Cloudless Steps vs PaceBuddy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cloudless Steps
This app tracks your daily steps and workouts locally on your device, prioritizing privacy by not using GPS. It offers automatic tracking, daily goals, historical trends, and home screen widgets, with an optional one-time upgrade for full history via Apple Health Sync.
- Automatic step tracking
- Local data storage
- Daily step goals
- Workout tracking
- Historical trends
- Home screen widgets
- Dark mode support
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Step tracker with all-local data!!! Track your health, not your location. WHY CHOOSE CLOUDLESS? Battery Saver: Because we don't use GPS, Cloudless Steps uses a fraction of the battery of other fitness apps. 100% Private: Your data stays on your iPhone. We don't know where you walk, only how much you walk. 22 Languages: Designed for global use. KEY FEATURES: Automatic Tracking: Just put your phone in your pocket and go. Daily Goals: Set your step target and close your ring. Workouts: Track your daily workouts and see success over time. Historical Trends: See your weekly and monthly progress as you step into the future... Home Screen Widgets: See your progress at a glance. Dark Mode Support: Beautiful design that's easy on the eyes. SIMPLE PRICING: What You Get with The initial download: - Track your daily steps and see your current progress. - 7-Day History: Review your recent week of activity. Unlock Everything: - one time upgrade to unlock full step history via Apple Health Sync Download Cloudless Steps today and start walking safely and privately, without the cloud, cloudless.
PaceBuddy
This app acts as a personal running coach, allowing you to race against your past performances on familiar routes. It provides real-time feedback on your pace and distance, with advanced features for accurate tracking on varied terrain and integration with smartwatches.
- Race against past runs or personal bests
- Live ahead/behind pace feedback
- Falling-behind alerts (vibration, beep, spoken)
- Accurate distance and elevation tracking
- Calorie calculation with climbing cost
- Apple Watch standalone workouts
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Everyone has a route they do over and over — the same loop, the same hill, the same trail. PaceBuddy is built on one idea: on that route, the only pace worth chasing is your own. It replays your last run beside you, second by second, and tells you whether you're ahead or behind and by how far. Race your last attempt, or your best. RACE YOURSELF, NOT A STRANGER • Live ahead/behind against your own past run on the same route • Choose your last run or your personal best as the target • Works even if you start the loop from a different point each day • Falling-behind alerts by vibration, beep, or spoken callout • Distance announcements at every kilometre or mile • Lap splits with distance, time, pace and calories BUILT FOR REAL TERRAIN • Elevation from the barometer, not GPS altitude — far more accurate on hills • Distance from GPS Doppler speed with step-based stride calibration, so it holds up under tree cover and on switchbacks • Calories that account for the metabolic cost of climbing, not just distance • Heart-rate zones when you wear an Apple Watch APPLE WATCH, WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR IPHONE • Standalone workouts — leave the phone at home • Create routes on your wrist; they sync back automatically • Live heart rate and heart-rate zones • Lap splits and alerts on the watch too PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No ads — ever • No subscription. One purchase, yours forever • No account, no sign-up, no tracking, no analytics • No third-party SDKs PaceBuddy has no servers and makes no network connections. Your workouts, routes and settings stay on your devices — aside from heart-rate and workout data you choose to sync through Apple Health. TRY IT FIRST PaceBuddy is free for 14 days, with everything unlocked. After that, a single one-time purchase keeps it. No subscription, no renewal, and the workouts you recorded stay readable either way. A NOTE ON HOW IT WORKS Pace coaching compares you to your own history on a given route, so it appears from your second workout on that route onward — a first run has nothing to race yet. Workouts under 100 m are treated as accidental starts and discarded.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: PaceBuddy at 16.2 against Cloudless Steps's 26.1. On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Cloudless Steps sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and PaceBuddy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Cloudless Steps against 5.0 for PaceBuddy. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
| Parameter | Cloudless Steps | PaceBuddy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 26.1 | 16.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ROBERT EVAN GAYNOR | Shahab Karimi |
In-app purchases
Cloudless Steps
- Unlock Apple Health$1.99
PaceBuddy
- Unlock PaceBuddy$6.99
Questions
Is Cloudless Steps free?
Is PaceBuddy free?
Which has better reviews, Cloudless Steps or PaceBuddy?
Do Cloudless Steps or PaceBuddy have ads?
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