Grimpa vs Biketerra

Two small apps on real roads

Biketerra is an independent, self-funded app from the United States, started in Virginia in 2023 to ride local roads indoors, with real terrain and realistic physics. It runs in Chrome or Edge, with apps for Windows, macOS, Linux and iOS, and draws every route in stylised 3D: the terrain, water, buildings and plants come from real-world data, down to the positions of the stars and the phase of the moon.

Grimpa runs in the browser too, and builds each road from real data as well: official elevation surveys, aerial photos and open map data. Then it draws it in pixel art: Ventoux's white summit, the brick villages of Flanders, the stone houses of Mallorca. Which looks better is yours to judge; they don't look alike.

What's free, and what you pay

Biketerra's free account has no limit on distance or time. It rides the 6 featured routes and the route of any event you join, and can upload 5 routes in all, keeping one at a time. The rest of the library, unlimited uploads, hosting events, creating clubs and custom jerseys come with the subscription: $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year, in US dollars.

Grimpa has no subscription. Every free route is open every day, with no limit: Mont Ventoux, Alpe d'Huez, the Stelvio, Sa Calobra, the Arenberg and the rest. The Pyrenees & Basque Country pack is €4.99, once, kept for good. Your first road of your own is free, then €1.99 a route, €7.99 for five or €19.99 for twenty. The garage's kit is earned by riding, never sold.

If you'll upload a new road every week, Biketerra's unlimited uploads will cost you less. If you ride the great climbs and the odd road of your own, Grimpa costs nothing, or a few euros once.

Your own roads

Biketerra was built around route uploads. Upload a GPX, FIT or TCX file, or draw a route on the map, and its Route Editor scores how smooth the gradients are and how well they match its elevation data, points out sharp corners and spikes, and lets you fix them, add bridges, tunnels and road surfaces, and choose the scenery. Routes shouldn't overlap: for an out-and-back you upload one half.

Grimpa has no route editor: it takes the gradients from official elevation surveys and builds the world around your road itself. Upload a GPX and it's a ride in about a minute, with its roads, villages and hills and every gradient on your trainer, loops and roads ridden to the end and back included, up to 150 km. It builds roads in most of western and northern Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia, not yet anywhere else.

Racing, or company

Biketerra has races, individual and team time trials and series of stages, with live results, and every event is free to join. Riders can ride together on any route, and a subscriber can host an event in about a minute. In a ride of your own, bots keep you company, fill the road like a gran fondo, or race you at one of 5 levels, attacking, countering and sprinting.

Grimpa has no races and no leaderboards, on purpose. Riders on the same route at the same moment pass you on the road and you can draft them, and the only rivals are the ghosts of your best rides and a pacer bot at the W/kg you choose.

Training

Both run structured workouts. Biketerra has a preloaded collection, loads any .ZWO file, pulls your next session from Intervals.icu, TrainerDay or Athletica, and runs group workouts with the host in charge. Grimpa has a library of classic sessions in ERG, ridden on any road, and works with Watt4, the coach that makes it: every Watt4 cycling session opens in Grimpa with one click. You don't need Watt4 to ride Grimpa.

Grimpa sends every ride to Strava by itself; Biketerra sends a ride to Strava or Intervals.icu in one click. Both give you a FIT file.

Devices

Biketerra runs in Chrome, Edge or another browser with Bluetooth, and has apps for Windows, macOS, Linux and iOS; on an iPhone or iPad you use the app. It connects over Bluetooth only, not ANT+, to a smart trainer, a power meter or just a heart-rate monitor, has virtual shifting on any smart trainer, and even takes a Concept2 rower. It has no Apple TV app.

Grimpa runs in Chrome or Edge on a computer or an Android phone or tablet, with nothing to install, and drives Bluetooth smart trainers that speak FTMS, or reads a Bluetooth power meter. No ANT+ either, and it doesn't run on iPhone, iPad or Apple TV yet.