Comparison

Open Water Swim vs synth

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Open Water Swim

Track, analyze, and relive your open water swims with GPS accuracy. Features include real-time data, official event tracking, and social sharing. Built for swimmers by swimmers.

Highlights
  • GPS-accurate swim tracking
  • Real-time distance, pace, and heart rate data
  • Official event tracking and verification
  • Map visualization of swim routes
  • Social feed for group swims
  • Shareable swim summaries
  • Complete swim log and progress analysis
Features
Read full description

Open Water Swim — Built by Open Water Swimmers, for Open Water Swimmers Whether you’re training for a triathlon, swimming with friends, or just chasing your next ocean high — Open Water Swim helps you track, analyze, and relive every stroke with confidence. Designed exclusively for Apple Watch and iPhone, this is the premier app made specifically for the open water swimming community — tested and trusted by real open water swimmers. • Explore Curated Swims Looking for a new route? Explore a hand-picked directory of curated swims around the world. Review entry and exit advice, check for local hazards, and find the perfect spot for your next open water adventure. • Track with Precision Get real-time, GPS-accurate data on your swim: distance, pace, duration, heart rate, and energy burned. • Swim Official Events Participating in a partnered race? Open Water Swim is the official tracker for select global events. Just swim the course, and our tech will automatically tag and verify your official completion. • See Where You Swam Relive your favorite swims on stunning satellite or topographic maps — complete with heart rate graphs and detailed performance insights. • Swim Social Automatically detect group swims and see your friends’ sessions in a community feed that brings the joy of open water right to your pocket. • One-Tap Sharing Send beautifully designed, data-rich swim summaries to your friends and training partners — it’s simple, visual, and highly satisfying. • Your Complete Swim Log Keep a beautiful history of all your swims, track your monthly progress, and analyze your long-term trends. Noticed something off with a route? Send your swim log straight to our team for review with a single tap. Whether you’re a weekend warrior, competitive athlete, or ocean-loving soul — Open Water Swim is your ultimate companion in the water. We handle the tracking. You focus on the swim. Download now and dive in.

About

synth

Features
Read full description

synth is a hermetic tool for self knowledge.  Designed as an open and adaptable system, synth provides the place to record cycles and events, and know yourself over months, years, decades. With synth you can: + record events and cycles in your life + view your events alongside celestial events (eg. moons, equinox, retrogrades) + use ancient symbols and signs to keep your records + record voice notes and transcribe texts + define your own algorithm for how future events are predicted + customise all your colours + get notified of upcoming events + your data is stored encrypted on device and if you choose, your icloud for backups.

Screenshots

Open Water Swim4 screens
synth4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: synth at none against Open Water Swim's 2. Open Water Swim's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Open Water Swim sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. synth asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Open Water Swim ships an update weekly, synth every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Open Water Swim versus synth: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOpen Water Swimsynth
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (34 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings34 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.618.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB5 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperIntrit LLCTaylah Hasaballah

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Open Water Swim

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$9.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription1 Month trial$34.991 Year
None

synth

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Open Water Swim free?
Open Water Swim is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is synth free?
synth is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Open Water Swim or synth have ads?
Neither Open Water Swim nor synth shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Open Water Swim or synth?
Open Water Swim ships an update weekly, and synth every 3 weeks. Most recently, Open Water Swim was updated on November 3, 2026 and synth on October 30, 2026.

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