Everything Strava Charges $80 For.
Athlr Gives You Free.

Yes. Segments, training load (ATL/CTL/TSB), offline maps, route planning, GPX export, BLE heart rate, Health sync, and social features are all free with no subscription. A Pro tier is planned for optional depth features like the activity heatmap and shoe mileage tracker, but every feature Strava locks behind its paywall is free on Athlr permanently.

Yes — many athletes do. Use Strava for its large community; use Athlr for free segments and training load. Your activities sync automatically via Apple Health (iOS) or Google Health Connect (Android). Recording in Athlr writes back to your health platform, which Strava reads automatically.

In Strava, go to Settings → Health & Fitness → turn on Apple Health or Health Connect sync. Open Athlr, tap Health Sync, and connect. All Strava workouts that synced to your health platform — including GPS routes — appear in Athlr immediately. Takes about 2 minutes.

Both apps use your phone's GPS chip — the hardware is identical. Athlr applies a four-stage filter tuned per sport type. Results are comparable on modern iPhones and flagship Androids. For challenging GPS environments like deep forest or urban canyons, a dedicated Garmin watch outperforms both.

Core features — GPS, segments, training load, offline maps, GPX export, route planning — are committed to remaining free forever. The business model is optional Pro features, not a paywall. Athlr doesn't sell your data and doesn't run ads.

Athlr has a community feed, follow/follower system, kudos, direct messaging, and group chat. The community is smaller than Strava's 100M+ users but growing — and Athlr includes features Strava doesn't have, like direct messaging and group chat.