RowingCoach vs RowHero
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RowingCoach
Track your rowing sessions on land or water with detailed metrics like stroke rate, distance, pace, and calories burned. Use your iPhone or Apple Watch independently or together for flexible workout recording and progress analysis. Syncs with iCloud and Apple Health, and exports to popular fitness platforms.
- Track stroke rate, distance, pace, pulse, and calories
- Use iPhone or Apple Watch for recording
- Siri integration for workout control
- Automatic stroke detection
- Workout display on map
- Export to Strava, TrainingPeaks, and more
- iCloud synchronization
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RowingCoach, available also for the Apple Watch, allows you to track your rowing sessions, compare your workouts and see your overall progress – whether you train on land or on water. == RowingCoach displays the following metrics: • Your current and overall stroke rate (SPM) • The distance covered • Your current and overall pace • Your pulse • Your calories burned == Use the app as suits you best: • Track your session on the iPhone • Only use your Apple Watch to record the training (and leave your iPhone onshore!) • Use the iPhone as display for your Apple Watch recording. Very useful for indoor rowing. == RowingCoach also offers these features: • Use Siri to start and stop your workout • Automatic Stroke detection • Get notified after a certain distance covered, strokes reached or time passed • Display your workout on a map • Speed/pulse shown in color-coding • Share your rowing track with iMessage • Weather conditions are recorded for outdoor workouts • iCloud synchronisation: Have your workouts on all your devices. • Apple Health App integration • Watch Complication: See your weekly progress at a glance • Use Force Touch in the Watch app to quickly start and stop a workout • Today Widget: See your weekly and monthly progress from the Today screen • Add notes (to remember who was cox for example) == Export and upload your workouts to other platforms: • Upload to Strava • Export to RowsAndAll • Upload to MapMyFitness • Upload to TrainingPeaks • Upload to Concept2 Logbook • Upload to Intervals.icu External bluetooth heart rate monitors are supported. If you want to export your workouts via e-mail or want to record more than 3 workouts - you can get to a subscription right in the app.
RowHero
This app provides stroke-by-stroke rowing performance data for athletes and coaches, storing results indefinitely. It offers insights into technique and fitness to help users improve their rowing speed and performance.
- Stroke-by-stroke erg results
- Wireless Concept2 PM5 connection
- Permanent workout storage
- Stroke length and potential split metrics
- Personalized improvement insights
- Team performance comparison
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Coaches: get 100% accurate, stroke-by-stroke erg results for your team, stored forever Here's how it works: • Before a workout, every athlete quickly connects RowHero to their Concept2 PM5. It's all wireless. • Every piece/interval result then gets sent directly to your app at the end of every piece. • You get access to everything you're used to, plus stroke-by-stroke breakdown of every piece, and new metrics like stroke length and potential split. And because workouts are saved forever, so you get to see your team's progress over time without trying to put together the right set of spreadsheets every single time. Rank results by raw speed or performance improvement to provide opportunities for everyone to shine. Athletes, find personalized ways to get faster As a former youth coach, my goal is to help you be the best competitive rower you can be. Here's what RowHero can do for you: • Never have to wonder about your 2K or 6K PR again. It's all right in the app for you. • Getting faster is all about understanding where you have the biggest area to grow: technique, fitness, and mindset. RowHero can help you identify where to focus based on its stroke length and potential speed metrics. • When you row with a team you can automatically you see how you stack up against others, so you can use your teammates as motivation to keep pushing for more. Stats are only part of the equation, but if you're driven to improve, you can build your confidence tremendously with what RowHero shares with you. Are you in? Questions, feedback, suggestions? Check out our website https://rowhero.com or contact us at support@rowhero.com. We are very open to helping you create the rowing data solution you need!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: RowHero at 100% against RowingCoach's 38%. RowHero also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). RowingCoach's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (117 vs 19). On price 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
Both are free to download. RowingCoach sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. RowHero asks for nothing beyond the download.
RowHero holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RowingCoach has 117 ratings behind it against 19, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of RowingCoach's written reviews are positive against 100% of RowHero's.
RowingCoach ships an update every 2 months, RowHero every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RowingCoach | RowHero |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (117 ratings) | 4.6 (19 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 38.4% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 117 — better | 19 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gunther Cronenberg | RowHero, LLC |
Customer experience
RowingCoach
RowHero
Bugs and requests
RowingCoach
Reported bugs
20 issues- Distance resets to zero when workout is paused
- SPM not displaying in real-time during workouts
- App crashes when receiving phone calls
- GPS tracking stops working after iOS updates
- Stroke count significantly underreported (off by 30-50%)
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- Distance values wildly inaccurate (2-3x actual distance)
- Workouts not appearing in app history despite being tracked
- Subscription validation fails on Apple Watch
- App hangs on workout start
- Data not uploading to Apple Health
- Clock overlay blocking metrics on Apple Watch
- Display elements overlapping when phone is rotated
- SPM showing zero for entire workouts
- Metrics switching between metric and imperial units mid-workout
- App freezing when trying to save workouts
- PM5 connection showing as connected but not syncing data
- Strava export missing distance data for indoor rows
- Watch app not appearing after installation
- Contact/feedback link in app not functional
- Inconsistent heart rate detection
Requested features
18 requests- Calibration settings for different rowing machines
- Automatic pause/resume detection
- Customizable workout countdown timers
- Bluetooth connectivity for Concept2 PM5
- Improved calorie burn calculations
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- Watt power output calculations
- Distance per stroke efficiency metric
- Audible stroke rate announcements
- Always-on display support for Apple Watch
- Manual workout editing capabilities
- Automatic Strava uploads
- Detailed heart rate and pace graphs
- Training plan integration
- Ghost/challenge mode for self-competition
- Garmin Connect integration
- Multiple language support (French, German)
- Improved watch display optimization for larger screens
- Better contrast for outdoor visibility
RowHero
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
RowingCoach
- Unltd. recs & export (1 Month)$0.99
- Unltd. recs & export (3 Months)$1.99
- Unltd. recs & export (1 Year)$4.99
RowHero
No in-app purchases








