There is an 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 a best cycling app for everything!
Over the years, our team and experts here at Cycling Weekly have probably used just about every app going. Be that through testing the latest and greatest product or through their own interests and needs. From that, we’ve picked out the best selection and, although most are designed for your smartphone, many also integrate with the best bike computers and smartwatches, or can be used on your desktop computer.
A good app is capable of transforming your ride experience in one way or another, so let's get into the best cycling apps — free and paid — we at Cycling Weekly would recommend and use ourselves.
Best cycling apps with free version and paid upgrade
Strava is one of the most popular GPS cycling apps, allowing you to upload activities from a GPS device or log them directly through the app. It's a social network for athletes: add photos and video clips, follow others, and give them 'kudos'.
In its most basic version, the app tracks speed, time, distance, and elevation, and provides social sharing capabilities. Go Premium, and you can delve deeper into your stats and monitor relative efforts, alongside a ton of advanced training features.
The segment leaderboards are arguably the most popular feature, allowing you to compare times with friends, followers, pros, and your previous efforts. You can also create your own routes, follow suggested routes and view personal heatmaps.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free version available, or £54.99/$79.99 per year for Premium.
Website: www.strava.com
Komoot is all about exploration and simplifying the route planning experience, and it's best on desktop, but after recent updates, the app has nearly caught up. This hugely popular user-generated system lets cyclists log rides, which, in turn, helps others plan theirs. There is an extensive bank of routes, including off-road and gravel, for you to explore.
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. The user interface is intuitive, and there are lots of features available. Alternatively, you can import your own GPS, FIT or TCX file into the app and adapt it as you see fit.
The functionality to send your Komoot 'Tours' to some of the best bike computers directly makes it that little bit quicker to get rolling. An interesting new feature is the ability to use Siri, Spotlight search or home screen widgets to quickly find a route.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free version available or $4.99/£4.99 monthly, $59.99/£59.99 yearly for Premium. Make a one-time payment for offline maps within a single region costs just $3.99/£3.99
Website: www.komoot.com
TrainingPeaks is one of the most popular platforms for tracking athlete performance. Coaches can input workouts, or you can if you're self-coached. Alternatively, buy training plans or find a coach directly on the platform.
The TrainingPeaks app is considered more of a useful add-on to the larger desktop version, letting you always access your training schedule, see coaches' comments, or add your own.
Uploading workouts, setting goals, adding events, and receiving daily workout reminders are all free, but if you want a more in-depth analysis or to schedule activities for the future, you'll need to upgrade to the Premium version.
If you’re an Apple Watch user, you’ll appreciate that bike and run workouts can now be sent to your watch, providing training stats and guidance just where you need them.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free (or £16.50/$19.95 monthly, or get savings with yearly billing for Premium)
Website: www.trainingpeaks.com
MyWindsock takes data analysis to new heights, and it's one of the best apps for enhancing your Strava experience. The founder, Ben Norbury, created the app to check how weather conditions would affect his upcoming time trials.
This clever software can tell you how the weather may affect your ride. Simply upload a GPX or TCX file, or copy and paste the URL for a segment or complete route, and MyWindsock will come back with data about what sort of conditions you can expect: where you’re going to be hit with a head or crosswind and where you can enjoy a tailwind.
Other perks include feeding myWindsock a Strava leaderboard, to see which weather conditions have produced the fastest times, and when's best to have a crack yourself.
Available for: Desktop, iPhone, and Android.
Price: Free (or £19.99/$24.99 yearly for the 'Power' plan with limited uploads, or £24.99/$29.99 yearly for the 'Unlimited' plan with - you guessed it - unlimited uploads
Website: www.mywindsock.com
Flare is a free safety app anyone can use, and it has been chosen by many businesses and emergency services for its pinpoint accuracy. It turns your phone into an incident-detection, prevention, and easy-to-use near-miss-reporting device, and it’s gaining popularity among 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 at any time that a user is feeling threatened or vulnerable.
The incident avoidance network alerts users to the presence of anyone who may be in trouble or approach something that could cause an incident with care. Free incident detection and contact alerting are available for all, but with the free version, you only get one emergency contact.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free (or £1.99/~$2.41 monthly, £19.99/~$24.22 yearly for Premium)
Website: www.flaresafety.com
Ride with GPS is another popular route-building and planning app with an extensive library of user-uploaded routes. See where others have ridden, then create a route that works for you and send it to your smartphone or bike computer.
The free version lets you record your ride, create your own routes and organise them into collections, and upload and sync them via your device. 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 in the mobile app and offline maps.
A key recent update is useful for those mapping huge rides, where the route can appear truncated due to the GPS limitations of 10,000 track (data) points. Now, Ride with GPS gives you the option to simplify track points so they’re always under 10,000.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free (£7.99/~$7.99 monthly, £59.99/$59.99 yearly for Basic, or £9.49/$9.99 monthly, £74.99/$79.99 yearly for Premium)
Website: www.ridewithgps.com
Bikemap's app brings together over 9.9 million cycling routes in more than 100 countries, providing navigation for riders of all kinds — with the option to filter by paved, unpaved and gravel surfaces as per your bike, and even view mountain bike trail gradings. You can browse popular routes nearby - and can also search for bike shops and public bathrooms.
Upgrade to Premium to download maps and view them offline, get turn-by-turn navigation and preview routes with coloured elevation gradients or in a 3D model. You can customise your screen and decide how much of it is taken up by a map and how much by ride stats.
The web version has been redesigned to better match the app, with new ride filters, easier route browsing and the option to add a shortcut to your home screen. There's now full Garmin integration for web and app, and Apple Watch and iPhone users can now benefit from an optimised experience too.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free (or £9.00/$12 monthly, £35/$49 yearly for Premium)
Website: www.bikemap.net
This comprehensive fitness app utilises your phone's GPS to generate over 250 statistics to help you log and improve your cycling performance (or any other activity, such as running, hiking, or indoor training). It records speed, time, and distance and offers an extensive array of workouts, making it a great virtual training partner.
You can also purchase a Cyclemeter Bike Display, which fits your handlebars and lets you view all your data while keeping your phone safely stored in your pocket or bag. Apple Watch also has a standalone app, so you can leave your phone at home.
The app includes built-in announcements, and Siri is supported, so you don't have to take your eyes off the road to know how you're doing. Recorded data can be uploaded to Strava and other ride-sharing websites.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free (or £9.99/$9.99 yearly for Elite)
Website: www.cyclemeter.com
This app should really fall under its own section, since there is no free option. If you’re serious about your training, nutrition shouldn’t be overlooked. Proper nutrition takes a fair bit of planning, and Hexis is an AI-based app that takes some of the hard work out. Developed by a team of experts, the app is based on extensive scientific research and is one way to improve performance.
Aside from the fuel planning feature, the app provides insights into your energy status, with the End of Day Target showing your ideal energy balance based on your weight goals.
If you don’t mind logging everything you eat, and you’re fully committed to the process, then Hexis may be an app worth considering. You can find out how Cycling Weekly’s former Tech Editor got on when he gave it a go.
Price: £14.99/$19.99 monthly, £99.98/$119.00 yearly
Website: www.hexis.live
Best free cycling apps
GPS navigation for cyclists in the UK, CycleStreets' Journey Planner will plot a route from your selected start and finish points using not only roads, but also bike paths and car-free roads, using map data from OpenStreetMap. There are four route options to choose from, such as the flattest, quickest or quietest routes, and also a function to find bike shops and bike parking in the locality.
Alongside the routing features, there's also a cycling advocacy tool within the app. Photomap lets you submit photos of infrastructure problems in your area or browse examples of good practice across the country, and is used by campaign groups.
Some nice extra features include estimated CO2 savings compared to driving the same distance in a small petrol car, and estimated calories burned.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Website: cyclestreets.net
As you can guess, Garmin's free Connect software is specific to Garmin devices and provides a link between your mobile device and Garmin Edge cycling computer or smartwatch to share data. The connection can work both ways, with a compatible Garmin GPS able to display weather data and notifications on your handlebars.
Data from the Garmin device goes into the mobile device, giving you a range of ways to display the numbers: charts, graphs, maps, etc. Once in Garmin Connect, rides (or other activities) can be sent to Strava, or similar apps, for sharing.
LiveTrack lets friends follow your progress online as you are riding, and you can compete in weekly challenges and wirelessly upload activities.
Any device updates should download automatically in the background when your device is connected to your phone, or you'll get a prompt to install.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free (requires compatible Garmin device)
Website: connect.garmin.com
Few road cyclists can boast of a pothole-free journey on their local roads, and up until the handy Fill That Hole app came along, it was a struggle to report tarmac carbuncles.
Created by the national cyclists' charity Cycling UK and powered by FixMyStreet Pro, this is not technically an app, but needs to be saved to your phone's home screen from the website. It does feel like an app, though, as it's very mobile-friendly.
You can report potholes, or things that are broken, dirty or poorly maintained, such as street lighting, dog fouling or graffiti, but for cyclists, potholes are the major issue. Reports are public and will be passed on to the relevant Local Authority.
You can also add a photo of the offending crater. We've tried it, and it works.
Available for: Web browser only (save to home screen)
Price: Free
Website: www.fillthathole.org.uk
My Virtual Mission is a goal-setting app, allowing you to create a virtual fitness challenge, which you can work towards. This idea is that having a set goal will drive you to complete it. So, for instance, you could use it for training towards your first 100-mile ride.
Rather than actually riding it, you set up the virtual journey on the app, and every time you cycle (or run) it plots the same distance on a map of your virtual journey, adding rides on each time you do them.
It's good fun, and you can set solo or group missions, such as a long-distance ride for charity fundraising, with the app including a function to track how much you've raised.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Website: www.myvirtualmission.com
This is one of those apps that you hope you'll never need. St John Ambulance has produced a free app that guides you through first aid treatment for a range of common cycling-related injuries, so that you can treat yourself or others at the roadside.
The app deals with a very wide range of injuries, giving step-by-step advice and diagrams, plus it tells you what to do in a serious emergency.
Everything is hosted on the app, which means you'll have access to help even in remote areas with no internet. However, it's worth noting that the first aid advice is based solely on UK protocols and only UK emergency service numbers are provided.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Website: www.sja.org.uk/
The First Aid app of the American Red Cross is in the same vein as the St John Ambulance app. It provides 22 learning modules covering everything from scrapes and bug bites to broken bones and heart attacks. Each module covers what you need to know to render aid using step-by-step instructions, videos and FAQs.
Should you find yourself opening the app for the first time in an emergency situation, each module has an 'emergency' section, that will show you the basics while you wait for help. The app also allows you to trigger a 911 call, and be connected to emergency medical services at any time.
Available for: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Website: www.redcross.org