Best Cycling Apps (2026)
No single cycling app does everything well. Most riders end up with a small set: one to record rides, one to plan routes, one for training and, in winter, one for riding indoors. Here are the best cycling apps for each job, what each is best for, and what they cost in the UK.
- An AI coach you can ask, built on what you already record: VeloCoach AI
- AI-adjusted structured training, indoors and out: TrainerRoad
- Making indoor riding fun: Zwift
- Riding real roads on video, indoors: Rouvy
- Riding your TrainingPeaks workouts indoors: TrainingPeaks Virtual
- Planning routes, with a free region and a one-off World Pack: Komoot
- Route planning built just for cyclists: Ride with GPS
- Recording rides and the community: Strava
- Already riding with a Garmin: Garmin Connect
- Wahoo hardware and video workouts: the Wahoo App
- Keeping your health data in one place on iPhone: Apple Health
A note on fairness: VeloCoach AI is our app. Every fact below about another app comes from that app's own website or its UK App Store listing, checked on 3 October 2026, and the sources are listed at the end. The verdicts are our opinion. We haven't scored or ranked the apps, because the right one depends on what you need.
What makes a cycling app a must-have?
For this list, an app had to run on iPhone in the UK and do one cycling job well: training, riding indoors, planning routes, recording rides, or keeping your health data together. We grouped the apps by that job. Several do more than one, and we say so. For training apps in more depth, see our best cycling training apps for iPhone. For apps that plan and adjust your training with AI, see best AI cycling coach apps.
Prices, free versions and trials at a glance
| App | Best for | Free version | Paid (UK) | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VeloCoach AI | An AI coach you can ask | Free to download; Premium unlocks the coach | £14.99 a month or £144.99 a year | 7 days |
| TrainerRoad | AI-adjusted structured training | No | £19.99 and £199.99 in the App Store; website: US$21.99 a month or US$209.99 a year | No; 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Zwift | Indoor riding | None found | £17.99 in the App Store, period not shown; website showed no price | 14 days on monthly; none on annual |
| Rouvy | Real routes on video, indoors | After the trial, 20 km a month | Website: £17.99 a month or £159.99 a year for one rider | 7 days |
| TrainingPeaks Virtual | TrainingPeaks workouts, indoors | No; it comes with TrainingPeaks Premium | TrainingPeaks Premium: from £18.99 a month or £119.99 a year in the App Store | 14 days of Premium |
| Komoot | Route planning and navigation | Yes, with your first region free | World Pack £29.99 once; Premium £59.99 a year | Premium only; length not stated |
| Ride with GPS | Route planning for cyclists | Yes (Starter) | App Store: Basic £7.99 or £58.99; Premium from £7.99 to £70.99 | 7 days of Premium |
| Strava | Recording and community | Yes | £8.99 a month or £54.99 a year | 30 days |
| Garmin Connect | Garmin owners | Yes | Connect+ £6.99 a month or £69.99 a year | For first-time subscribers; length not stated |
| Wahoo App | Wahoo hardware, video workouts | Yes (Base) | Core £4.99 a month or £49.99 a year; Pro £14.99 a month or £149.99 a year | 14 days of Pro |
| Apple Health | Health data in one place | Free | None | Not needed |
Prices change often, and App Store prices can differ from an app's own website. Where a website showed no UK price, we give the UK App Store price and say so. Check before you subscribe.
Training plans and AI coaching
A training app gives you structured sessions with a purpose, rather than riding the same loop at the same effort. The two below plan your training and change it as you go. Our AI cycling coach apps guide compares nine apps in this group.
VeloCoach is an AI cycling coach for iPhone. It reads your rides and gives you a structured plan that adjusts when you miss a session or feel flat. After each ride you get a debrief, and each morning a read on whether to push or recover. You can ask the coach anything about your training, and it answers using your own numbers and plan. Gym work is planned around your riding, and you can log your sets on Apple Watch.
- Garmin Connect, Wahoo and Zwift link directly
- Apple Health and intervals.icu
- Apple Watch for gym sets
- Needs an iPhone
- Cycling only: no running or triathlon
- Not a place to ride indoors: you send structured sessions to your Zwift schedule
TrainerRoad describes TrainerRoad AI as choosing and updating every workout based on your fitness, fatigue and goals, and says outdoor rides feed into your plan too. Its AI FTP Detection gives you an FTP without a test. You can ride the workouts indoors on your phone or computer, or send them to a bike computer and ride outside.
- Smart trainers and power meters
- Garmin, Wahoo and Hammerhead bike computers
- Apps like Zwift
- No free version or free trial; a 30-day money-back guarantee instead
- Its website lists prices in US dollars
Indoor riding
An indoor app runs your smart trainer and gives you something to ride: a virtual world, real roads on video, or a structured workout. For when indoor riding is worth it, see indoor vs outdoor cycling training.
Zwift calls itself the indoor cycling app for smart trainers and bikes, and says it makes indoor cycling fun. It has training plans that it says adapt to your progress, plus thousands of on-demand workouts. You connect a smart bike, or your bike and a smart trainer, to your phone, tablet or Apple TV.
- Smart trainers from Zwift, Wahoo, Garmin and more
- Smart bikes, including Zwift Ride
- Strava
- No free version found
- The annual membership has no free trial
Rouvy is built around real routes filmed on location, and says it has more than 1,500 augmented-reality bike routes around the world. It also has workouts and training plans, and you can film your own ride and turn it into a route. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, Windows and Android.
- Most smart bikes, smart trainers and classic trainers
- Bluetooth, ANT+ or wi-fi
- Strava, Garmin Connect, TrainingPeaks and Wahoo
- After the trial, free riding is limited to 20 km a month
- Its website shows pounds, but its FAQ says prices are set in US dollars or euros, and App Store prices differ
TrainingPeaks Virtual is the indoor riding app that comes with TrainingPeaks Premium. Workouts on your TrainingPeaks calendar appear in it, and you can train, race and ride with others. You can also load any route you want to ride.
- Bluetooth FTMS, Wahoo, Tacx, ANT+ and Direct Connect WiFi trainers
- A power meter, or a speed and cadence sensor
- Apple TV; rides sync to Garmin Connect
- Needs TrainingPeaks Premium; no price of its own
- A separate app from TrainingPeaks itself
Routes and navigation
A route app plans a ride on roads or trails that suit your bike, then guides you round it. Offline maps matter once you ride beyond phone signal.
Komoot plans routes for road, mountain bike and touring rides, with turn-by-turn voice navigation and offline maps. Your first region is free for good. Beyond that you can buy single regions, region bundles, or the World Pack for £29.99 once, with no recurring cost. Premium adds multi-day routes, live tracking, weather on your route and the komoot map on Garmin.
- Garmin, through komoot for Garmin
- Wahoo ELEMNT and ELEMNT BOLT
- Apple Watch and Apple Health
- Built for hiking and running too, not cycling alone
- Navigation and offline maps are free only in your first region
Ride with GPS calls itself the planning and navigation app just for cyclists. The free Starter plan lets you plan routes on the website, record rides in the app and sync with your bike computer. Basic adds turn-by-turn voice navigation and offline maps. Premium adds its fullest planning and editing tools.
- Garmin, Wahoo and Hammerhead bike computers
- Apple Watch
- Garmin Varia
- Planning routes in the app, and navigation, need a paid plan
- UK prices here are from the App Store; its website showed no price when we checked
Recording and sharing rides
A recording app saves each ride from your phone, watch or bike computer, so you can look back at it and share it. Most riders want one, even if another app does their training.
Strava records rides, runs and over 50 other sport types, and it's where many riders share them. The free version records your activities, lets you join the community and includes its safety features. A subscription adds drawing your own routes, routes made for you, and saving routes for offline use.
- Apple Watch, Garmin and thousands of other devices
- Zwift, Rouvy, Garmin Connect and the Wahoo App
- No cycling training plans found; its plans are for running
- Route building is in the paid version
If you ride with a Garmin watch or bike computer, Garmin Connect is where your rides and health data land. The free app includes Garmin Coach training plans, and you can create workouts, and build and download courses for your rides. The paid Connect+ adds Garmin Active Intelligence, which Garmin says gives personalised insights and suggestions powered by AI.
- Garmin watches and bike computers
- Apple Health, MyFitnessPal and Strava
- Needs a Garmin device
- The Connect+ Performance Dashboard is on desktop only
The Wahoo App records rides indoors and out, and connects to your Wahoo trainer, bike computer and sensors. It's free for recording, pairing sensors and some structured workouts. Pro adds full access to SYSTM, Wahoo's library of video workouts, plus training plans and workout recommendations that Wahoo says adapt to where you are.
- KICKR trainers and ELEMNT bike computers
- Heart rate monitors and Bluetooth sensors
- Apple Watch; Zwift, TrainingPeaks and Strava
- Annual plans are sold only on Wahoo's website, not in the app
- Full SYSTM and training plans need Pro
Health and recovery
Recovery decides how much training you can absorb. Sleep and heart rate variability are the two measures most riders start with: see sleep and cycling performance and HRV for cyclists.
Apple's free Health app stores health data from your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and from compatible devices and third-party apps, in one place. With an Apple Watch, Apple lists measures such as heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep and VO2 max, and for workouts, heart rate zones, training load and power.
- Apple Watch
- Compatible devices and third-party apps, including several on this list
- iPhone only
- It stores and shows your data; it doesn't plan your training
If you wear a Garmin, Garmin Connect is your health app as well as your ride log.
Safety features worth switching on
Strava's free version includes its safety features. Its Beacon feature shares your location in real time with up to three safety contacts while you record a ride. Garmin says its compatible Edge bike computers have built-in incident detection: when an incident is detected, your location is sent to friends and family you've chosen, as long as the Edge is paired with your phone.
The must-have cycling apps: a starter set
If you're starting from nothing, you need fewer apps than you might think:
- One app to record your rides. Strava is free, or use the app that comes with your Garmin or Wahoo.
- One app to plan routes. Komoot's first region is free, and Ride with GPS lets you plan routes on its website for free.
- One app for training, once you want to improve. Pick one that plans your week and changes it when life gets in the way.
- An indoor app, if you own a smart trainer.
Connect them so each ride is recorded once and reaches the others. Most of these apps link to each other.
What is the best free cycling app?
It depends on the job. For recording rides, Strava's free version, Garmin Connect and the Wahoo App's free tier all cost nothing. For routes, Komoot gives you your first region free, and Ride with GPS's free plan lets you plan routes on its website. Apple Health is free on iPhone. Free training plans are rarer: Garmin Coach plans are free if you own a Garmin, and Rouvy's free tier keeps its workouts and training plans after the trial.
Komoot or Strava?
They do different jobs, and many riders use both. Komoot is a route planner first, with turn-by-turn navigation and offline maps, and its first region is free. Strava is a ride log and community first. Its free version records rides, and building routes needs a subscription. If you mostly want to find and follow good routes, start with Komoot. If you mostly want to record rides and see what friends are doing, start with Strava.
What is the most popular cycling app?
App makers don't publish UK download figures, so we can't say for sure. Of the apps here, Strava has by far the most UK App Store ratings: 128,679 on 3 October 2026, against 24,648 for Komoot, the next highest.
What is the 75% rule in cycling?
It says about three quarters of your riding should be easy and a quarter hard. We explain it, and how it relates to 80/20, in what is the 75% rule in cycling?
How to choose: a checklist
- Name the job first. Recording, routes, training, indoor riding or health. Then pick the best app for that job.
- Check it works with what you own. Your bike computer, watch and smart trainer.
- Check the free version. Some free versions do a lot; others are a trial in disguise.
- Look at the price in pounds, on the platform you'll pay through. App Store and website prices can differ.
- Avoid paying twice. If two subscriptions do the same job, keep the one you use.
What VeloCoach AI does
VeloCoach does one sport. Connect Garmin, Wahoo, Zwift, Apple Health or intervals.icu, and it reads every ride. You get an adaptive training plan, a debrief after each ride, a morning read on whether to push or recover, and a coach you can ask about your training. You can send a structured session to your Zwift schedule. Your gym work is planned around the bike, and you can log sets on your Apple Watch.
It's £14.99 a month or £144.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial.
Limitations of this comparison
- We checked facts from each app's own website and UK App Store listing on 3 October 2026. We didn't test every feature hands-on.
- Prices are UK prices where the app showed them. Where a website showed no UK price, we give the UK App Store price and say so.
- Where we couldn't find a fact on the app's own pages, such as a trial length, we say so rather than guess.
- We make VeloCoach AI, so read our verdict on it with that in mind.
Sources
All checked on 3 October 2026.
- TrainerRoad: trainerroad.com/pricing, trainerroad.com, UK App Store listing
- Zwift: zwift.com/uk/pricing, zwift.com/uk, UK App Store listing
- Rouvy: rouvy.com/pricing, rouvy.com, UK App Store listing
- TrainingPeaks Virtual: trainingpeaks.com/virtual, TrainingPeaks pricing, UK App Store listings
- Komoot: komoot.com/shop, komoot.com, UK App Store listing
- Ride with GPS: ridewithgps.com/pricing, ridewithgps.com, UK App Store listing
- Strava: strava.com/subscribe, strava.com/pricing, Strava Beacon help, UK App Store listing
- Garmin: Garmin Connect+, Garmin Connect app, incident detection, Garmin cycling safety, UK App Store listing
- Wahoo: Wahoo App membership, SYSTM, UK App Store listings
- Apple Health: apple.com/uk/health, UK App Store listing
- VeloCoach AI: UK App Store listing
Try VeloCoach AI
A 7-day free trial on both plans. You will need an iPhone and a bike computer or trainer app.
Download on the App Store