Stride vs EM
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Stride
This app provides versatile interval timers for various training routines like HIIT, Tabata, and EMOM. It offers customizable settings, music integration, and voice cues to enhance your fitness sessions. Upgrade for advanced features like background functionality and unlimited preset saving.
- HIIT, Tabata, EMOM timer modes
- Customizable interval settings
- Music integration
- Voice and sound countdowns
- Save custom workout presets
- Background functionality (Pro)
- User-friendly interface
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Stride is an interval timer for HIIT, Tabata and EMOM on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Big gym-board clock: orange for work, green for rest, haptic cues on your wrist. Use it for CrossFit-style workouts, Hyrox stations, home HIIT or any interval countdown. Key Features: • Gym-board clock: the active interval fills the screen from the center until it ends. Orange for work, green for rest, blue while you get ready. Readable from the floor. • Apple Watch: pick a workout on your wrist and go. Haptic taps at every interval change and a 3-2-1 countdown, heart rate on the timer, and the clock keeps counting when your wrist drops. Finished sessions are saved to Health as HIIT workouts. • Saved presets sync from iPhone to Apple Watch automatically. • Light or dark: choose Light, Dark or follow the system in Settings. • Tabata countdown: work and rest rounds with a preparation countdown. EMOM, Timer and Custom blocks are on the Pro Plan. • Music keeps playing. Beeps, vibration or a spoken countdown mark each interval. • Block builder (Pro): stack Work and Rest blocks into a timeline, tap EDIT on a block to move, duplicate or delete it, set rounds and prep. • Preset editor with cards in a full-height sheet. Full page on iPad. • Built for gym and home: running, cycling, lifting, bodyweight, boxing and CrossFit-style training. Why Choose Stride? Set the workout once, start the timer, keep your music on. Run Tabata as it is, or use Pro for EMOM, Timer and Custom block sequences. Take it to the gym floor on Apple Watch and leave the phone in the bag. Upgrade to the Pro Plan: A monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase, unlocks: • EMOM, Timer and Custom blocks. • Custom workouts: add Work and Rest blocks to a timeline (up to 40), reorder or duplicate them, set each duration, rounds and a preparation countdown. Saved Custom presets show a colored timeline strip. • Unlimited saved presets, synced to Apple Watch. • Speaking countdown. • Timer continues in the background when you switch apps. • No ads. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Cancel anytime in your Apple ID settings. The lifetime purchase is a one-time payment. Privacy: Stride does not sell your data. Heart rate and workouts stay in Apple Health on your devices. Download Now An interval timer, countdown timer and workout companion for Tabata, HIIT, EMOM and CrossFit-style training on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Terms of Service: https://www.skylarks.io/apps/stride/terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://www.skylarks.io/apps/stride/privacy-policy
EM
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Set it, start it, get to work. EM:OM is an interval timer for people who actually train. Kettlebell circuits, EMOM, Tabata, HIIT, grip repeaters, boxing rounds, or one long block. No clutter, no accounts, no ads, no tracking. READ IT FROM ACROSS THE GYM The countdown fills the screen in the color of the phase: volt for work, blue for rest, amber for the lead-in, red for the last few seconds. You can check the clock mid-set without walking over or squinting. Turn your phone sideways and it goes bigger still. SIX WAYS TO SEE THE CLOCK Steady keeps a dark screen and lets the number carry the phase. Tide fills and drains with the clock, so the level is the timer. Four more come with Pro: Tally gives every second its own cell, Ropes closes a ring in as the round runs out, Glow heats the whole screen toward the switch, and Lanes lays your whole workout out as columns. CUES THAT MIX OVER YOUR MUSIC Beeps and haptics fire right over Spotify, Apple Music or a podcast. Nothing pauses. They keep working on silent and with the screen locked, so you never miss a switch. Warning beeps count you into every change. BREATHE THROUGH THE REST During rest the countdown slowly swells and settles, six breaths a minute. Recover on purpose instead of scrolling. Turn it off any time. BUILT THE WAY YOU TRAIN Interval, EMOM, Tabata, a single block, or a custom circuit where every exercise is its own mini timer with its own work, rest and rounds. Name them, save them, start them in one tap. CHAIN TIMERS INTO ONE RUN (PRO) Programs link your saved timers back to back: warm-up, workout, finisher, with no tapping in between. PLAN YOUR WEEK (PRO) Assign workouts to days and let EM:OM tick them off from your history. A simple repeating template. No streaks, no guilt. ON YOUR WRIST (PRO) Run any timer from Apple Watch with a phase ring and a tap on every switch, so your phone can stay across the gym. Follow your rounds from the lock screen and Dynamic Island. FREE AND PRO Free: up to 5 saved timers, the Steady and Tide styles, every timer type, all the cues, and iCloud sync. Pro is a one-time unlock, no subscription: Tally, Ropes, Glow and Lanes, Programs, Weekly Plan, Apple Watch, Live Activity, voice countdown, unlimited timers, and workout history. Your timers and settings sync through your private iCloud on every plan, including free.
Screenshots
Verdict
Stride and EM are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. Stride sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days and EM sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Stride ships an update every 5 days, EM every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Stride | EM |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (8 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 6 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Przemyslaw Skowronek | Unbridled Labs |
In-app purchases
Stride
- Pro - 1 Week$0.997 Days
- Pro - 1 Month$2.991 Month
- Pro - 1 Year$7.991 Year
- Pro - Lifetime$17.99
EM
- EM:OM Pro$5.99









