Is GOTOES free to use?

Yes — GOTOES tools are free, and the site has been a staple recommendation in Garmin forums for years. The reasons to look elsewhere are about interface and workflow, not price.

Can these alternatives merge FIT files without losing heart rate and power?

The browser-based ones can. GPX Converter, for example, carries every record's heart rate, cadence and power channels across the merge and re-encodes them into the output file. Check each tool's documentation for developer-field caveats if you record exotic metrics.

Do any of these tools upload my files to a server?

It varies, and it is the single most important question to ask before dropping a GPS file anywhere. GPX Converter, gpx.studio, Dawarich's tools and FitFileLab parse files locally in your browser. General-purpose conversion sites often do upload — read the privacy wording before you drop a file.

I need to combine activities from two different days. Will a merger do that?

Technically yes, but the result is rarely what you want — the session summary will span both days, and platforms will show odd elapsed time. Merging is meant for one activity that was interrupted and recorded as sequential files. For genuinely separate activities, keep them separate.

Best Free GOTOES Alternatives for Merging and Converting FIT Files

GOTOES has earned its reputation. When a Garmin splits a ride into two files, when a forum regular needs to stitch FIT fragments back together, GOTOES's combine tool is the answer that has been passed around Garmin's own forums for years — it merges FIT, GPX, TCX and CSV files, keeps heart rate and power streams alive through the merge, and its FIT viewer doubles as an inspection and repair bench. Free, too.

So why look for an alternative at all? Three honest reasons. The interface is utilitarian — it works, but it hasn't chased modern design. Each task lives on its own separate page, so a mixed workflow (convert, then merge, then repair) means hunting between URLs. And the field has widened: browser engines got fast enough to parse FIT binaries locally, and a generation of tools built on that now offers the same jobs with less friction.

Full disclosure: we build GPX Converter, one of the tools in this list. We have kept every entry honest — including where a competitor is the better fit — because a comparison that always concludes "buy ours" is an ad, not a comparison.

1. GPX Converter (this site)

A suite of focused tools covering the full FIT/GPX/TCX triangle: six converters for every direction, merging FIT or GPX files with heart rate, cadence and power carried through point by point, splitting long activities by distance or time, a FIT repair tool that rebuilds damaged headers and CRCs, and a pair of map viewers.

The distinguishing property: everything parses in your browser on your own device. There is no upload step — not for convenience, but because the architecture has no server that could receive a file. One job per page, a drop zone at the top, and the result below it.

Choose it when: you want the whole convert / merge / split / repair / view chain in one place, with nothing uploaded.

2. gpx.studio

The strongest option if "merge" for you means "edit" — gpx.studio is a full visual GPX editor. Drop multiple files onto its map, drag their segments into order, delete the detour you regret, and export one clean file, with elevation profiles and route planning built in. Thirteen languages, open source, with mobile apps.

The trade is weight: a full editing canvas is more than a quick merge needs. If your file is fine and you just want today's two fragments joined by start time, a focused merger does it in fewer clicks.

Choose it when: the result needs hand-editing, not just joining.

3. Dawarich's free tools

Dawarich is a location-history platform, and its free tools page functions as a thirty-two-tool Swiss army knife: a GPX track merger, file splitters, and a wide conversion matrix that reaches beyond the fitness formats into KML, KMZ and GeoJSON — plus a Google Timeline tool family for Takeout exports.

Choose it when: you also need Google-Earth or GeoJSON output, or you're unpacking a Google location-history export alongside your device files.

4. FitFileLab

A deliberately minimal converter: one drop zone, auto-detected format, pick your output — GPX, FIT or TCX — done. It matches the nothing-leaves-your-device model, and its race-planning tool (split a course GPX at aid stations and predict arrival times) is genuinely clever for ultra and trail runners.

Choose it when: you want the shortest possible path from file to converted file.

5. GPS Visualizer

The old workhorse, and still the widest converter in the room — it reads obscure GPS formats most tools have never heard of. The cost is a form-based interface from an earlier era of the web: powerful, dense, unapologetic.

Choose it when: your file is in a format nobody else lists. (We compared alternatives to it in more depth here.)

Picking between them

Two FIT fragments, one ride → a dedicated merger: GPX Converter or GOTOES itself.
Merge, then clean the route up by hand → gpx.studio.
Also need KML / GeoJSON / Google Timeline → Dawarich tools.
One quick conversion, no ceremony → FitFileLab or the quick converter on our front page.
Ancient or exotic format → GPS Visualizer.

Whichever you pick, the question worth asking first is the same: does this tool process my file locally, or does it upload? A GPS track contains where you live, where you train and when you were there — it deserves the same caution as any other document you'd think twice about emailing to a stranger.