Sketchy Run vs orma run
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Sketchy Run
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Sketchy Run turns your running routes into simple, hand-drawn sketches and focuses on distance as your primary metric. Instead of complicated maps and overwhelming statistics, Sketchy Run tracks what really matters: how far you've gone and the unique path you've taken.ย Of course other important metrics like pace, time and heart rate are tracked as well and synced with Apple Health. Sketchy Run is for runners who love seeing their cumulative distance grow over time. Track your progress with epic journey achievements and transform each run into part of a larger adventure - from a lap around Indy Speedway to completing Frodo's quest or circumnavigating the moon. The app works with your Apple Watch to track your runs, and the iPhone companion app lets you review your collection of running sketches anytime.
orma run
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orma is a private running diary for iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad. it records your run, hides the numbers while you move, and turns the data into color and shape afterwards. three principles, in this order: experience first, memory after, data last. DURING THE RUN the Apple Watch stays silent. no pace, no distance, no heart rate, no time. you see only a line drawing itself kilometer by kilometer, and a color slowly forming. everything is measured and saved. nothing is shown. the run stays a run. WHEN YOU STOP fifteen seconds, two questions: how good the run was, and one word that stayed with you. that is all orma asks while you catch your breath. a longer note is written later, on iPhone. COLOR FROM THE BODY every run becomes a colored tile. the color is not chosen, it is computed from three measured signals: elevation, heart rate, distance. a flat, calm, short run and a steep, hard, long one come out as different colors. orma learns your personal range and keeps tuning it, so the color is yours from the first day. THE TRACE each run is rendered as an orma: a generative line built from your own data. one loop per kilometer, its size set by your heart rate, its drift shaped by how your heart rises and falls and by the gradient under your feet. no two are alike. even the tile carries meaning: its width is the distance, its height the time. YOUR YEAR, AS ONE IMAGE runs fill a grid of the whole year, one cell per day. the days you ran become colored tiles. the days you did not stay blank. the empty days count as much as the full ones: a quiet week, a holiday, a season of life. the grid becomes a portrait of your year, lived through running. MADE TO BE PRINTED orma is built for paper. export your year as a high-resolution poster, export a single orma as a clean image of one run, or turn a whole year into a print-ready book. orma never sells or ships anything: the files are yours, and you choose where, and whether, to print them. A DIARY FOR EVERY RUN you do not have to run with orma to use orma. it reads your runs from Apple Health automatically, whatever recorded them. import a full year at once, add runs done without a device by hand, or import a .gpx file for the full route and heart rate. add a word, a rating and a note to any past run, and build your diary backwards as well as forwards. export any run as a .gpx for Strava or anywhere else. FREE AND PRIVATE orma is free and complete. every feature is open. no subscription, no in-app purchase, no ads, no account. nothing is tracked, nothing is sold. your runs live on your device and in your own private iCloud, and nowhere else. ON EVERY DEVICE record on Apple Watch, read on iPhone and iPad. an Apple Watch is needed to record with orma; without one, you can still use orma as a diary by importing from Apple Health. orma is an independent app, made in Umbria, Italy.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: orma run at every 3 days against Sketchy Run's every 2 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sketchy Run ships an update every 2 weeks, orma run every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sketchy Run | orma run |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 3 days โ better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch โ better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.6 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Pfluegl | Filippo Parroni |
In-app purchases
Sketchy Run
No in-app purchases
orma run
No in-app purchases









