Buddy vs PaceBuzz
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Buddy
This app is a comprehensive companion for divers, offering features to log dives, manage gear, and connect with a community of ocean enthusiasts. It provides tools for both free and premium users to enhance their underwater adventures and discover new diving experiences.
- Dive Log recording and validation
- Buddy network and activity feed
- Gear management
- Offline access to certifications
- Buddy Radar for finding dive buddies
- Discover feed for underwater content
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Dive into adventure with Buddy, the ultimate companion for divers of all levels! Buddy makes diving accessible, exciting, and safe with both free and premium features that transform your underwater experiences. FREE FEATURES Dive Log: Record dives, validate them with instructors, add buddies, businesses, and share your adventure! Buddy Discover Activity: Build a network of divers, by viewing their dive log activity in the homepage diver feed of content. Gear Management: Add your gear to your profile and link it to dive logs. Offline Mode: Access certifications and log basic dive details, even offline. Discover Feed: Explore a live feed of Buddy activity and inspiring underwater content. PREMIUM FEATURES Buddy Radar: Meet dive buddies near you or at trip destinations for only $2.99/month or $29.99/year. Color-Correction Filters (Coming Soon): Enhance your underwater photos with professional-quality filters. COMING IN 2025 Dive Computer Integration (Coming Soon): Sync your dives directly to your Buddy profile. Book activities with verified dive shops worldwide through Buddy. Join the Buddy community and take your diving adventures to the next level!
PaceBuzz
This app helps runners track their pace and splits during workouts and races. Plan your training on your iPhone and receive real-time feedback and alerts on your Apple Watch. Review detailed performance metrics and share your progress.
- Slap-to-split detection
- Customizable pace alerts
- Workout planning on iPhone
- Race pacing for track events
- Detailed performance review
- Strava integration
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Record splits with a slap. Feel your target pace on your wrist. PaceBuzz is an Apple Watch stopwatch and pacing app for track intervals, road workouts and race pacing. Plan on iPhone, run with your Watch, and review your session afterward. TAKE SPLITS YOUR WAY Slap Split records a split from one firm slap to your wrist or Watch using motion detection. You can also use Digital Crown turns or simultaneous button presses. Choose the controls that suit your run. FEEL THE PACE On the track, vibrations follow your planned target times; they do not detect when you cross a track marker. On the road, GPS-based pace alerts tell you when you are faster or slower than your target. Customize the vibration pattern, strength and timing. PLAN EVERY REP Build workouts on iPhone with work intervals, repetitions, recovery and pace targets. Load a plan onto your Watch and see the current rep and what comes next. PACE A TRACK RACE Set a goal time, opening pace and finish buffer. Follow a large race clock and timed cues for the track's 100 m marks, with plans for supported distances from 800 m to 10 km. REVIEW AND SHARE Explore splits, heart rate, cadence and GPS distance. View charts, share a chart, and log your own lactate readings and perceived effort. The Watch does not measure lactate. OPTIONAL STRAVA CONNECTION Upload automatically or send a saved run yourself. Strava uploads and TCX export are available without Premium. A Strava account is needed only for this optional connection. CORE TRAINING FEATURES ARE FREE Keep up to three current workouts and open your three most recent runs. PaceBuzz Premium is a one-time lifetime purchase for unlimited current workouts, full run history, and access to and restoration of archived workouts. No subscription. Run recording requires Apple Watch with watchOS 10.6 or later and the iPhone companion with iOS 18.1 or later. Choose kilometers or miles independently of language. Privacy Policy: https://pacebuzzapp.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://pacebuzzapp.com/terms/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PaceBuzz at 5.0 against Buddy's 4.3. PaceBuzz also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs monthly) and review sentiment (100% vs 77%). Buddy's advantage is ratings volume (49 vs 5) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Buddy sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and PaceBuzz sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PaceBuzz holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Buddy has 49 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Buddy's written reviews are positive against 100% of PaceBuzz's.
Buddy ships an update monthly, PaceBuzz every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Buddy | PaceBuzz |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (49 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.9% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 49 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 18.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 118 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dive with Buddy, Inc. | Andrew Kent |
Customer experience
Buddy
PaceBuzz
Bugs and requests
Buddy
Reported bugs
7 issues- Buddy radar not working
- App crashes and becomes unresponsive
- Login issues (email not found)
- Draft dives appearing in public searches
- Deleted drafts still appearing publicly
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- Verification issues for certifications
- App freezes and spins when adding info
Requested features
7 requests- Open to dive status to link people
- Ability to import/export data
- Direct data download from dive computers
- Support for technical diving features (e.g., double tanks, trimix volumes)
- Inclusion of smaller certification organizations (GUE, UTD)
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- Booking features
- More ways to connect with other divers
PaceBuzz
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Buddy
- Buddy Radar: Monthly1 Month trial$3.991 Month
- Buddy Radar: Annual1 Month trial$29.991 Year
PaceBuzz
- PaceBuzz Premium$4.99









