Garmin Catalyst™ vs Track Day Essentials
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Garmin Catalyst™
Access and analyze your motorsports performance data on your smartphone. Review lap times, session summaries, and driver profiles. Track annual driving activity and session weather conditions.
- Access performance data
- View lap times
- Session summaries
- Customizable driver profiles
- Track annual activity
- Record weather conditions
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For motorsports drivers of all levels, the Garmin Catalyst™ app provides a simple, intuitive way to access your Garmin Catalyst™ performance data — including lap times, session summaries and customizable driver profiles— on your compatible smartphone or tablet. The app also tracks your annual driving activity metrics and provides a record of weather conditions for each session. Garmin Catalyst™ App • Easily access your Garmin Catalyst™ performance data with use of this app on your compatible smartphone or tablet • Shows your session summaries, lap times, session weather conditions, lap-by-lap data and annual driving activity metrics • Customizable icons within the app let you tailor the look of your driver profile and vehicle icons • View vehicles and track notes from your Garmin Catalyst™ device
Track Day Essentials
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Track Day manager is a companion app that allows you to monitor Your ride on any track on Event that uses Track Day Manager to monitor ride results. To use the application ask Your event manager for Your Attendance Number and start tracking your ride.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Track Day Essentials at 13.4 against Garmin Catalyst™'s 16.5. On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Garmin Catalyst™ ships an update monthly, Track Day Essentials fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and May 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Garmin Catalyst™ | Track Day Essentials |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (120 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 81.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 120 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.5 | 13.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 220 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Garmin | BYTEFINE SP Z O O |
Bugs and requests
Garmin Catalyst™
Reported bugs
7 issues- Everytime you try logging in the app just glitches anyways can’t even get logged in.
- Comparing to others frequently fails
- Compare to friend feature way to frequently fails with the message about the tracks not matching well enough despite being the same track on the same days even.
- New version is off
- It won’t let me compare the laps with other friends on the same day. Says lap not similar. Literally same day same track same session.
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- Friend integration is currently pretty lacking. When I try to compare laps it complains that the tracks aren't similar enough.
- Worse though is that there's no apparent way of sharing your sessions with friends.
Requested features
17 requests- Option to select 1-5 laps for optimum view
- Watch reference videos side by side on the Catalyst
- Add video review on phone or iPad
- Allow moving videos to iCloud for review
- Ability to download in-car camera footage directly from device to app
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- Compare data from other sessions
- Use for Sim racing games
- More functionality to come
- Make it even more simple
- Overall leaderboard
- Leaderboards of other tracks
- Compare session data between friends
- Fix track matching issues for friend comparison
- Allow browsing friend's sessions
- Add option to compare against other sessions
- Add dark mode option
- Add advanced analytics dashboard
Track Day Essentials
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Garmin Catalyst™
No in-app purchases
Track Day Essentials
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Garmin Catalyst™ free?
Is Track Day Essentials free?
Do Garmin Catalyst™ or Track Day Essentials have ads?
Which is updated more often, Garmin Catalyst™ or Track Day Essentials?
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