Free MyWindSock Alternative for Cyclists

If you have been looking for a free MyWindSock alternative, let me start by being fair to them, because a comparison written by the person who makes the other tool is worth very little otherwise.

MyWindSock is good. It has been doing wind analysis for cyclists longer than I have, it goes deeper than most people need, and the people behind it clearly ride bikes. If it is working for you, this article is probably not going to change your mind.

MyWindSock: free wind direction tool for cyclists

It is a web tool. You give it a route or an activity and it tells you what the wind did, or will do, along it.

It takes courses from a Strava activity, route or segment, from a GPX or TCX file, and from rides in Garmin, Wahoo, Komoot or RideWithGPS. So the line you sometimes read, that it only works with Garmin, is simply wrong. The Strava integration in particular is the thing most of its users seem to stay for, since it can enrich an activity you already uploaded with the weather that was actually happening.

On pricing, there is a free level and a Premium subscription that lifts the limits. I am not going to quote you a figure because they change, and a stale price in a blog post is worse than no price. Check their site.

What I built instead, and why

I did not set out to replace MyWindSock. I wanted the wind on my Edge screen while riding, and nothing did that the way I wanted, so I wrote it.

That grew into two separate things, which is worth untangling because they are often confused.

MoguWind Plan is the web planner. Upload a GPX, paste a Strava route, or draw one on the map. Pick the day and the departure time. It then shows the wind kilometre by kilometre, calculated for the moment you will actually be at each point rather than for right now. Green where it helps, red where it hurts, grey for crosswind. It will suggest a better departure hour if there is one, and it works out when to eat based on the effort the wind is going to cost you.

MoguWind APP is the Connect IQ data field. It sits on a screen of your Garmin next to speed or power. A large arrow points where the wind is going relative to your heading, green for tailwind, red for headwind, amber for crosswind, with the head and tail component and the crosswind in km/h underneath.

One thing people get wrong about the data field, so I will say it plainly. It does not know your route. You do not load a GPX into it. It reads the wind at your position and your heading from GPS and works out what you are getting right now. When you turn, it changes.

How MyWindSock compares to free alternatives

Not a feature table, because feature tables are written to be won.

Cost. This is the real difference. MoguWind Plan and MoguWind APP are free, with no account and no subscription. MyWindSock has a free level and a paid one. If the paid features are what you need, you are paying for something real, not for nothing.

Analysis depth. MyWindSock wins here and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Historical archives, post-ride breakdowns, segment hunting, the AI forecasting from your past activities. If you are the kind of rider who studies a course for a target event, that is a serious toolkit.

On the bike. Both have a Garmin data field, so this is not a MoguWind exclusive either. What I can say is that mine is free and that it records the ride back into the FIT file, so in Garmin Connect afterwards you get five graphs and eight summary metrics, including a Wind Balance figure from minus 100 to plus 100 telling you whether the day was mostly head or mostly tail.

Devices. MoguWind runs on 33 Garmin devices, Edge, fēnix, Forerunner and Epix, not just cycling computers.

The honest summary is that one of them costs money and goes deeper, and the other is free and does the part most riders actually use.

Who should stay where they are

Stay with MyWindSock if you use the historical data, if your workflow lives inside Strava segments, or if you are preparing a specific event and want the deepest analysis you can get. Those are real reasons and free does not beat them.

Try MoguWind if what you want is the practical part. Which way round to ride the loop on Sunday, what time to leave, and seeing the wind on the handlebar without paying a monthly fee for it.

Plenty of people use both, which I find reassuring rather than annoying. It suggests they solve slightly different problems, which was always my impression.

Why cyclists need a free MyWindSock alternative

I am aware of the shape of this article. Developer writes "free alternative to X", developer concludes his own thing is the alternative. You should read it with that in mind, and you should check their site rather than take my word for what they charge or support.

What I will stand behind is the factual part. MyWindSock takes routes from Strava, Garmin, Wahoo, Komoot, RideWithGPS and plain GPX or TCX files, so if you read somewhere that it is Garmin only, that is wrong and I would rather correct it than benefit from it. It also has a free level, so "you have to pay for MyWindSock" is not accurate either.

The difference that survives the fact checking is narrower than most comparison posts would have you believe. Mine costs nothing and covers the everyday case. Theirs costs something and goes further. Which of those matters depends entirely on how seriously you take your route prep, and there is no wrong answer there.