Direct comparison
Aster vs Garmin LiveTrack
Aster is a live race-tracking platform. Same underlying problem (people want to know where the rider is) solved at a different scale: a public watch link, every rider in an event on one map, a leaderboard, an editorial feed, organiser tools, SOS chat. Live tracking as an audience product, not a private safety share.
What Garmin LiveTrack is
We won't trash the competitor. Here's an honest summary.
Garmin LiveTrack is the safety-share feature inside Garmin Connect. When a rider starts an activity on a paired Garmin Edge head unit or Forerunner watch, LiveTrack sends a private URL by email to a hand-picked list of contacts who can watch a live map of the ride until the rider stops. Garmin LiveTrack's site →
Side by side
| Feature | Aster | Garmin LiveTrack |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Race + group-ride + event live tracking with public audience | Personal safety-share with hand-picked contacts |
| Watch surface | Public URL, no account required, every rider on one map | Per-contact private URL emailed to LiveTrack's contact list |
| Tracking device | Rider's phone (iOS + Android app) | Garmin Edge head unit or Forerunner watch paired with the rider's phone (the phone uploads) |
| Leaderboard | Live, with gaps and ETAs | None — single rider, no field |
| Multi-rider on one map | Yes — designed for it | No |
| Event infrastructure (registration, roster, finish line, cutoffs) | Yes | No |
| SOS / two-way chat with organiser | Yes | No (contacts can see location but can't reach the rider through LiveTrack) |
| Watcher experience after the ride | Permanent rider page with polyline, splits, recap | Map disappears when activity ends; data moves into Garmin Connect activity log |
| Requires Garmin hardware | No (phone only) | Yes (Edge or Forerunner) |
| Pricing | Free for personal Free Ride; race events charge organiser per rider | Free (Garmin Connect feature) — costs are baked into the Garmin device price |
Why organisers choose Aster over Garmin LiveTrack
Built for an audience, not a contact list.
LiveTrack sends a one-off email to a handful of contacts. Aster gives you a public watch link you can share on Instagram, paste in a group chat, or hand to a sponsor — every viewer sees the same live map, no email-list management.
Multi-rider on one screen.
LiveTrack is built around one rider sharing one ride. Aster puts the whole event — every rider on the start sheet — on one map with live gaps, ETAs, and the field around each rider. That's the entire watcher product.
No Garmin hardware required.
LiveTrack only works if the rider has a Garmin Edge or Forerunner. Aster runs on any iOS or Android phone — useful when the field is a mix of devices, or when the rider doesn't have (or doesn't want to carry) a head unit.
Event-day operations the safety feature isn't built for.
LiveTrack has no concept of a roster, a finish line, lap detection, organiser SOS visibility, or a cutoff time. Those are the operational primitives a race needs, and they're Aster's default surface.
Being honest
When Garmin LiveTrack is the right call
Garmin LiveTrack is the right tool when you're a solo rider on a regular training ride or a one-off adventure, and you want your partner / family / a small named list of people to be able to see where you are during the ride. It's free, it ships with the Garmin you already use, and the security model (private URL emailed to specific contacts) is the right shape for that intimate use case. For racing, public-audience tracking, group rides with multiple riders on one map, or any event with a leaderboard or organiser dashboard, it's not the right shape — and Garmin haven't signalled they intend to make it one.
Common questions
Can I use Garmin LiveTrack for a bike race?
Technically you can ask every rider to start LiveTrack and forward you their URL, but you'd end up with N separate URLs, no leaderboard, no shared audience-facing map, and no way to alert riders if there's an issue. Beyond a friendly group ride with a handful of riders, the format breaks. Aster is built for that shape from the start.
Does Aster work with my Garmin Edge?
Yes, in the sense that Aster doesn't care what bike computer (if any) the rider is using — Aster runs on the rider's phone and the Edge is just a head unit for the rider's own ride data. We plan to add Garmin Connect activity push (the rider's finished ride appears in their Garmin Connect feed) on the post-launch roadmap. For now, the equivalent is the Strava push that fires at finish.
Is Aster more accurate than LiveTrack?
GPS accuracy is essentially identical — both use the same satellite constellations and the same phone-side GPS chip (the Edge uses its own chip, but it forwards positions to the phone over Bluetooth, which then uploads). The difference between the two products is what happens to the positions after they arrive at the server: route-snapping, leaderboard ordering, off-route detection, organiser dashboard. Aster does all of that; LiveTrack doesn't, by design.
Do I need to remove LiveTrack to use Aster?
No. They're independent products. A rider can have LiveTrack going for their partner (private, on the Edge) AND have Aster going for the race audience (public, on the phone) at the same time, on the same ride. Different audiences, different products, no conflict.
Why isn't Garmin building this?
Garmin's strategic centre is hardware (head units, watches, sensors) and the Garmin Connect ecosystem that surrounds it. Live race tracking as an organiser-facing platform is adjacent to that but not the same product, and would dilute the hardware-sales flywheel that drives the rest of the business. They've had the technology to build a leaderboard-shaped LiveTrack for a decade and haven't — which tells you most of what you need to know about their roadmap.
Ready to put your race on Aster?
30-minute call. We'll walk through your race, the dashboard, and what a launch on Aster would look like.