# CrewNerd for Rowing & Paddling — user reviews

> 98 indexed App Store user reviews of CrewNerd for Rowing & Paddling by Performance Phones, LLC, rated 4.60/5 from 257 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/crewnerd-for-rowing-and-paddling/id307935199/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/crewnerd-for-rowing-and-paddling/id307935199.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 202 · 4★ 32 · 3★ 8 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 12

## What do users think of CrewNerd for Rowing & Paddling?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Comprehensive metrics and customizable display options
- 💰 Significantly cheaper than dedicated NK SpeedCoach devices
- 📊 Excellent data visualization and post-workout analysis
- 🗺️ GPS mapping and course tracking capabilities
- ❤️ Bluetooth heart rate monitor integration
- ⚡ Accurate stroke rate and distance measurements
- 🔄 Seamless syncing with Strava, Apple Health, and other apps
- 🎯 Customizable workout creation and interval training
- 📱 Works across multiple boat types (rowing, kayaking, paddling)
- 🌙 Clear display visibility in low light conditions
- 🤝 Responsive developer support and continuous updates
- ♿ VoiceOver accessibility for blind rowers
- ⚙️ Flexible customization for different sport disciplines

**Cons**

- 🔋 Significant battery drain on iPhone (reported ~75% in 2 hours)
- 📡 GPS accuracy issues affecting split times and pace readings
- 🐛 App stops tracking or crashes when phone locks or other apps used
- ⚠️ Unreliable meters per stroke calculations
- 🌞 Poor screen visibility in direct sunlight
- 🔌 Requires waterproof case/pouch for water safety
- ❌ No Apple Watch integration or native watch app
- 🎨 Outdated interface design (recent updates criticized as cumbersome)
- 📍 GPS connectivity issues in some locations
- 🔄 Inconsistent performance with Bluetooth connections
- ⏱️ Unreliable split time readings
- 🚫 Cannot run reliably in background with other apps open

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Battery drain issue on recent iPhone models
- App stops recording after 1-2 minutes of use
- GPS connectivity failures preventing satellite lock
- Inaccurate split time and pace calculations
- Meters per stroke metric frequently incorrect
- App crashes when switching between apps or receiving calls/texts
- Stroke rate readings inconsistent or sporadic
- Recording stops when phone screen locks
- Free trial limited to 3 minutes instead of full day
- Recent UI update (2025.5) made app difficult to navigate
- Home screen cannot be customized in latest version
- Bluetooth heart rate monitor connection drops
- Data loss when app crashes mid-session

**Most requested features**

- Apple Watch app or remote functionality
- Better background app support for multitasking
- Export to FIT file format
- Third data set on graphs (e.g., stroke rate + heart rate + pace simultaneously)
- Export to Apple Fitness app (not just Health)
- Stroke ratio metric
- Better history/workout list with distance and duration visible without opening
- Navigation aid with audio cues for course guidance
- Improved screen lock during workouts
- Support for more sports apps (Runkeeper, MapMyFitness, Concept2)
- Ability to disable phone notifications during workouts
- More robust background recording capabilities

## Newest reviews (11 of 98)

### 4/5 — Works well in a pinch

*2026-04-10*

Downloaded it on the water because my stroke coach was almost dead, and it works pretty well. Strokes per minute and distance are consistent and accurate. Splits are a little weird, because it’ll tell me 5:25 on a sprint and 1:33 on a paddle sometimes so you kinda have to use your intuition on that but it still works well. Meters per stroke is very finicky though. It often times will be completely wrong. This app isn’t going to be as good as an NK speed coach, but it is still good

**Developer response:** Thank you - the speed/pace numbers will only be as good as the GPS readings that it's based on. The signal strength indicator in the speed/pace field should show 6 green bars for best results. The stroke length is measured over your last 10 strokes, and also depends heavily on GPS accuracy.

CrewNerd supports external GPS receivers, which will often give better results than the phone's GPS.

### 3/5 — Trial is stupid

*2025-08-29*

I thought I bought the monthly subscription.   I guess the  ‘free trial’ is part of it.  So it only recorded 3 minutes of my training session.  Ugh!!! Just give one free day no limit as the trial vs 3 min…. I guess I have to wait 7 days till the trial is over and my subscription kicks in…

**Developer response:** I think I found the problem that you're running into. If you selected the evaluation mode and then purchased a monthly or annual subscription, the app isn't currently turning off evaluation mode. You should be able to work around this by force-quitting the app and restarting it. I'll fix the problem in the next app update. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

### 3/5 — New version is worst

*2025-06-08*

I loved the old version but the new version has the worst display for the workouts. It’s dripping me crazy. If it is not solved I’ll need to seek another app to row

**Developer response:** Can you say more about what you dislike about the new display? If you could send an email, I’d love to have a conversation about that.

### 5/5 — Second to none!

*2024-11-22*

I’ve used CrewNerd since 2009 or so. It just works, is always updated and simply gets better and better with age (unlike me, as ~14 years of app data shows…)

**Developer response:** Wow, you were one of the very early users! Thank you for your support!

### 5/5 — Best rowing app ever!

*2024-07-08*

Crew Nerd’s team of developers can be counted on to keep updating and improving the app as people use it. We have been using this app as a team of rowers for many years and are constantly impressed. Best money ever spent on an app. Keep track of your workouts and your boats, never use post-its or stroke coaches in the boat again! And you can upload to Strava too. Five stars.

**Developer response:** Thank you for your support!

### 5/5 — Truly the best all around rowing app

*2024-06-27*

I use this mostly to track my workouts for Strava as the Strava watch app is buggy as heck. The watch only mode works great!

**Developer response:** Thank you! We're glad you're enjoying the app!

### 5/5 — 2 questions

*2024-02-11*

Can i download data as a fit file?
Can you add a third data set to the graph? Stroke coach will show 500 meter pace, stroke rate, and heart rate on the same graph. 

Very pleased with CrewNerd. Especially the heart rate measurements because connecting a polar heart rate monitor to a speed coach can be difficult. Thanks

**Developer response:** Thank you for your questions! We don't currently support export to FIT files, but there are some online tools that can convert from TCX to FIT, and we also find that TCX files can often be used instead of FIT. If you're using an application or website that will only accept FIT, please contact us by email and we can look into that further.

Regarding your second question, the third-party charting component that we use only supports two data sets, but Apple recently introduced their own charting framework that looks very interesting and should be a good replacement. I've added this to our future work list.

### 5/5 — Very pleased

*2023-12-28*

I have been using the app for over 4 years. It is easy to use. I especially like that you can change the screen to adjust for rowing in the dark or when there is light. I import the data into Apple Health for an Afib study I have been participating in for the past two years.

**Developer response:** Thank you for your support!

### 5/5 — Great App!! Much better than Strava!

*2023-07-15*

Works perfectly for kayaking, paddle boarding and rowing. Developer was extremely responsive, quickly making a fix that allows the app to run in the background while using other apps. Highly recommended!

**Developer response:** Thank you for your help testing that new feature!

### 3/5 — Fatal flaw

*2023-07-06*

Nice app but unusable with any other app on your phone. If you need to answer an incoming call/text or check your position on a nav app or record a bird sound on Merlin the CrewNerd trip resets mileage to zero and stops recording. It then needs to be restarted but any mileage counted to that point is only saved in a separate “interval”, so total distance, average speed etc is lost. Would be a 5 star with that simple fix—which should be the default as with all other iPhone apps that run in the background unless specifically exited.

### 3/5 — 5star if could be on Apple Watch

*2023-06-05, version 8.6*

This is a great app but would be the best paddling app of you could have this on Apple Watch as I don’t take my phone paddling.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — Wanted it to work

*2025-11-27*

Purchased this for competitive flatwater kayak training and racing. After several hours of training it only turned green and was able to connect to satellite for maybe two minutes total. The only stat it showed was speed. Tried all suggestions and ideas but could not get it to connect and it was basically useless. You have to buy it also to find out if it really works. Went ahead and bought a $1200 Garmin watch instead. Worked much better than this app.

**Developer response:** If the top bar didn’t turn green, that suggests a problem with detecting strokes. By default, the auto-start feature is enabled, so the timer only turns green when a stroke is detected. Kayaking is the most challenging sport for stroke detection because the acceleration on each stroke is relatively small. A Vaaka sensor attached to your paddle gives very accurate stroke rates to the app. Many kayakers report good results with that. You can also adjust the stroke sensitivity on the advanced settings page.

### 1/5 — Keeps stopping tracking

*2025-08-14, version 2025.22*

Went for a row but it turns off tracking after around a minute or two. I go rowing for an hour and I kept having to stop to fiddle with this stupid app. Useless.

### 1/5 — Horrible

*2025-03-04, version 2025.6*

Update 2025.5 is terrible. Previous updates were great. Now with this update they have made the app cumbersome to use. Example, Home Screen cannot be changed. Why do I need to see courses?  I’m going to look for a different app as they have completely f….ked this one up.

### 1/5 — Feels really dated

*2024-07-28, version 2024.16*

Complicated interface, not a fun app to use

### 1/5 — Not recommended

*2023-11-28, version 9.10*

Good concept, poor implementation. The displayed data is all over the place, not at all accurate. Not recommended.

### 1/5 — Did not work with Apple Watch Ultra 2

*2023-10-21, version 9.8*

No heart rate data shown, exercise could not be saved, app crashed.

### 1/5 — app stopped recording.

*2023-06-25, version 8.8*

Recorded 5300. Actual was 14075m. First time using and not impressed.

### 1/5 — Stops working when phone locks

*2023-06-15, version 8.6*

Can’t get the app to record a workout.

### 2/5 — Disappointed

*2026-03-05, version 2026.6*

Distance, stroke rate are OK, 500m split readings are really bad, I tried all the speed methods available and only got worse. I was benchmarking against my Suunto 9. I paid for life, going back to Android apps.

### 2/5 — History

*2022-09-12*

When trying to go back looking into past rows I would like to have more distinguishing features on the subject line . I am a cyclist and use Ride with GPS, where I can put a title to each ride and I can also see how many miles it was without having to open each ride individually.  It would be great to have that easy access on CrewNerd

**Developer response:** Thanks for the feedback! We added a feature recently that you may not have noticed. If you enter text in the "Notes" section of a practice, that will now appear under the date in the history list (instead of the number of workouts and the start time).

We can look at adding the total distance there too, but that would be a pretty big change due to the way the data is organized, currently.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Great alternative to NK speedcoach

*2026-04-27, version 2026.10*

This app is generally great. It gives you all the metrics you want and you can adjust the screen to suit your preferences.

I use this as an already to an NK SpeedCoach in fine rowing shells.

Battery error Update
————————————
I deleted the app and re downloaded it and it seems to have solved the battery drain issue discussed below.
————————————

However, recently the versions of this app seem to really drain my iPhone 13 mini’s battery (~75% in 2 hours!). The phone has a new battery and no other circumstances drain it so quickly, so I wonder if recent updates are doing some unnecessary calculations behind the scenes. Please look into this when you get the time to.

I prefer to pay the monthly fee of £2.99 to get regular use of it and hopefully if enough people do the same the developer gets a decent monthly take home from it.

Thanks for developing a great solution for an expensive problem in rowing.

### 5/5 — Has it All

*2025-09-28*

CrewNerd has every setting, flexible screen view options, slick data charting post-workout. I rely on it every rowing outing. Highly recommend.

### 5/5 — Rapid support!

*2025-09-02*

Wow!  My review was read and I received immediate instructions on how to fix the problem!   Thank you!!!! 
Now I can capture maps of my training sessions :)

Previous review: I thought I bought the monthly subscription.   I guess the  ‘free trial’ is part of it.  So it only recorded 3 minutes of my training session.  Ugh!!! Just give one free day no limit as the trial vs 3 min…. I guess I have to wait 7 days till the trial is over and my subscription kicks in…

**Developer response:** I think I found the problem that you're running into. If you selected the evaluation mode and then purchased a monthly or annual subscription, the app isn't currently turning off evaluation mode. You should be able to work around this by force-quitting the app and restarting it. I'll fix the problem in the next app update. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

### 5/5 — The best app for rowers

*2025-08-15, version 2025.22*

I love this app. Thank you tony

### 5/5 — Fantastic

*2025-08-02, version 2025.21*

I’ve used it for years and love it.

### 5/5 — Love that data

*2025-06-29*

I’ve used this app for several years every time that I’m on the water. It is easy use and helpful to review my row and my line on the map. 
I had some issues with the app turning off a a few years ago. After I contacted the developer, they got right back to me and worked with me to solve the issue. Great customer service.

### 5/5 — Single Sculler

*2025-06-29, version 2025.18*

Brilliant App

### 5/5 — Essential for coxswains, coaches and rowers

*2025-03-19, version 2025.9*

As a coxswain and coach, I’ve tried many devices, but CrewNerd is by far my favourite. It’s super easy to use, has a great customisable display and gives all the usual metrics, plus many more. 
I particularly like the ease of creating custom workouts and the ability to get all that data easily. 
For coaching it’s a game changer. The data is detailed and helps with race strategy and making adjustments. Plus the app syncs with all the main apps, strava, apple health, concept 2 etc.
Overall, CrewNerd is a must for anyone in rowing. 
Also super cheap and lots of updates happening all the time.

### 5/5 — Great app!

*2025-03-19*

Use it for sculling, coxing, and sweep. I purchased it when it was first introduced. One time purchase with no subscription fees. and have used it every row since. Very user friendly. I recommend it to all my rower friends.

### 5/5 — Caroline

*2025-01-08, version 2025.1*

Really good. I’m not a techy, but I can’t fault it for what I use it for which is stroke rate, pace/speed, heart rate. Not sure about the check as rowing on tidal water. Downloads to other apps appear to manual, but it goes through quickly enough with no problems. I would recommend getting this before paying £100’s for a new Stroke Coach.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-25.*