MAC vs StepPhone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MAC
Track daily mood and premenstrual symptoms, alongside menstrual cycle, sleep, and stress. Share insights with your healthcare professional to aid in accurate diagnosis and assessment of mood and premenstrual disorders. This tool is validated by clinical research and prioritizes user privacy.
- Daily mood and symptom tracking
- Menstrual cycle tracking
- Sleep pattern monitoring
- Stressful life event logging
- Shareable reports for healthcare professionals
- Validated clinical research tool
- Privacy-focused, no personal data collection
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The McMaster Premenstrual and Mood Symptom Scale (MAC‑PMSS) was developed using feedback from people who suffered from premenstrual and mood problems, as well as from international experts in the area of women’s mental health, to fill a major clinical gap: The absence of validated tools to assess and accurately diagnose individuals with concurrent mood and premenstrual issues. While the vast majority of the symptom tracking tools out there were never tested or validate through clinical research, the MAC-PMSS has been tested and validated as has been proven to be user-friendly and useful in the accurate diagnosis and assessment of people with premenstrual and mood disorders. The results of its field test can be found here: https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12905-022-01678-1.pdf With the MAC-PMSS app, individuals can track their mood and premenstrual symptoms on a daily basis. The daily symptom tracking, along with information about the menstrual cycle, sleep patterns and possible stressful life events may be shared with your health professional with a simple click of a button! The MAC-PMSS application is not a substitute for physician’s advice. Consult a Physician for any medical issues that arise. From a privacy and safety perspective, this app does not collect any personal identifier, or any personal smartphone use information. If you have any comments or suggestions for app improvements, please feel free to send your comments to macpmss@gmail.com
StepPhone
This app helps you reduce phone addiction by requiring you to walk a certain number of steps to unlock your most distracting apps. It uses your phone's motion sensors and Apple Health to verify your steps, turning screen time into physical activity.
- Walk to unlock apps
- Step verification via motion sensors
- App and website blocking
- Step Score tracking
- Daily quests and rewards
- Leaderboard competition
- Calorie tracking
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Beat phone addiction by walking. StepPhone is the screen time app that locks your apps until you get up and move. Take back control of your screen time, one step at a time. StepPhone blocks the apps that hijack your attention and keeps them locked until you walk. Want five minutes of scrolling? Take 50 steps first. Most of us lose 4+ hours to our phones every day, and almost none of it is time we meant to spend. It's reflex scrolling on autopilot. Willpower alone rarely breaks that loop. StepPhone trades the reflex for a small physical cost: get up, get moving, and earn your screen time back. Do it enough and the habit reverses on its own: less scrolling, more living. StepPhone members walk 4,000 more steps a day and cut their screen time by 35%. HOW IT WORKS Block your most distracting apps, games and websites with one tap. The moment you try to open them, StepPhone keeps them locked until you walk. Our Step Scanner verifies every step using your iPhone's motion sensors and Apple Health, so there's no shortcut and no faking it. Move for real, and your apps unlock. The more you walk and the less you scroll, the higher your Step Score climbs. Meet your Step Pal: a personal companion that follows you through the day, cheers on every step, and keeps you honest about your screen time and movement goals. BENEFITS - Cut mindless scrolling and reclaim hours every week - Turn screen time into steps and calories burned: move more, scroll less - Build a mindful, frictional habit that actually sticks - Less distraction, more focus, better well-being - Stay motivated with quests, rewards and friendly competition FEATURES - Walk to Unlock: Apps stay blocked until you take the steps to earn them. Set your own ratio, like 50 steps for 5 minutes. - Step Scanner: Verify real steps with your iPhone's motion sensors and Apple Health, so every unlock is genuinely earned. - App & Website Blocker: Choose exactly which apps, games and sites get locked, and keep the ones you actually need open. - Step Score: See your focus and movement at a glance, and grow your score by walking more and scrolling less. - Daily Quests: Complete daily challenges to cut screen time and boost your steps. - Coins & Skips: Earn coins for hitting your goals and redeem them for the occasional skip when you really need it. - Your Step Pal: Choose a character that follows you around and helps you reach your step and screen time goals. - Leaderboard: Compete with friends and people around the world to lower screen time and top the daily rankings. - Calorie Tracking: Every step counts toward calories burned, so you see the real-world payoff of putting your phone down. - Step Insights: Track your steps, calories burned and screen time over time with in-depth stats and trends. - Widget: Keep StepPhone and your Step Score one glance away on your home screen. PRIVATE & SAFE StepPhone taps into Apple's Screen Time framework to handle blocking and Apple Health to read your steps, so it runs natively on your iPhone with a quick one-time setup. [Confirm this is true for your build before shipping: your data stays on your device and is never sold or shared.] SUBSCRIPTION StepPhone requires a premium subscription to unlock full access. Subscriptions renew automatically and can be managed or canceled anytime in your App Store account settings. TERMS, PRIVACY & CONDITIONS Terms & Conditions: https://shrub-vault-7ed.notion.site/StepPhone-Terms-Conditions-37af352291d3803b92a6ee16b6051b4c Privacy Policy: https://shrub-vault-7ed.notion.site/StepPhone-Privacy-Policy-37af352291d380af8f70e5566cb9d612 Apple Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: MAC at 5.0 against StepPhone's 4.3. MAC also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). StepPhone's advantage is review sentiment (76% vs 50%). On price, ratings volume 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. StepPhone sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. MAC asks for nothing beyond the download.
MAC holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of MAC's written reviews are positive against 76% of StepPhone's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
| Parameter | MAC | StepPhone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.3 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 76.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 3 |
| Update frequency | — | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 177 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | McMaster University | aSocial Inc. |
Customer experience
MAC
StepPhone
In-app purchases
MAC
No in-app purchases
StepPhone
- StepPhone Premium7 Days trial$7.991 Month
- StepPhone Premium Promo$23.991 Year
- StepPhone Premium7 Days trial$59.991 Year
Questions
Is MAC free?
Is StepPhone free?
Which has better reviews, MAC or StepPhone?
Do MAC or StepPhone have ads?
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