Thru vs wayloop
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Thru
Conquer legendary hiking trails virtually by tracking your real-world steps. Progress through illustrated landscapes, collect badges, and check in at landmarks on an interactive map. Every mile walked brings your virtual hiker closer to the finish line.
- Virtual thru-hiking expeditions
- Real-world step tracking integration
- Interactive progress map
- Illustrated landscape representations
- Trail badge collection
- Landmark check-ins
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Ever dreamed of completing a legendary thru hike? Now you can conquer epic trails like the Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, Grand Tour des Alpes, and more using nothing but your daily steps! Thru connects your real-world activity to a breathtaking virtual expedition. Whether you're walking the dog, running a marathon, or simply pacing around the office, every single mile moves your hiker further along the virtual trail. See your progress unfold on a beautifully designed, interactive map. As you clock the miles, you'll pass through illustrated representations of iconic landscapes. Stay motivated by collecting unique trail badges, checking in at landmarks, and watching your virtual self complete the journey.
wayloop
This app generates walking and running routes based on your available time or step count. It can incorporate errands, guide you to specific destinations, and track your progress with detailed summaries. Explore new streets and compete with friends on leaderboards.
- Generate routes by time or steps
- Incorporate errands and waypoints
- Track new streets walked
- Turn-by-turn spoken directions
- Post-walk summaries and stats
- Weekly leaderboards and challenges
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wayloop is an app that draws walking and running routes to fit the time or steps you have. Most route apps ask where you want to go. wayloop asks how long you want to walk. Say you have 60 minutes. wayloop draws a 60-minute route from your door and back. Move the ruler to 45 and the route gets shorter. Tap again for a different route. Steps work the same way. Say 10,000, or the 3,000 you still need this evening, and the route is that long. Or set a distance, like 3 miles, or 400 calories. A route can do an errand on the way. It can pass the grocery store, or end at the school gate. Set a time to be there, and wayloop tells you when to leave. wayloop paints the streets you walk on your map. The color changes every week, so you can see when you walked a street. With "Favour new streets" on, your routes take streets you have not walked yet. To walk every street in your city, set a distance. wayloop plans a route through streets you have not walked. For a run, say 10 kilometers and get a 10 km route from your door. THE ROUTE • Walk or run. Start at your door, a saved Place, an address, or anywhere you tap on the map. • End where you started, or somewhere else. • Add up to three Waypoints, places the route must pass: the grocery store, the post office, a friend's door. • Set your Preferences once: park paths and trails, avoid big roads, fewer turns, flatter or hillier. • Every route shows its climb, and its time includes it. • Or walk with no route: tap Just go, and wayloop paints every street you take. WHILE YOU ARE OUT • A tap on your wrist before every turn, and spoken directions if you want them, even with your phone locked. • It keeps recording with your phone in your pocket, and pauses when you stand still. • Apple Watch shows the next turn, the distance left and your map as it is painted. AFTERWARDS • A summary card you can share: new streets, your district before and after, steps, distance, time, climb, calories. • Stats: how much of your city you have walked, how much of your walking was on new streets, and each day against your Daily goal. • Weekly leaderboards with friends or your whole city, challenges to be first to paint part of a district, and all-time highscores. PRIVACY • Sign in once and wayloop backs up your map. A new iPhone gets it all back. Your account works on one iPhone at a time. • Friends see your totals, never the lines you walked. • wayloop learns from your backup to make routes better. It never uses your name, and never sells your backup. You can turn this off. • wayloop only counts which features you use if you say yes. It never includes your routes or GPS location. • wayloop leaves a privacy zone of up to 600 meters around your home off share cards and everything other people see. • wayloop reads your location only during a walk, or when you start from where you are. • You can export or delete everything in the app. APPLE HEALTH wayloop reads your day from your phone's health app, so walks without the app count toward your Daily goal. It saves your walks as workouts. WAYLOOP+ Just go is free, and every walk paints your map. wayloop+ lets you walk every route. Without it, you keep your map, stats, goals, saved places and community. A friend's invite gives you a week of wayloop+. Every three friends who join through your invites give you a month of it. wayloop+ costs $29.99 a year, with the first 7 days free, or $4.99 a month. Founder is one payment of $89.99 for wayloop+ for good. It is for the first 500 people or 90 days, whichever ends first. You pay through your Apple ID when you confirm. A subscription renews on its own unless you turn it off at least 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel it in your Apple ID settings. If you buy during a free trial, you lose the rest of it. Terms of use: https://www.getwayloop.app/terms Privacy policy: https://www.getwayloop.app/privacy Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Thru at none against wayloop's 4. Thru also leads on ratings volume (131 vs 2). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. wayloop sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Thru asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Thru against 5.0 for wayloop. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Thru has 131 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Thru ships an update every 9 days, wayloop every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Thru | wayloop |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (131 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 93.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 131 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 87 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Aaron La Lau | Adam Noren |
Customer experience
Thru
wayloop
In-app purchases
Thru
No in-app purchases
wayloop
- wayloop+ monthly$4.991 Month
- wayloop+ yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- wayloop+ yearly1 Year trial$29.991 Year
- wayloop+ Founder$89.99









