Harry's LapTimer Rookie vs Hotlap
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Harry's LapTimer Rookie
This app is an advanced tool for car enthusiasts to record and analyze sensor data, optimizing driving performance. It offers automated lap timing, track mapping, and real-time competition features. Multiple editions cater to different user needs, from entry-level to professional.
- Records sensor data (GPS, OBD II)
- Automated lap timing
- 1300+ predefined tracks
- Driving performance analysis
- In-car video recording with data overlay
- Real-time online racing and competition
- Sector time and braking/acceleration analysis
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Harry's LapTimer is the advanced tool for car enthusiast. It records all types of sensor data provided by your iPhone/iPod/iPad (or external sensors), combines them, and makes them available to optimize your drive. Over time, you will get insights on your car and in your driving, not known before. LapTimer offers more than 1300 predefined tracks world wide. With its assistants, it is extremely easy to setup - just click your track and drive. It fully automates your lap timing using GPS, and presents the results to all kinds of media. You are not limited to track driving only. For example, you may define your home and working locations as a 'track', collect statistics on different ways chosen, and analyze / optimize the time used every day. Want to show your drive to your friends? LapTimer Petrolhead and above generates beautiful in car video recordings with all kinds of data overlaid, ready to be presented - e.g. on youtube. Even without video, recorded data can be analyzed using purpose designed views, making it easy to analyze and improve your driving performance. Using online racing, you can use LapTimer in competition. LapTimer offers a Hall of Fame, allows watching you and your friends on track - all in real time. Compare your sector times, braking / acceleration points, and learn from each other. You can start with your plain iPhone in the beginning and add external GPS and OBD II sensors later, step by step, and as you need it. LapTimer itself comes in three different editions: LapTimer Rookie is the entry level with all you need for lap timing; LapTimer Petrolhead is the advanced version including lots of video features, and LapTimer Grand Prix is the edition for professionals including Multi Cam recording, Health Kit integration, and advanced sensor and analytics functionality. Please note that functionality depends on your device, the LapTimer edition chosen, and sometimes even external sensors added (like OBD II). Please visit our web page to get the full story. All edition can be upgraded later, all editions come with native iPhone and iPad support. There are quite expensive stand alone solutions for track days available. Be smart and own the leading edge tool simply by using your iPhone and LapTimer. Besides the professional area, there is no known solution that offers more functionality than LapTimer does - across the market. As our ambition is to offer the best tool, LapTimer is enhanced continuously. Please visit http://www.gps-laptimer.de for detailed information on versions, FAQs / documentation, in depth technology background information, online racing, and supported device configurations. Join our user community on http://www.gps-laptimer-forum.de to be involved in future development - all with first class support.
Hotlap
This app offers GPS lap timing and data logging for track day enthusiasts. Compare your performance with others in a community setting to improve your personal bests.
- GPS lap timing
- Data logging
- Performance comparison
- Community features
- Personal best tracking
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Experience the competitive spirit and camaraderie of track days from anywhere. Hotlap is an exciting new community for track day enthusiasts. With intuitive GPS lap timing and data logging you can ealiy compare your performance with fellow drivers to achieve your next personal best.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Hotlap at Free against Harry's LapTimer Rookie's $8.99. Hotlap also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.3) and update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 2 months). Harry's LapTimer Rookie's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Hotlap is free to download; Harry's LapTimer Rookie costs $8.99 up front. Harry's LapTimer Rookie sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Hotlap sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Hotlap holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 36 and 79 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 59% of Harry's LapTimer Rookie's written reviews are positive against 69% of Hotlap's.
Harry's LapTimer Rookie ships an update every 2 months, Hotlap every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Harry's LapTimer Rookie | Hotlap |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.3 (36 ratings) | 4.3 (79 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 59.0% of reviews | 69.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 36 | 79 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 78 MB | 118 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Harald Schlangmann | Extravehicular Activity, Inc. |
Customer experience
Harry's LapTimer Rookie
Hotlap
Bugs and requests
Harry's LapTimer Rookie
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Hotlap
Reported bugs
10 issues- Data lost after phone transfer
- App not working/updating
- Photo upload stops at 90%
- App is very buggy and slow
- OBD2 recording feature broken
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Live delta time feature broken
- Cannot select custom car
- Sessions not being recorded
- OBD2 adapters not recognized
- App not functioning as expected
Requested features
7 requests- Record times while screen is off
- CarPlay support
- Update profile picture setting
- Make app work in background
- More accurate track layouts
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Support for 'other' car type
- Improve telemetry graph readability
In-app purchases
Harry's LapTimer Rookie
- Grand Prix Upgrade$9.99
- Petrolhead Upgrade$12.99
Hotlap
- Hotlap Plus Monthly$2.991 Month
- Hotlap Plus Annual$23.991 Year
Questions
Is Harry's LapTimer Rookie free?
Is Hotlap free?
Which has better reviews, Harry's LapTimer Rookie or Hotlap?
Do Harry's LapTimer Rookie or Hotlap have ads?
Which is updated more often, Harry's LapTimer Rookie or Hotlap?
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