Pick Remap if you want routes built for you from the roads around you, through the scenery you choose and matched to a style you set, with planning free and without limits. Pick Garmin Connect if you ride or run with a Garmin watch or Edge, because Garmin Connect sends courses straight to it, while Remap syncs only with Wahoo and gives you a GPX file for anything else.
Every Garmin figure below links to the page it came from, checked on 16 October 2026. What we say about Remap describes its web and iPhone apps on 17 October 2026, from our help pages, pricing page and the apps themselves.
How each one makes a route
Remap builds the route for you. It reads every road for its surface, traffic and terrain, then builds routes through the roads that suit the style you chose. A road you like can lose out when it’s busy, rough or steep for that style (How routes pick roads).
Garmin Connect builds the course you draw, or suggests one. You pick a course type, then either draw it yourself or choose the automatic drawing method, which takes your location, preferred distance and general direction. When you draw, you can follow popular routes from other Garmin users, follow the roads or draw freehand (How to Build a Course in Garmin Connect). Garmin calls Connect “an extension of your Garmin device” (Garmin Connect), and the course goes to that device with Send to Device.
What Remap already knows about every road
Before you ask for a route, Remap has already read every mapped road and path in the world and worked out what each stretch is like to ride or run:
- Scenery: whether it runs along the coast, beside water, through a forest or a park, or through a quiet part of town.
- Traffic: how much traffic it carries and how fast that traffic moves, modelled for every road, not only where traffic counts exist.
- Comfort: bike lanes and separated paths, mapped cycle routes, surface, hills and lighting.
When you ask for a ride or a run, Remap joins the best of these stretches into a route that fits your distance or time. In Explore you choose the scenery you want more of, free: coastal, waterside, parks, forest, cycle networks or quiet streets, with only the kinds your area has on offer. Before you go, the route shows the scenery it passes along its elevation profile and flags any busy, fast or rough stretches.
Side-by-side comparison
| Remap | Garmin Connect | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan routes | Free, without limits, by distance or by time: 10 to 200 km (5 to 125 miles) for rides, 2 to 30 km (1 to 20 miles) for runs (pricing) | Free app (App Store); Garmin says “All existing features and data in Garmin Connect will remain free” (press release) |
| Paid plan | Remap Pro, $59.99 a year in the US, with a 7-day free trial (pricing) | Garmin Connect+, $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year (Connect+); free for 30 days first (press release) |
| Sports | Rides and runs, each with its own styles | Course types for “different kinds of both running and cycling” (course guide) |
| Tune the routing | Styles you refine: road comfort, speed limits, bike lanes, surfaces, hills, intersections, turns, ferries, traffic and lighting for rides; surfaces, turns and lighting for runs | Follow popular routes, follow roads or freehand (course guide); on a fēnix 8, Popularity Routing, a calculation method that minimises time, distance or ascent, and avoidances (fēnix 8 manual) |
| Course from a distance and direction | Set a distance or a time and every route comes back to your start, free; Explore Focus picks the direction, in Pro (Remap Pro) | Automatic drawing method (course guide); Round-Trip Course on the Edge 1040 itself (Edge 1040 manual) |
| Climbs | Hills are part of a ride style | Categorised climbs on road, mountain bike and gravel courses (course guide) |
| Garmin devices | No direct sync; export any route as a GPX file for a device that takes one (home page) | Send to Device, and the course downloads at the next sync (course guide, Edge 1040 manual) |
| Trails for offline use | None; Remap needs a data connection to plan | Garmin Trails, “thousands of trails” sent to a compatible device for offline use, with Connect+ (Connect+) |
| Sharing | Share a saved route or recorded activity by link, free with an account (pricing) | Public or private courses, shared by link (course guide) |
| Account | Not needed to plan; a free account, with Apple or Google, saves, shares and exports (Your account) | A Garmin Connect account is needed to download a course to an Edge (Edge 1040 manual) |
| Where it runs | Web and iPhone (iOS 26 or later); navigation and recording are in the iPhone app; no Android or Apple Watch app (App Store) | Web (Garmin Connect), iPhone (App Store) and Android, with 50M+ downloads (Google Play) |
| Rating | New on the App Store, with no US ratings yet (App Store) | 4.4 from 59K ratings on the US App Store (App Store); 4.4 from 1.11M reviews on Google Play (Google Play) |
The real limits on both sides
Remap
- Voice guidance, Just Go, Explore Focus, unlimited saves and Wahoo sync are Pro. Planning, GPX export, sharing by link and Bluetooth sensors stay free (Remap Pro, pricing).
- A free account shows up to 3 saved routes and favourite activities. The rest are kept, not deleted, and come back with Pro. Recorded activities aren’t capped.
- Remap Pro is sold on the web and in the iPhone app (Remap Pro).
- Navigation and recording are in the iPhone app, which needs iOS 26 or later. The web plans routes, shows your history and exports GPX. There’s no Android or Apple Watch app.
- There are no offline maps to download, so you need a data connection to plan a route.
- Remap doesn’t import route files, and Wahoo is the only device it syncs with. Any other bike computer or watch takes a GPX file you export.
- Courses you make in Wahoo don’t come into Remap. Older ELEMNT, BOLT and ROAM models keep only your latest course. Indoor workouts stay on Wahoo (Wahoo).
- A road you like can lose out when it’s busy, rough or steep for your style. Change the style, or report the road if it came out wrong.
Garmin Connect
- Garmin presents it as the companion to its devices: you review your activities once you pair your phone with “a Forerunner®, Venu®, fēnix® or another compatible Garmin device” (App Store).
- Garmin Trails and 3D maps of custom courses need Connect+, $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, and Connect+ “features vary by device” (Connect+).
- Garmin’s own guide says a computer with a monitor and a mouse makes it easier to get the perfect course than the phone app (course guide).
- Garmin “makes no representations about the safety, accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of routes created by third parties” that you download (Edge 1040 manual).
- The iPhone app requires iOS 18.2 or later and is listed “Only for iPhone” (App Store).
Who should pick which
Pick Remap if you:
- Want the route built for you rather than drawn, from the roads around you.
- Care how the roads feel: traffic, surfaces, hills, bike lanes and lighting, all set in your style.
- Want more coast, water, forest or parks on your rides and runs.
- Ride and run, and want each to keep its own style.
- Ride with a Wahoo and want every saved route to arrive as a course (Pro).
- Want to plan without an account or a subscription.
Pick Garmin Connect if you:
- Ride with a Garmin Edge or run with a Garmin watch, and want courses on it without another app in between.
- Want a course that follows what other Garmin users run and ride.
- Want Garmin Trails for offline use, and already pay for Connect+.
- Use Android. Remap runs on the web and iPhone.
How to move from Garmin Connect to Remap
- Open Remap on the web or on iPhone. You don’t need an account to plan (Your account).
- Pick a style. In Explore, tap Style and choose the one closest to the course type you used in Garmin Connect. Rides and runs keep their own styles (How routes pick roads).
- Refine it. On the web, open Style and choose Refine beside it; in the app, tap Style, then the edit button. Set surfaces, hills, traffic and the rest the way you liked your Garmin courses (How routes pick roads).
- Sign in to save. Sign in with Apple or Google to save routes and keep your history (Your account).
- Rebuild your favourite routes. Remap doesn’t import route files, so build them again in Remap from the same start.
- Keep Garmin Connect for your Garmin device. Remap doesn’t sync with Garmin, so export a GPX file from Remap for your watch or Edge, or keep using Garmin Connect’s Send to Device for courses you build there (course guide). If you also ride with a Wahoo, connect it in Settings under Devices and every route you save goes to it as a course (Pro) (Wahoo).
- Tell us where a road comes out wrong. Choose Feedback at the bottom of the Explore panel on the web, or Settings, then Feedback, in the app (Report a road).
- Check what you’d give up before cancelling Connect+. Garmin Trails and 3D maps of your courses stay with Connect+ (Connect+). Remap Pro can be cancelled any time (Remap Pro).
More comparisons
- Best cycling route planner apps in 2026
- Remap vs Komoot
- Remap vs Ride with GPS
- Remap vs Strava
- Remap vs Bikemap
- Remap vs Google Maps
Sources
Garmin figures, each checked on 16 October 2026:
- Garmin Connect+, garmin.com/en-US/p/1565777: Monthly Plan $6.99 USD (“Price per month”), Annual Plan $69.99 USD; a free trial for first-time subscribers; Garmin Trails (“thousands of trails”), 3D maps for custom courses; “Features vary by device.”
- Garmin press release, 27 March 2025, garmin.com/en-US/newsroom/press-release/wearables-health/elevate-your-health-and-fitness-goals-with-garmin-connect: free for 30 days, then $6.99/month or $69.99/year; existing features “will remain free”.
- How to Build a Course in Garmin Connect, Garmin blog, 6 September 2023, garmin.com/en-US/blog/fitness/how-to-build-a-course-in-garmin-connect: custom or automatic drawing method; popular routes, roads or freehand; categorised climbs; Send to Device; public or private courses shared by link.
- US App Store listing, apps.apple.com/us/app/garmin-connect/id583446403: free; 4.4 stars from 59K ratings; “Only for iPhone”; requires iOS 18.2 or later. The listing shows no in-app purchases.
- Google Play listing, play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.garmin.android.apps.connectmobile: 4.4 stars from 1.11M reviews; 50M+ downloads.
- Edge 1040 Owner’s Manual: Courses, Following a Course From Garmin Connect and Creating and Riding a Round-Trip Course.
- fēnix 8 Series Owner’s Manual, Routing Settings: Popularity Routing, calculation method, avoidances.
- Garmin Connect, connect.garmin.com: “On mobile or web”; “an extension of your Garmin device”.
Remap figures, checked on 17 October 2026: the pricing page, the home page, our help pages, the App Store listing (no ratings yet in the US; requires iOS 26.0 or later) and the Remap apps themselves. Remap makes Remap. Corrections are welcome at the address on our support page.
