Comparison

Garmin Jr.™ vs Mode Training

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Garmin Jr.™

This app helps parents manage their child's activity, sleep, and chores when paired with a compatible wearable. It also offers communication features and location tracking for added safety.

Highlights
  • Activity and sleep tracking
  • Chore management and rewards
  • Location tracking
  • Text and voice messaging
  • Family boundary alerts
  • Family challenges
Features
Read full description

When paired with a compatible Garmin kid’s wearable device, the Garmin Jr.™ app¹ is a parent’s resource for keeping track of kids’ activity² and sleep, managing chores and rewards and encouraging daily activity. With a compatible LTE-capable device, parents can also stay connected to their kids with texts, voice messages or voice calls to and from the device. They can track their location on the map in the Garmin Jr.™ app, set boundaries and receive alerts related to those boundaries. Your kids will only be able to interact with the people you add to your family in the app. The Parent Helper With the Garmin Jr.™ app on their smartphone, parents can: • Call and receive calls from your child’s compatible Garmin device.* • Send text and voice messages to your child’s compatible device.* • Track your child’s location on the map.* • Get detailed statistics about your child’s activity and sleep. • Celebrate personal records, including steps and active minutes. • Assign tasks and chores and reward your kids for a job well done. • Manage your child’s device settings, including goals, alarms, icons and display. • Create challenges to encourage the whole family to be more active. • Connect with other families and compete in multi-family challenges. • Invite up to nine trusted people to your family. • Get notified when your child leaves or arrives at a family boundary.* • Get notified when kids in the family request assistance from their compatible devices. • Add and organize music on your child’s compatible device. ¹Requires app loaded on parent’s compatible smartphone ²Activity tracking accuracy: http://www.garmin.com.en-us/legal/atdisclaimer * To use LTE features, an active subscription plan is necessary

About

Mode Training

Features
Read full description

Mode runs on the watch you already own. The Apple Watch app runs your sessions on your wrist, with live zones, interval cues, GPS runs and heart-rate recovery measured the moment you stop. No new hardware needed. Mode is a heart-rate training app for athletes who want the numbers without the nagging. Train by what your body measured, against your own baselines. THE MORNING READING Every morning Mode reads your night — sleep, HRV, resting heart rate, and your wearable's recovery if you have one — and gives you a readiness score from 0 to 100, built against your own baselines rather than population averages. Every deduction is shown. When the data isn't there, Mode says so instead of inventing a number. LIVE HEART RATE, DONE PROPERLY Pair any Bluetooth chest strap and every session runs on live beats: zone targets, hold-zone alarms, interval cues that still sound with your phone in your pocket, and heart-rate recovery measured the moment you stop. Your zones never drift: Mode only changes them when you do. The Apple Watch app runs the same sessions on your wrist. BUILT FOR HOW YOU TRAIN • Manual start only: nothing phantom lands in your training log. Mode never guesses that you worked out; every session in it is one you started. • A full workout builder: strength, EMOM, AMRAP, circuits, intervals, distance blocks and swims, rests sized as a ratio of the work before them, and blocks that wait for your tap. • HYROX simulations, full and half, with every run, station and transition timed. • Machines, free: Assault AirBike and AssaultRunner, Concept2 RowErg, SkiErg and BikeErg, and any Bluetooth treadmill, bike or rower. Start moving and the waiting block starts with you. • Sessions that survive: if the app closes mid-workout, reopen it and carry on exactly where you stopped. • Import a workout from a whiteboard photo, a screenshot, a PDF or a spreadsheet. • Share a workout with one link. It arrives exactly as you built it. • Strength loads from your own estimated one-rep max, lighter on days your readiness is low. • Race-day pacing from your own recent runs. • Women's health, opt-in: cycle-aware baselines, so a normal luteal-phase morning isn't read as poor recovery. A COACH THAT REACTS Give the coach a goal and it writes a training block from your actual history. When life gets in the way, "Replan from here" rebuilds the remaining weeks around what you missed. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS No account, no ads, no tracking. Health data stays on your device, and the optional iCloud backup goes to your own private iCloud. Works with Apple Health, Apple Watch, any Bluetooth heart-rate strap, WHOOP, Oura, Polar and Garmin (through Apple Health). Available in 29 languages. MODE PRO Mode Pro, by subscription or as a one-time lifetime purchase, unlocks the coach, trends, fitness tests and deeper analysis. The timer, the builder, live heart rate with zones and alarms, machine connections and the daily readiness score stay free. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel them in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Mode is not a medical device and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Privacy Policy: https://www.dataloup.io/mode/privacy

Screenshots

Garmin Jr.™4 screens
Mode Training4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Garmin Jr.™ at none against Mode Training's 3. Garmin Jr.™ also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.5). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Mode Training sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Garmin Jr.™ asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Garmin Jr.™ ships an update every 3 weeks, Mode Training every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Garmin Jr.™ versus Mode Training: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGarmin Jr.™Mode Training
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (7.3K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings7.3K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size389 MB39 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGarminLuc Mathery

Bugs and requests

Garmin Jr.™

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Watch time and date resets unexpectedly
  • App crashes when trying to access certain features
  • Coins and rewards not syncing properly between watch and app
  • Activity data not accurately recorded

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add GPS tracking capability
  • Improve app responsiveness and stability
  • Expand game and story content
  • Allow more customization of chores and rewards
  • Enhance sleep tracking and reporting

Mode Training

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Garmin Jr.™

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Mode Training

Subscriptions2
  • Mode Pro Monthly7 Days trial$5.991 Month
  • Mode Pro Yearly7 Days trial$59.991 Year
One-time1
  • Mode Pro Lifetime$189.00

Questions

Is Garmin Jr.™ free?
Garmin Jr.™ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Mode Training free?
Mode Training is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Garmin Jr.™ or Mode Training have ads?
Neither Garmin Jr.™ nor Mode Training shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Garmin Jr.™ or Mode Training?
Garmin Jr.™ ships an update every 3 weeks, and Mode Training every 2 weeks. Most recently, Garmin Jr.™ was updated on October 21, 2026 and Mode Training on October 8, 2026.

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