Ride with GPS: Bike Navigation reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A powerful bike route planner and navigator for cycling enthusiasts and clubs, where a strong planning engine collides with an aggressive paywall and flaky ride recording.
What users love
Best-in-class route planner with outstanding accuracy
For loyal users it's the gold standard for planning: import KML/GPX, combine routes, see grades and elevation gain, export to Garmin. The most powerful and accurate route-building engine they've tried.
RWGPS has the most powerful and efficient ride planner I have experienced! The developers are also extremely helpful.
Best app on my phone, easiest and most detailed route making there is
It's really the ultimate route planner. Import KML, GPX, .. you name it. And then combine them into an aggregated route and export to GPS device or mobile.
The free, ad-free tier covers what the everyday cyclist needs
Despite the paywall complaints, many on the free tier are happy: it records rides, keeps stats, has no ads, and that's enough. Some plan to buy a subscription just to support the ad-free model.
Incredible functionality for a free app with no ads. I love being able to post routes publicly or share with friends.
For a free account, this is excellent, better than Strava by a mile/km
This is a great little app. I'm using the free version and it does all I need to keep track of rides and stats.
Offline navigation and Garmin/Strava integration shine for bikepacking and long trips
A warm use case: touring a foreign country on offline maps with seamless syncing to Garmin, Wahoo and Strava. Turn-by-turn with offline maps lets you just enjoy the ride and not stress about navigation.
turn by turn navigation with offline maps is fantastic for bikepacking , it allows me to just enjoy the ride and not stress about navigation .
I'm from the US and this app allowed me to plan and then ride a bunch of routes (both paved and unpaved) through rural southwestern Germany without a hitch. The navigation with offline maps still works great.
Simple and easy to use connects to Garmin and Strava. what more does a cyclist need?
Responsive support and hassle-free refunds
Where the company gets praise, it's usually for support: quick replies, instant fixes for offline-map issues, refunds for accidental renewals without a fight. It noticeably softens the subscription frustration.
I have forgotten once to cancel it and I noticed charge on renewal, they refunded me without hassle after requesting it. Excellent customer service.
i had a small issue with downloading offline maps , i contacted customer service and was able to get a resolution to the problem immediately.
I love the ride with GPS app. it's so easy to use and on the rare occasion I have a issue they give great support.
What users hate
Core actions are locked behind a subscription — you can't even save or navigate a route without paying
Users complain over and over: you can map a route, but the moment you save it or hit navigate a paywall window pops up. The gate blocks what other maps give for free, and it pushes many of them straight to uninstall.
Everything useful is locked behind a pay wall. You can't navigate or plan routes without paying for it first.
Can't even navigate a route without paying. Whats the point of the free version?
subscription required for saving one ride
The price feels like a rip-off, and it's annual-only — no one-time purchase, no monthly option
Many would pay once but flatly refuse a yearly subscription at $60–90. The lack of a monthly plan stings most: you can't ride in winter, yet you're forced to pay for the whole year.
the price for premium is absolutely outrageous. and on top of it, requires a subscription rather than a simple purchase.
App is useless without a subscription. I would be willing to pay one time for it but not a subscription.
Would consider renewing just for the tracking aspect IF there was a monthly option. Can't ride in the winter where I live, so really don't want to pay for the whole year.
Ride recording randomly pauses and loses miles in the middle of a ride
The most painful technical complaint: the app stops recording mid-ride, cuts trips short and under-counts distance. Turning off autopause doesn't help, and support just blames your battery settings.
App kept turning off mid ride and stops recording
stupid app glitches and stops recording the bike route in mid ride.
frequently pauses recording for no reason, even though I turned off autopause. n.b. they keep suggesting it's an issue with my battery settings
Distance and time figures are wrong — the track cuts corners and under-measures mileage
When GPS doesn't refresh with the screen off, the app reports distance off by 25% or more, mangles moving time and cuts corners off the track. For a paid account that stings even harder.
A known 35 mile route returned as a 26 mile ride in this app. A 25.7% discrepancy, rendering this app completely WORTHLESS!
Today I rode around 9 km but it showed 32 km.
The RWGPS app also cut multiple corners on the recorded track, under-reporting milage!
Routing sends you onto dangerous roads and ignores bike paths
A cycling app oddly drags you onto shoulderless highways, steep climbs and main roads to save a tenth of a mile, while ignoring parallel bike paths. A cyclist wants the easiest, safest miles, not the shortest.
It took us on state highways with no shoulder, hills with grades too steep for cars, and roads that have clearly been closed for a decade.
However this bike route app ignores bike paths. In most cases it only plots the route on streets even if there is a path running alongside.
I need an app that will route me staying on residential streets. Downloaded the app. tried to get it to show a known route, but instead it took me on dangerous roads.
Forced sign-up: you can't map a route without an account
Some users just want to map a route, not join a "community," but the app demands an account and nags you to register. For them that's reason enough to bail right away.
Requires an account to use, no way to skip. I hate this trend of everything demanding an account. No I don't want to join your "community", I want to map a bike route.
You need to register an account to use the app......... No thanks.
I used it for months free, then it became too annoying offering to register. So its impossible to use it anymore
Free trial and cancellation turn into surprise charges
The trial tries to charge you at the start, promised reminders never arrive, and you can't cancel from inside the app — you have to go to a website. Several people got hit with unwanted yearly charges.
it tried to charge me at the start of the "trial"which is total BS!
Did a free trial that stated it would send a reminder before I was charged. I received no reminder and cancelled the day I was supposed to be charged, before the transaction went through. I was still charged for an annual membership
this app lets you sign up for a yearly subscription but would not let my device cancel it in the same app and need to go to a website
The interface is unintuitive and the planner lags, especially after updates
Many admit the app is powerful but call the interface convoluted and awkward on a phone, with a laggy route builder. Recent updates, they feel, only make route planning worse.
Not sure what changed, but recent update slowed performance of the route builder drastically. It's very laggy
Clunky interface, constantly bothering you for money to upgrade, no real active gps mapping that isn't beyond cumbersome and frustrating.
was 5 stars, now 2. never seen app where each upgrade seems to degrade. mapping/planning feature becomes message rider-friendly with each change.
Public-by-default privacy and aggressive data collection alarm users
Routes and profiles are public by default, you can't disable data collection without an account, and logs show thousands of tracking attempts per hour. Users call it a privacy violation and a gift to stalkers.
unacceptable that all rides and profiles are public by default - total violation of privacy and requires a big warning and disclaimer at the sign up time. Otherwise, it's a great app for stalkers and criminals.
over 2000 tracking attempts on this app in the last hour. unbelievable.. greedy people selling our info not happy with purchasing
Could not disable data collection without an account. Not EU data compliant in any way.