Comparison

Garmin Catalyst™ vs ThePaddock

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

ThePaddock

Connect with fellow track day enthusiasts and racers. Build your racing profile, log your performance, and discover events. Share your journey and learn from others to improve your lap times together.

Highlights
  • Build racing profile
  • Showcase garage and lap times
  • Log track events
  • Connect with other racers
  • Join leaderboards
  • Learn from faster racers
Features
Read full description

Build your profile. Find your people. Get faster together. Paddock is the home for track day enthusiasts and racers — a place to showcase your journey, connect at events, and push each other to improve. BUILD YOUR RACING PROFILE Your profile tells your story. • Showcase your garage — every machine you've taken to the track • Log your lap times and track personal bests • Share your accomplishments and experience level • Post updates and photos from your sessions • Connect with other racers through your activity feed TRACK EVENTS & CONNECT See who's at the track with you. • Log track days, races, autocross, time trials, and more • Sync your events automatically from MotorsportReg • See who else attended — and who's going next time • Follow other racers and their event schedules • Join discussions with fellow attendees • Turn track day acquaintances into lasting connections LEADERBOARDS & LEARNING Get faster by learning from others. • Join track-specific leaderboards and see where you stand • Share your lap times with the community • Learn from faster racers — see their setups, conditions, and notes • Friendly competition motivates everyone to improve Whether you're chasing your first clean lap or hunting for tenths at the top of the leaderboard, Paddock is where racers come to grow — together. Download Paddock and join the community.

Screenshots

Garmin Catalyst™4 screens
ThePaddock4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Garmin Catalyst™ at 120 against ThePaddock's 1. ThePaddock's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ThePaddock holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Garmin Catalyst™ has 120 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Garmin Catalyst™ ships an update monthly, ThePaddock fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Garmin Catalyst™ versus ThePaddock: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGarmin Catalyst™ThePaddock
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (120 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews81.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings120 — better1
Update frequencyMonthlyFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.515.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size220 MB62 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperGarminOneMore Lab LLC

Customer experience

Garmin Catalyst™

All ratings120 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.5%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews55 reviews
Positive81.8%
Neutral7.3%
Negative10.9%

ThePaddock

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

ThePaddock

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Garmin Catalyst™

No in-app purchases

None

ThePaddock

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Garmin Catalyst™ free?
Garmin Catalyst™ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ThePaddock free?
ThePaddock is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Garmin Catalyst™ or ThePaddock?
ThePaddock is rated higher. Garmin Catalyst™ averages 4.8 out of 5 from 120 ratings, while ThePaddock averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Garmin Catalyst™ or ThePaddock have ads?
Neither Garmin Catalyst™ nor ThePaddock shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Garmin Catalyst™ or ThePaddock?
Garmin Catalyst™ ships an update monthly, and ThePaddock fortnightly. Most recently, Garmin Catalyst™ was updated on October 11, 2026 and ThePaddock on October 2, 2026.

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