anyone who is potentially in trouble, so they can exercise increased caution. A Hazards feature sends automatic warnings if you’re approaching something that could cause an incident. This might be debris in the road, ice, or a pothole. It works in reverse too, so any user can report a hazard for the protection of others.

Upgrading to Premium unlocks a whole host of features: web-based tools and all the mobile app benefits. It’s excellent for in-depth ride planning and post-ride analysis. You get turn-by-turn navigation on the mobile app, offline maps, and access to the mobile route planner with heatmaps, which highlight popular paths, and much more. There are clear, easy-to-read maps, even for gravel roads and trails, and you can modify chosen routes as you go.

It's extremely versatile and offers three different plans: Basic (free), Pro and Pro+. Basic allows you to plan and print routes, gives access to a worldwide travel guide, and lets you connect to other community members. With Pro and Pro+ there's the ability to have live-tracking (signal dependent) and to save unlimited offline maps, so no signal, no problem. Pro+ expands map access and, if you're into winter sports, you can take advantage of the snow depth feature.

This comprehensive fitness app utilises the GPS function your phone to create over 250 statistics to help you log and improve your cycling performance (or choice of other activity, such as running, hiking, or indoor training). It records speed, time, distance and has an extensive array of workouts to follow, making it a great virtual training partner. Navigation is via Google or Apple maps and Cyclemeter will record your workout.

Hexis uses the Carb Coding™ system, which cleverly incorporates billions of data points to work out your exact carbohydrate and energy requirement and create a fuelling plan that’s completely personalised. It takes into account how you train, your goals and your lifestyle. Hexis claims that using an intelligent fuelling strategy such as theirs provides a 9.8% increase in performance within four weeks, on average (although I’m not sure how exactly performance was measured in these studies).

Aside from the fuel planning feature, the app provides insights into your energy status, with End of Day Target giving you your ideal energy balance, based on your weight goals. Kcals and Macros provides your calorie, carb, protein and fat targets for each day, which will depend on workouts planned, goals, biometrics and lifestyle. It will also take into account the previous day and the potential need for recovery support.

The weather plays a big part in any cyclist's life, and most will have a quick scan of the weather before leaving for a ride, ensuring they can select the right clothing. That may mean pulling on one of the best waterproof cycling jackets when prolonged rain is about or taking a packable rain jacket for more changeable days, or, at the other extreme, applying cycling sunscreen before riding in hot weather.

Luke Friend has worked as a writer, editor and copywriter for twenty five years. Across books, magazines and websites, he's covered a broad range of topics for a range of clients including Major League Baseball, the National Trust and the NHS. He has an MA in Professional Writing from Falmouth University and is a qualified bicycle mechanic. He has been a cycling enthusiast from an early age, partly due to watching the Tour de France on TV. He's a keen follower of bike racing to this day as well as a regular road and gravel rider.

Best cycling apps with free version and paid upgrade

Best free cycling apps

Get The Leadout Newsletter

Useful links

Racing

buyers-guides

Reviews