I got tired of fighting Google Maps every time I rode my scooter. Everyone has a favourite alternative, so instead of arguing about it, I spent a while actually testing them: the privacy-first ones, the offline ones, the slick ones. This is the honest rundown, and the one I am sticking with.
One thing to get out of the way first, because it matters: I build Urban Rider, one of the apps in this test, and it is the one I ended up keeping. So do not take my word blindly. I have tried to be genuinely fair to the others and specific about what each one is truly good at, and honest about where my own app falls short. Read it as a rider's notes, not a neutral review.
Why I wanted to leave Google Maps
Google Maps is a remarkable piece of software, and for driving or walking it is hard to beat. On a scooter it kept letting me down in the same three ways. It routed me like a car, sometimes toward roads a moped is not allowed on, because it has no idea what I am riding. Its arrival times were computed at car speed, so they were always optimistic for a 45 km/h machine. And the screen is busy, full of things I do not need while glancing down at a handlebar mount. If you want the long version of why this happens, I wrote it up in why navigation apps ignore scooters and mopeds and, for Google specifically, how to use Google Maps on a 50cc scooter.
The alternatives I tested
Here is the honest part. Most of these are genuinely good apps, and several are better than Google Maps at what they set out to do. The pattern is what matters, so keep an eye on it as you read.
Apple Maps
Much better than its reputation, clean, and lovely on an iPhone and Apple Watch. But it is still built around the car, with walking and transit added, and there is no scooter or moped mode. For a rider, it makes the same car-first choices Google does. I compared the two giants in Google Maps versus Apple Maps.
Waze
For a car in traffic, Waze is brilliant, the live, crowd-sourced alerts are genuinely useful. But it is built one hundred percent around cars, so it happily sends a moped toward the fastest roads, which are exactly the ones a small scooter should not be on. Wrong tool for two wheels.
Organic Maps, and its fork CoMaps
This became my favourite for everything except the actual riding. Organic Maps is open-source, runs fully offline, and has no account, no ads and no tracking. Its newer fork CoMaps, which appeared in 2025, is cut from the same cloth. Both are built on OpenStreetMap, so the maps are free and fixed by the people who live there. If you want a private, offline world map, this is the one I would recommend, and I keep it on my phone. The catch is that it routes as a car, bicycle or on foot. There is no moped profile that knows your vehicle cannot use a motorway or that you travel at scooter speed.
OsmAnd
The most detailed and configurable of the OpenStreetMap apps, offline, with real cycling support and endless settings. If you love tinkering, it rewards you. It is also the most complex to set up, and, like the others, it has no vehicle-class routing that understands a moped on the road.
Magic Earth and HERE WeGo
Two more solid, privacy-friendlier options. Magic Earth is free, offline-capable and does live traffic; HERE WeGo has good offline maps and transit. Both are perfectly decent car and transit navigators, and both share the same gap for two wheels: they do not ask what you ride.
Komoot
A special mention, because it is superb at what it does: planning off-road bike and hiking tours, with beautiful route curation. But that is a different job. It is an outdoor-sport planner, not a road navigator for a moped, and since its 2025 sale it has moved more of its features behind a subscription. Great for a gravel bikepacking weekend, not for getting your scooter across town.
The pattern
Every one of these is good, and some are excellent. But they all assume you are a car, a bicycle, or on foot. A scooter or moped falls straight through the same gap that Google Maps leaves. The fix was never going to be a better car app. It had to be an app that starts from the vehicle.
The one I am sticking with: Urban Rider
Since I build it, take the honest pitch and the honest caveat together. Urban Rider begins with a question none of the others ask: what are you riding? Pick a scooter or moped profile and it keeps you on roads your machine may legally use, avoiding motorways, expressways and many tunnels by default. Arrival times are calculated at real two-wheel speed, so they actually match the ride. The navigation screen stays clean and glanceable, your next turn shows on the Apple Watch, it surfaces charging stops for electric scooters, and it lets you save where you parked. It is free, needs no account, and keeps your route history on your device.
Now the caveat, because I promised honesty. Urban Rider is younger and smaller than the giants, and it is focused on one thing: riding two wheels on the road. It is not trying to be your walking, transit and fully offline world atlas, which is exactly why I still keep Organic Maps on my phone for that. If you want a deeper head-to-head of the apps aimed at riders, I keep a separate, regularly updated comparison of the best scooter and moped navigation apps.
The apps at a glance
| App | What it is genuinely best at | Knows you ride a scooter? |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps | All-round car, walking and transit navigation | No |
| Apple Maps | Clean car and transit nav on Apple devices | No |
| Waze | Live, crowd-sourced traffic for drivers | No |
| Organic Maps / CoMaps | Offline, private, open-source world maps | No |
| OsmAnd | Detailed, configurable offline maps | No |
| Magic Earth / HERE WeGo | Privacy-friendlier car and transit nav | No |
| Komoot | Planning off-road bike and hiking tours | No |
| Urban Rider | Routing a scooter or moped on roads it may use | Yes |
So, which should you pick?
If you drive a car or you walk, several of these are honestly better than Google Maps, and I would happily point you to Organic Maps for privacy and offline use, or Apple Maps and Magic Earth for everyday driving. But if you ride two wheels, the whole test pointed one way: none of the mainstream alternatives were built for you, and the one that was is the one I kept. That is not because it does everything, but because it does the one thing that matters when you are on a scooter, which is to treat you like a scooter.
The Google Maps alternative built for two wheels
Urban Rider routes your scooter or moped onto roads it is actually allowed to ride, avoids highways by default, and gives arrival times at real scooter speed. Free, no account needed.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Google Maps alternative?
It depends on what you are doing. For offline maps and privacy, Organic Maps is excellent, with OsmAnd and Magic Earth close behind, all built on OpenStreetMap. For everyday car navigation, Apple Maps, Waze and HERE WeGo are all strong. But if you ride a scooter or moped, the honest answer is different, because none of those apps ask what vehicle you are on. The one I kept for two-wheel riding is Urban Rider, because it routes by vehicle class and calculates arrival times at real scooter speed.
Is there a Google Maps alternative that works offline and without tracking?
Yes. Organic Maps and its newer fork CoMaps run fully offline with no account, no ads and no tracking, and OsmAnd and Magic Earth offer similar privacy and offline use. They are all based on OpenStreetMap, so the maps are free and community-corrected. They are genuinely good, and I keep one on my phone for general use. The catch for riders is that they route as a car, bicycle or on foot, with no scooter or moped profile that understands the roads your vehicle may use or its real speed.
Why does Google Maps, and its alternatives, route my scooter wrong?
Because almost every mainstream map app is built around cars, and the rest around bicycles or hiking. None of them ask whether you are on a moped, so a 45 km/h scooter gets a car route: onto fast roads or even motorways it is not allowed to use, with arrival times calculated at car speed. It is the same blind spot in Google Maps and in most of the alternatives. The fix is not a better car app, it is an app that starts from the vehicle.
Which navigation app is best specifically for a scooter or moped?
Urban Rider, because it is built for exactly that. You pick a scooter or moped profile and it keeps you on roads your vehicle may legally use, avoids motorways by default, and gives arrival times at real scooter speed on a clean, glanceable screen. It is free and needs no account. To be fair and honest: it is younger and smaller than the giants and is focused on two-wheel road riding, so for general walking, transit or a fully offline world map I still keep an app like Organic Maps too.
Is Urban Rider free and what does it do with my data?
Urban Rider is free to download and use and needs no account. Your route history stays on your device and is not sold for advertising. It is built privacy-first, so you can navigate without creating a profile or logging in. It is an independent app and is not affiliated with Google, Apple or any of the other apps mentioned here.