Strava vs. RideWithGPS
 

If this has been covered, I am happy to look at other threads. The Search option on this site leaves just a bit to be desired.

I am currently on RWG because the first organized ride I did had the route on it. However, it seems that S is more popular on BF. If other threads are not easily accessible/pointable, can you give me just one point that elevates one or the other?

TIA

I used MapMyRide, then added Strava. Strava is about the only one I run now while riding though I do log rides on MapMyRide just because they email weekly, monthly, quarterly totals. I just use the free Strava as I don't use power meters, cadence counters, heart rate monitors, etc. I just track my mileage, routes, average MPH, and I can see where I stack up against the young guns riding the same routes. Seems most of the local riders, and the ones I know personally, use Strava.
I looked into RideWithGPS and really couldn't see any good reason to add it. It DOES have the capability of vocal map guidance but only with premium service. I just couldn't see paying for the premium service for just that.
So really I think its a "6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other" type thing. They basically do the same thing, just load them both, used them and decide which one you like best.

I always use the "term site:www.bikeforums.net" RideWithGPS site:www.bikeforums.net
with google
works pretty well

I design routes in Ride with GPS, and produce the cue sheets etc.

I track routes I'm currently riding with Strava.

I haven't checked Strava in a while, but my club chose RWGPS for club route maps because:
1. you can create route maps with complete turn-by-turn cue sheets and elevation profiles for free with RWGPS
2. other people can view your routes and cue sheets and elevation profiles on RWGPS without having to create accounts
3. you can download the routes and cue sheets from RWGPS to Garmin bicycle computers without having a RWGPS account
4. RWGPS maps are accurate enough for us and their elevation profiles are a lot better than the used to be (probably as good as any other free online mapping service)

Strava is good for recording your rides and times, but no one has ever shared a turn-by-turn cue sheet from Strava with me.

I have both. This is pretty much spot on:


Also, RWGPS gives higher speed, avg speed and elevation over Strava so that's another "feel good" advantage! :lol:


But on the other hand, Strava is the more popular platform (at least in my area) and since it's free (I'm only paying for RWGPS, not Strava), it's not really a bother to maintain both platforms; I can upload my rides to both without any hassle.

I'd never heard of Ride With GPS until reading this thread.

THIS. RWGPS seems to be the bike club standard for mapping usage, if not for actually running the app during rides. Most will either run Strava app on a phone, or use a dedicated GPS (eg. Garmin) that can push the ride data to numerous sites (eg. Strava and RWGPS) automatically after upload thru Garmin Connect

This is the answer.

Create routes in RwGPS and track rides in Strava.


-Tim-

I use both, but they aren't really the same beast. The way I look at it I see Strava as a fun tool for tracking your progress against yourself and seeing what your friends are up to. RideWithGPS seems to be a more serious tool for the reasons Johnny99 outlined. Of course, all of that data is coming from Garmin Connect so I look at that too, from time to time.

One interesting thing I noticed: the other day I forgot to download or reset my Garmin after a ride. When I did my next ride several days later both Garmin Connect and Strava treated it as a continuation of the same ride (and wow was my average speed poor!). RWGPS was intelligent enough to cut out the section where nothing happened. On Strava I was eventually able to do that manually.

Now THAT is old skool! :beer:

Strava excels at being for those in life who are '4 touchdown Bundys' and those who are motivated by competing against others for meaningless recognition.
Its a social platform first and an actual useful tracking app second.

...i have to use it because my GPS computer auto uploads to it. If i had a chose of what app i could upload to, itd be mapmyride or ridewithgps.

If you use a Garmin it can be setup to auto-upload to Strava and RWGPS.

My rides go to both but I only ever look at Strava as it's more popular and useful. As you say, it's a social platform so allows one to see where others are riding. I'm envious of a friend who's currently riding over in Majorca. We're heading to Girona in the spring so am following a few riders who live/train over there to scope out prospective ride routes. I don't think that's possible with RWGPS.

Unfortunately, my Lezyne GPS only uploads to Strava. So i now use Strava to track any miles ridden where i dont use the GPS since what i care about most is just tracking total miles ridden for the year.

I just looked at a ride summary on RWGPS and it appears to miscalculate ride metrics like average power. Seems fairly basic so I suspect not many people use it for tracking rides.

RWGPS strength is navigation, not metrics. Specifically the ability to share the route map / cue sheet / pace notes among the entire group. You can also add things on to the route, like aid stations and hazards like bad pavement, and even dogs (on our rural NC ride)
I do a 7-day, 600-mile event every year, with about 70-100 riders, and we use RWGPS. About half of us use a device, split between phone aps and Garmins.

I was using an old iPhone running the app; it used to be that if you were a member of an event, you could download the routes on the free version, now you can only download routes you created unless you pay for a subscription.

Totally different apps, not mutually exclusive or replacements for each other. I ride with Strava and Cyclemeter for fitness metrics, but refer to the maps set up by other local cyclists on Map My Ride or Ride With GPS for tips on new routes.

Some local clubs use MMR and RWGPS for route planning. Even when I don't actually join those club rides I'll use their maps to explore the routes on my own. Very handy for that stuff.

While Strava can be used to explore new routes, it's a kludge and not really intended for that purpose. It mostly emphasizes segments for hardcore riders to test themselves and compete informally against each other. That can be fun, but it's not helpful for exploring new routes. And it's a PITA to actually find segments and routes, not at all intuitive.

I use RWGPS for planning and capturing rides, and I did just purchase a Wahoo Element Bolt to capture data.

Ridewithgps is best for route creation with turn-by-turn export for GPS devices, user-specified cue sheet entries, and your choice of maps (google, Open Street Map, OSM cycle) to draw on. Paid rwgps adds "tracing" where you can convert breadcrumbs from rides into routes with turn-by-turn directions.

Strava has the Global Heat Map which shows preferred routes, and is best for social-network cycling - seeing where online friends ride, earning king-of-the-mountains, getting good times on strava segments, etc.

rwgps does social too. Strava allows route planning. They just don't do things well outside their focus.

Strava and ridewith gps both do metrics. Strava tracks training stress balance. Neither does those things as well as applications built for that purpose like Golden Cheetah (free for Windows/Mac/Linux) or Training Peaks.

I use rwgps for route planning; Strava for sharing rides plus its global heat map; and Golden Cheetah for metrics/training.

Thanks for all the responses. I will probably just continue using RWG as its strengths are what I'm looking for. Not into the social bit.

Thanks again.

Like many others: RWGPS for route planning, Strava for recording rides. RWGPS is our local standard for planning club rides, Strava is the primary social platform. I discovered that data recorded on one app can be synced easily using a utility called Tapiriik.

Back in olden times, I used Map My Ride and Dailymile, primarily for manually entering rides. As far as I can tell, these have gone the way of Friendster and Myspace...

To those of you who do that hybrid thing (RWGPS for planning and Strava for recording), do you use the paid or free version of Strava? I'm currently using RWGPS for everything. And I don't plan many routes. I don't remember why I chose RWGPS over Strava. I started using it, and after a while, I decided to go with the paid version and am happy with it. One feature I wanted and had to pay for was keeping track of which bike I was on for each ride. I have ten bikes.

The one thing I find attractive about Strava is that it's more popular so I can see and find more people on it, most importantly, people I know.

I use my iphone, not a bike computer. I have a nice handlebar mount for it, and I often use an external battery to power the phone. The battery lets me keep my phone's screen on all the time. I once ran it for six hours this way, and by the end, the external battery still had some capacity left, and the phone's battery was still at 100%.

You do not need to use Strava for the social aspect. When I first joined, I used it solely for tracking my rides, mileage, average speed, etc. You can enter multiple bikes and their equipment to track things like cassette/chain/tire life as well as track all components of each bike. After using it for a bit, decided to delete my account and start fresh, mainly because I forgot my password/username after a hiatus. Decided to join in on the somewhat social aspect of it, following friends and family. This has helped with me picking new routes as I see where they ride and then map out my own routes and load them to my Garmin.

You can use as much or as little as you want on Strava. Make a bogus John Smith account and just use that if you want to keep the social stuff away. Keep everything private. Don't tell anyone. Don't look for friends. Done.

1) Please do a search. This has been covered ad nauseum across the bike-o-sphere.

2) They're both find programs, they're both free, and they aren't mutually exclusive. You can run both of them and see for yourself. For free.

3) Strava has all the tracking features of RWGPS, but also has the social features that basically make it Facebook for cyclists. If you don't care about that. it really doesn't mater which one you use.

Since I use the free versions of both Ride with GPS and Strava (sometimes both at the same time), they give different features.

Ride With GPSStravaStrava has a function to import GPX (ride with GPS) maps into Strava routes.

http://labs.strava.com/gpx-to-route/

It seems to have a load based problem, so I've had best luck trying to import rides late at night. Anyway, you can use it to convert a published RWGPS route to Strava to use real-time mapping functions.