How to Clone komoot
Outdoor route planner for hiking, cycling and trail running with one-time region purchases and a premium subscription
What is komoot?
komoot is a route-planning app for the outdoors: hikers, road cyclists, mountain bikers and trail runners use it to design turn-by-turn routes, follow them offline on the trail, and share the good ones as a community. Where Google Maps optimizes for getting somewhere, komoot optimizes for the journey - picking quiet paths, scenic detours and surfaces that match your sport and fitness. It grew out of Germany into one of Europe's biggest outdoor platforms before being acquired in 2025.
The thing that makes komoot work is the routing engine plus the community data on top of it. The engine knows the difference between a paved cycle path, a gravel forest road and a rocky alpine scramble, and it routes you according to your chosen sport. The community layer - user 'Tours', Highlights (a beautiful viewpoint, a good coffee stop), photos and tips - is what turns a generic map into local knowledge you can't get from a car-navigation app. For a cloner, the community Highlights are easier to bootstrap than the routing engine.
Monetization is a clever hybrid: the app is free to plan routes, but turn-by-turn voice navigation and offline maps for a specific region cost a one-time payment per region (or a 'complete' world bundle), and a recurring Premium subscription adds multi-day planning, weather and condition layers, sport-specific maps and personalized recommendations. That one-time-purchase-plus-subscription mix is unusual and worth copying: it lets casual users pay once and keeps power users on a recurring plan.
Who it's for: Hikers, cyclists, gravel and mountain bikers, and trail runners who plan routes before heading out and want offline turn-by-turn on the trail. Clone opportunities: 'komoot for X' - a regional or sport-specific planner (e.g. local trail-running community, sea-kayaking routes, bikepacking, a single national-park network) where the global apps are too generic.
How komoot makes money
- $ One-time region purchases: pay once to unlock voice navigation and offline maps for a region, or a discounted 'complete package' for the whole world.
- $ Premium subscription (~$60/year): multi-day route planning, weather and condition layers, sport-specific maps, personalized recommendations and live tracking.
- $ Affiliate and partner placements: links to gear, accommodation and local tourism boards that pay for featured routes.
- $ B2B / tourism licensing: regions and tourism organizations pay to publish official routes and Highlights on the platform.
- $ Hardware integrations: deep links and route sync with bike computers and GPS watches drive premium upgrades.
A rough estimate based on reported user numbers (40M+ users) and a mix of one-time purchases and subscriptions; komoot is privately held so exact revenue is not disclosed. CloneMRR is not affiliated with komoot; figures are for educational purposes.
Features to build
MVP ship this first
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โ Sport-aware route plannerPick a sport (hike, road bike, gravel, MTB, run), drop start and end points on a map, and get a routed line that prefers appropriate paths and surfaces with distance, elevation gain and estimated time.
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โ Interactive map with terrainPan/zoom map with an outdoor base layer, elevation profile chart under the route, and draggable waypoints to reshape the route.
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โ Turn-by-turn directionsA directions list and on-screen guidance for following a planned route; voice navigation gated behind the region purchase.
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โ Offline region downloadDownload a map region for use without signal - the core paid unlock; store tiles and route data locally.
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โ Tours (saved routes)Save planned and completed routes as Tours with distance, elevation, photos and a public/private toggle.
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โ Region paywallFree planning; one-time purchase per region unlocks offline maps and voice navigation. A 'complete' bundle and a Premium subscription upsell.
Full version add later
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+ Community HighlightsUser-submitted points of interest (viewpoints, water sources, good cafes) with photos and tips, surfaced on the map and suggested into routes.
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+ Highlight-based suggestionsAuto-generate scenic routes by stringing together popular Highlights near a start point or along a corridor.
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+ Multi-day & bikepacking plannerPlan routes spanning several days with stage breaks, accommodation stops and a packing checklist - a Premium feature.
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+ Condition & weather layersOverlay weather forecast, sunlight, and crowd-sourced surface/trail conditions on the planned route.
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+ Device sync & live trackingSync routes to bike computers and watches; share a live location link with friends during an activity.
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+ Activity recordingGPS-record an activity, snap it to known trails, compute stats, and turn it into a shareable Tour.
Recommended tech stack
| Layer | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile app | React Native (Expo) with a native map module | Outdoor use is mobile-first and often offline; Expo handles GPS, background location and IAP, while a native map view gives smooth tile rendering. |
| Maps & tiles | MapLibre GL + OpenStreetMap / OpenMapTiles | Open data and self-hostable tiles avoid per-map-load fees and let you style an outdoor terrain map; crucial for offline region downloads. |
| Routing engine | GraphHopper or Valhalla (self-hosted) on OSM data | Both support custom profiles per sport (hike/bike/gravel) and elevation-aware routing - the hard, defensible core. Don't build a router from scratch. |
| Backend | Node.js + PostgreSQL + PostGIS | PostGIS handles geospatial queries (Highlights near a route, region bounds) natively; Postgres stores Tours, users and purchases. |
| Elevation & weather | Open-Elevation / SRTM tiles + a weather API | Elevation profiles and condition layers need a DEM source and a forecast provider; cache aggressively. |
| Payments | RevenueCat (subscriptions) + Stripe / store IAP (one-time regions) | RevenueCat manages the Premium subscription cross-platform; one-time region unlocks map to consumable/non-consumable IAP. |
AI prompts to clone komoot
Pick your builder, copy the prompt, paste it and iterate. Enter your email once to unlock all prompts on every page - we'll also send you this full prompt pack.
Build an outdoor route-planning web app called TrailForge, modeled on komoot, focused on hiking and gravel cycling in one region (the Alps to start).
## Core concept
Users pick a sport, plan a route on a map between points, see distance and elevation, save it as a Tour, and follow turn-by-turn directions. Free to plan; a one-time region unlock adds offline maps and voice navigation, and a Premium plan adds multi-day planning and condition layers.
## Pages
1. Landing: outdoorsy hero with a map background, 'Plan your next adventure', sport selector chips (Hike, Road, Gravel, MTB, Run), how-it-works cards, sample Tours strip
2. Route planner (main app): big interactive map on the left, a panel on the right with sport selector, start/end search boxes, a draggable waypoint list, and a live summary card (distance, elevation gain, estimated time, surface mix). An elevation profile chart sits under the map
3. Tour page: hero map of the route, stats row, elevation profile, turn-by-turn directions list, photo gallery, Highlights along the way, and Save / Start buttons
4. Discover: grid of community Tours filtered by sport, difficulty and distance; map view toggle
Tools to build your komoot clone
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How to make money with a komoot clone
One-time region unlocks + subscription combo
komoot's hybrid is the lesson: let casual users pay once for a region (high conversion, no commitment) while power users pay recurring Premium. Two willingness-to-pay segments, one product.
Niche-region or single-sport planner
Don't out-map komoot globally - own one network. A planner for one national park, one country's gravel scene, or one sport (sea kayaking, bikepacking, ski touring) can charge more because the routing and Highlights are genuinely better there.
Tourism-board and B2B licensing
Regions, parks and tourism organizations will pay to publish official routes and featured Highlights. A white-label 'official trail app' for a destination is a high-ticket B2B line on top of consumer revenue.
Gear and accommodation affiliates
Outdoor users buy gear and book stays around their trips. Contextual affiliate links on Tours and Highlights (the right pack for this hike, a refuge along this route) convert well without an explicit subscription.
Frequently asked questions
How much money does komoot make?
komoot is privately held, so it doesn't disclose exact figures, but with 40 million-plus registered users and a mix of one-time region purchases and a roughly $60/year Premium subscription, estimates put revenue in the low tens of millions per year - call it $3โ6 million per month. It was acquired in 2025, which speaks to a healthy business.
How hard is it to build a komoot clone?
Medium. The app shell, Tours, Highlights and paywall are straightforward, but the routing engine is the hard part. Don't write your own - wrap a self-hosted GraphHopper or Valhalla with per-sport profiles on OpenStreetMap data. The defensible work is your routing quality and your community Highlights in one region.
Is it legal to clone komoot?
Cloning the concept and features is fine; copying komoot's name, branding, exact UI or scraping its Tours and Highlights is not. Use OpenStreetMap for map data (check the ODbL attribution terms) and open routing engines. Build your own Highlights database from your own community rather than importing theirs.
What tech stack should I use for a komoot clone?
A React Native or Next.js PWA, MapLibre GL with OpenMapTiles for the map, a self-hosted GraphHopper or Valhalla routing service for sport-aware routing, and PostgreSQL with PostGIS for geospatial queries (Highlights near a route, Tours in a region). The Cursor prompt on this page lays out exactly that architecture.
How much does it cost to build and run?
AI builders get an MVP up in 3โ4 weeks. Running costs are dominated by tiles and routing: self-host MapLibre tiles and a routing engine on a modest VPS to avoid per-map-load fees, and you can keep monthly infra under a few hundred dollars until you have real traffic. Elevation and weather APIs are the next cost to watch.
What is the hardest part of an outdoor routing app?
Routing quality. Users immediately notice if a 'hiking' route sends them down a motorway or a 'gravel' route picks a paved road. Getting sport-specific profiles right on OSM surface tags, plus accurate elevation profiles, is where most of the work goes - which is exactly why you should lean on a mature routing engine instead of building one.
More apps to clone
CloneMRR is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to komoot. Revenue figures are rough estimates based on public reports and are provided for educational purposes only. "Cloning" here means building an original product inspired by a proven business model - never copy a brand's name, logo, content or code.