If you searched for a Komoot or RideWithGPS alternative, you probably don't hate either one. More likely you like them and keep running into the same wall: you drop café, water and junction markers when planning, export the route, and on your Wahoo or Garmin they arrive as blank pins with no icons - or don't arrive at all. This is an honest look at where VeloPin fits, including the things the big two do better.
What Komoot and RideWithGPS are genuinely great at
Credit where it's due. Komoot has one of the best route-discovery experiences anywhere - Highlights, a huge community, sport-specific routing and polished offline turn-by-turn navigation in the app. RideWithGPS has excellent cue sheets, a deep library of shared routes, strong device integrations, and it's a reliable bridge for getting routes onto head units. If your priority is finding new routes or navigating turn by turn from your phone, both are hard to beat, and VeloPin doesn't try to replace that.
Where the wall is: waypoints on the device
The gap shows up at export time. Every planner and GPS brand uses its own waypoint vocabulary, so when a route leaves Komoot or Strava as a GPX, the icon type and note often don't survive the trip to a Wahoo, Garmin, COROS or Hammerhead Karoo. You end up with identical pins, missing notes, and no idea which one was the café and which was the sketchy descent.
That specific problem is what VeloPin was built to solve. Drop in your GPX and it re-maps every waypoint to the format your device understands, so your stops arrive with the correct icon and note. It's a narrow job done properly - the kind of detail the all-in-one apps don't prioritise because navigation and discovery are their focus.
Two more things VeloPin adds
Resupply planning. VeloPin finds cafés, water and shops along your route with their opening hours, and warns you when there's a long stretch with nowhere to refill - genuinely useful for long days and bikepacking, and not something the others focus on.
Ride Radar - weather timing. Instead of a single forecast for the day, VeloPin shows wind, rain and temperature for each segment of the route at the time you'll actually be there, and suggests the best departure window. For headwind-prone or changeable days that's the difference between a good ride and a soaked slog.
Honest side by side
| What you need | VeloPin | Komoot | RideWithGPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waypoints with the right icon + note on Wahoo / Garmin / COROS / Karoo | Built for it | Limited - icons often don't carry | Partial - great cue sheets, device bridge |
| Resupply / POIs with opening hours + water-gap warning | Yes | Basic Highlights / POIs | Basic POIs |
| Surface breakdown (paved vs gravel) on your route | Yes | Yes (way-type breakdown) | Yes (surface types) |
| Weather timing per route segment | Yes (Ride Radar) | No | No |
| Route discovery / community library | Growing | Excellent | Excellent |
| Turn-by-turn navigation | On your head unit + iOS app | Yes, in-app | Yes, in-app |
| Plan in a browser, no account to start | Yes | App-first | Browser + app |
| Price | Free to plan; Pro for export + advanced | Freemium (paid regions / premium) | Freemium (subscription) |
The best setup: use them together
You don't have to choose. The workflow that works well is to discover and plan wherever you're happiest - Komoot, Strava or RideWithGPS - then run the route through VeloPin to set proper waypoints, check resupply and time your start, and export a version your head unit reads correctly. You keep the discovery and navigation you already like, and you lose the blank-pin frustration.
If that frustration is the reason you went looking for an alternative, that's exactly the piece VeloPin is meant to fix.
Frequently asked questions
Is VeloPin a replacement for Komoot or RideWithGPS?
For most riders it is not a full replacement - it is a complement. Komoot and RideWithGPS are excellent for discovering routes and for on-device navigation. VeloPin is the tool you reach for when you want waypoints that actually show up correctly on your head unit, plus resupply and weather planning. Many people use both.
Can I use VeloPin with a route I planned in Komoot or Strava?
Yes, that is the common workflow. Plan or discover the route wherever you like, export the GPX, then open it in VeloPin to set proper waypoints and export a version your Wahoo, Garmin, COROS or Karoo reads correctly.
What does VeloPin do that Komoot and RideWithGPS don't?
Three things stand out: waypoints that arrive on the device with the right icon and note, resupply planning with opening hours and a warning when a water gap is too long, and Ride Radar, which times your start around the weather segment by segment. Route discovery and turn-by-turn navigation are where Komoot and RideWithGPS are stronger.
Is VeloPin free?
The route planner is free and needs no account. The Wahoo-ready waypoint export and a few advanced features are part of VeloPin Pro. So you can plan and check a route for free, and upgrade when you want the device-ready export.
Try it with a route you already have
Free to plan · No account needed · Runs in your browser
Open VeloPin →