Osmand can do this. And basically anything else. I'm always mystified to find how many people haven't even heard of it, or use weak imitations like MapsMe or Organic Maps.
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
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There's also brouter which acts as a routing companion app to Osmand. It's a bit of a pain to set up, but gives very good results.
In my experience, the latest of which dates to today, Brouter is rubbish. What I usually want is pretty obvious: take me by the most direct route which has the least cars. If I choose "Balanced" or "Prefer byways" in Osmand, the results are (usually) acceptable. The closest I can get in Brouter is "Consider traffic" - at which it will pick a route that takes winding scenic detours off the main road every few kilometers, which is an absolutely dumb way to solve the problem. Whatever. Perhaps there's a better way to do it.
My main motivation for trying out brouter was to prepare for the Komoot exodus when it will inevitably happen, and I have a different experience to yours. I find the routing to be on par with Komoot (often nearly identical routes, actually), and that's been the best I've seen for my purposes so far. My main priority is to avoid roads for my gravel tours as much as possible (the larger the more urgently) with trail and woods segments actually being a plus and direct path not being important at all.
That said, I do hate the user experience with brouter+Osmand. I have no clue why brouter has to be a separate app. I have no clue how to properly configure it, and I am completely overwhelmed with Osmand's millions of options, views, and settings. Software that makes me feel dumb and inadequate.
Interesting perspective. You're so right about Osmand, I've been using it every day for over a decade and I regularly get lost in the arcane functionality. IMO the best way to improve this is to zero in on problems and get involved on the issue tracker, because the people running Osmand are quite serious and responsive (even tho their business model remains a bit opaque to me). Alas I get the impression FOSS map users are flocking to Organic Maps because Osmand is too complex. Seems like reinventing the wheel to me. Osmand is far better than Organic Maps, its problem is UX.
About gravel, I'm doing exactly the opposite - avoiding it at all costs! I hate punctures that much. Recently made the unhappy discovery that the Eurovelo bike routes, i.e. Europe's supposed flagship intercity bike lanes, are mostly unsurfaced. My ultimate priority when cycling is to get away from cars. And personally I don't see why car-roads get asphalt but bike-roads have to put up with gravel.
Good tires and adequate pressure and I haven't had a single puncture in years. But I get your sentiment, and of course it's not for everybody. Although for me, the number one best way to get away from cars is gravel and single trails. So that, and being in the woods, are the main reasons for my love of gravel riding.
Where I'm from, the Eurovelos actually live up to their grand concept and are fully developed and paved as far as I've seen (and therefore a bit boring for me), but I don't have to go far (a day's ride across a border) and our "pan-european cycle path" is actually "the perfectly good street we happened to have lying around here; have fun!"
I agree with your take on Osmand; a problem many big FOSS projects seem to share. I'm almost certain that there must be a way to properly penalise unpaved roads for routing with brouter, by the way. I'd check it out for you, but I truly dread the settings menus of those two apps...
Holy shit this is a game changer. Unlike Google Maps it doesn't try to kill me by taking me on to hella busy roads on my bike.
Iβm always mystified to find how many people havenβt even heard of it
Because phones have Google or Apple Maps installed by default, and I'm willing to bet that most people just stick with those.
OSMand, and the Openstreetmap data it relies on, is sooooooo much better than the capitalist slop you find in those other mapping platforms.
The full version (OsmAnd+) is free on Fdroid (as OsmAnd~): https://f-droid.org/packages/net.osmand.plus
Yes! Absolutely go for OsmAnd, it's a godsend.
I'm also using it when I'm driving a car and want to find some alternate routes or when I want to make sure that the road I want to use is traversable
Ohh wow, this is significantly better than organic maps! I tried using just now for a short trip and it is so smooth compared to organic map, where the navigation is best described as stiff. It also shows road bump for some reason. Feels like it works better than komoot, as komoot will send me through busy road just so the total distance is 1km shorter.