Garmin Catalyst™ vs Trackside
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
Trackside
Record and analyze track driving sessions with automatic lap timing, turn-by-turn insights, and video comparison. Connect your iPhone or compatible GPS receiver to capture telemetry data and share performance videos. Explore demo mode to test features without a vehicle.
- Automatic lap timing
- Turn-by-turn telemetry analysis
- Reference video comparison
- Shareable telemetry videos
- Friends and leaderboards
- Import from VBOX, Garmin Catalyst
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Get more from every lap with free, unlimited recording and automatic lap timing. Record in any car with your iPhone, analyze your driving, and create shareable telemetry videos. LAP TIMING • Automatic track detection, predicted lap times, and live delta • Create custom circuits and point-to-point courses for autocross and other runs • View live delta timing and control recording with Apple CarPlay ANALYSIS & AI • Compare laps, sectors, and corners, review inputs, and see your optimal lap • Compare reference videos from YouTube with synchronized playback and a live time delta • Get in-app AI insights or explore synced telemetry with the Trackside ChatGPT plugin FRIENDS & LEADERBOARDS • Compare stats and personal bests on friends-only leaderboards • Share full session telemetry with friends and compare laps CAMERAS & VIDEO • Record with your iPhone or control supported GoPro, DJI, and Insta360 cameras • Import footage directly from supported cameras • Sync onboard footage and export videos with telemetry overlays IMPORT, SYNC & EXPORT • Import VBOX, Porsche Track Precision, Garmin Catalyst, and other supported files • Sync sessions with iCloud and export VBOX-compatible files GPS & OBD COMPATIBILITY • RaceBox: Mini, Mini S, and Micro • Dragy: Pro, Lite, DRG70, DRG70-C, and DRG69 • OBD: OBDLink CX, Veepeak OBDCheck BLE/BLE+, Dragy OBD II, Vgate (IOS-Vlink), and OBDBLE PORSCHE DIRECT CONNECTION Trackside supports the same Porsche models as Track Precision. • 911: all 992 models; 991.2 (2017+); 991.1 GT3 / GT3 RS (2015+) • Cayman & Boxster: 982 / 718 (2017+); 981 Cayman GT4 (2015+) • Cayenne, Panamera, and Taycan: 2022+ Questions or feedback? Email trackside@californiamotorsports.co Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Garmin Catalyst™ at none against Trackside's 2. Garmin Catalyst™ also leads on ratings volume (120 vs 3). Trackside's advantage is update cadence (daily vs monthly) and review sentiment (100% vs 80%). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Trackside sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Garmin Catalyst™ asks for nothing beyond the download.
Trackside 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 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Garmin Catalyst™'s written reviews are positive against 100% of Trackside's.
Garmin Catalyst™ ships an update monthly, Trackside daily. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Garmin Catalyst™ | Trackside |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (120 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 120 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.5 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 220 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Garmin | Daniel Stratton |
Customer experience
Garmin Catalyst™
Trackside
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
Trackside
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Garmin Catalyst™
No in-app purchases
Trackside
- Trackside Pro Monthly$9.991 Month
- Trackside Pro Annual$59.991 Year
Questions
Is Garmin Catalyst™ free?
Is Trackside free?
Which has better reviews, Garmin Catalyst™ or Trackside?
Do Garmin Catalyst™ or Trackside have ads?
Which is updated more often, Garmin Catalyst™ or Trackside?
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