RWGPS has got a lot of features of Strava such as segments or social. IMO the segment analysis/leaderboard is better on RWGP it just doesn’t have the same userbase.
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I’m a fan of ridewithgps - they’ve had a good route planner for quite a while, although many of the features are premium only (which I do pay.) They are also a smaller, bootstrapped company, and are not VC backed. Several years ago when they also changed what features were free vs premium I sent a strongly worded email complaining about this, and received a very thoughtful response from one of the founders, including a free year of premium. I’ve been paying ever since. They have been consistently adding new features over the last several years.
They do have all kinds of sharing and photo options, but they just don’t have the user numbers that strava does.
I see what you guys are saying now, but is that really how you use Strava and RideWGPS? I mean, you could say “Reddit is a competitor with Facebook because people post stuff on both apps”, but is it really? I see it more like Power13 said, “they are almost inconsequential”. Maybe my circle just uses these apps different than yours.
Here’s how it works in the world of me and my friends:
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- Plan a ride on Ride W GPS or copy the ride of someone else using their maps; copy that to your head unit and share with your friends. (free functionality)
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- Post your ride on Strava after the fact to share your stats and some pictures with your friends who give you “likes” and comments (free functionality)
I THINK you are saying that you also do #1 on Strava (I’m not sure, I’ve never paid for Strava, I just use it for #2 above). Is that correct?
Do you actually use RideWGPS or MMR for #2? I’ve never seen it used that way, but that doesn’t mean it’s not out there.
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Same…and I could map routes using Strava (or Komoot) if I wanted, but habit keeps me using RWGPS.
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I used to. I was using RWGPS and MapMyRide before I was using Strava, and I still have friends on each of those platforms who do occasionally comment and “like” rides.
To clarify, my original comment was simply that they were competitors of Strava. Clearly, Strava has left them in the dust, but they didn’t start out that way. I could enter a CX race with with MVDP or Pidcock, and we would be competitors despite the fact that my challenge would be not getting lapped TOO many times.
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I used to use it for number 2 alot when it started about the same time as Strava, at the time I thought their package was better but the critical mass developed in Strava. Its a bit like the Betamax v VHS thing IMO. What I still use RWGPS for is its more meaningful easier interpretation of segments. Its usefull for understanding my TT performances.
Number 1 RWGPS has always IMO done better than Strava.
I’ve no idea about MapMyRide though.
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I really pay for the premium to be able to download routes - I use it to scope races and get new gravel routes, and segments on my 530.
I like the quite like the mapping tool, and it was great when on holiday for getting the suggested routes. However, I find something funky happens with ClimbPro, which I understand is a base mapping issue? I’ll be well on the climb and only start getting the countdown. I don’t have the same issue with RidewithGPS anyway, now with it’s IQ uploader!
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They could even do simple things like showing a heart rate or power icon for each activity with a valid data in the leaderboard.
They should also make it possible to flag/report when some of the activities are suspect. E.g. I do cross country skiing and I find it a bit annoying when the KOM is given to someone skiing with a dog.
I couldn’t access it before anyhow with the free Strava as I have a 5S and it won’t run a recent enough iOS to run the versions of Strava that gave you the end of year recap.
What features do they compete on with Strava? You said competitors which means they must offer comparable features. What are they, and what are their shares of that market?
To me it’s just a pass thru, I would think of canceling if Trainer Road would accepts direct uploads
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RWGPS has segments, you can follow other riders’ activities, etc.
But again, those were added after the initial launch of the app, which started primarily as a mapping tool.
Pulling back and trying to look at things from a 30k foot level, I think it is more common to find “unicorns” in the tech world that are successful simply because of the size of the user base. Zwift, Strava, Twitter, FB, etc.
All have some fairly common (and significant) complaints about them…but theya re successful because “everyone” is there and trying to get mass conversion to other platforms is very difficult. Just look at the schittshow that Twitter has become in the last couple of months. Sites like Mastadon and Post.News are trying to offer alternatives, but at the end of the day, people use these sites to interact with other people.
Same goes for Strava…sure, there are other sites / apps that have similar functionality, but they really aren’t competitors simply because the user base is not there.
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So, so many services that can add up. Lately we’ve been cutting back. There is great satisfaction in saying no, in refraining, and making those decisions. We have not yet regretted ending a subscription whether its cable, AppleTV, or even TR. It all depends on what you need and what you find valuable at the time.
I’ve paid the premium Strava price for years. The live segment and route stuff alone makes it worth the price (for me). And the price is right. However, if they get to $10 (or more) I might reconsider. Or, as I get older, when I’m no longer competitive on local segments I might just decide to go full casual and nix that sub too.
Good luck, whatever you decide!
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You mean Strava or RideWithGPS? Strava does let you flag; there’s people around me who putter around a park and then drive up the hill nearby, and I flag them mercilessly.
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Strava. I didn’t know that was possible. I can’t see that feature in the iPhone app, is it only available on the web?
Website only
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I still don’t understand why can’t Strava auto-flag these? It should be fairly simple for software to spot the most obvious mistakes or even the not so obvious cheating.
Strava even said they were going to do this at one time but it never happened. It would save users tons of time manually policing leaderboards. Little solutions like these might actually make people want to pay for leaderboards.
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I don’t know how effective it is but you can enable flagging in RWGPS too.
thanks for the morning laugh.
Three days ago I got this from my 25 year old buddy:
to which I replied
actually I only need 90 KOMs to beat him, that makes it so much more attainable!
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Did he think you gave a monkeys about how many KOMs he has 
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