Comparison

EXR | Virtual indoor rowing vs Pacetastic

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

Head to head
About

EXR | Virtual indoor rowing

Connect your rowing machine to explore virtual worlds and boost your fitness. Engage in challenges, races, and minigames to achieve your goals and compete globally. Analyze your performance with detailed reports and sync your data with popular fitness platforms.

Highlights
  • Row in virtual worlds
  • Beat challenges and goals
  • Race against global users
  • Play minigames
  • Analyze performance reports
  • Sync with Strava and TrainingPeaks
  • Connect FTMS Bluetooth rowers
Features
Read full description

Connect your rowing machine to row in virtual worlds. Boost your motivation as you beat challenges, crush goals and race to become #1. Row more than ever before with EXR! ___ Download the virtual indoor rowing app created by the award-winning game development studio Salty Lemon Entertainment. BOOST YOUR WORKOUT MOTIVATION - Explore real rowing hotspots and new courses - Beat daily, weekly and monthly challenges - Create and crush custom goals - Unlock achievements - Level up to unlock gear for your avatar SPICE UP YOUR ROWING ROUTINE - Row alongside friends at your own pace in Just Row - Race against rowers from all across the globe - Compete against your PR with ghost boats - Play minigames and become #1 TRAIN LIKE A CHAMP - Find out your FTP score with the ramp test and the 20-minute test - 100+ workouts based on your fitness level and 3 difficulty levels - Workouts created by the trainer of ex-indoor rowing champion Ward Lemmelijn ANALYZE & SHARE YOUR PROGRESS - Analyze your performance with detailed reports - Sync to Concept2 logbook, TrainingPeaks and Strava. - Visit your EXR web profile to download your workout data as FIT files for manual uploads. EASILY CONNECT YOUR GEAR - Connect your FTMS Bluetooth rowing machine in a few clicks. - Add your heart rate monitor for extra data (compatible with Apple Health). - Use EXR cross-platform on your favorite Apple devices. JOIN ONE OF THE BIGGEST VIRTUAL ROWING COMMUNITIES - “Never rowed as much in a period as I have with EXR.” - “I really like the Buoy Blast minigame! Real motivator for sprint rowing.” - “Works great and excellent motivator, customer service is great also.” - “I love all of the data the app collects and how easy it is to use.” - “EXR is the best app I have used and I think I have tried most of them. Absolutely love it.” GET STARTED IN 3 QUICK STEPS 1. Download the EXR app now on your iPhone, iPad, MacBook and Apple TV. 2. Enjoy a risk-free 14-day free trial by creating your free EXR account. 3. Connect your rowing machine and heart rate monitor and you’re ready to start your virtual rowing journey! A subscription is required after the 14 day trial period EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Pacetastic

Features
Read full description

Your ride, on your wrist and in your pocket. Pacetastic is a focused cycling companion for iPhone and Apple Watch. Record outdoor rides with live speed, distance, elapsed time, heart rate, active energy and a real-time GPS route—then save the completed workout automatically to Apple Health and Fitness. START ON EITHER DEVICE Begin your ride from your iPhone or Apple Watch. Pacetastic keeps both devices synchronized, giving you glanceable controls and live metrics on your wrist while your phone can stay safely in your pocket. RIDE WITH LIVE METRICS Follow your current and average speed, distance, elapsed time, heart rate and active energy while you ride. The live route map shows where you have been without getting in your way. NEVER LOSE A RIDE Pacetastic checkpoints active rides and route data locally. If an app closes or a device loses power, ride recovery helps preserve the unfinished workout so it can still be completed or saved. APPLE HEALTH & FITNESS Completed cycling workouts, distance and GPS routes are saved to Apple Health and appear in Apple Fitness. Pacetastic can also import compatible cycling workouts from Apple Health into your ride history. YOUR BIKES, YOUR DISTANCE Choose the bicycle for each ride and keep an odometer for every bike. Review completed rides with route maps, detailed metrics and bicycle statistics. NO APPLE WATCH REQUIRED Record GPS rides with your iPhone alone. When an Apple Watch is available, use mirrored recording for live wrist metrics or record directly on the Watch. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your ride history is stored locally on your iPhone and in Apple Health. Pacetastic does not require an account and does not transmit your ride history to developer-operated servers. Location and Health access are optional permissions used only for the features you choose. Continued use of GPS in the background can decrease battery life.

Screenshots

EXR | Virtual indoor rowing4 screens
Pacetastic4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pacetastic at none against EXR | Virtual indoor rowing's 3. EXR | Virtual indoor rowing's advantage is device support (5 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence and ads 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. EXR | Virtual indoor rowing sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $14.95 per month. Pacetastic asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

EXR | Virtual indoor rowing ships an update fortnightly, Pacetastic every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
EXR | Virtual indoor rowing versus Pacetastic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEXR | Virtual indoor rowingPacetastic
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (298 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews66.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings298 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — betteriPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size921 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSalty Lemon EntertainmentNICK FRIEDRICH

Bugs and requests

EXR | Virtual indoor rowing

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Account creation and login issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Inaccurate data sync with Concept2
  • Incompatibility with certain devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Live multiplayer races
  • More training programs and maps
  • Customizable workout editor
  • Age-based leaderboards
  • 360-degree live footage

Pacetastic

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

EXR | Virtual indoor rowing

Subscriptions3
  • EXR (1 Month)$14.951 Month
  • EXR (6 Months)$65.906 Months
  • EXR (1 Year)$119.991 Year
None

Pacetastic

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is EXR | Virtual indoor rowing free?
EXR | Virtual indoor rowing is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pacetastic free?
Pacetastic is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do EXR | Virtual indoor rowing or Pacetastic have ads?
Neither EXR | Virtual indoor rowing nor Pacetastic shows ads.
Which is updated more often, EXR | Virtual indoor rowing or Pacetastic?
EXR | Virtual indoor rowing ships an update fortnightly, and Pacetastic every 9 days. Most recently, EXR | Virtual indoor rowing was updated on November 3, 2026 and Pacetastic on October 31, 2026.

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