Komoot is probably one of the best-known platforms for planning and logging tours - whether on foot or by bike. Now Komoot has been sold to the infamous company Bending Spoons in Italy.
Bending Spoons - the prime example of enshittification
In recent years, they have already shown that the sole focus here is on maximizing profits. What Bending Spoons does with the services it acquires is practically THE prime example of enshittification . Bending Spoons drove the video app Filmic Pro into the ground. With the Evernote acquisition, all employees were laid off, the product became more expensive and was hardly developed further. The free version of Evernote was restricted to the point of uselessness, and that’s exactly what I see coming for Komoot. I doubt that there will be a meaningfully usable free version of Komoot in the future.
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Komoot always had quite interesting tours, although the planning was unnecessarily cumbersome. Moreover, such a portal naturally also encourages popular routes to become increasingly crowded or people to stumble around completely unprepared on paths for which they don’t have the fitness. But anyway!
Komoot alternatives
When I’m out on my bike, the Bosch Flow app records the route anyway, and as alternatives there are apps like Locus Pro or OsmAnd , and Strava also offers corresponding functions.
For pure route planning for bike tours, I really like the free https://bikerouter.de/ . The planning is very simple and intuitive, with multiple profiles, e.g. routes with more or fewer off-road paths, etc. In my comparisons, Bikerouter plans much better than Komoot does - at least in my spot checks in our region (Fichtelgebirge, Upper Franconia).
The tours planned with it can then simply be exported as a GPX file and opened in a navigation app or in Bosch Flow. With one click in Bikerouter, you can simply reverse the route so that you can find your way back to the starting point.
How to back up and export your Komoot tours and data
As a paying premium user, you can export all tours together with one click. The button for this is located in the saved or completed tours, to the left of “Import GPS file”. Since I have the world package but not a premium account, I unfortunately can’t show a screenshot.
As a user of the free version, you would have to download each tour individually. It’s easier with an email to [email protected], because according to Art. 20 GDPR and the associated right to data portability, you are entitled to a backup of all your data.
I contacted Komoot via the address mentioned (I provided the email address associated with my account as well as the Komoot ID from the profile settings) and had a very friendly response a few minutes later with a download link to a zip archive. It contained all my tours as GPX files, all photos, profile settings, comments, likes, etc. If you have planned and completed many tours, this is the easiest way to get your data.
I’ll now observe the development at Komoot, although for me it wouldn’t be a very tragic loss either way, as there are enough alternatives that often offer significantly better route planning.
Hi! I'm Markus – the Fricklr. ⚡ Electrical engineer, 🎵 musician (bass, guitar, keys) and professionally 'something with the internet' 🌐 for over 30 years – nowadays with AI too 🤖 – a 55-year-old generalist from Bavaria, Germany.
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