AllTrails
AllTrails is an American technology company and mobile application that serves as a comprehensive platform for outdoor recreation enthusiasts, offering detailed trail maps, user reviews, photos, and GPS navigation tools for activities including hiking, running, biking, and camping.[1][2] Founded in 2010 in San Francisco, California, by Russell Cook, the platform was developed to make outdoor trails as accessible and navigable as public roads, drawing from the founder's passion for nature exploration.[3][2] With a mission to "help the world find its way outside," AllTrails connects a global community of over 90 million users—known as explorers—who have collectively logged more than 1.8 billion miles on trails.[4] The platform features a database of over 500,000 hand-curated trails worldwide, enhanced by community contributions such as ratings, photos, and activity tracking, along with premium options like offline maps (in AllTrails+ and Peak), 3D terrain previews, and AI-powered route suggestions (in Peak).[4][5] Headquartered in San Francisco with over 200 employees, the company has expanded through acquisitions like trails.com and iFootpath in 2019, and it partners with organizations such as 1% for the Planet to support conservation efforts by donating a portion of its revenue.[2][1] AllTrails has achieved notable recognition for its impact on outdoor accessibility and safety, including being named Apple's iPhone App of the Year in 2023 and Inc.'s Best in Business in 2024, while maintaining a top-five ranking in health and fitness apps with over one million five-star reviews.[2][6] Under CEO Liz Hamren, the platform continues to innovate with features like real-time trail condition alerts and predictive weather integration, fostering inclusive access to nature for diverse users amid growing global interest in outdoor activities.[2][5]Background
Overview
AllTrails is a digital platform dedicated to outdoor recreation, serving as a comprehensive guide for discovering, planning, and navigating trails worldwide. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company has grown into a leading resource for enthusiasts of activities such as hiking, running, biking, and camping.[7][1] The platform's mission is to help the world find its way outside by connecting people to the outdoors, emphasizing nature's role in uniting diverse communities.[1] AllTrails achieves this through a vast database of over 500,000 trails, featuring hand-curated details alongside crowdsourced contributions including maps, reviews, and photos from millions of users.[1] As of 2025, it serves over 90 million registered users globally, enabling safe and informed exploration of natural environments.[4]Founding
AllTrails was founded by Russell Cook in San Francisco, California, in 2010, driven by his personal passion for outdoor exploration and frustration with the lack of centralized, accessible information on hiking trails and other outdoor routes.[8][9] Cook, an avid outdoors enthusiast, sought to create a platform that would help users discover, plan, and share adventures more easily, addressing the scattered and often outdated data available in traditional guidebooks.[10] The initial product was a web-based trail database launched in early 2010, which aggregated information on thousands of routes primarily in the United States, drawing from publicly available sources such as the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service data.[11] This early version relied heavily on user-submitted contributions for reviews, photos, and route details, supplemented by editorial verification to ensure accuracy amid the challenges of compiling a comprehensive database from fragmented open data.[11] Building this repository from scratch proved difficult, as public datasets were unreliable and dispersed, requiring Cook and a small team to manually curate and cross-check submissions, sometimes by contacting parks directly.[11] In its first years, AllTrails experienced rapid user growth in the early 2010s, reaching 200,000 registered users by 2012 through word-of-mouth promotion within outdoor communities and strong organic search visibility.[8][12] This early momentum aligned with the company's mission to connect more people to the outdoors by making trail information freely discoverable.[4] A mobile app followed in 2011, further accelerating adoption among hikers and cyclists seeking on-the-go navigation.[13]Development and Growth
Funding Rounds
AllTrails secured its initial seed funding in November 2010 with $120,000, followed by a $400,000 seed round in November 2011 led by 500 Global and 2020 Ventures, and a $990,000 seed VC round in January 2012. These early investments, totaling approximately $1.5 million, enabled the company to build and expand its comprehensive trail database, facilitating broader accessibility through user-generated content and data integration.[14][15] In October 2018, Spectrum Equity invested $75 million in a growth equity round, acquiring a majority stake in the company and transitioning its operations toward accelerated expansion. This funding supported enhancements to the mobile app, international market entry, and hiring initiatives to scale the team and user base.[3] AllTrails raised an additional $150 million in a private equity round on November 17, 2021, led by Permira's growth fund, with participation from existing investor Spectrum Equity, which retained its majority ownership. The investment fueled further product development, user acquisition efforts, and global scaling, contributing to the company's growth to over 200 employees by 2025.[16][2]| Round Date | Round Type | Amount | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2010 | Seed | $120,000 | Undisclosed |
| November 2011 | Seed VC | $400,000 | 500 Global, 2020 Ventures |
| January 2012 | Seed VC - II | $990,000 | Undisclosed |
| October 2018 | Growth Equity | $75 million | Spectrum Equity |
| November 2021 | Private Equity | $150 million | Permira |
Acquisitions and Expansions
In August 2016, AllTrails acquired EveryTrail, a GPS-enabled publishing platform previously owned by TripAdvisor since 2011, which added a substantial database of user-generated global treks and enhanced mobile app functionality for outdoor navigation.[17][18] The year 2019 marked a period of aggressive expansion through multiple acquisitions. In April, AllTrails purchased iFootpath, the leading paid travel app in the United Kingdom, incorporating extensive trail data focused on UK and European walking routes to broaden its international coverage.[19] In July, the company acquired Trails.com, a U.S.-centric platform, which integrated thousands of American trail descriptions and user reviews into AllTrails' ecosystem.[20] Later that month, AllTrails bought GPSies, a German-based service offering user-uploaded GPS tracks for various outdoor activities, further enriching its global repository of route data particularly in Europe.[21] These strategic moves significantly scaled AllTrails' offerings, growing its hand-curated trail library from over 75,000 in mid-2019 to more than 400,000 trails worldwide by the early 2020s and facilitating broader international reach.[20][22] Post-acquisition, AllTrails merged datasets from these platforms, importing user-generated photos, reviews, and GPS tracks to create a unified, seamless experience for its growing user base.[21]Products and Services
Core Features
AllTrails provides a comprehensive searchable database of over 500,000 trails worldwide, enabling users to discover routes tailored to their preferences through advanced filters such as difficulty level, length, elevation gain, dog-friendliness, and accessibility features like wheelchair or stroller compatibility.[23][24][25] This system allows hikers, runners, and outdoor enthusiasts to locate trails by location, activity type, or specific attributes, with each trail page offering verified routes, driving directions, and essential details to facilitate planning.[26] The platform's mapping and navigation tools feature interactive maps powered by GPS tracking, providing real-time location updates, elevation profiles, and turn-by-turn voice directions to keep users on course during their outings.[27][24][28] Integration with weather data allows users to preview conditions along the route, including forecasts for temperature, precipitation, air quality, and UV index, helping to anticipate environmental factors before and during navigation.[29] User-generated content forms a cornerstone of the platform, where community members contribute reviews sharing personal experiences, tips, and ratings to inform others about trail conditions and highlights.[30] Users can upload photos to create visual galleries that preview scenery, wildlife, or obstacles, enhancing trail descriptions with authentic imagery from fellow explorers.[31] Additionally, the app supports route recording to capture custom paths, which users can share as checklists or activity logs, fostering collaborative contributions that build a richer, crowd-sourced trail network.[32] Among its advanced tools, AllTrails introduced AI-powered route suggestions in 2025, allowing users to customize paths via natural language prompts such as "make this more scenic" or "reduce elevation," generating personalized alternatives based on terrain data and user preferences.[33][24] The platform also offers challenges to encourage goal-oriented activities, like completing a set number of hikes within a timeframe, and curated collections that group trails by themes such as seasonal wildflowers or historical sites for targeted exploration.[34][35] These features, including offline access to maps and navigation, are available through subscription tiers to ensure reliable performance in remote areas.[36]Platforms and Accessibility
AllTrails delivers its services through dedicated mobile applications for iOS and Android devices, initially launched in 2010 for iOS and subsequently expanded to Android. These apps incorporate real-time GPS tracking to guide users along trails during hiking, biking, and running activities. They also enable offline functionality by allowing users to download maps and trail data in advance, ensuring navigation remains possible in areas without cellular service. The web platform serves as a complementary tool for desktop-based trip planning, featuring interactive maps for discovering and customizing routes. As of updates in 2025, custom route building is accessible via the website, permitting users to create or modify paths from scratch or based on existing trails. This platform integrates seamlessly with dedicated park pages, which aggregate essential details such as hours, fees, and popular routes within specific parks worldwide. AllTrails emphasizes accessibility through specialized filters for wheelchair-friendly trails, identifying options with smooth, firm surfaces and minimal obstacles like steep grades or roots. Its accessibility guide outlines criteria for identifying wheelchair-friendly trails, including the availability of aids such as audio descriptions and large-print materials at certain parks and locations to support users with visual or mobility impairments. Multilingual support extends to over 10 languages, including English (US and UK variants), Danish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish, facilitating global usability. In 2024 and 2025, AllTrails introduced redesigns to its trail and park pages, prioritizing enhanced mobile responsiveness for seamless cross-device experiences and greater inclusivity by improving visibility of accessibility information and user-friendly layouts.Business Model
Subscription Tiers
AllTrails provides three membership tiers to cater to different user needs, with the free Base tier offering essential functionality and paid options unlocking enhanced tools for navigation and planning.[5][37] The Base tier is free and includes core features such as searching for over 500,000 trails worldwide, viewing online maps, and accessing community-generated reviews and photos.[1][38][5] This tier supports basic navigation and trail discovery without requiring payment, though it includes advertisements and lacks advanced offline capabilities.[5] The Plus tier, available as an annual subscription for $35.99, builds on the Base features by adding offline maps—a key premium enhancement for areas without cell service—along with wrong-turn alerts to prevent navigation errors and an ad-free interface.[39][5] Additional benefits include 3D trail previews, live activity sharing for real-time location updates with contacts, improving safety during outings, and, as of November 2025, advanced trail condition forecasts incorporating weather data and user reports.[38][40][41] Introduced in June 2025 as part of the AllTrails 2025 Summer Update, the Peak tier is an annual subscription priced at $79.99 and encompasses all Plus features while introducing AI-driven personalization.[39][38] This top tier enables AI-powered custom route optimization to tailor hikes based on user preferences, distance, and conditions (with basic custom route building available for free on desktop for all users as of late November 2025); community heatmaps showing trail popularity; and the Outdoor Lens tool for identifying plants and wildlife, launched later in summer 2025.[38][42][41] It also provides unlimited custom route building and editing in the mobile app, exclusive to Peak.[38][43] This tiered structure evolved in 2025 to emphasize annual subscriptions for paid plans, reflecting AllTrails' focus on delivering sustained value through integrated AI and data-driven enhancements while maintaining accessibility via the free Base option. In November 2025, updates made custom routes free on desktop for all members and added trail condition forecasts to Plus, enhancing value across tiers.[38][39][41]| Tier | Price (Annual) | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Base | Free | Trail search, online maps, community reviews and photos, basic navigation, custom routes on desktop (as of November 2025).[5][41] |
| Plus | $35.99 | All Base features + offline maps, wrong-turn alerts, ad-free experience, 3D previews, live sharing, advanced trail condition forecasts (as of November 2025).[39][5][41] |
| Peak | $79.99 | All Plus features + AI-powered route optimization, unlimited custom route building in mobile app, community heatmaps, Outdoor Lens.[39][38][41] |