Comparison

Happy Things vs Walk the Parks

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

Head to head
About

Happy Things

Cultivate happiness with daily, science-backed activities designed to reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance sleep. This app offers over 100 bite-sized practices to make happiness a habit, with progress tracking and reminders.

Highlights
  • 100+ science-backed happiness activities
  • Short, easy-to-follow daily practices
  • Daily activity reminders
  • Progress tracking with weekly check-ins
  • Holistic approach to wellbeing
Features
Read full description

Turn happiness into a habit with Happy Things. The Happy Things app offers 100+ simple, scientifically-proven daily activities to help you reduce stress, boost your mood, and get better sleep. At Happy Things, we believe that happiness is a skill that can be learned. That’s why we’ve taken decades of research on happiness and turned them into bite-size practices that you can do every day. Here are just a few of the benefits of Happy Things: * Over 100 activities scientifically-proven to increase happiness and wellbeing * Short, easy-to-follow practices that only take a few minutes to complete * Reminders to help you stay on track with your daily practices * Progress tracking with weekly check-ins So how does the app work? Every day you’ll get an activity out of a variety of happy things for you to do. We recommend doing at least one every day for maximum effect! You can switch activities to find the ones that are just right for you, and set reminders so you don’t forget to do them :) With our holistic approach, Happy Things can help you improve your mental and physical wellbeing, strengthen your relationships, achieve personal growth, and more. Plus, with daily practice reminders and progress tracking, you can stay on track and monitor your progress towards a happier, healthier life. To get started, simply download Happy Things today and start practicing happiness with a 7-day free trial! SUBSCRIPTION PRICING AND TERMS Happy Things offers two auto-renewing subscription options: * $7.99 per month * $59.99 per year (less than $4.99 a month!) These prices are for United States customers. Pricing in other countries may vary and actual charges may be converted to your local currency depending on the country of residence. The subscription will automatically renew unless turned off in your iTunes Account Settings at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You can go to your iTunes Account settings to manage your subscription and turn off auto-renew. Your iTunes Account will be charged when the purchase is confirmed. See the app's terms of use here: https://www.happythings.app/terms

About

Walk the Parks

This app transforms your daily steps into immersive virtual hikes through scenic global parks. It visually represents your progress on real routes, complete with changing weather and day/night cycles. Earn collectible stamps for completing journeys and relive your adventures.

Highlights
  • Virtual hikes based on real steps
  • Dynamic weather and day/night cycles
  • Illustrated park journeys
  • Collectible passport stamps
  • Offline functionality
  • Customizable hiker avatar
Features
Read full description

A walking world that moves with you. Walk the Parks turns the walking you already do into living, illustrated journeys through the great parks and trails of the world. Connect Apple Health once. From then on, every real step carries your hiker along a real route: past the landmarks, through each place's own weather, season by season, under a sun and moon that keep the park's real hours, toward a mountain that grows on the horizon as you close in on it. Journeys through the parks, not miles between them. Every route is a real tour with real mileage, so a landmark arrives every few days and a finished park every couple of weeks: Acadia's island loop, the Grand Canyon's rim, Yosemite's valley and high country, Kilimanjaro camp by camp. A WORLD THAT ANSWERS YOUR STEPS • The scene is drawn live, not photographed, and every walk looks like the real place: Half Dome over Yosemite Valley, red rock at Uluṟu, the rainforest canopy over the Amazon. Ridges, forests, canyons, coasts and snowfields shift as your route climbs and descends. • Weather true to each place. Rain, snow and mist follow ten years of weather records from near each trail, month by month: monsoon rain in Nepal, deep snow in a Yellowstone January, the Amazon's rainy season. • A real sky. The sun rises and sets on each park's own schedule for the time of year, the moon keeps its true phase, and on clear winter nights the northern lights dance over Hudson Bay and Lapland. • Summit journeys climb for real: the ground steepens, the ridges sink below you, and you break through a sea of cloud near the top. • Your hiker, your way: hat, trekking pole, and a trail dog who trots ahead. EARN EVERY STAMP Arrive at the end of a route and your passport gets its stamp: Half Dome for Yosemite, hoodoos for Bryce, a lighthouse for Acadia. Tap any stamp to relive the journey day by day, or rewind and watch it replay. MADE FOR REAL LIFE • Journeys pace to you. Walk more, arrive sooner. • Switch parks any time; your progress waits exactly where you left it. • Every step counts, even between parks: walk coast to coast on I-90 until you choose your next one. • Landmark alerts and a streak counter keep you moving without nagging. Reach your daily step goal day after day to earn new gear for your hiker. • A Home Screen widget keeps your trail in sight. • Share Journey Cards of your milestones. • Works entirely offline. No account. No ads. Nothing tracks you. ONE PURCHASE, YOURS FOREVER Fourteen journeys are free to walk, on six continents. The Full Passport unlocks all 63 U.S. national parks with a single one-time purchase. Thirteen Expedition packs add the world's great summits and trails: Everest and Kilimanjaro, the Camino, the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails, the Alps and the Dolomites, the Silk Road, the Amazon, Uluṟu, Indonesia's volcanoes, Patagonia, Japan, New Zealand and the Himalaya. No subscription, ever. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Walk the Parks reads only your step count and walking distance from Apple Health, keeps everything on your device, and collects nothing. There's no sign-up, no server, and no analytics company watching you walk. Lace up. The trail is waiting. Walk the Parks is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, or Eastern National's Passport To Your National Parks® program. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Screenshots

Happy Things4 screens
Walk the Parks4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Walk the Parks at 100% against Happy Things's 35%. Walk the Parks also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.3) and monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription). Happy Things's advantage is ratings volume (150 vs 7) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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. Happy Things sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Walk the Parks sells 14 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Walk the Parks holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Happy Things has 150 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 35% of Happy Things's written reviews are positive against 100% of Walk the Parks's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Happy Things ships an update every 3 weeks, Walk the Parks weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Happy Things versus Walk the Parks: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHappy ThingsWalk the Parks
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (150 ratings)5.0 (7 ratings) — better
Positive reviews35.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings150 — better7
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS13.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB3 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperHappy Things, Inc.sam swenson

Customer experience

Happy Things

All ratings151 ratings
Positive80.8%
Neutral5.3%
Negative13.9%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive35.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative45.0%

Walk the Parks

All ratings7 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Happy Things

Subscriptions3
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Special Offer (OLD)1 Month trial$59.991 Year
14 purchases

Walk the Parks

One-time14
  • Africa$4.99
  • Latin America$4.99
  • Indonesia$4.99
Show 11 more
  • Australia$4.99
  • Silk Road$4.99
  • World Summits$4.99
  • Canada$4.99
  • Patagonia$4.99
  • Long Trails$4.99
  • Japan$4.99
  • New Zealand$4.99
  • Europe$4.99
  • Himalaya$4.99
  • Full Passport$14.99

Questions

Is Happy Things free?
Happy Things is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Walk the Parks free?
Walk the Parks is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Happy Things or Walk the Parks?
Walk the Parks is rated higher. Happy Things averages 4.3 out of 5 from 150 ratings, while Walk the Parks averages 5.0 from 7 ratings.
Do Happy Things or Walk the Parks have ads?
Neither Happy Things nor Walk the Parks shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Happy Things or Walk the Parks?
Happy Things ships an update every 3 weeks, and Walk the Parks weekly. Most recently, Happy Things was updated on October 21, 2026 and Walk the Parks on October 24, 2026.

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