Comparison
Waypath vs Strava
Waypath gives an event a spectator link that anyone opens in a browser, free, with no app and no account — alongside 426,029 waymarked trails and activities that stay private until you publish them. Strava is the biggest social network in endurance sport, and nothing on this page pretends otherwise; it is a different centre of gravity, not a smaller version of the same app.
The short version
What each app is for
Strava is where the sport socialises. Its scale is the product: the segments, the leaderboards, the clubs, the challenges and the fact that the people you train with are already there. It runs on iPhone, Android and the web, imports and exports the usual file formats, and its route and heat map tools are built on an enormous pool of activity data.
Waypath is an endurance app built in Europe around clubs, courses and privacy. Its distinguishing feature is live sharing built for an event: an organiser draws a course, runners opt in individually, and anyone with the link watches the field move in a browser. Your history comes with you — past workouts import from Apple Health with their route and heart rate, whatever watch recorded them — and every activity exports as GPX. It is iPhone and Apple Watch today, with an Android version planned for January 2027, and it is much younger and much smaller than Strava.
Strava
Where Strava is stronger
The segment network
Strava's segments and leaderboards are the largest in the sport and have been accumulating for well over a decade. Waypath matches segments on the device, which is a different design with a different purpose, and it is not competing with that catalogue.
The people
Strava has a user base that no independent app comes close to. If the point is seeing what your training group did this morning, they are almost certainly on Strava and probably not on Waypath yet.
Platform coverage
Strava runs on iPhone, Android and the web, and integrates directly with Garmin, Wahoo, Coros, Zwift and the rest — a partner-by-partner network no independent app can match. Waypath is iPhone and Apple Watch today, with an Android version planned for January 2027, and reaches other brands through Apple Health rather than through direct integrations. That covers any watch whose app writes to Health, but it is one route in, not thirty.
Uploading a file
Strava accepts GPX, TCX and FIT uploads, so anything that produces a file gets in. Waypath does not yet read a GPX file you hand it — a real gap, and on the roadmap. What it does do is import from Apple Health and export GPX 1.1 from every activity, so data arrives and leaves; it is the file drop specifically that is missing.
Global heat maps
Strava's heat maps are aggregated from a vast pool of activities, which makes them genuinely useful for finding where people run in a city you do not know. Waypath's heat map is drawn from your own history only.
Maturity
Strava has had years to find its bugs. Waypath has not.
Waypath
Where Waypath is different
A spectator link built for a course
Strava's Beacon shares your live location with a small number of nominated safety contacts. Waypath's live sharing is aimed at a different situation: an event course, a field of runners who each opted in, and a link that anyone can open in a browser with no app and no account. It is a spectator view, not a timing system.
A start that is trimmed on purpose
A live position is held back until you are 250 metres past it, and the held tail is discarded at the finish rather than released. Published routes have privacy zones removed and a random 200 to 600 metres cut from each end.
426,029 waymarked trails
Across 37 countries and 75 curated regions, built from OpenStreetMap, with dated condition reports from people who walked them.
Numbers that admit what they are
Modelled figures are badged as modelled. Heart-rate zones need a real sensor and are not inferred from pace. Where no honest model exists for a sport, Waypath prints nothing.
Encrypted messages
Direct and group messages are end-to-end encrypted and the server stores ciphertext only.
Free means unlimited recording
Recording, live sharing, clubs, trails and the 3D fly-through are free. Premium adds analysis: charts, race predictions, the full heat map and unlimited saved routes.
Side by side
Strava and Waypath, line by line
| Strava | Waypath | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone, Android, web | iPhone and Apple Watch, with Android planned for January 2027 |
| Best at | Social scale, segments, leaderboards | Watching a course by link, trails, privacy |
| Live sharing | Beacon, to nominated safety contacts | A link for an event course, opened in any browser with no app or account |
| Trails | Routes and heat maps built from activity data | 426,029 waymarked trails from OpenStreetMap, with dated condition reports |
| Heat map | Global, aggregated from many athletes | Personal, from your own activities only |
| Device support | Direct integrations with most brands | Apple Watch directly, others through Apple Health |
| A watch that is not an Apple Watch | Direct integration with Garmin, Wahoo, Coros and others | Arrives through Apple Health with its route and heart rate, and charts like a Waypath recording |
| File import | GPX, TCX and FIT upload | Apple Health import. GPX file import not yet |
| File export | Yes | GPX 1.1 on every activity |
| Default visibility | Configurable, with per-activity control | Private by default, audience chosen per activity |
| Price shape | Free tier plus a subscription | Free tier plus a subscription |
Written on 12 August 2026 and correct to the best of our knowledge on that day. Competitor apps change often, and the fairest thing this page can do is tell you to check theirs. Waypath is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any company named here, and all trademarks belong to their owners.
In practice
You can use both
Adding Waypath costs you nothing you already have. Your back catalogue comes across from Apple Health — a run recorded on a Garmin or any other watch that writes to Health arrives with its route and its heart rate, and its charts look like a Waypath recording's; runs Waypath recorded itself are skipped, so nothing lands twice. Every activity exports as GPX 1.1, so nothing recorded here is trapped here. Most people who try Waypath keep Strava, and that is a perfectly sensible outcome.
The case for adding Waypath is specific: you want people to be able to watch a course without downloading anything, you want a trail catalogue with dated condition reports on it, or you want an app whose default is that nothing leaves your phone.
Keep reading
Related
Try the one that keeps its promises small.
Waypath records unlimited activities for free, shares a live link at no cost, and publishes nothing until you say so.
Requires iPhone. There is no Android app today; one is planned for January 2027.