Direct comparison
Aster vs Trackleaders
Aster is a phone-first live tracking platform. Riders carry their phone, organisers get a dashboard, watchers get a link, no hardware to ship, no batteries to chase, set up in an afternoon.
What Trackleaders is
We won't trash the competitor. Here's an honest summary.
Trackleaders is the hardware-based GPS tracking service that has powered ultra-endurance events like Tour Divide and Trans Am since 2009. It typically runs on dedicated satellite devices (Spot Gen 4, Garmin inReach, Zoleo) shipped to each rider. Trackleaders's site →
Side by side
| Feature | Aster | Trackleaders |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking device | Rider's phone | Satellite tracker (Spot / inReach / Zoleo) on the set-ups it is best known for |
| Set-up | An afternoon, one GPX | Ship trackers, brief riders, recover devices |
| Per-rider hardware cost | £0, nothing to ship or recover | A device per rider, rented or bought, then returned |
| Watcher experience | Mobile-first live page, live leaderboard, story feed | Desktop web map and table, refresh to update |
| Editorial layer | Story feed, race recaps, athlete profiles on the platform | None on the platform, editorial coverage comes from third parties |
| Offline tolerance | Pings queue on-device for 7 days, uploads when signal returns | Satellite uplink on those set-ups, works in true wilderness |
| Pricing model | Organiser subscription, sized by registrations | Per-event setup plus per-device rental |
| API and embed | Embeddable widget for organiser website | Per-event microsite at trackleaders.com |
Why organisers choose Aster over Trackleaders
No hardware logistics.
You don't ship anything. You don't recover anything. You don't pay for batteries, SIMs, or trackers that don't come back. The phone is the tracker.
Built for the races that never had tracking.
Trackleaders works for the marquee ultras, Tour Divide, Trans Am, Atlas Mountain. Aster works for the regional gravel race, the club championship, the Tuesday-night chaingang that never got live coverage because a tracker for every rider was out of reach.
A watcher experience from this decade.
Live map on mobile. Live leaderboard. Push notifications when their rider starts, stops, finishes. Story feed for race recaps. The audience is on their phone, meet them there.
Editorial and tracking in one place.
Trackleaders is infrastructure, and the editorial layer sits on top of it elsewhere. Aster is both, race recaps and athlete profiles native to the platform the audience is already on.
Being honest
When Trackleaders is the right call
Trackleaders is still the right call for true wilderness ultras where phone coverage is genuinely absent for days on end, Tour Divide stretches in remote Wyoming, the Iditarod Trail Invitational, Atlas Mountain at altitude. Where there's no cell signal for hours, a satellite uplink is the right tool. For everything else, and for the races that never had tracking at all because a device per rider didn't add up, Aster is the better fit.
Common questions
Is Aster a Trackleaders replacement?
For most events, yes, with no hardware to ship, recover or replace and no per-device line on the budget. For deep-wilderness ultras where there's genuinely no cell coverage for days, Trackleaders' satellite trackers still have an edge. We're honest about that.
What about the third-party editorial coverage?
Independent editorial outlets syndicate commentary on top of Trackleaders' tracking. We respect what they do and have reached out about partnership. In the meantime, Aster bakes the editorial layer (race recaps and athlete profiles) directly into the tracking platform so there's one place to follow a race, not two.
Does phone tracking actually work in remote areas?
Yes, for the vast majority of events. Modern phones (iPhone 14+ with multi-band GNSS, latest Androids) match dedicated bike computers for GPS accuracy. Aster's offline-tolerant ping queue holds 7 days of pings on-device and uploads when signal returns, so dead zones don't lose data, the line picks up where it left off.
How long does an Aster set-up take?
An afternoon for a typical race. Sign up and drop in your GPX, and Aster derives the route, the elevation profile and the finish line, then you set the start line and share the watch link with your riders. We're on the phone with organisers for the race-day of their first event as a baseline service.
What's the pricing?
Event Organisers choose a monthly registration-cap plan: £79.99 for up to 100 registrations, £149.99 for 500, or £199.99 for 1,000. Publishing is free, and a club meet-up lets an organiser try the whole flow first. Riders carry their own phones, so there is no hardware cost.
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.