If you only read one paragraph
Runner or walker chasing every street in one town: CityStrides, which won’t even accept a bike ride. Cyclist, or anyone who thinks in regions rather than streets: Wandrer, which scores foot and bike separately. They count different things, so running both isn’t double-counting.
Streets against roads
CityStrides is built around finishing named streets. Every street in OpenStreetMap is a chain of nodes. Pass within 25 metres of a node and it’s ticked; tick 90 percent of a street’s nodes and the street turns green; streets with fewer than ten nodes need every one. A city percentage is streets done over streets that exist. It accepts runs, walks and hikes, and rejects rides at the door. James Chevalier has run it alone since 2013.
Wandrer counts unique distance on any road or path, then expresses it as a percentage of a real place: a neighbourhood, a county, a country. Re-riding your usual loop scores nothing. Craig Durkin started it in 2016 as a project to ride every road in his home city, out of an Atlanta non-profit called Concrete Jungle, and it now scores foot and bike separately with a combined total on top. A county is the same kind of object as a block, which is why cyclists end up here.
Price
CityStrides doesn’t cap the free tier: unlimited activities, unlimited cities, the LifeMap and the leaderboards. Free accounts wait in the processing queue behind Supporters and can’t filter the map by date. Supporter, $5 a month or $50 a year, buys Node Hunter (a marker on every node you still owe), Route Builder (a route through them), priority processing, date filtering and full-screen maps, and Hard Mode, which demands every node instead of 90 percent and switches off the button that lets you mark a clipped street complete by hand. You can also prepay $5 to $100 with no subscription, in thirteen currencies.
Wandrer’s free tier is a preview: 50 past activities, 10 map downloads, and a base map that never updates. Extra Lost is $40 a year, up from $30 in May 2026. It syncs your whole history, refreshes the base map every two to three months, and adds the routing tools (desktop only), the browser extension, the Karoo app, priority processing, unlimited map downloads and the monthly and yearly challenges. Explorer Achievements are free.
Side by side
| What you get | Wandrer | CityStrides |
|---|---|---|
| What it counts | Unique road and path, any sport, as a percentage of a region | Named streets, by node, as a percentage of a city |
| Sports | Ride, run, walk, hike; foot and bike scored separately | Run, walk, hike. Rides rejected |
| Free tier | 50 past activities, 10 map downloads, base map frozen at join date | Unlimited activities and cities; queue behind Supporters |
| Paid | Extra Lost $40/yr | Supporter $5/mo or $50/yr, or prepaid $5 to $100 |
| Finding the gaps | Routing tools on Extra Lost, desktop only; maps for Garmin, Wahoo and Karoo (10 free, then unlimited) | Node Hunter and Route Builder on Supporter |
| Leaderboards | Regional, opt-in since December 2024; challenges on Extra Lost | Global rank and city leaderboards, free |
| Phone app | iPhone app in the App Store since September 2026 | None; website only |
| Sources | Strava, Ride with GPS, Coros; Garmin for upgraded accounts | Strava, Garmin, Coros, Polar, Suunto, Runkeeper, MapMyFitness |
| Writes to Strava | New-mile count into the activity description (users have described it since 2021; the FAQ doesn’t document it) | Nothing; asked for since 2022 |
How each one works with Strava
Both read from Strava. Wandrer checks the last two weeks of activities on its own, with a lag of a few hours that its FAQ says is longer at weekends and longer again on free accounts. CityStrides queues Supporters first, then new users, then everyone else. CityStrides also lets you mark a whole street complete by hand when the GPS clipped a corner, unless you’re in Hard Mode.
Wandrer writes your new-mile count into the Strava activity description after it processes the ride, so followers can see the fresh ground. Wandrer’s own FAQ doesn’t document this; users have described it since 2021. CityStrides has been asked for the same in its Ideas forum since 2022 and hasn’t built it.
The social side is quieter than it was. Strava’s November 2024 API terms stopped apps showing your data to other users, so Wandrer maps built from Strava show only achievements to others and its leaderboards became opt-in, and CityStrides activities synced from Strava stopped appearing to other Striders. Your own map and your own score are unaffected on both.
Who should pick which
If you run and the goal is a town at 100 percent, CityStrides, and the free tier is enough until you want Node Hunter. If you ride, it’s Wandrer or nothing. If you do both, or you’ve finished your city and want the county, Wandrer, and Extra Lost is the plan that makes it usable. Nothing stops you running both, since they count different things, and both will read the same Strava account.
Common questions
Does CityStrides count bike rides?
No. It accepts runs, walks and hikes and filters everything else out at sync. Wandrer takes rides as well as foot activities and scores them separately, so a cyclist who wants a streets game has one option, and it is Wandrer.
How close do I have to get to a node on CityStrides?
Within 25 metres. Every street in OpenStreetMap is a chain of nodes, a GPS point within 25 metres of a node ticks it, 90 percent of a street’s nodes completes the street, and streets with fewer than ten nodes need every one. Hard Mode, a Supporter option, demands 100 percent.
Does the free Wandrer map ever update?
No. A free account stays on the map data from the day it joined. Extra Lost accounts get a refreshed base map roughly every two to three months and can pull an update on demand; anyone can buy a one-off update for $5.
Why can’t I see other people’s maps any more?
Strava changed its API terms in November 2024 so that apps may not show your Strava data to other users. Wandrer said maps built from Strava data would show only achievements to others from mid-December 2024 and made leaderboards opt-in. CityStrides activities synced from Strava stopped appearing to other Striders. Your own map is unaffected on both.
Do I need Strava?
Not for either. CityStrides also syncs from Garmin, Coros, Polar, Suunto, Runkeeper and MapMyFitness. Wandrer reads from Strava, Ride with GPS, Coros and, per its February 2025 post, Garmin for upgraded accounts.
Sources
- Wandrer subscriptions, its FAQ and about page, and its updates blog (the April 11, 2026 price post, the April 2026 routing posts, the December 9, 2024 Strava post)
- CityStrides pricing, Supporter features, about, and the community forum for the node rule and Hard Mode
- Strava Help Center: API Agreement update, how data appears on third-party apps
Related reading
The five exploration apps side by side, tiles included, are in Strava tile hunting and exploration apps, compared. Wandrer is also in the best free Strava apps, and the routes tag has the rest of the category.
