There’s a particular kind of decision every traveler with a free afternoon in an unfamiliar national park makes: open a map, scroll through dozens of trail names, and try to figure out which one is actually worth the drive to the trailhead.
For roughly 80 million people globally, the app they reach for is AllTrails — the Apple iPhone App of the Year in 2023 (chosen over ChatGPT, notably) and the world’s largest community-curated database of outdoor trails.
AllTrails was founded in 2010, currently lists 500,000+ trails across 191 countries, and has changed meaningfully in the past year: a new third tier called Peak launched in 2025 with AI-powered features, a new CEO (Liz Hamren, formerly of Ring, Discord, and Xbox) took over in September 2025, and the platform expanded partnerships with the National Park Service and Western National Parks Association.
Here is how it works, the new three-tier pricing structure, and whether Plus or Peak is worth paying for in 2026.
What is AllTrails? The Hiking App With 80 Million Users & Hundreds of Thousands of Walking Trails
The numbers in 2026 are substantial: 80+ million trailgoers globally, 500,000+ curated trails across hiking, mountain biking, running, climbing, ski touring, and snowboarding, 191 countries covered, 378 employees, and $151 million in total funding raised across three rounds. AllTrails is headquartered in San Francisco.
AllTrails is the largest trail database globally, but coverage depth varies considerably by region. It’s strongest in the US (where the team has the deepest local relationships and data partnerships), excellent in Canada, very good in the UK and Western Europe, and gradually expanding elsewhere. In a country where AllTrails has weaker coverage, Komoot or local platforms may serve you better. Worth checking before committing.
How Does AllTrails Work?
Going hiking? Open the app and you’ll land on a map of your current location with nearby trails pinned by difficulty and length. From there:
- Search by city, park, or trail name — Useful when you know where you’re going. Type “Zion National Park” and you get every trail ranked by user rating
- Explore Nearby Trails — The app surfaces trails within a configurable radius, sorted by length, difficulty, elevation, popularity, or user rating
- Filter aggressively — Pet-friendly, kid-friendly, dog-friendly with leash, accessible, beginner, expert, scenic, family-friendly, partially paved, loop trails only, etc.
- Read community reviews — Each trail listing includes thousands of user-uploaded photos, recent trail condition reports, route GPS files, and detailed write-ups
- Track your hike — In-app GPS records your route, distance, elevation gain, pace, and stats
The free tier lets you do a lot before any paywall kicks in: search trails, read reviews, browse photos, plan routes, save lists, and use basic on-trail navigation. The paid tiers add the features that genuinely matter on a hike: offline downloads, wrong-turn alerts, real-time trail conditions, and live tracking for safety.
National park content gets special treatment. AllTrails partners directly with several US National Parks (Olympic, Zion, Acadia) and offers downloadable park guides — useful before a trip when you want to see the full picture beyond just one trail. Combined with our guide to the most scenic day hikes in U.S. national parks, AllTrails is the natural app to layer on for the actual route navigation once you’ve decided which park to visit.
AllTrails Pricing: Base vs Plus vs Peak
Major update from anything written before mid-2025: AllTrails now offers three tiers, not two. The free tier remains generous, but the premium experience has been split into Plus and Peak.
Base (Free)
- Search 500,000+ trails by location, difficulty, length
- Read reviews and view photos from the community
- Basic on-trail navigation
- Track and log your activities
- Customize existing routes on desktop
- Includes ads
AllTrails Plus — $35.99 / £35.99 per year (with a 7-day free trial for new users)
- All Base features, plus:
- Offline maps — Download trails and entire parks for use without cell service. This is the killer feature for most subscribers
- Wrong-turn alerts — Phone vibrates and notifies you when you step off the marked trail
- Real-time trail conditions — Weather, temperature, precipitation, snow depth, mud reports
- 3D maps — Visualize elevation and terrain before you go
- Garmin and smartwatch integration — Send routes directly to Garmin, Apple Watch, Wear OS
- Live Share — Share your real-time location with trusted contacts during a hike
- National park guides — Detailed downloadable guides for 200+ parks
- Ad-free experience
AllTrails Peak — $79.99 / £79.99 per year ($6.67/month)
- All Base and Plus features, plus:
- In-app Custom Routes — Build trails from scratch directly on your phone, or modify existing trails using AllTrails’ smart routing to make them shorter, less steep, or more scenic
- Community Heatmap — See trail traffic data overlaid on the map. Find the popular trails or hunt for quieter hidden gems based on real user activity
- Outdoor Lens (AI plant and insect identification) — Point your camera at a tree, flower, or insect; the AI identifies it and lets you save findings to your Logbook. Launched 2024
- Advanced trail planning — Multi-day trip itineraries, more detailed elevation analysis
The honest take on which tier is right for you:
- Free is fine for casual day hikes near home in well-marked parks with cell service
- Plus is the right tier for most travelers — offline maps alone justify the $35.99 if you ever hike in a national park, backcountry, or anywhere with patchy cell service
- Peak is worth it if you build your own routes regularly, want trail traffic data to avoid crowds, or genuinely use the AI plant identification feature. For most users, Plus covers the essentials
Worth knowing: AllTrails runs 50% off sales several times a year (typically around Black Friday and ahead of summer). If you’re not in a rush, timing your subscription start to coincide with one of these can effectively cut the annual price in half.
AllTrails Reviews & Ratings: Is It Worth It?
AllTrails is one of the highest-rated travel and outdoor apps on both major platforms:
- App Store: 4.9 / 5 (1,000,000+ reviews)
- Google Play: 4.5 / 5 (382,000+ reviews)
The App Store rating is 4.9 with over a million reviews — genuinely exceptional. It’s sustained by years of consistent product improvement and strong word-of-mouth. Apple named it 2023 iPhone App of the Year, notably chosen over ChatGPT. Reviews consistently highlight trail accuracy in well-covered regions and wrong-turn alerts on Plus. Users also praise community photos showing what to expect at trailheads, plus deep national park content.
Complaints fall into three categories. First, battery drain — real, especially with GPS recording and screen on. Second, trail data is less reliable outside North America and Western Europe. Third, the Peak tier upset some long-time Plus members who felt features were moved behind a new paywall.
One representative Google Play review from Emmie Featherstone captures what most regular users say: “My favorite app for exploring the countryside by far. Really good suggestions for walks & hikes in whatever area you’re searching in. The pings to your phone when you come off track are really helpful. Paying the extra to be able to download offline maps is a game-changer, too.”
AllTrails Promos, Deals & Discounts Worth Knowing
AllTrails doesn’t run conventional promo codes, but there are several legitimate ways to get value:
- 7-day free trial of Plus or Peak — For new users only, no payment due during trial. Useful to test offline maps before committing
- 50% off sales — Run several times a year, especially Black Friday and pre-summer. Worth timing your subscription start
- National Park Pass bundle — AllTrails sells a $100ish bundle of an Annual Plus membership + an “America the Beautiful” National Parks Pass (the federal annual pass that grants access to 2,000+ recreation sites). For anyone planning to visit multiple US national parks in a year, this is one of the better-value combinations available
- Gift subscriptions — Plus memberships can be gifted via email. Codes are valid for 24 months
- Free Plus for healthcare partners — In Canada, AllTrails partners with the BC Parks Foundation to give free Plus memberships to participants in PaRx (a program that prescribes nature time as healthcare). Similar partnerships exist in some US health systems
- AllTrails × Outdoor brand collaborations — Limited-edition AllTrails apparel collections with Stio (cozy outdoor wear) and Black Diamond (technical gear) launched in 2024-2025 through the official AllTrails shop
Insider tip: Don’t pay full price for Plus or Peak if you can avoid it. AllTrails runs a 50% off sale at least twice a year (Black Friday week and again in late spring before summer), so if you’re not in a rush, the annual subscription often drops to roughly $18 for Plus or $40 for Peak. If you’re heading to a national park trip on short notice and need offline maps now, the 7-day free trial covers most of one trip’s worth of use — and you can convert at full price afterward if you decide to keep it.
AllTrails Alternatives? Komoot, Gaia GPS, and HiiKER
Komoot is AllTrails’ closest competitor, with stronger coverage in continental Europe (especially Germany, Italy, France) where AllTrails is thinner.
Worth noting the major pricing change at Komoot: as of February 2025, new users can no longer buy the legacy region packs ($3.99 single region, $29.99 World Pack) — those one-time purchase options are only available to legacy users who bought before the cutoff.
New Komoot users now need a Premium subscription (€59.99/year) to sync routes to Garmin or other devices. The Komoot advantage your original draft mentioned — “pay a fixed fee for offline maps, no subscription” — no longer applies to new accounts.
Gaia GPS is the technical hiker’s app. Deeper topographic maps, more layer options (USGS topo, satellite, weather overlays), strongly favored by backpackers, hunters, and serious backcountry users. Less polished UX than AllTrails, more capability for advanced route planning.
HiiKER is the newer pragmatic alternative — offers offline maps free for over 25,000 trails. Smaller database than AllTrails and tailored mainly to hikers (not cyclists or skiers), but the free offline maps are a real differentiator.
For a broader comparison of how these apps stack up against each other for specific use cases (hiking vs cycling vs backpacking), our roundup of the 10 best hiking apps covers AllTrails, Komoot, Gaia GPS, the NPS app, Outdoor Active, FarOut, and others with pros and cons of each.
LocalsInsider.com’s recommendation:
AllTrails is the right choice for most travelers in most regions. The community is the biggest by an order of magnitude, the trail content is the deepest in the markets where it operates, and the Plus tier at $35.99/year (or half that during sales) is fairly priced for what you get.
The cases where you’d reach for a competitor are narrow: serious backcountry technical hiking (Gaia GPS), European hiking outside of the major regions AllTrails covers (Komoot, despite the pricing change), or a strong preference for free offline maps over the AllTrails community ecosystem (HiiKER).
By the way, here is a list of the top GPS watches for hiking.
