Citymapper is a public transport app that tells you which bus, tram, train or metro to take, which carriage to board and when to jump off. We like it for two plain reasons: it now gives away almost every feature it once charged for, and its live bus tracking covers more than 260 cities, which is the bit that matters when you are standing at a stop in the drizzle.
The only thing left to buy is an ad-free version called CLUB, so the real question is less “is it worth paying?” and more “is it the right app for your city?”. Here is our Citymapper review: what is free, what costs money, what works offline and how it compares with Google Maps and Moovit.
Citymapper Promo Code: None needed
Best deal: the free app has all routing features; CLUB removes ads from £1.49 a month
| Offer detail | What you get |
|---|---|
| Promo Code | None needed. Citymapper does not publish promo codes |
| Welcome offer | Free app with full routing; ad-free CLUB from £1.49 a month or £9.99 a year (UK App Store) |
| Who qualifies | Anyone with an iPhone (iOS 17 or later) or Android phone; App Store age rating 13+ |
| Key terms | CLUB renews automatically until cancelled; it mainly removes ads |
| How to claim | Download the app, open Settings and choose CLUB if you want it ad-free |
Citymapper: key facts
- Official website: citymapper.com
- Owner: Citymapper Limited (part of Via Transportation since March 2023)
- Headquarters: London, UK
- Founded: 2011
- Ratings: App Store 4.8 (276k ratings, UK App Store); Google Play 4.8 (374k reviews, Google Play); Trustpilot 2.4 (65 reviews)
- Headline offer: Free app with full routing features; ad-free CLUB from £1.49 a month
- Promo Code: None needed (no promo codes published)
- Price from: £1.49 a month for CLUB (UK App Store); £9.99 a year
- Free plan or trial: Yes: journey planning, live departures, voice navigation, Lock Screen navigation, step-free routes (with ads)
- Payment methods: Apple App Store, Google Play
- Best features: Live bus and tram tracking in more than 260 cities; Step-free and wheelchair-accessible routing in 27 cities; Strike-aware routing and Lock Screen navigation on iPhone
Citymapper at a glance
- Owner: Citymapper Limited, part of Via Transportation since March 2023
- Launched: 2011, in London, by Azmat Yusuf
- Platforms: iPhone, Apple Watch and Android
- Free plan: yes; journey planning, live departures, voice navigation and step-free routes
- Paid from: £1.49 a month for ad-free CLUB (UK App Store)
- Offline use: partial; starred journeys, Tube and metro departures and metro maps
- Ratings: App Store (UK) 4.8/5 from 276k ratings; Google Play 4.8/5 from 374k reviews
Our verdict
If you live in, or are visiting, a city Citymapper covers properly, it is the best free transport planner you can put on your phone. It thinks like a commuter: which exit to use, whether the bus is actually coming, and how to route round a strike. The ads are mild and the CLUB fee to remove them is small. The catch is accuracy outside the big cities and a run of recent complaints about bus timings, so keep Google Maps as a backup.
Pros
- Routing options that used to be paid (Walk Less, bus only, train only, cheapest) are now free
- Live bus and tram positions on the map in more than 260 cities
- Step-free and wheelchair-accessible routes in 27 cities, free for everyone
- Lock Screen navigation and Live Activities on iPhone, plus an Apple Watch app
- Strike-aware routing, which in London and Paris is not a small thing
- Ad-free CLUB is cheap: £1.49 a month or £9.99 a year
Cons
- Coverage is city by city; smaller towns and rural routes are thin or missing
- Offline mode is limited to saved journeys and metro information
- Recent Trustpilot reviewers complain about bus accuracy in UK cities
- Some features are split by platform (best time to leave is Android only)
- Shows ads unless you pay, and collects location and usage data
What Citymapper does and who it is for
At heart, Citymapper is a journey planner for people without a car. You type where you are going and it lays out a menu of routes: bus, metro, rail, walking, cycling, hire bikes, e-scooters and taxis, often mixed together, each with a price and an arrival time. Its GO mode then follows you along the way, counting down stops and warning you when to get off.
A few moments when it earns its place:
- You land at Charles de Gaulle on a strike day, the RER B is on a skeleton service and you need to know whether a bus and Line 4 will get you to Montparnasse before your train. Citymapper flags disruption and suggests routes round it.
- You are in Manchester with a pushchair and want a route that avoids stairs. Step-free routing only uses stations with lifts and ramps.
- It is pouring in London and you would happily ride an extra bus to avoid ten minutes on foot. The Walk Less option exists for exactly this.
It suits commuters, students and city-break travellers. It suits drivers and hikers far less.
Is Citymapper free? Free vs paid features
Yes, and more so than it used to be. In September 2022 Citymapper launched a paid CLUB tier and put several handy features behind it. Customers grumbled, and in May 2023, soon after Via bought the company, Citymapper 11 made all of those features free again. They include the extra routing modes (Mixed, Walk Less, Simple, bus or train focused, ranked by speed or price, taxi plus transit), voice instructions for walking, cycling, scooting and public transport, and Lock Screen Navigation on iPhone.
What CLUB adds today is chiefly an ad-free app. The Citymapper homepage also mentions an AI-assisted “best route” feature in beta for CLUB members, so paying gets you early access to experiments too. For most people, the free version does everything.
Citymapper price: plans and the cheapest way to pay
The UK App Store lists three in-app purchases. Citymapper’s own announcement confirms the £1.49 monthly price, and the $9.99 yearly price was reported at the same time.
| Plan | UK price | US$ | € |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | $0 | €0 |
| CLUB, monthly | £1.49 | $1.99 | €1.77 |
| CLUB, yearly | £9.99 | $13.31 | €11.86 |
| CLUB+ (listed on the UK App Store) | £99.99 | $133.25 | €118.66 |
Dollar and euro figures are conversions, not Citymapper’s own prices. Citymapper does not explain CLUB+ on its website, so we would not buy it without reading the in-app description first.
The cheapest way to pay is not to: the free app is complete. If the ads bother you, the yearly CLUB at £9.99 works out at about 83p a month, roughly half the monthly price. The app’s paywall has shown a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan, so check for it before you subscribe.
Citymapper features that matter
Live buses and trams. Real-time vehicles on the map in more than 260 cities, and Citymapper says its predicted bus arrival times became 35% more accurate during 2024, in more than 200 cities.
Offline help. Citymapper is not an offline maps app. What it does do without a signal: starred journeys are saved to the home screen, and Tube and metro departures, metro maps and GO trips stay available. If you need data abroad, see our eSIM guides.
Accessibility. Wheelchair-accessible routing reached 27 cities by the end of 2024, alongside better screen reader support.
Strikes and new lines. In 2022 Citymapper says it handled 30% more strikes globally, about one every three days, and it often adds new metro lines before they open.
Lock Screen and Apple Watch. On iPhone, GO trips appear on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. There is also a watchOS app for glancing at your next stop.
Coverage. Citymapper says it covers more than 450 cities, including much of the English Midlands from Telford to Lincolnshire. Coverage depth varies a lot, so check your destination in the app before you rely on it.
Is Citymapper safe? Privacy and data
Citymapper is owned by Via Transportation, a New York-based transit technology company that bought it in March 2023 for an undisclosed sum. The app needs your location to work, and its UK App Store privacy label says it collects financial info, location, contact info, search history, identifiers and usage data linked to you, with usage data used to track you across other companies’ apps. Google Play’s data safety section says some personal and financial data may be shared with third parties, that data is encrypted in transit and that you can ask for it to be deleted.
When DailyStoke checked, we found no published regulator action against Citymapper. If you would rather share less, allow location only while using the app and turn off personalised ads in your phone’s settings.
What users say about Citymapper
Store ratings are excellent: 4.8 out of 5 from 276,000 ratings on the UK App Store, and 4.8 from about 374,000 reviews on Google Play. Trustpilot is a different crowd, with a TrustScore of 2.4 from just 65 reviews, mostly complaints.
On Google Play, Emily C wrote in April 2026: “The best app. It gives me so much more confidence navigating cities as a solo female traveller.”
On the UK App Store, Matt B was equally fond in December 2023: “I’ve been enjoying Citymapper for years, and still I don’t see any serious competition.”
The complaints tend to be about buses and clutter. Rosie T, on Trustpilot in July 2026: “It’s now basically unusable when it comes to busses.” And K C on Google Play in May 2026: “I don’t need to see nearby buses and stations popping up every second when I just want to navigate the map”.
How to get started with Citymapper, and how to cancel CLUB
- Download Citymapper from the App Store or Google Play.
- Allow location access while using the app, then pick your city (it usually detects it).
- Save Home and Work so commute routes are one tap away.
- Type a destination, compare the route options and tap GO to get step-by-step guidance.
- Star journeys you will need without signal, such as the route from your hotel to the station.
To cancel CLUB: on iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, choose Citymapper and tap Cancel Subscription. On Android, open Google Play, tap your profile icon, then Payments and subscriptions, Subscriptions, Citymapper and Cancel. Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription. Refunds for store purchases are handled by Apple or Google under their own policies.
Citymapper vs Google Maps vs Moovit
| Citymapper | Google Maps | Moovit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, full routing with ads | Yes, no subscription | Yes, with ads |
| Paid from | £1.49 a month (CLUB) | Free | 99p a month (UK App Store, varies by plan) |
| Best for | Metro-heavy big cities | Everywhere, driving and walking | Bus-heavy cities and wide coverage |
| Offline | Saved journeys, metro info | Downloadable offline maps | Limited |
| App Store rating (UK) | 4.8 (276k) | 4.7 (978k) | 4.5 (15k) |
Pick Citymapper for London, Paris, New York, Berlin and similar cities, where its live data, strike routing and “which carriage” details shine.
Pick Google Maps if you also drive, want offline maps or are heading somewhere Citymapper does not cover.
Pick Moovit if you travel to smaller cities or countries where Citymapper’s coverage runs out.
Citymapper alternatives
- Google Maps: the safe default, with transit directions almost everywhere and proper offline maps.
- Moovit: a transit app with wide global coverage, owned by Mobileye, with optional paid plans.
- Apple Maps: built into iPhones, with transit directions in many big cities and no ads.
- Rome2Rio: better for the journey between cities than within one. See our Rome2Rio review.
- Official operator apps: TfL Go in London or RATP in Paris often have the most direct line to disruption news.
Citymapper FAQs
Is Citymapper free?
Yes. Journey planning, live departures, voice navigation and step-free routes are free. CLUB, from £1.49 a month, mainly removes ads.
How much is Citymapper CLUB in the UK?
The UK App Store lists CLUB at £1.49 and £9.99, which match the monthly and yearly plans, plus a CLUB+ option at £99.99.
Does Citymapper work offline?
Partly. Starred journeys, Tube and metro departures and metro maps work without signal, but you cannot download full offline maps.
Is Citymapper better than Google Maps?
In the big cities it covers, many commuters find it more detailed for public transport. Google Maps covers more places and has offline maps.
Which cities does Citymapper cover?
Citymapper says more than 450 cities. Open the app and search your destination to check how detailed coverage is there.
Who owns Citymapper?
Via Transportation, which bought the London company in March 2023.
How do I remove ads from Citymapper?
Subscribe to CLUB from the app’s settings. Cancel through the App Store or Google Play when you no longer want it.
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