Comparison

Garmin Catalyst™ vs onTrackTools

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Access performance data
  • View lap times
  • Session summaries
  • Customizable driver profiles
  • Track annual activity
  • Record weather conditions
Read full description

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

About

onTrackTools

Read full description

onTrackTools brings professional-grade motorsport telemetry analysis to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. Whether you're refining your driving skills, comparing laps, or validating car setup changes, onTrackTools turns raw track-day data, video, and logged signals into clear, actionable insight. Key Features • Import & Analyze Telemetry: Load VBO and LD session files, then explore speed, acceleration, lateral/longitudinal Gs, GPS traces, and any other logged channel. • AI Assistants (Apple Intelligence): Dictate your impressions right out of the car and get structured session notes, create math channels by describing them in plain language, and manage your garage conversationally, every change echoed back for confirmation before it's applied. Hands-free voice mode with spoken replies on every assistant. All processing happens on-device: your data never leaves your device. • Siri & Spotlight: Open sessions, show setups, create sessions, and capture notes without opening the app. • Math Channels: Create reusable calculated traces from your data using formulas, unit-aware inputs, aliases, derivatives, integrals, and common math functions. Chart them alongside built-in and logged channels. • Built-In Track Library: Start faster with a built-in library of 600+ track layouts, with automatic track detection during import. • Automatic Sector Detection: Generate sector splits from a selected lap using corners, braking zones, speed peaks, or equal-distance algorithms, then fine-tune and apply them on the track map. • Automatic Weather: Conditions for every session are retrieved automatically from Apple Weather and shown alongside your laps. • Plan Your Track Day: Create a session before the data exists, log vehicle, setup, conditions, and notes at the track, then attach telemetry and video later. • Synchronized Video Overlay: Pair supported video files - or videos stored in your Photos Library - with your data. Not tied to any proprietary data logger or camera. Watch delta times update frame-by-frame as you scrub through laps. • Side-by-Side Lap Comparison: Compare two laps in detail, aligned by time or distance on track, and instantly see where you gain or lose time. • Interactive Track Maps: Visualize GPS traces, car position, and custom sector splits directly on the circuit map. Tap any sector on the map or chart to zoom straight to it. • Custom Tracks, Sectors & Open Courses: Define your own track, start/finish line, sector splits, or separate start and finish lines for autocross courses, hillclimbs, rally stages, and more. • Lap & Sector Time Tables: Break down performance with detailed tables, highlight best sectors, and calculate your theoretical ideal lap. • Sessions at a Glance: Every session row shows lap count, best lap time, and weather, with search and filtering to find any session fast. • Persistent Analysis State: Switch between sessions and comparisons without losing your working context - selected laps, traces, chart zoom, map view, scrubber position, sector zoom, and follow-car mode are restored per session set. • Garage, Vehicle & Setup Management: Track your car's history. Create vehicles, build configurations, and log setup changes for every session. • iCloud Sync: Your sessions, tracks, garage, videos, and math channels sync automatically across all your devices via iCloud. AI features require a device that supports Apple Intelligence running iOS/iPadOS 26, macOS 26, or visionOS 26 or later. Everything else works on every supported device. Whether you're chasing personal bests, fine-tuning driving technique, or testing car upgrades, onTrackTools is designed to help you get the most out of every lap. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://lvsoftware.io/privacy/

Screenshots

Garmin Catalyst™4 screens
onTrackTools4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Garmin Catalyst™ at none against onTrackTools's 3. Garmin Catalyst™ also leads on iOS requirement (16.5 vs 18.6). onTrackTools's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). 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. onTrackTools sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Garmin Catalyst™ asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Garmin Catalyst™ ships an update monthly, onTrackTools every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Garmin Catalyst™ versus onTrackTools: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGarmin Catalyst™onTrackTools
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (120 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews81.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings120 — better—
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS16.5 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size220 MB155 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGarminLudovico Verducci

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.
Show 2 more
  • 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
Show 12 more
  • 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

onTrackTools

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Garmin Catalyst™

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

onTrackTools

Subscriptions2
  • onTrackTools Monthly$1.991 Month
  • onTrackTools Yearly$6.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime purchase$12.99

Questions

Is Garmin Catalyst™ free?
Garmin Catalyst™ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is onTrackTools free?
onTrackTools is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Garmin Catalyst™ or onTrackTools have ads?
Neither Garmin Catalyst™ nor onTrackTools shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Garmin Catalyst™ or onTrackTools?
Garmin Catalyst™ ships an update monthly, and onTrackTools every 6 weeks. Most recently, Garmin Catalyst™ was updated on September 23, 2026 and onTrackTools on September 8, 2026.

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