Did somebody try Komoot on /e/os already? How did it go? And are there some reccommendable alternatives? What I would consider as that are navigation apps which work well for hiking/cycling and allow to open and use external GPX files for navigation.
Komoot works fine on eOS (FP6 here)
However, komoot was bought by an investment company (bending spoons) in March 2025, who sacked 85% of the team within two weeks.
How this is ging to influence the quality oft the service is yet to be seen and if one wants to support this kind of making business by paying for maps (which were created by the former team) is of any ones discretion.
Can you give the exact app name or a link?
I was not precise with this wording, my bad.
The maps - as far as I understand it - were created and uploaded by the users or tourism entities (tourism section of a provincial government). It still takes some work to curate and integrate the maps, work which has to be done by the team of the app provider. A friend of mine is a geographer and works for a competitor of komoot. Thatās how I know the little I do know about this field.
A link to the actual sale of the startup (german):
https://www.ride-mtb.com/de/news/komoot-vom-startup-traum-zum-vertrauensbruch
2 Likes
This is the app we were discussing: https://www.komoot.com/
The USP to me is the Knowledge base of all the routes cobtributed by users or generated automatically. But I agree that the approach of Bending spoons is questionnable. I learnt about it only now.
1 Like
komoot is a great app. I got worldwide / lifelong maps when they were on a discount offer and I still use it.
I just didnāt like the way it was sold and I wonder, how the overall quality will develop. We will see.
edit:
There are alternatives, like outdooractive, I did not research the background of this one, though
Hehe, same here. Thanks for the alternative tip, will check it out!
As long as there is a decent navigation app for hiking/cycling which can read external GPX-Files, there would be a possible workaround on /e/os anyway. But you would always have to grab the GPX from Komoot before (they usually allow to download it)
Very happy with Komoot here.
Alternatives also working with /e/OS (at least, for me 
): VisiRando and SityTrail.
1 Like
When it comes to GPX files, these sometimes get offered to download for free by the aforementioned tourism entities (I do a websearch (no, I dont āgoogleā) of the region). I imported a bike track into magic earth once, which worked well.
With komoot (or any other good hiking app) you get additional info, like what kind if roads/paths the route consists of. Which brings us back to the additional work, which has to be done by someone.
(edit typo)
1 Like
OsmAnd~ from F-Droid is good. Includes - for free - all the features of the paid OsmAnd+ from Google Play Store. FOSS app, uses maps from OpenStreetMap.
Works well for walking, cycling and driving (though it doesnāt have real-time traffic data). I would definitely recommend it
1 Like
navigation apps which work well for hiking/cycling and allow to open and use external GPX files for navigation.
from a cycling perspective: Organicmaps/Comaps can import a folder with gpx files, but not yet route along an import (1, 2). Their routing engines are not as flexible as brouter / bikerouter and thereās no interop (1, 2).
OsmAnd can do both, follow an imported route and use brouter. Its v2 map layer rendering with vectors isnāt efficient (3) though. v1 + online bitmaps is quicker. Its pro and con is its many knobs.
If you have a bike computer, Gadgetbridge can be used to transfer gpx to some Garmins.
komoot is good for planning, but while the service itself relies on commons (OSM) and rider contributions (tracks, heatmap), it behaves like a data silo for the latter. You can export gpx, but need the region or a world package - and itās unsaid if bendingspoons will honor that indefinitely.
2 Likes
Donāt ask me 
, Iām not a friend of all this.
As a mountaineer I do all my planning on a PC because of its screen size. I would never plan something on a mobile, thatās just ridiculous.
And then on the go ā¦
-
I fear the day I drop that damned thing so that it will be broken and dead. (Iāve already seen this once.) The day will come for sure, I know it. And then you stand there on 3000m and you should make the right decision very soon because a thunderstorm comes up ā¦
-
The other fear is to have no power anymore. Here in CH many mountain huts have just a small solar panel for itās own use and no charging facility, in some huts you must pay extra for charging. Sure you can have a power bank. But a power bank with a proper capacity has also its weight and for long trips as I do (two weeks or longer) you must then still have an idea.
-
And then, especially in the mountains, you have often no network. And also no position because you are in a deep gorge or very near to a high wall of rock, this can disturb positioning a lot.
What I do is printing out some papers (maps) for a day. Yes, sounds old fashioned but the big advantage is complete independence from any electronics,
- it can rain on it,
- your rucksack can roll down a mountainside,
- you can yourself stumble and fall (all this happens more often than we think),
- you see much more details on a proper map than on any display especially under direct sunlight
- and at the end of the day you have still a nice paper for lighting a camp fire.
One of the best purposes of such a used map is to give it to someone else you met in a hut so that he can use it tomorrow. Iāve seen several very thankful people in the Dolomites because of that.
Nevertheless I have a mobile with me, but this is rather for emergency calls and mostly switched off.
Sorry, Iām no help for using Komoot or something
Disclaimer: Navigation in urban environments is something else, using OsmAnd there.
1 Like
Thank you for the detailed strentghs/weaknesses of the Apps. I agree with your view of Komoot as a data silo, I think it is a really useful one.
But at least when I ended up on closed roads several times on a cycling trip I realized: Komootās big strength is planning. Not real-time navigation.
Cyclists do not need live car traffic, but they do need road closure info (bridges, ferries etc). There was a long thread recently on who needs what kind of Map app. It really depends on what you do, even in a sub-group, MTB trails vs road cycling etc.
1 Like