Comparison

StepMate vs Drift

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

Head to head
About

StepMate

This app helps you monitor your daily steps and activity progress with a clear, simple interface. View your recent activity, track goal achievement, and stay motivated with visual progress indicators. It also offers Apple Watch integration for convenient wrist-based tracking.

Highlights
  • Daily step tracking
  • Clear daily goal progress
  • Last 7 days overview
  • Improved history view
  • Percentage progress above 100%
  • Apple Watch support
  • Light and dark mode
Features
Read full description

StepMate helps you keep your daily movement clear, simple, and easy to follow. Track your steps, complete your daily goals, and see how your activity develops over time. The app shows your current daily progress and now also displays the last 7 days directly on your phone screen. This gives you a quick overview of your recent activity, the days when you reached your goal, and how consistent you have been throughout the week. The history view has also been improved to make your past results easier to read and understand. StepMate also supports Apple Watch. With the watchOS app and new Apple Watch widgets, you can follow your progress directly from your wrist. A quick glance at your watch is all you need to see how close you are to reaching your daily step goal. The app is designed to be simple, fast, and pleasant to use every day. The refreshed design brings a cleaner look, better readability, and a more natural way to view your activity data. Percent values now also show progress above 100%, so you can clearly see when you have exceeded your daily goal. You can personalize StepMate in the settings. Choose light mode, dark mode, or follow your system appearance. You can also select the app language to make StepMate feel more comfortable for you. StepMate is ideal for anyone who wants to stay aware of their daily movement, build healthier habits, and stay motivated through simple progress tracking. Main features: - daily step tracking - clear daily goal progress - last 7 days overview - improved history view - percentage progress above 100% - Apple Watch support - new Apple Watch widgets - light and dark mode - app language selection - simple and clean design StepMate helps make movement a natural part of your day. Track your progress, reach your goals, and keep your steps always within reach.This version brings new features, a refreshed design, and several improvements to make tracking your daily movement clearer and more enjoyable.

About

Drift

Read full description

Drift plays music that never repeats, never interrupts, and never asks you to choose the next track. Press play, pick a mood, and settle into your next hour of work. Every session is composed live on your device. Each mood, from Deep Work to Wind Down, is a small universe of musical anchors that the music drifts between, so an hour of Shadow Work tonight will not sound like an hour of Shadow Work tomorrow. There is no library and there is no loop. MADE FOR LONG STRETCHES Coding, writing, reading, studying. Drift stays out of the way: no vocals, no drops, no sudden changes, and nothing to manage once it is playing. Set a timer or leave it running all afternoon. SIXTEEN MOODS, AND YOUR OWN Deep Work, Obsidian, Vibe Coding, Dust Loop, Wind Down, Night Loop and more. The mood builder lets you shape a field of your own, from the anchors and the key to the kit and the tempo, and keeps it beside the shipped ones. FOCUS ROUNDS AND TIMERS A focus timer with the breaks built in. The classic 25/5 round is free. Drift Pro adds 50/10 deep sets and journeys that shape how the music eases you in, holds steady, and settles as the session ends. Or set a single timer of any length, from 5 minutes to 3 hours. A JOURNAL WITH TWO ROOMS Focus shows your sessions, your rounds and how deep each one felt, and with an Apple Watch, your heart rate. Sleep shows your nights from Apple Health, with the stages and your heart rate drawn beside the music that played. Today and this week are free. Pro keeps the longer view: your streak, a twelve week map, the Sleep room, and the journal synced through your own iCloud. SAVED ROUTINES AND WIDGETS Keep a mood, a timer, and a journey together and start tomorrow's session in one tap, from the app, from a widget, from Siri, or from a Shortcut. ON THE MAC TOO The same engine in a native Mac app, with a menu bar panel that follows you across full-screen apps and the journal laid out for the bigger screen. HONEST ABOUT THE SCIENCE Slow tempo and no lyrics are what the research supports, and Drift is built on that. Optional tone entrainment is there for those who want it, with the evidence graded openly on our site. We do not claim any music makes you smarter. FREE TO LISTEN Every mood, every timer length, and the classic focus round are free, forever. Drift Pro adds deep sets, Gentle and Deep journeys, the full journal with the Sleep room and iCloud sync, the mood builder, and unlimited saved routines. Drift Pro is an optional auto-renewable subscription: $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year, with a 7-day free trial. It renews automatically until cancelled in your Apple Account settings. Privacy Policy: https://www.driftmusic.co/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. Nothing you listen to is tied to you. Health is read on your device, never written to, and never leaves it. Plays in the background with the screen locked, on any headphones or speakers. Or let it play under a video or another app.

Screenshots

StepMate4 screens
Drift4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: StepMate at none against Drift's 2. StepMate also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 weeks). Drift's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.2). On price, ads and device support 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. Drift sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. StepMate asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

StepMate ships an update weekly, Drift every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
StepMate versus Drift: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStepMateDrift
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.217.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPatrik PortesByAllMeans, s.r.o.

In-app purchases

None

StepMate

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Drift

Subscriptions2
  • Drift Pro Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Drift Pro Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is StepMate free?
StepMate is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drift free?
Drift is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do StepMate or Drift have ads?
Neither StepMate nor Drift shows ads.
Which is updated more often, StepMate or Drift?
StepMate ships an update weekly, and Drift every 2 weeks. Most recently, StepMate was updated on October 15, 2026 and Drift on October 24, 2026.

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