The best mountain bike apps for iPhone and Android
Smart smartphone picks, from navigation to safety and beyond
Your smartphone is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you out in myriad ways when riding. We've rounded up a selection of the best iPhone and Android apps for mountain biking and general off-road riding fun, from navigation and safety to skills and bragging rights.
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[Updated December 22, 2021]
The best mountain bike phone apps
Here's a list of our favourites, in no particular order – it's not exhaustive by any means, either scroll down or hit the link below to jump to that app. If you've got any apps you find invaluable, make sure you let us know in the comments.
- Outdooractive
- What3words
- Dark Sky Weather
- Strava
- First Aid by British Red Cross
- Beanhunter
- Komoot
- Bike Computer
- MapMyRide
- Windy
- Bike Doctor
Outdooractive
Price: Free, with in-app purchases
Format: iPhone, Android
From: Outdooractive
While Google Maps is a pretty good app for pottering about, Outdooractive (formerly known as ViewRanger) is our favourite 'proper' mapping app by some way. It's packed with some really powerful features that make it easy to plan, explore and navigate riding routes. The free Open Cycle Map is surprisingly useful, with loads of bike-specific routes and features marked out. The really good bit is that you can download super high detail topographic maps for pretty much all bits of the world for an annual fee of £26.99 for the Pro subscription. In the UK, that means you can fill your boots with high-quality Ordnance Survey mapping. As the maps download to your phone, they still work even without a data or phone signal. The Pro level also includes the 'Skyline' augmented reality feature that overlay peaks and points on interest as you pan with the camera and 'Buddy Beacon' that allows you to share your location with selected friends, so they know that you're safe – or know where to find you if something unfortunate befalls you.
It's possible to to record, follow and create routes in the app or on a computer, as well as being able to add points of interest. The Pro Plus subscription for £53.99/year gets you ADFC cycling maps for Europe, curated premium routes and a weather map.
What3words
Price: Free
Format: iPhone, Android
From: What3words
What3words is a geolocating app that uses a three-word code to locate you anywhere on earth. While it's good for trying to make sure that parcels get delivered to your house, it's also gaining rapid acceptance by police, ambulance and mountain rescue teams as a simple way to get help to people that need it.
The downloadable app works by splitting the planet into three-metre by three-metre squares, which are then given a unique three-word code. That gives a rapid, simple and relatively foolproof way of sharing any location, which is coming in very handy for emergency services teams.
Dark Sky Weather
Price: £3.49
Format: iPhone
From: Dark Sky
The weather can make a huge difference between a fun spin or a slog-tastic death march, so know what the conditions are likely to be and planning accordingly is a must. The Dark Sky app does all the usual multi-day weather forecasting stuff you'd expect, with proper weather radar so you can see anything that might be on the way, plus temperature maps and so on. The really neat trick is the fact you can get it to send you custom alerts. That means it'll give you warning if it's about to rain where you are or if the temperature is due to fall below freezing in the morning. Armed with that sort of information, it's much harder to get caught out with the wrong clothing, plus if you're about to get stuck in a torrential downpour you can scurry to shelter before getting soaked.
Strava
Price: Free, £48/year for Premium features
Format: iPhone, Android
From: Strava
When it comes to apps for cycling, there are few that draw such strong opinions as Strava. Loved by many for the way it records rides and training, it's hated by an equal number who hold it to blame for corner-cutting trail destruction and all manner of riding rudeness as users attempt to become King or Queen of the Mountain. We're not going to get sucked into those arguments here, but we do think it's worth giving a go even if you don't care about being fastest up, down or along anything.
A really cool feature of Strava is the fact that you can use it to find new trails near you by using 'Segment Explore'. That'll show you any riding segments in a specific area and it's great for showing you whether that bit of woodland you're wondered about is bereft of any trails or is in fact a secret warren of singletrack delights.
If you want to see overall segment leaderboards, you personal results and want to discover new routes you'll need to cough up for the subscription (£48), that unlocks a whole host of other neat things, with loads more analysis of your training possible. It also gives you the 'Buddy Beacon', which allows you to let up to three people track you in real-time as you're riding, so they know whether you're okay or not. Premium also allows you to see how you're doing on a segment in real-time, though we'd suggest you keep that for the climbs rather than the technical descents.
First Aid by British Red Cross
Price: Free
Format: iPhone, Android and Windows
From: British Red Cross
Riding bikes off-road is an intrinsically risky activity and sometimes it does go quite badly wrong. Even if you've been wise enough to attend a First Aid course, it can be very reassuring to have this app to hand, as it will guide you through what to do in a number of situations, with everything from bleeding to broken bones taken care of. As well as written instructions, there are videos and animations to help guide you and you can test yourself on your knowledge as well. The app also has built-in checklists that are meant to help you prepare from everything from a heatwave to a terrorist attack. It's an app you hopefully won't have to use much, but is invaluable when you do need it.
Beanhunter
Price: Free
Format: iPhone, Android and Windows
From: Beanhunter
Beanhunter started out in Australia and the app has now grown to offer a pretty comprehensive database of cafes worldwide. Just download the app and search for either cafes nearest to you or anywhere else by name and/or location. You can share your experiences by uploading photos and opinions on the cafes you've visited, leave reviews and read reviews from others if you're looking for an extra-special cafe stop to impress your ride group. If you find a previously unlisted cafe that deserves shouting about you can upload a listing yourself, and find cafes the app redirects to your default mapping application.
Komoot
Price: Free for one region, additional maps from £3.99
Format: iPhone, Android
From: Komoot
Boldly proclaimed as "the world's best route planner", Komoot turns your phone into a proper sat nav with voice commands. You can key in your location and where you want to get to before your ride, which Komoot saves as a planned journey, and then it records your activities as 'completed tours'.
Where it differs from other navigation apps is the routes, as Komoot will often give you numerous options for reaching your destination, that aren't always the quickest. It's a good app choice for the more adventurous bike tourer, off-roader or just a long commuter who wants to explore a new route home.
Bike Computer
Price: Free
Format: iPhone, Android
From: Bike Computer Co.
Doing what it says on the tin and then some, Bike Computer is a refreshingly simple app that turns your phone into a GPS bike computer. This free app is available on both iOS and Android( app stores and tracks basic metrics including pace, distance, route and elevation.
It’s compatible with Bluetooth-ready heart rate monitors, and all your rides can be shared straight to Strava or Facebook on completion. There’s a dark screen mode which reduces battery use and makes it viewable on night rides; plus Bike Computer Co. claim their app is also 12% more battery-efficient than any other mobile fit tracker on the market, reducing the chance of running out of charge on a ride.
MapMyRide
Price: Free
Format: iPhone, Android
From: MapMy Ride
MapMyRide has been around for quite a while and is a very popular way of plotting routes or finding other routes in your area, with a large database of routes available, making it a good option for those wanting to explore a part of the country. It’s free but there is a premium version that gives you more advanced tools and mapping.
Windy
Price: Free
In our opinion this is the best weather app out there, it has been phenomenally accurate at predicting incoming rain over the past year or so that we have been using it. As well as giving local forecasts in three-hourly intervals, the best and most used feature is the rain radar, you can choose to overlay just the rain onto the map so you can see when and how much rain will be dousing your ride and pack appropriately. Zoom out and watch the weather travel the globe too - it's slightly addictive.
Bike Doctor
Price: £1.79 on Android / £4.49 on iOS
Maintaining, servicing or fixing your bike can be a little daunting at first, and that’s where this extremely useful app come comes into its own. It provides step-by-step instructions for fixing any sort of mechanical problem on your bike. It’s been designed to be easy to use, with clear instructions that even a complete beginner can follow.
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5 comments
Komoot's maps are based on open source data. You get the same free on Cyclestreets (strange omission from your app selection), but you pay for them with Komoot. Despite paying for the opensource maps with Komoot, they remove useful data so for example footpaths (cycling forbidden) and bridleways (cycling permitted) are not distinguished visually. If you want that and other cycling specific stuff like national cycle routes etc, well that's a subscription on top of having already paid for the maps.
I think there's a bit of confusion in the first paragraph. Open Cycle Map is nothing to do with Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey (OS) is a business which produces very accurate (but not definitive) maps of the country. They are very well respected but tend to be very protective of their data. Open Cycle Map is an extension of Open Street Map (OSM), a community based national map. OSM data is open source and they encourage sharing and individual contribution. OSM tends to have rather good information about paths and bridleways (but also not definitive). The map shows the actual location of paths and tracks rather than the definitive path which due to historical land and boundary changes may be different.
Google maps (online, haven't used the app) is great for looking up businesses nearby and on-road work but has very little information about off-road paths and tracks so I would say not at all useful for pootling around.
Like shufflingb I totally rate RideWithGPS and I'm amazed it's still not in the list. I find the combination of it and Open Street Map to be unbeatable. I plan a route on the website and save it, then I can follow it on my phone. It doesn't have voice guidance and map caching in the free version. The paid versions do but I haven't tried them.
That's really interesting - I'll have to try that combination out. I've not tried Viewranger > Garmin yet, so not experienced that issue...
I'd add a slight note of caution about the Viewranger service and the GPX files it produces and alternative recommendations for GPS navigation.
When I saw the Viewranger app and the web service last summer I got all excited. The best maps for the UK outdoors activities (OS 1:25000), Openstreet Map for towns, a decent app you could plan with and, unlike OS, full autorouting on the OS maps across the whole of the UK. What's not to like?
The problem is/was Viewranger's autorouting algorithm. Specifically, it puts very few waypoints on the tracks that it is following. Consequently, the straight lines marking the route between these waypoints only corresponds roughly to the actual tracks on the basemap. As you could reference the basemap, this was fine for planning and was fine if you had the app open on your smart device when out riding.
However, the problems came if you tried to use the GPX files on a standalone GPS device without reference to that basemap, such as a Garmin. In the field, the paucity of waypoints meant the route that the Garmin would attempt to lead you on was frequently on the wrong side of hedges, ditches, roads and was, as might be imagined, next to useless where there was a decision about multiple track options. You either ended up flattening your phone's batteries because you had to keep the app open. Or putting up with going off in the wrong direction and having to retrace your steps. I ended up giving up on it.
fwiw, I think the Ordnance Survey maps app and premium service are good value https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/os-maps-mobile.html. The apps have offline maps capability for planned routes and the patchy autorouting capabilities are not a problem if you're doing short rides or are riding in a national park. For longer days (I've done out to 120km gravel/all-road routes), then I've not found anything better than the combination of the rather excellent RideWithGPS to generate the GPX files and the OS maps service and app for reference during the planning and for offline maps when out riding (should I need them).
Found some useful new apps on here - great stuff!