The best cycling route planners compared
Compare five route planners on routing, surface detail, offline maps, export and price, and pick the one that fits how you ride.
The short answer
The best cycling route planner depends on how and where you ride. Komoot shows the most surface and way-type detail, Ride with GPS has the deepest planning tools, Strava routes along roads other athletes use, Garmin Connect is free for Garmin owners, and Google Maps suits short trips in towns.
Key takeaways
- Komoot plans anywhere free; offline maps need an unlocked region, the World Pack or Premium.
- Ride with GPS shows every route's paved and unpaved share.
- Strava's route builder needs a subscription, US$79.99 a year in the US (October 2026).
- Garmin Connect is free; Google Maps gives no cycling directions offline.
- Whatever you use, check the surface, gaps and climbs before you ride.
Definitions
- Routing
- How a planner picks the roads between the points you click, using its map data and your settings, such as sport type or surface.
- Popularity routing
- Routing that favours the roads and paths other riders have recorded most often.
- GPX file
- A standard file of a route's points that almost every planner, app and bike computer can read.
How did we compare the route planners?
We judged five planners on what decides whether a route works, checking every feature and price on the makers' own pages on 11 October 2026. The best cycling route planner for you gets these right for your riding. Drawing the line is one step in how to plan a cycling route; checking it is the next.
- Routing: does the line follow roads that suit your bike?
- Surface: can you see where the tarmac ends?
- Offline maps: can you navigate with no signal?
- GPX export: can you take the route elsewhere?
- Price: what's free, and what does more cost?
Prices vary by country, so we give US prices before tax. We don't score routing quality, as we didn't ride one route in all five.
How do the five planners compare?
Komoot and Ride with GPS give the most surface detail; Garmin Connect and Google Maps are free.
| Planner | Routing | Surface | Offline maps | GPX export | US price (Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Komoot | By sport type | Way type and surface breakdown | Unlocked region or Premium | Yes, start region unlocked | Planning free; Premium US$59.99 a year |
| Ride with GPS | Paved or unpaved option | Paved and unpaved share | Basic and Premium | Yes, plus TCX and FIT | Free; Basic US$59.99, Premium US$79.99 a year |
| Strava | Popular or direct, paved or dirt | Paved, unpaved, unspecified | Subscribers | Yes, on the website | US$79.99 a year to build routes |
| Garmin Connect | Popular, follow roads or freehand | Course type only | On your Garmin | Sends to your Garmin | Free |
| Google Maps | Bike lanes, where available | Not shown | No | Not described | Free |
Want this for your own route? Windline shows the wind for every stretch, timed to your pace. Free. Make a free ride page →
Komoot: best for surface detail and touring
Best for: touring, gravel and mixed-surface rides.
Strengths: you choose a sport type, and the planner changes the roads it picks; road cycling favours paved roads. Every route shows its way types (cycleway, road, track, path) and surfaces, from asphalt to cobblestones. Planning is free anywhere, and your first region is free for ever.
Limits: offline maps and navigation need the region unlocked, and so does exporting a GPX from it. Weather on route and the multi-day planner are Premium.
Price (as of October 2026): first region free; World Pack US$29.99 once; Premium US$59.99 a year on the US App Store (€59.99 on komoot.com). See Komoot weather.
Ride with GPS: best for detailed planning and clubs
Best for: club leaders, tour organisers and full control of the line.
Strengths: the free Starter plan plans routes on the website and syncs them to Garmin, Wahoo and other bike computers. Surface Types shows each route's paved and unpaved share from OpenStreetMap, and you can correct a wrongly tagged road. Premium adds custom cues, printed maps and advanced map layers.
Limits: planning in the app, offline maps and voice navigation need Basic. Untagged roads show as "unknown".
Price (as of October 2026): Starter free; Basic US$59.99 a year; Premium US$79.99 a year or US$12.99 a month on the US App Store. See Ride with GPS weather.
Strava: best for roads other riders use
Best for: finding the local favourite roads somewhere new.
Strengths: the route builder can take the most popular or most direct way, minimise or maximise climbing, and prefer paved or dirt. Surface comes from OpenStreetMap, marked paved, unpaved or unspecified. You can export a public route as GPX or TCX.
Limits: creating routes from scratch and offline route maps need a subscription. Export works on the website, not in the app.
Price (as of October 2026): US$79.99 a year or US$11.99 a month in the US, plus taxes; prices are set by country. See how to export a GPX from Strava and Strava route weather.
Garmin Connect and Google Maps: the free options
Both are free: one for Garmin devices, one for quick trips.
Garmin Connect
Best for: Garmin owners who want a course on the device fast.
Strengths: pick a course type (road, mountain or gravel cycling among them), then follow popular routes from other Garmin users, follow the roads, or draw freehand. A round-trip option builds a loop from a distance and direction. Cycling courses show categorised climbs.
Limits: Garmin's guides describe no surface breakdown and no GPX export. Freehand lines don't follow roads (see GPX routes that follow the roads).
Price (as of October 2026): free; Garmin says existing features stay free alongside the optional Connect+.
Google Maps
Best for: commutes and short rides in towns.
Strengths: free and already on most phones. Cycling directions weigh bike lanes, steer away from tunnels, stairs and poor surfaces Google knows of, and show how steep the route is.
Limits: cycling routes work only where Google offers them in your country or region; its last count, in July 2020, was nearly 30 countries. They don't work offline, and Google's help pages describe no GPX download.
Which is the best cycling route planner for you?
Pick by the ride. Komoot suits a gravel weekend in the Netherlands, Ride with GPS a club century in Ohio, and Strava finding local roads on holiday in Girona. Garmin Connect suits a quick course for your Edge, Google Maps a commute in Melbourne.
What should you check after you've drawn the route?
Check it before you trust it: every planner builds on map data that can be wrong or blank. Look for straight lines across fields, unknown surfaces, roads closed to bikes, private gates, and the climbs and wind at your hour. Our guides to how to check a cycling route and how to tell if a road is paved cover each one.
Frequently asked questions
Is Komoot better than Strava for planning a bike route?
It depends on what you need. Komoot shows every route's way types and surfaces, and planning is free. Strava can follow the roads other athletes use most, but creating routes from scratch needs a subscription, US$79.99 a year in the US as of October 2026. Many riders plan in one and record in the other.
What is the best free cycling route planner?
For most riders, Ride with GPS's free Starter plan or Garmin Connect. Ride with GPS lets you plan on its website and sync routes to Garmin, Wahoo and other bike computers. Garmin Connect's course creator is free and sends courses straight to a Garmin. Komoot is free to plan with, but navigation needs an unlocked region.
Can you send a Google Maps cycling route to a bike computer?
Not directly. Google's help pages, checked in October 2026, describe no way to download a route as a GPX file, the format most bike computers read. To follow the route on a Garmin, Wahoo or similar unit, redraw it in a planner that exports GPX, such as Komoot, Ride with GPS or Strava.
Do you need a paid plan to navigate a route offline?
Usually, if you navigate on your phone. Ride with GPS puts offline maps in its Basic plan and Strava in its subscription, and Komoot needs an unlocked region, the World Pack or Premium. Google Maps gives no cycling directions offline at all.
Which route planner tells you if a road is paved?
Komoot, Ride with GPS and Strava all show surface along the route; Strava and Ride with GPS take it from OpenStreetMap. Ride with GPS also gives the paved and unpaved share of the whole route. Where the map has no surface tag, check those stretches in satellite or street-level imagery.
Get the wind for your ride.
Upload a GPX, add your start time and pace, and see the headwind, gusts, rain and heat for every stretch of the route, timed to when you’ll be there. Free for riders.
Make a free ride page →Sources and method
- Strava (2026). Subscription pricing
- Strava Help Center (2026). What features are included in a Strava subscription?
- Strava Help Center (2026). How do I create and manage routes on the Strava website?
- Strava Help Center (2026). Route terrain
- Strava Help Center (2026). How do I follow a route on Strava?
- komoot (2026). komoot Premium
- komoot (2026). Route characteristics
- komoot Help (2026). Export and import routes and activities
- Apple App Store (2026). komoot (US listing)
- Ride with GPS (2026). Plans and pricing
- Apple App Store (2026). Ride with GPS (US listing)
- Ride with GPS Help (2026). Surface types
- Ride with GPS Help (2026). Export file formats
- Garmin (2023). How to build a course in Garmin Connect
- Garmin (2020). Draw your own course through Garmin Connect
- Garmin Newsroom (2025). Elevate your health and fitness goals with Garmin Connect+
- Google Maps Help (2026). Get directions and show routes
- Google Maps Help (2026). Download areas and navigate offline
- Google (2020). Ride easy with new biking features in Google Maps
Every feature and price was checked on 11 October 2026 on the maker's own website, help centre, blog or official US App Store listing. Prices are US prices in US dollars before tax, as Strava, komoot and the app stores set prices by country. Our own fetches were priced in South African rand, so US prices come from the US App Store and Strava's US pricing text. Three help pages (komoot export, Ride with GPS surface types and export formats) refused automated access, so their wording was read from the search engine's copy of those pages. Where a maker's pages did not describe a feature, we say so rather than guess. We did not ride one route in all five planners, so we don't score routing quality. Imperial conversions are rounded.
About the author
Wes Thomson, Founder, Windline. Wes Thomson builds Windline, live wind and weather forecasts timed to when riders reach each stretch of road. He built it for his own 2,093 km tour from Pont Drift to Cape Town, and writes these guides with the same focus: what the wind will do to your ride, and how to plan around it.