← CycleBuddy Blog

CycleBuddy vs Strava: Track Your Ride or Find Your Crew?

CycleBuddy Team · Cycling & Community · 27 July 2026
CycleBuddy vs Strava: Track Your Ride or Find Your Crew?

This isn't a hit piece on Strava — we love it. But it's important to understand what each app actually does, because they solve completely different problems.

What Strava does brilliantly

Strava is the king of recording: segments, KOMs, training load, the social feed. After your ride, there's nothing better for reliving and comparing it.

What Strava doesn't do

Open Strava right now and try to find someone to ride with this afternoon. You can't. There's no map of joinable group rides near you, no pace-labelled ride feed, no chat for each ride. The social network of cycling is, socially, a ghost town before the ride starts.

What CycleBuddy does

CycleBuddy is built for the hours before the ride: group rides near you on a map and in a feed, one-tap join, a chat per ride, and a ride planner that works out fuel, water and breaks for your fitness. It records the ride too — on iPhone or Apple Watch.

Use both

Use Strava to track. Use CycleBuddy to connect. Your next KOM attempt is more fun with someone on your wheel — and CycleBuddy is free to use.

Never ride alone again 🚴

CycleBuddy is free — find riders, join group rides and track every ride without paying a cent.

Get CycleBuddy on the App Store