Challenge Tracker vs Ascend
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Challenge Tracker
Track your progress towards monthly health and fitness goals, including steps, distance, and exercise minutes. Integrates with Apple Health to visualize your progress with rings and charts. Supports various activities and is fully accessible.
- Set monthly goals
- Track various activities (walking, running, exercise, steps, cycling, swimming)
- Integrates with Apple Health
- Progress rings and bar charts
- VoiceOver and Apple Audio Graph accessibility
- Supports iPhone and iPod
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Set a monthly goal or use suggested goal and keep track on the progress throughout the month or number days in a month that you want to achieve the daily goal. Set different types of activities - Walking + Running Distance - Exercise ** - Steps Count - Cycling Distance (App or device may be needed) - Swimming Distance (App or device may be needed) - Move (Apple Watch required or iPhone on iOS16 or later) - Wheelchair Distance Activities integrates with Apple Health app to be able to show a progress ring so each day you can see if you are on target for the month and a bar chart showing each day amount compared to the goal each day. Fully accessible with Voice Over and Apple Audio Graph. ** Movement equal to or exceeding the intensity of a brisk walk counts towards your Exercise minutes. Apple Watch not required for some of activities but recommended. Apple and Apple Watch are a trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Ascend
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Ascend is your daily companion for building discipline — track the habits that matter one day at a time, and watch your streak grow. WHAT YOU CAN TRACK • Daily workouts (two-a-day support) • Water intake • Diet adherence • Steps (auto-synced from Apple Health) • Reading • Progress photos • Weight • Mood • Sleep • Skincare • Cycle tracking BUILT AROUND YOUR CHALLENGE Set up your own challenge — choose which rules to track, set your goals, and pick your duration. Running the standard 75-day format, or something custom? Ascend adapts to whatever challenge you're running. APPLE HEALTH INTEGRATION Connect Apple Health once and Ascend automatically pulls in your steps, workouts, sleep, and water intake — no manual double-entry. STRAVA INTEGRATION Connect Strava and your workouts sync in with their correct activity type automatically — no more re-entering runs, rides, or lifts by hand. YOUR DATA, YOUR ICLOUD Ascend stores your data in your own private iCloud account, not on a company server. Sign in with Apple — no usernames, no passwords, no account to leak. Nobody but you can see your logs, not even us. STAY MOTIVATED Track your streak, review weekly and monthly analytics, and earn badges as you hit milestones. See exactly how consistent you've been at a glance. Ascend is ad-free, doesn't sell your data, and doesn't track you across other apps or websites.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Challenge Tracker at every 3 weeks against Ascend's every 2 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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.
Challenge Tracker ships an update every 3 weeks, Ascend every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Challenge Tracker | Ascend |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Nigel Gee | GEORGE O'CONNOR |
In-app purchases
Challenge Tracker
No in-app purchases
Ascend
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Challenge Tracker free?
Is Ascend free?
Do Challenge Tracker or Ascend have ads?
Which is updated more often, Challenge Tracker or Ascend?
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