Strava

What hackers pick instead

• GadgetbridgeFree open-source Android app that syncs many fitness watches and bands while keeping data on your phone. Caveat: step and calorie counts can be inconsistent.24recommend
• Intervals.icuRecommended for analyzing training data, planning workouts and its easy-to-use, developer-friendly API. Main caveat: it is hosted SaaS, not self-hosted, so the user doesn't control it.9recommend
• Garmin ConnectRecommended as a central place to view fitness stats and sleep data. The iOS app and web interface draw repeated complaints about bugs and missing features.5recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 57 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Strava can easily function in this way and does. I've made a bunch of friends and been introduced to groups and routes

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Turn your site into a place people can bump into each other”

2. Strava privacy zones actually work, well as long as the location isn't physically moving by itself

   Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

3. it has excellent privacy controls so you can share as little or as much as you want

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

4. sync everything through Strava, and then drop whichever service you don't want

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Bending Spoons laid off almost everybody at Vimeo yesterday”

5. Defaulting to "opt-in" is all well and good until a human makes a mistake.

   Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

6. Strava provides additional insights on top of what Garmin provides

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

7. Strava which is a fun way to stay in touch with my fitness friends

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Principles and Gear”

8. provides two helpful controls you can set as your default

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “iNaturalist”

9. I get workout tracking free with Garmin + Strava.

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Shipping at Inference-Speed”

10. the app is fine and it's genuinely useful

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “GrapheneOS has been ported to Android 17 and official releases are coming soon”

11. So far it's largely un-ensh*ttified.

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Strava files for IPO”

12. to see it on Strava a few days later

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap”

13. Not that Strava mapping on a phone is any better. Why can't Strava put arrows on the direction of travel?

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?”

14. Strava and other connected + geolocation apps have been an issue for military personnel in general.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

15. Not helped by both Garmin and Strava not putting enough arrows on the path of travel on their maps.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Welcome to Hell Developer”

16. Strava has had a lot of privacy issues over the years, particularly with stuff like flybys.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

17. setting people up for their information to be made public when they forget to turn it off

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

18. Strava basically exposes where you live and your sleep/ workout schedule by default

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid”

19. make the vast majority (if not all) of features not hidden behind a paywall

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Platform for Everyday Athletes”

20. Well yes, Strava is a danger to at risk adults even let alone children.

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Judge to Texas: You Can't Age-Gate the Internet Without Evidence”

21. Strava Labs beta "Flybys" site used to be a great source for stalkers.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

22. the ones who built the system with such lax privacy protections

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “French sailor's fitness app bungle exposes location of aircraft carrier”

23. they are just straight up crazy expensive with their paid tier

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)”

24. Genuinely not sure what insights they provide that you don't get out of the box from Garmin.

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

25. This works great but doesn't access things like sleep which I didn't need anyways

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Creating a Garmin "MCP"”

26. Something about strava and the data we get from it is really special to me.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)”

27. Strava is pretty great too. No fake news on there.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Use Social Media Mindfully”

28. They're not forcing anyone to upload GNSS tracks.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “French sailor's fitness app bungle exposes location of aircraft carrier”

29. Strava and OutRun don't have this problem.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Organic Maps”

30. it does that automatically

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Death of the Status Update: Why 55% of Americans Stopped Posting on Social Media”

31. always there was about a 1% failure rate where for one reason or another, the GPS trace was interrupted or corrupted

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Tech Is Fun Again: The Tech Monoculture Is Finally Breaking”

32. Strava tracks can also be spoofed and you have no guarantee for them to appear on a schedule either.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

33. Cancelled by Strength App, Zwift for indoor bike trainer, and strava for running apps

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Lost my phone at the office. Claude suggested tracking Bluetooth signal strength”

34. Should I give Strava access to my photos and my microphone? I'll never go that far.

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “GrapheneOS has been ported to Android 17 and official releases are coming soon”

35. I personally find strava culture to generally be toxic and annoying

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Canyon HUD helmet for road riding”

36. Strava and other tracking apps always show me pedaling up and down

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Find the flattest route between any two points in SF”

37. They've made it useless for quick manual sharing with llm.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “What Is a Dickover?”

38. It was also Strava, and it showed "popular running routes"

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

39. They don't do that because they like your data for money.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”

40. I don't like the gamification & social parts of strava

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find”