Komoot Premium: valuable navigation upgrade or subscription cost-trap?

Outdoor navigation specialist Komoot has just launched a new subscription plan: Komoot Premium. The new service is meant to provide hikers, road cyclists and mountain bikers with additional protection and improved tour planning tools. Read on to find out whether Komoot’s new subscription plan is a genuine, useful upgrade or just a costly subscription trap.

After recently releasing an update with new HD cards and an improved Garmin App, the Austrian tech-company is launching a new comprehensive subscription plan: Komoot Premium. The new format is specially geared to meeting the needs of demanding customers and provide additional peace of mind for planned adventures. The Premium plan will be launched on the German and Austrian market on the 26.09.2019, and can be used both on the website and Android app. An update of the iOS app is planned for October this year.

What changes for existing Komoot customers?

If you have already purchased individual regions or World maps, you don’t have to worry about additional costs. Komoot Premium is an additional service that complements all existing Komoot Maps products. And if you’re happy with the existing functions of the website and the Apps, you still have a good reason to rejoice: Komoot is considering making some of the Premium features accessible to all non-premium customers, i.e. Komoot Maps users in the mid-term.

How much does the Komoot Premium subscription cost?

The new Komoot annual subscription will be available at approx. € 5 per month. Calculated on an annual basis, the full outdoor- package will set you back € 59,99 (GBP 59,99 or USD 59,99). All users who have already purchased the complete package of the worldwide maps will receive an offer for the upgrade to Premium with a discount of 50% for EUR 30,00. For comparison’s sake: the Komoot Worldwide map material will cost you a one-off fee of € 30. If you buy Strava’s full package, you’ll spend € 5,87 per month. At the 2019 Oktoberfest, a litre of beer will cost between € 10,80 and € 11,80. In Germany, a Kebab costs between € 3,50 and € 5,00. It is now up to you to decide on what you’ll spend your money on.

Who will benefit from the Premium subscription?

Whilst the existing navigation features should cover the needs of most weekend warriors and recreational riders, the comprehensive range of features of the Premium package will help ambitious adventurers to plan their future trips. Smart tips, for example, will provide you with all the most important info about the weather and your overnight stays throughout the planning phase. The full scope of the Premium Package is summarized below.

What does the Komoot Premium subscription include?

Premium Protection

In cooperation with AXA Assistance Service GmbH, the Komoot Premium Package provides customers with 24/7 worldwide emergency response. The package includes the following services:

• Protection against theft and damage of sport equipment while travelling (min. 100 km from home and up to € 1,500).
• Cover against recovery costs up to 15,000 € in emergencies situations (at least 100 km away from home)
• Cover against emergency medical evacuation costs of up to € 150,000 in the event of an accident abroad.

All Komoot Premium users in Europe, the USA and Canada will benefit from an extended protection plan. The following services will be available via a separate help hotline:

• On-site bike and eBike repairs
• Overnight accommodation, if necessary
• Cover against rental fees for a replacement bike of up to € 350
• Pick-up and transfers to a destination of your choice if you cannot complete the tour (within a range of 50 km)

For the time being, the insurance will only be available to users who are registered in Germany and Austria. Click here for a full policy overview.

Weather forecast

The dynamic weather forecast provides you with an accurate and personalized weather forecast even before the start of your tour. Komoot obtains the data from the Dark Sky weather channel. This function should help users avoid unpleasant surprises – especially when riding on challenging Alpine terrain and with unstable weather conditions. You can access your detailed forecasts up to three days before the start of the tour. And what about daylight? Depending on the length and starting time of your ride, you could end up riding into the night. Based on your average speed, Komoot Premium will calculate your progress and tell you at what stage of your ride it will get dark. The Tour Weather function also provides following data:

• Temperature
• Rainfall
• Wind strength and direction
• UV-Index
• Sunrise and sunset

Maps

By subscribing to Komoot Premium, users will automatically receive the maps of the whole World and be able to download them for offline use. Once your subscription expires, you the maps won’t be accessible anymore. If you’ve activated them beforehand, however, you’ll still be able to access your regions when your subscription has expired. Click here for a map-legend with an explanation of all different levels of difficulty. Whilst the map material of the Premium-plan isn’t any more detailed or comprehensive than the Komoot Map and is also based on OSM data, a number of clever additional sports-specific markers should enable more user-friendly route planning for road-cyclists, hikers and mountain bikers. If you’re planning to ride from Berlin to Lake Garda, for example, simply insert your desired daily riding-time and estimated average speed, and Kamoot Premium will automatically divide the tour in segments. Moreover, the segments can be individually adjusted and adapted to your preferences. For example: if the average speed decreases, the estimated journey time will automatically change and vice versa. And you can also add waypoints to your route. If you decide to change your route on a multi-day trip, Komoot Premium will automatically add the uncompleted segment onto the following days and recalculate the full route. If you need inspiration for your next multi-day trip, you can choose from a large number of ready-made user-collections. At the same time, Komoot Premium makes it easier to share your own experiences.

Own Collections

According to Komoot, ‘Collections’ is the perfect tool to organize your own rides and highlights and share them with your friends. This should make time consuming searches for individual hidden rides redundant. Premium users will be able to sort their routes by region and/or sport and recall them easily. Multi-day tours are automatically saved as a collection in your user’s profile.

Premium discounts

Premium subscribers will also receive exclusive discounts for both online and instore purchases from Komoot partners such as Fahrrad.de and Campz.de. Whist a 5% discount will be applied on all bikes and frames, 10% will be discounted from clothing, equipment and accessories. Discounts will still be applied to already reduced articles. The discounts will only be available in European core markets.

Conclusions

Komoot Premium is a valuable option for demanding users who embark on multi-day tours on a regular basis. A clever mix of advanced route planning, trip-support, detailed weather forecast and comprehensive insurance cover makes for an innovative and holistic concept that is clearly geared to the needs of potential users and goes far beyond performance-oriented segment hunting.

For more information head to komoot.com