Why Trailguide Is Becoming a Paid App
Bjørn Jarle Kvande, 11. April 2025Trailguide has always been a labor of love — built through countless hours of late night coding, riding sooo many trails, and consuming thousands of cups of coffee. But love alone doesn’t pay for the servers, maps, and services needed to keep the app running smoothly.
Software has real, ongoing costs
Running Trailguide at the performance level you have come to expect needs quite a bit of digital resources, and they cost actual money. Servers, databases, map services, translation services, location services, usage analytics, error reporting, and backups are some of them. And the more users the app gets, the more those costs grow.
During off season, those costs are currently around 4-5000 kroner per month, and in the summer months it grows to about 8000 per month. A total of about 60.000 kroner per year that I am not able to cover from my own pocket.
Software needs constant maintenance
Trailguide isn’t something I built once and walked away from. It’s under continuous maintenance, development, and improvement. And it has to be — because many parts of the app rely on third-party services that change over time.
If the app doesn’t adapt, features break. This is called “software rot,” and fighting it takes time and effort. Bug fixes, adapting to new platforms, and improving things behind the scenes — it’s all part of making sure Trailguide stays smooth, fast, and useful.
Time spent on the app is time away from paid work
Even though this is a passion project, every hour I spend improving Trailguide is an hour I’m not spending on paid client work — work that helps cover my living costs.
For Trailguide to keep growing, it needs to stand on its own feet — meaning it has to generate enough to keep me afloat financially. Not to get rich — just enough to justify the time and energy it takes to build and maintain it.
We already pay for things we value — even if they’re not physical
You pay for music, movies, streaming services, and news — not because they’re tangible, but because they offer enjoyment, inspiration, and value.
Software is no different. It takes time, skill, and craft to create. Just like a great album or film, it’s the result of many invisible hours of hard work. But unlike music or movies — which we’ve grown used to paying for through streaming services — people sometimes forget that software also needs support to survive.
Imagine you make music, and have to pay to let people hear it
Imagine you’re a musician. You put your music on Spotify because you want to share it. But instead of earning anything, you have to pay Spotify just to keep it online.
That’s what it’s like offering a free app with no income. The more people use it, the more it costs you.
People rarely value free stuff until it’s gone
The truth is, people tend to value things more when they’ve paid for them. You care more. You invest more. You give feedback, and you help shape what it becomes.
When something’s free, it’s easy to take it for granted — until one day, it’s not there anymore.
You are not the product
Trailguide is different from many other free apps. We don’t sell your data. We don’t track you for ad revenue. There are no third-party ads — and we’d like to keep it that way.
But that only works if the app is supported directly by the people who use it.
Part of an active lifestyle
For many riders, Trailguide isn’t just a tool — it’s part of the adventure. It helps you discover new trails, explore new areas, and get more out of your rides.
That kind of value is worth something. And by paying for it, you help make sure Trailguide is here for the next season, and the next one after that.
Supporting Trailguide means supporting indie software
Trailguide isn’t built by a big company. It’s the work of a (mostly) one-man team with a big love for bikes and a desire to build something useful.
When you support Trailguide, you’re supporting independent creators. You’re supporting the kind of honest, rider-focused software you want more of — made by real people, not big corporations.
Thank you for being part of this journey
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has used Trailguide, given feedback, and shared it with friends over the years. If you decide to support the app by becoming a paying user, you’re not just helping it survive — you’re helping it grow into something even better.
From the bottom of my heart: thank you.
Bjørn
You can subscribe by logging into the app, going to My account, and clicking Upgrade to premium.