Mapping Apps Review
NB. This reviews is now several years old. I will be updating it shortly, being aware that the apps themselves get updated and in some cases my gripes have beem addressed!
For years I used the excellent 'Viewranger' app for maps and planning trips but this disappeared into the vortex of global capitalism and re-emerged, much changed, as part of Outdooractive, a German company with international aspirations.
I applied four main criteria in searching for a replacement app. Ideally it should:
- Give you good quality maps, preferably usable offline,
- Allow me to upload my routes and for you to access them.
- Import my detailed notes on interesting or entertaining places on the routes.
- Have a clear and intuitively usable interface.
This wasn’t straightforward mostly because my needs will probably be different from yours as a user and my experience is muddied but because I am a paying user of some of the apps and not others. None satisfied all of those criteria.
Major issues for me were:
They run on a mix of crude open source mapping algorithms and unfiltered user-generated content. But algorithms don't ride bikes.
The degree of interoperability between the apps is lousy. This was key. I need to make the routes available on a variety of platforms.
What causes the problems?
A GPX (or GPS) file basically comprises a line on a map, the mapping equivalent of a simple .txt file. You can usually add detail like text notes, graphics and waypoints. But when you try to export and import all this into another mapping app, while the GPX line on the map survives, quite a bit of that extra detail is lost.
It all reminds an old goat like me of the Wordstar vs WordPerfect vs MS Word wars in the 1990's. When exporting a document from one to the other, the content invariably got mangled. In the mapping world, we are still stuck in that software time warp.
My impression is that these problems are not technically insurmountable. Rather, the companies involved seem to be intent on exploiting them with the aim of locking you into their platform, in order to become the ‘de facto’ standard of the mapping world and thereby attract more advertising. More money pump than hobby app. They then stuff their sites with content freely provided by OpenStreetMaps and users like me, with the added bait of 'features' add visual clutter and which in my experience few people use.
Further bugbears include:
- Performance stats to encourage you to treat your ride simply as an exercise routine.
- Algorithmically created and usually hopelessly inaccurate route assessments.
- Dull notes on places on the route, often scraped off Wikipedia.
My response was this website, pootler.co.uk. My GPX route files are all here for you to upload to the mapping app of your choice together with the (rather good) Outdooractive versions of the original (i.e. only occasionally updated) route notes as pdf files. I know this is a bit steampunk in use; you end up with the map on one app and in all likelihood some of the notes on another. But it is all free and you whichever app you choose. Your alternative is to use the apps themselves, where the routes will appear with (often very) truncated versions of notes. Sorry, but as they say on Broadway, whaddya do?
So, here are my impressions on some of the most popular mapping apps based on the Android options. I don't use Apple but assume their versions are similar. These are Outdooractive, Ordnance Survey, BikeMap, Route You, Komoot, Ride with GPS and Google Maps.
I know that many of you use other apps, but to generalise many of them, and especially the American ones, seem to be aimed at tarmac munching lycra ninja’s who fret about their heart rate or cadence data. MapMyRide is a good example.(It is also costly, and keen on data harvesting, probably for the benefit of Under Armour who own it).
But firstly, to save time & space, I will catalogue some recurring features and gripes that might affect you as a user. Keep in mind that you usually have to register (for free) to make any use of these apps at all. Also, it is more than possible that I have misunderstood aspects of how they are supposed to work. I make no apology for that. They should be intuitive, not least because in practice there are usually no manuals, the help notes are thin and the user support system, even when it exists, isn't readily contactable 'on the hoof'.
Maps. OS maps are the best maps I have seen anywhere in the world. You can get them on the OS app, naturally, and also on Outdooractive; but while OS let's you use the online version for free, in other cases you have to be a paying punter. If you are not, or are using one of the other apps, you will get OpenStreetMap or their own proprietary offerings which (warts and all) are usually the basis for the automated route recommendations. (What! You thought that the app companies did this work themselves?).
I imagine these simpler open source maps make fewer demands on memory and bandwidth as well as budgets. They mostly seem quite similar, but some apps add additional overlays of their own devising. Landscape and aerial options are common. The formatting is important. In maps the colours are not bold enough and the fonts too small to be easily readable.
Social Media Aspirations. Most apps use ‘community’ features as a honeypot to trap you in the walled garden predicated in their business plan. I don't want to be part of that but still have to suffer the added third rate detail, unwanted features and functionality that complicate and clutter the app.
Discovery functions are related. All of the apps except Google prompt you to upload and share routes. The result is route search functions rendered unusable by millions of uploads from the ‘Community’ nearly all of which are simply lines on a map and virtual garbage.. Some apps have algorithms to evaluate these offerings. These are not usually based not on their inherent quality but either blindly following the routes generated by their ill-informed algorithms or deferring to the interest of a paying promoter, Spotify-style. Are you inspired to follow someone’s commute or journey to Tesco's, probably uploaded by the zombies who post pics of their breakfast on Instagram?
Pricing. This varies and changes, so check it. Some offer a trial period. Many want to you pay monthly. Management likes the steady income!
Planning & Tracking. If you care where you are going, you will probably want to be able to use something with a bigger screen than a phone to plan your trips. The automated route planning features work better on a computer, but usually overly-complicate or completely frustrate the job of tweaking and making changes. For example, they rarely anticipate the use of restricted by ways and bridleways although cycling on these is legitimate. And of course they have never actually cycles the route.
One answer is to create a route manually but some of the apps try hard to steer you away from such ridiculous independence automatically directing you away from imagined puddles by adding in classifications of difficulty and notifications of dangers which often range from the laughable to the positively misleading. (Last week, while exploring, a generated route directed me to divert two miles to cross a 4 lane trunk road by heaving the bike over a central barrier, rather than use a 10m stretch of unmarked dirt track).
Advertising
All of these carry some advertising, some more than others. The relevance varies but for me it usually hovers around zero. You usually get less if you pay for the app.
OK........ Reviews.
Outdooractive. If you pony up, this German app offers a good selection of maps including Harvey’s.
The website interface is the most comprehensive but as a result is complicated and cluttered by an effort to make itself relevant to a wide range of outdoor activities across the planet from (I kid you not) horse drawn sleigh riding to inline skating.
The android app is a bit more straightforward than the website. The free subscription initially suggests that you upgrade but then takes you to OpenStreetMap and a simple toolbar with icons that give you access to (and thankfully hide) a lot of the other features. (Skyline views might be nice in the Alps, but don’t show you much in the clay vales!)
Frankly, I am less critical now that I have tested the competition and it does retain useful features, not least the ability to see the waypoints on the app albeit well hidden. They tell me that this is because these are aimed at users of voice navigation. I know of absolutely no-one who uses that capability in the countryside and fondly imagine that many of those who used it in London are now dead.
Now, it is the app I use most. It tracks reliably, doesn't focus as much on forcing you into the walled garden, and I really like the ability to save both the route AND waypoint notes as pdf's. It does most things I need even if it is sometimes difficult to work out how! And on it, my stuff appears somewhere (if not always on the map itself) in fairly full form. Also, they retained their support and development team who must be sick of me by now but are always great.
Outdooractive knows where I live so why does my map location default to the Congo? (Been there, interesting, but not for cyclists!).
OS / Ordnance Survey.
My paid for version of the OS App is straightforward and uncluttered by either a superfluity of advertising or fancy features. You have two choices. The free offering has more functionality but the map is unimpressive and suffers from the formatting problems that I highlighted earlier. The paid for offering gives you proper and downloadable OS maps but with very limited functionality. That can't be the intrinsic to the maps themselves, because Outdooractive makes it work using OS Maps. Their helpdesk is slow but can be helpful and have used some of my feedback which makes me feel I am not entirely wasting my time!
In terms of my own routes, the summary notes appear on the map but my waypoint notes are only visible in the website version, not in the app. I can understand why if the goal is clarity and simplicity, but this does make it less useful as a one stop guide 'on the road'
The app seems generally buggy to me and in particular requires you turn off both the app-specific and general power saving functions, on Android at least. If you don't the tracking seems to crash.
Sadly, partly for reasons of sentiment and familiarity, I want to like but don't. But they have just rebuilt it, so I will try again.
BikeMap
This is the marmite app. I like the clear layout of my paid-for version and its ‘landscape’ map in particular is the best of the proprietary map offerings. Like Outdooractive, after registering and logging into the free version, it invites you to upgrade and then takes you to a map without much fuss. Advertising is limited. All good so far.
Like other apps, the usual deficiencies in the base mapping data are apparent in the often idiotic routes it recommends. My uploaded routes on the app appear with summary information but no waypoint detail which is par for the course.
Beyond that I simply find it difficult to use. Unlike any other app it assumes that you would prefer a tilted Uber style map, which might be the case if you ever follow a route 'live' on your handlebars. I don't, so this is very irritating. You can switch views but it's fiddly. They suggest that you mount the app on your handlebars. I cannot see how that is practical!
Reliable tracking requires you to turn all power saving functions off, i.e. those specific to the app as well as the phone as a whole. The last time I used it (Aug'24) it mangled a gpx import proved impossible to download the map I wanted.
Maybe it is me and it certainly doesn't help that I flick between apps in trialling them, but beneath its straightforward exterior, this app seems far too clever for its own good.
Route You
I tried the free version of this very commercially oriented Belgian app. On opening the app, it takes you to a screen inviting you to those ‘discover’ or ‘plan’ options. I wanted to start with the map. When I did find the map, I was unimpressed in terms of both clarity and detail but openstreet map is offered as a free alternative. (They have the nerve to require you to subscribe the use the open source 'Open Cycle Map). Maybe this reflects its heritage. It might work better in the Low Countries with their wonderful numbered-node routing system. But for the UK? Not for me.
Here too, the my routes were saddled with a pile of other superfluous detail to fuel their algorithmic and inept evaluation system. If you don't fiddle around with the options they add even more 'guidebook' stuff, presumably sourced from users or scraped off the internet. It was neither informative, useful or entertaining. That being said, it is much improved since I originally wrote this post, the app kept most of my formatting and the helpdesk did respond promptly to my queries.
Komoot
Komoot is much the same. On opening the app, it highlights some user rides. Don't like these? Don’t worry! They have alternatives. Rather than a bike ride in Kent, how about a hiking tour in Germany? I return to the first page where it tells me that about a thousand miles away someone called Dajana went on a bike ride some 1000 miles away. Maybe she was inspired. I am not.
Again, uploaded routes on the app appear with summary information but no waypoint detail.
Trying the 'plan' function revealed a map. I inserted the start point and destination for a route. It asks for my fitness level. Then they label some of my routes as for 'experts'. That is manifestly nonsense, I am no athlete and in any case it varies depending if I was in the pub last night.
I can’t find any obvious way of eliminating this nannying rubbish.
Google Maps
This option has the great advantage of ubiquity and being free. As you might expect features such as voice navigation seem to be rather more polished, even if you do sometimes end up being routed up a river or the wrong way up a motorway. (It happened. In France). You can import GPX files together with some detail, although it is a bit of a fiddle. Nothing else though, and as you know local detail is mostly limited to places that wish to relieve you of your money. For me, this is one for place marking sights to see or for trips around town.
Ride with GPS
This is an American app and it shows. I signed up for a trail and uploaded my routes to this system but didn't want to continue paying and now (Oct 24) cannot upload the latest ones. I have not have not tried to use it for navigation. They do seem quite restrictive in terms of what you can do for free, and are far too keen on stats; but the advertising doesn't seem too intrusive.
Summary
As you can see I am less than enchanted by what is on offer. For route creation I am using Outdooractive. Having also used both OS and Bikemap I have given up on both. The free versions of Komoot and Route You place the harvesting of ‘community’ generated content at the centre of an effort to bombard you with advertising, and Komoot in particular is costly. I quickly uninstalled both but of the two prefer Route You. Ride with GPS needs further testing. But most of my routes have been uploaded to all of them so if you don’t share my distaste, they can be found there if you look for them. You can avoid some of the garbage if you start from the links on the blog. Link: Pootler Bike Routes
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