Donkey Republic Reviews 

Very easy in use and excellent way to travel around antwerp

Such a great system. Easy to access the bike, Bluetooth lock and unlock is so easy. The bike was very comfortable to ride. Will use this often!

UPDATED with new problems:

Donkey Republic’s service is unreliable on multiple fronts. Their parking fee system is predatory: despite placing bikes in approved locations with adequate space and proper racks, users are charged 25 DKK for allegedly incorrect parking. The service artificially limits available spots at approved locations, leaving users with no compliant options and resulting in automatic penalties. During high-traffic events like Bølgen at Kalvebåd Brygge, capacity is inevitably reached, yet users are still penalized for parking at the designated site.

The system does not distinguish between genuine improper parking and situations where spots are unavailable. Instead of addressing this, Donkey Republic profits from the dysfunction. Their algorithm automatically charges 25 DKK every time it flags an issue, knowing most users will not spend 30 minutes arguing with support over a 15 DKK trip. This means they can earn 40 DKK on a 15 DKK trip with no actual problem, as it is too inconvenient for users to re-park a bike unnecessarily 5 minutes away after a 7-minute ride.

Their bikes are also frequently fiddly. In my case, I followed the usual procedure: pressed "end rental" in the app, locked the bike, and waited for the green checkmark. Despite this, the rental continued, and I was charged an extra 228 DKK on top of losing my remaining 2h 8min ride pass. There is no notification if the bike fails to lock or if the rental does not end properly. Instead, they simply keep charging the user, reminiscent of the old roaming fee scams.

This is not just poor service, it is consumer fraud. Avoid Donkey Republic unless you want to risk being overcharged for their technical and systemic failures.

Money machine without the consideration of the Customer

Zander the bike was chill

I love Donkey Republic 🫏

It’s such a great service. Only too bad it’s disappeared from so many cities throughout Europe.

I’m also a bit annoyed at the fact the newer bikes don’t come with a chain lock. I’m from a country with lots of waters running through the cities and bikes can and do end up at the bottom of those. It doesn’t even need to be the user causing that to happen, other people can cause your bike to “drown” and then it ends up being the user who has to pay regardless.

Do NOT download this app. It’s a complete scam and a predatory billing trap. I parked my bike correctly in a designated hub, yet due to a massive GPS error, the app falsely claimed it was missing and charged me double penalties. When I tried to delete my account under GDPR Article 17, support blocked my request, holding my data hostage over a fake debt caused by their own broken system. Hidden fees, unfair fines, and terrible support—avoid this platform at all costs!

All good but very expensive

Very easy to register, book, pay, use it and return it. Much better and cheaper than Lime. Would be good to have packages for electric bikes.

I used to think of Donkey Republic as a service that provided a public good with a fair price. I've been subscribed for years, and recommended it to multiple people.
It contributed to a healthier life style by providing a cheaper and more accessible alternative to public transport.

If that at some point was the goal, it no longer is.
And I can no longer recommend it due to aggressive pricing that is disconnected from the financial realities of its customers.

The previous membership plans were scrapped to accommodate new pricing model, and my subscription was abruptly cancelled in the middle of the day.

Upon contacting the customer support chat service to figure out why, they could not answer. They did however reassure me I had a free month, so I would be able to get back home.
This turned out to not be the case, leading to confusion and a surprise payment for the return trip.

I can sympathize with increasing costs of services due to uncertain times, but this company clearly has no such sympathy for its customers who suffer from the same global challenges.

The new membership options offers 50% of the value, for 200% of the original price.
Instead of paying 100DKK a month for 2 hours of rental per day, it now costs 200DKK for 1 hour.

Previously, if you went over the time-limit, you'd automatically pay an additional 10DKK to use the bike for the rest of the day. Fair and predictable pricing.
Now it costs 0.5DKK per minute of additional time, for a maximum of 250DKK per day (or buy a separate pass for 39DKK, but only if you can remember).

This is not price increase to keep up with inflation and "trying times", this feels like a pricing model intentionally designed to be confusing and maximize profits.

This is following the news of the company raising millions of capital after issuing new shares of stock to private investors, due to having more investor interest than they had shares available for.
And news of revenue already increasing +13% in 2025, according to Donkey Republic's official social media channels.

This is a business that has abandoned it's goal of providing a valuable environmentally friendly service to consumers, to providing value to shareholders.
Because of that, I can no longer recommend it to anyone with a good conscience, and I hope the company pivots.

Great experience in Copenhagen

I used to use this daily, I was subscribing for two years now. They decided to just discontinue the subscription and enshitify it.

What used to be a 141dkk per month for the commuter which gave you 12 hours per day turned into a 149dkk subscription giving you only 1 hour per day. This is unacceptable.
Now I can’t even use it because there’s no drop off point at my work and even if there was, I wouldn’t trust to just not have a bike when I need to go back home.

What’s the point of paying for a “Commuter” subscription if I can’t commute?

Again infinite greed.

You could have increased the price from 141 to 200 and that would have been fine, but like this? Not really.

This company will go bankrupt.

this is a scammer app. don’t use this app to rent a bike. It is not normal to pay €42 for 2 hours. DONT USE SCAMMING PEOPLE

Great app. Easy to locate. Easy to sign up. Reliable and very affordable.

Good service

Very easy to use. I used it for 24 hours rent from Copenhagen to Dragor, and then to the Airport at the end. It was very feasable.

Beware! Donkey Republic is not in all the countries listed online. We were in Barcelona and prior to purchasing we couldn’t confirm on donkey republic’s website that it was in Madrid and Seville, our next two cities. So, we googled and it and it said donkey republic was in those cities. They were not! We were denied twice at least a partial refund. So, we were charged $58e for one day. Not Worth It!!Especially compared to other bike services that were less expensive and did require a membership. Highly Disappointed!!

To be fair its the best decision made by Ruhr area to bring in Donkey. The bikes are robust, smooth and fantastic. Buletooth connectivity excellent

All bikes are in really bad conditions. Barcelona.