Cycling vs CycleHUD
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cycling
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This app connects your Garmin Varia cycling radar (e.g. 315/515/516) to your iPhone. Threats are displayed with high contrast on your phone. The iPhone will vibrate in case of threats (vibration interval depends on threat level). Also in case of nearing threats, notifications are sent, so if you wear an Apple Watch, you will receive notifications on your Watch.
CycleHUD
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CycleHUD turns your rear radar into a clear, glanceable heads-up display — and now a quiet-roads navigator and a racing partner too. Always know what's coming up behind you, where you're going, and how you compare with your best, without taking your eyes off the road. EYES BEHIND YOU Vehicles approaching from behind appear on a clean perspective lane, nearest at the top, and the whole panel glows amber to red as a car closes in. A green "Clear" shows when the road behind is empty. Pair an Apple Watch and you'll feel it too: a tap for each new vehicle, faster as it nears, and a distinct buzz if the radar ever drops out. After the ride, every vehicle that passed you is pinned on your route map with its distance and speed. ROUTES ON QUIET ROADS Plan a ride by tapping a start and waypoints on a map — the path snaps to quiet roads and cycle paths, looping back to the start or finishing wherever you choose. While the road behind is clear, the radar panel becomes a live street map: your route ahead, live traffic and closures, the whole ride's elevation profile with the gradient coming up, and the next junction's real layout counting down — with the turn your route takes glowing green. Spoken turn alerts and wrist taps call each bend. Pick a route from across town and CycleHUD plots a lead-in to the start. The moment a vehicle appears behind you, the radar takes the screen back. Routes share as plain GPX and import from anywhere — Strava, Komoot, RideWithGPS, a friend's export. RACE YOUR GHOST Complete a route once and that run becomes its best. Every ride after is a race: a live ahead/behind readout and a ghost marker riding the map beside you. Beat it and the new run takes over. Ghosts travel inside shared GPX files, so you can race a friend's best — or import any recorded ride and chase it. BUILT FOR THE RIDE - Live metrics on customisable, swipeable tile pages: speed, cadence, heart rate, ascent, live gradient, wind (as headwind or tailwind), compass, rain nowcast and more - Every ride saved as an Apple Health workout, with a post-ride effort rating for Health's training load (iOS 18+) - Ride summaries with graphs you can scrub, laps, and your previous bests over the same stretches of road - Optional crash detection: a hard impact followed by a stop starts an SOS countdown on the phone AND your watch — dismiss it or call your emergency contact straight from the wrist - Heart-rate warning that flashes the display and buzzes your wrist - iCloud sync: rides, routes and ghosts back up to your own iCloud and follow you to a new phone - Light, dark and Cyberpunk themes, a digital-dash font, and a fixed-landscape layout for your handlebars WORKS WITH YOUR SENSORS Built around the Coospo TR70 rear radar, and also works with Garmin Varia-compatible radars, standard Bluetooth speed and cadence sensors and heart-rate straps. Speed falls back to GPS when no sensor is connected. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts. No servers. No tracking, ads or analytics. Your data lives on your device, in Apple Health and in your own iCloud — all under your control. The optional routing and junction features fetch open road data (OpenStreetMap, BRouter) and say so plainly in Settings. CycleHUD is a focused, no-nonsense tool made by a rider who wanted exactly this, and nothing more.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Cycling at 14.0 against CycleHUD's 17.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Cycling | CycleHUD |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | — | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Walter Greger | Carly Robinson |
In-app purchases
Cycling
No in-app purchases
CycleHUD
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Cycling free?
Is CycleHUD free?
Do Cycling or CycleHUD have ads?
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