Is Komoot worth it?

29,99€ for the world…

I know it’s useful for planning routes, but what else does it do for me?

Is the 30€ a one off payment or yearly subscription?

Worth it… Yay or nay?

No. You can get OS maps free on the internet (Bing Maps) you can use bikehike.co.uk for plotting on an OS map free.

like above, but I use plotaroute.com
find it goods for both road and offroad, sometime use OS to double check a few routes/rights of way,
As sometimes have to turn off autoplot or put to walk.
Plot a route do a auto route planer.
found it v easy to use compared to ride with gps and others etc

ref komoot, i say it also depend if you lazy and your gps unit works with it, then you can sent straight to the unit, not have to download gpx/tcx files then into you GPS unit website etc.

I know a few people who have komoot and they down me a couple of routes, they and myself have been caught out of it taking you down some farm/bridleways when you asked for all road route.

For plotting routes its not ideal HOWEVER its the best “stick your phone on the bars bike satnav app” I have used by far. Having the whole of the world for £30 forever is well worth it.

As podge said, plus keep an eye on it, I think they regularly knock it down to £20.

I got the full map via some free code a while ago when it was new. I’d say it probably is worth it, particularly if you enjoy ‘gravel’ biking, or just plain old XC (for anything else, there’s trail forks) as you can pick the terrain. “Bridleway” can mean anything from tarmac private road to mile after mile of open moorland and bog with no path.

The base map is OSM*, which isn’t really comparable to OS, on the one hand it’s less accurate at knowing rights of way, on the other it’s more accurate at actually representing what’s on the ground (path, track, road, bog, etc). And the way komoot works means I use it entirely differently to OS mapping. If I’m using an OS map it’s spread out on the dining room table and poured over for hours. Komoot you click on a handful of waypoints and it does the rest, I used it a lot when working away, just click on the hotel, pick a couple of interesting hills and villages and let it find a route for each evening.

It also seems to be expanding with tracks/routes that you can link together, like trailforks for roadies and the non-gnarr off-road.

*I use OSM on my Garmin too, I’ve got OS 1:50k but even that is too cluttered for the small resolution. It’s still pretty useless but slightly easier to follow a .gpx on it.

I find Komoot useful as above just because it’s an on the bars sat nav. However I’m not sure there’s that much value in paying for a lot of mapping. Doesn’t basic open source mapping come free? And it’s a frustrating app in some ways, eg editing a route or changing a setting once you’ve started a ride can be problematic.

I bought the full version a couple of years ago which has since been superceded by the subscription service.

I can’t recall a single occasion where something about it hasn’t wound me up, it’s flakey at best, unintuitive and now it’s pretty expensive as well.

It seems to sponsor just about everything because it gets mentioned everywhere but never organically, it’s always supporting this blog or sponsoring some article.

Wait until there’s an offer, then it’s pretty good for xc type routes. Their Garmin IQ app makes syncing planned routes a doodle. I like it a lot. It’s not the maps per se that you are buying but the ability to plan and sync routes outside your free map area.
Of course you can navigate using your phone as well with the komoot app.

I use it to create routes, which I follow on my wahoo bolt. This year I’ve ridden in france, UK and Belgium (living in Belgium). It has been great to plan routes that avoid busy roads in an area I don’t know, but equally I can copy the public routes of other users.

It’s best for road rides and tours. For MTB, it’s variable, the tiny rabbit runs in my local woods are visible but further into Flanders they disappear.

The couple of times that I’ve tried to use it to suggest a route it’s suggested that I ride along the A66 over he Pennines. Technically that is legal, but it’d be bloody stupid. Am I missing a setting that stops the website trying to kill me?

I’ve tried it but never manged to make a usable route with it. Not too sure why people rave about it as I’ve not spoken to anyone who rates it at all!

I mainly use Strava’s route thing, it shows a heat map of how popular each road is with cyclists so you can hopefully pick a sensible route if you know nothing about the area. However, if you have a lot of people TTing on busy dual carriageways, it might still suggest those….

As far as I can see, the only reason it’s popular is because they manage to get their name everywhere by “sponsoring” routes in magazines or on websites.

The few times I’ve tried to use it I’ve found it very fiddly but then I generally plan a route in advance, download it and (mostly) follow that, sometimes leaving the GPS to re-route me if I go off course and sometimes planning shortcuts/bailouts myself. And if I’m doing that, I’ll generally defer to the OS mapping app on my phone. Also, I have a fairly basic GPS, it does not sync to my phone for wireless transfer of routes or anything so until I change that, there’s little point me paying for a system that really works best planning on the app and then sending it wirelessly to a GPS.

I usually plan routes on Strava – their route planning underwent a major upgrade a while ago and as I’m already a premium user on there I don’t really see why I should pay again for what is basically the same set of maps.

I rate it and use it a lot for mostly long 2-3 day gravel adventures. A couple of points to note. Its only as good as the info taken from OpenMaps which allows users to add quite a bit of detail, such as if a section is pubic byway, bridleway, permissive etc. and then surface type on top of that too. If doing MTB type stuff it 95% of the time keeps you off footpaths but you can override this by adding way points. If you select the gravel riding option it seem to favour Sustrans routes. I also went over the Pennines the other weekend and it opted for the Trans Pennine Trail and stayed off the main road. Use the the little highlights icons which usually have user added pictures, this helps to see what that section is like.

My usual way I use it, is select a place to go, let it route, change to the OSMCyle Map layer, then add some way points or drag onto sections I want to do. If there is anything I’m unsure of, usually sections I’ve added, I’ll check it against Google Map Satellite view or OS maps. The komoot map layer also seems to have stiles on it so its good at avoiding them. I’ve found most routes its done for me have been excellent and kept me on the quieter roads when I haven’t been off road.

My partner bought the infinite world-wide coverage when working in Germany for walking. Loads of people have created loads of walking routes, you download the route to your device and navigate, and she shouts at you as you walk. We actually find it really useful for walking and far cheaper (because it lasts for life) than any other route-finding app.

As others have said, it is only as accurate as OpenStreetMap and the data (like right of way) that has been entered, so don’t expect it to be like OS. For walking in our local area during lockdown I have had to do quite a lot of ‘off-route’ additions by cross-referencing the OS map while planning. What I should really do is get an OSM account and add the paths to it but I’m lazy.

If it is a subscription service and if for cycling then there are probably better apps out there, including Strava, ViewRanger etc depending on what is most important to you. For us, being able to rock up anywhere in the world and find a ‘moderate hike’ that we’ll be navigated to and around means it is useful.