Garmin Connect™ vs Polar Flow
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Garmin Connect™
Track your health and fitness activities with detailed statistics and personalized insights. Create custom workouts, build courses, and challenge friends. Syncs with compatible devices and other popular fitness apps.
- Activity tracking and health metrics
- Detailed statistics analysis
- Custom workout and course creation
- Personalized home screen
- Earn achievement badges
- Sync with other apps
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The Garmin Connect™ app is your one-stop source for health and fitness data. Whether you’re training for a race, keeping active or just staying on top of your health, Garmin Connect provides the information and inspiration you need to reach your goals. Once you pair your phone(1)with a Forerunner®, Venu®, fēnix® or another compatible Garmin device(2), you can review your tracked activities and health metrics. Plus, you can create workouts, build courses and challenge your friends on the leaderboard. With Garmin Connect you can: - Personalize your home screen, so the most helpful information is instantly visible - Analyze your activities with detailed statistics(3) - Create customized workouts and courses - Review trends in health metrics like heart rate and steps - Earn badges for accomplishments - Sync with other apps like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal and Strava - Get support for Garmin devices and their features Learn more about Garmin devices and how they work with the Garmin Connect app at Garmin.com. (1) See compatibility requirements at Garmin.com/BLE (2) See a full list of compatible devices at Garmin.com/devices (3) See Garmin.com/ataccuracy Note: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
Polar Flow
This app helps you track daily activity, analyze workouts with detailed metrics, and gain insights into sleep patterns and recovery. It allows for device management, route planning, and seamless syncing with other popular fitness platforms.
- Activity Tracking
- Training Analysis
- Sleep Insights
- Training Load & Recovery
- Device & Profile Management
- Wireless Syncing
- Third-Party Service Integration
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Polar Flow: Your Personal Sports, Fitness, and Health Companion The exclusive app designed to maximize the potential of your Polar devices. Key Features: Activity Tracking: Monitor your daily activity, steps, calories burned, and distance to stay motivated throughout the day. Training Analysis: Dive deep into your workouts with detailed data on heart rate, speed, pace, distance, power, and more. Understand the impact of each session and optimize your training routines. Sleep Insights: Discover how well you sleep with advanced sleep tracking. Get feedback on sleep stages and quality to improve your rest and recovery. See how sleep boosts your day and track skin temperature changes. Training Load & Recovery: Understand how your training sessions strain your body and get recommendations on recovery time to prevent overtraining. Manage your watch and profile: Customize and manage your Polar device, Sports profiles for different activities, Routes, and Training Targets. Wireless Syncing: Automatically sync data from your Polar devices for real-time updates, notifications, and other insights. Stay Connected: Connect your profile and sync your data with Strava, TrainingPeaks, Adidas, komoot, and many other services. Why Choose Polar Flow? Personalized Guidance: Receive personalized feedback and guidance and understand your progress. Comprehensive Ecosystem: Integrates seamlessly with Polar watches, heart rate monitors, and more for a holistic experience. User-Friendly Interface: Navigate your data effortlessly with our intuitive and clean design. Notification support: Your Polar watch will receive the same notifications as your phone screen—incoming calls, messages, and app notifications. Secure and Private: Your data is safely stored and protected, giving you peace of mind as you focus on your journey. Polar Flow app allows you to share some of your wellness data with Apple Health. This includes details of your training, your heart rate, and steps. Please note Polar Flow app is not intended for medical or diagnostic use. Get Started Today! Download Polar Flow and unlock the full potential of your Polar devices. You can find more info at https://www.polar.com/flow Connect with us! Instagram: www.instagram.com/polarglobal Facebook: www.facebook.com/polarglobal YouTube: www.youtube.com/polarglobal Find out more about Polar products at https://www.polar.com/en/products
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Garmin Connect™ at none against Polar Flow's 1. Garmin Connect™ also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly) and chart position (#24 vs unranked). Polar Flow's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.4) and review sentiment (50% vs 39%). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. Polar Flow sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $8.99 per month. Garmin Connect™ asks for nothing beyond the download.
Polar Flow holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 59K and 50K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of Garmin Connect™'s written reviews are positive against 50% of Polar Flow's.
Garmin Connect™ ships an update every 2 weeks, Polar Flow monthly. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | Garmin Connect™ | Polar Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (59K ratings) | 4.6 (50K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.4% of reviews | 49.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 59K — better | 50K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #24 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 693 MB | 189 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Garmin | Polar Electro |
Customer experience
Garmin Connect™
Polar Flow
User reviews
Garmin Connect™
From 59K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent tracking and data analysis
- 👍 Great motivational features
- 🚀 Seamless syncing with devices
- 👍 Comprehensive fitness metrics
- 🚀 Intuitive and user-friendly app
Room to improve
- 🐛 Connectivity issues and sync problems
- 🐛 Buggy app updates and loss of functionality
- 🐛 Inaccurate sleep and activity tracking
- 🔋 Drains device battery quickly
- 🐛 Confusing and cluttered user interface
Polar Flow
From 50K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Accurate heart rate monitoring
- 🔋 Good battery life
- 👍 Detailed workout data and analysis
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly app
- 👍 Seamless syncing with Polar devices
Room to improve
- 🐛 Connectivity and syncing issues
- 🐛 Unreliable sleep tracking
- 🐛 Slow GPS initialization
- 👎 Cluttered and confusing app interface
- 👎 Limited customization options
Bugs and requests
Garmin Connect™
Reported bugs
5 issues- App constantly requiring device setup
- Weather data not syncing correctly
- Workout data not recording properly
- Inconsistent performance across iOS versions
- Inability to edit or customize activities
Requested features
5 requests- Customizable sleep tracking and goal settings
- Better integration with third-party apps
- Improved offline functionality
- More detailed workout analysis and planning
- Enhanced social features and challenges
Polar Flow
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes during syncing
- Inconsistent data sync between watch and app
- Firmware updates causing loss of user data
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to manually edit workout data
- Integration with more third-party apps
- More advanced training programs and coaching
- Improved sleep tracking and analysis
In-app purchases
Garmin Connect™
No in-app purchases
Polar Flow
- Polar Fitness Program1 Month trial$8.991 Month






