abseits vs Komoot
Looking for a free Komoot alternative without region packs, subscriptions, or a business model built on selling route data? Here's how abseits compares.
abseits is free with no ads, no region packs, and no tracking. It ships a custom offline cartography pipeline with dedicated winter, summer, and cycling styles. Komoot wins on route discovery, voice navigation during an activity, native mobile apps, and a much larger user base of shared routes.
Feature comparison
| Feature | abseits | Komoot |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free - no ads, no paywall | Free base + region packs (approx. 4 EUR each) or Premium subscription |
| Offline vector maps worldwide | Yes - one download per region, no region pack | Region packs or Premium required for offline use |
| Winter / ski-touring style | Yes - dedicated style rendering lifts, pistes, ski routes | General topo (no dedicated winter style) |
| Cycling style | Yes - road and off-road classes differentiated | Yes - differentiated by sport type on route planning |
| Satellite imagery | Yes - opt-in (Esri World Imagery) | Yes |
| Sport-typed routing (hike / MTB / road) | Basic routing on OSM graph | Yes - refined per sport type |
| Turn-by-turn voice navigation | No | Yes |
| Activity recording (GPS track) | No - planning tool, not a tracker | Yes |
| Route discovery / "Highlights" | No | Yes - very large community database |
| Trip planner (routes + waypoints + notes) | Yes - dedicated trip model | Yes - collections and tours |
| Share trip with collaborators | Yes - short share codes | Yes |
| Ads & trackers | None | Analytics + attribution SDKs |
| Account required | Optional - app works fully anonymously | Required |
| Native mobile apps | Installable PWA (iOS, Android, desktop) | Yes - native iOS & Android |
| Data ownership | OSM-based, your trips stay yours; export/delete anytime | Company-owned platform; data portability limited |
What actually differs in practice
Price and region packs
Komoot's base app is free but full offline maps are paywalled: you buy region packs (around 4 EUR per region), a world pack (one-time), or a Premium subscription. abseits has no region packs and no subscription for the core app. Download the regions you need; that's it.
Cartography
abseits runs its own cartography pipeline built on OpenStreetMap. Each style (standard topo, winter, cycling, satellite) is hand-tuned for its use case: the winter style uses icy halos and renders lifts, pistes, and ski routes prominently. Komoot's map is a single general-purpose topo tuned for route planning across all sport types, not a collection of specialised styles.
Planning vs. activity
abseits is a planning and reference tool, not an activity tracker. It has no GPS recording, no voice nav, no fitness stats. Komoot spans the whole cycle: plan, navigate out loud while you go, and record the activity afterwards. If you want a single app for all three, Komoot is the better fit; if you plan in one tool and record in another (a watch, Strava, a handheld GPS), abseits fits cleanly into that workflow.
Discovery
Komoot's "Highlights" and shared-tour database is one of its biggest selling points - millions of user-submitted photos, scenic points, and routes to copy. abseits does not have a discovery / community layer. Bring your own route (OSM, GPX, or click it in yourself).
Privacy
Komoot loads third-party SDKs for analytics and attribution, and Bending Spoons' acquisition raised concerns in 2025 about how user data is handled going forward. abseits runs no analytics, no fingerprinting, and no third-party SDKs. The only network call beyond map tiles is to our Cloudflare Workers backend for optional sync.
Where Komoot still wins
Native mobile apps with full background behaviour, voice navigation, activity recording, refined sport-typed routing, a huge community route database, and years of polish. If any of those are core to your workflow, Komoot is the right tool. abseits is simpler and more focused.
When to choose which
- Pick abseits if you plan trips and want a map reference that works offline everywhere, you ski tour or backcountry hike, you value privacy, or you don't want to pay for region packs.
- Stick with Komoot if you need voice navigation, activity recording, community route discovery, or sport-typed routing.
Can I use both?
Yes. Many users plan in abseits (custom cartography, no paywall for offline maps) and record with Komoot, a GPS watch, or Strava. Export a route from one and import into the other via GPX if needed.
FAQ
Is abseits really free?
Yes. No ads, no tracking, no paywall for offline maps, no region packs. A paid tier for power features may appear later if infrastructure cost demands it; basic trip planning stays free.
Can I import my Komoot routes?
Komoot lets you export individual tours as GPX. GPX import into abseits is not yet in the release version but is on the roadmap. Until then, you can re-click the route using the OSM graph.
Does abseits work offline like Komoot Premium?
abseits caches vector tiles in OPFS/IndexedDB for any region you download, on every plan (there is only one plan: free). Komoot Premium's offline is similar in behaviour; the difference is pricing and that abseits' offline coverage is not gated per-region.
Does abseits support voice navigation?
Not currently. abseits is a planning and reference tool, not a turn-by-turn navigator. If you need voice nav during an activity, use Komoot, a dedicated GPS watch, or another navigator alongside abseits.
Which regions are supported?
Anywhere OpenStreetMap has good coverage, which is most of Europe, North America, and an increasing share of the rest of the world. The winter style is tuned for the Alps and Nordics where ski-route tagging is densest.