Why CityWalker, when CityStrides and Wandrer exist?
When I first posted about CityWalker, someone asked whether I knew Wandrer. I said yes, and that CityWalker works completely on the phone, for people who want to track without creating an account anywhere. That was a two-line answer. This is the longer one.
Wandrer and CityStrides are the two names that come up whenever walk every street does. Both start from walks you have already recorded somewhere else, and need an account to sync them. CityWalker records the walk itself and shows your streets filling in while you are still outside. The rest of this post compares the three, including where the other two are the better choice.
Details about CityStrides and Wandrer are from their own sites as of September 2026. I am not affiliated with either.
The short version
| CityWalker | CityStrides | Wandrer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account | None | Required | Required |
| Where your walks come from | Recorded in the app, or GPX import | Synced from Strava, Garmin, Coros, Polar, Suunto, Runkeeper or MapMyFitness | Synced from Strava, Garmin, Coros or RideWithGPS |
| When you see progress | Live, while you walk | After the activity syncs | After the activity syncs |
| How progress is measured | Distance walked, in 15 m segments | Streets completed | Miles of new road |
| Built for | Walking, for now | Running and walking | Foot and bike, scored separately |
| Community | None yet | Leaderboards, challenges, forum | Achievements, monthly and yearly challenges |
| Price | Free, no ads | Free, or $5 a month for Supporter features | Free for 50 past activities, or $40 a year for your full history |
Where your walks come from
This is the biggest difference. CityStrides and Wandrer work from activities recorded somewhere else. You record with a watch or another app, that activity syncs to your account, and your map updates afterwards. Wandrer has an iPhone app in beta that shows new roads live, but syncing is still the main way in. If you already log every run on Strava or a Garmin watch, this is ideal: connect once and years of history turn into a map.
CityWalker records the walk itself. You open the app, tap GO, and streets turn green as you pass them. There is no account and nothing to connect. The cost is that nothing arrives automatically from a watch. Past walks come in through GPX import, which is a manual step.
How progress is measured
All three build on OpenStreetMap, and each counts something different.
CityStrides counts streets. A street is complete once you have passed 90% of its nodes, the points that define it on the map. Short streets with fewer than ten nodes need every node, and so does any street if you turn on Hard Mode. Your city progress is the number of streets completed out of the total. This gives you a clear checklist and a satisfying moment when a street is done.
Wandrer counts distance on new roads, and credits the part of a road you covered. One new mile is one point, a mile you have already travelled earns nothing, and it shows how much of a town, region or country you have completed.
CityWalker also counts distance. Every street is cut into segments of about 15 metres, and your coverage is the metres you have walked out of the total walkable metres in the city. The reasoning and the maths are in how CityWalker calculates coverage.
Neither approach is wrong. Counting streets rewards finishing things. Counting distance rewards every new stretch, finished or not.
Community and competition
CityStrides has had more than ten years to build a community: city leaderboards, challenges, a forum, and more than 90,000 people to compare against. Wandrer has achievements and monthly and yearly challenges.
CityWalker has none of this yet. Today your map is yours alone, with nobody to rank you against. If competition is what gets you out of the door, the other two are ahead here.
Price
CityStrides is free for unlimited activities and cities. Supporter features cost $5 a month or $50 a year and include Node Hunter, Route Builder, challenges and manual GPX upload. It is a one-person project funded this way.
Wandrer is free for 50 past activities. Extra Lost costs $40 a year and processes your whole history, keeps your map data updated, and adds unlimited maps for bike computers and the monthly and yearly challenges.
CityWalker is free with no ads and no paid tier.
Which walk every street app fits you?
Pick CityStrides if you run, you already track on a watch or Strava, and you want leaderboards and a checklist of streets to finish.
Pick Wandrer if you cycle as well as walk, or you think in miles of new road across whole regions and countries. CityWalker only counts walking today.
Pick CityWalker if you do not want an account, you want to see streets fill in while you are still on the walk, or you would rather your location history stayed on your phone.
They are not exclusive either. Export a GPX from whatever you record with, and CityWalker will count it.
I said back then that it was a different audience. I still think so.
Questions, or something here that is out of date? Email me.