Comparison

RunIntensity vs Koala

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

Head to head
About

RunIntensity

This app provides advanced running analytics, calculating training load with a multi-factor model that considers intensity, terrain, and environmental stress. It offers daily readiness scores and personalized workout plans to optimize training and recovery.

Highlights
  • Stress-Adjusted Miles (SAM) calculation
  • Daily readiness score
  • Readiness-first "Today" home screen
  • Training planner with periodization
  • Social features to train with friends
  • AI coaching options
  • Shoe mileage tracking
Features
Read full description

Your 40 miles this week hit like 55. RunIntensity is the running app that knows the difference. Distance and pace don't tell you how hard a week really was. A hilly run in the heat or a tempo on tired legs costs more than the mileage suggests. RunIntensity scores every run in Stress-Adjusted Miles (SAM), a five-factor training load model built from heart rate, terrain, surface, cumulative fatigue and conditions. Your weekly mileage becomes a weekly training load you can plan around. TWO NUMBERS, ONE ANSWER EVERY MORNING RunIntensity reads what your watch already writes to Apple Health and scores two things separately, 0–100: • Recovery — heart, nervous system and sleep. HRV, sleep and resting heart rate against your own baseline. Snaps back overnight. • Freshness — muscles, tendons and joints. How much of your recent training your legs have absorbed. Drops with a hard session, climbs back over hours or days. Then one call: Ready, Steady or Recover. Ready only when both are high; Steady when one system is still catching up; Recover when rest is the workout. Recovered isn't the same as healed — this is the app that knows when you're overdoing it. KNOW WHAT TO DO TODAY Your verdict, today's workout, your weekly training load budget and a one-tap start. Widgets, Siri ("What's my readiness?") and Control Center keep it one glance away. FREE FOR EVERY RUNNER • Stress-Adjusted Miles — the real cost of every run • Recovery, Freshness and a daily Ready / Steady / Recover verdict • Weekly SAM budget with mid-week pacing tips • 26-week training load charts • Training planner with periodized phases and race milestones • Personal records and trophies • Shoe mileage tracking • Body soreness tracker — spot patterns before you overdo it • The peer-reviewed research behind every number WORKS WITH ANY WATCH Apple Watch, Garmin, COROS, Polar and more — any run that syncs to Apple Health flows in automatically, duplicates merged. No manual logging. APPLE WATCH APP • Workouts from your wrist with live heart rate, pace and distance • Race Pace interval timer with custom segments and repeats • Complications and Watch widgets with Recovery, Freshness and today's verdict • Live Activity on the Dynamic Island during workouts FRIENDS & THE BOARD — FREE See how your friends are training: readiness, training load, workouts, reactions, weekly leaderboards, head-to-head challenges and streaks. COACH BRADY — YOUR AI RUNNING COACH ($19.99/year, 7-day free trial) An AI running coach that has actually read your training. Every answer is grounded in your readiness, training load and workout history. Coach Brady plans workouts onto your calendar, sends weekly reviews and tracks your goals. Includes the web coach dashboard. COACH MODE — FOR COACHES ($39.99/year) Everything in Coach Brady plus unlimited athletes and groups, side-by-side readiness and load comparisons, assigned plans and push notifications when athletes sync. Coach Brady and Coach Mode require Sign in with Apple and an auto-renewable subscription. PRIVACY FIRST Core calculations happen on your device. RunIntensity reads Apple Health but never writes to it, and syncs only what you choose to share. No ads. No analytics SDKs. No tracking. A training tool, not a medical device. REQUIREMENTS iOS 17.0 or later; watchOS 10.0 or later for the Watch app (optional). Sign in with Apple for Friends, Coach Brady and Coach Mode. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Coach Brady and Coach Mode are auto-renewable yearly subscriptions charged to your Apple ID at confirmation and renewed automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.zerodi.net/runintensity-privacy

About

Koala

Scan food labels and restaurant menus to receive a personalized protein score. It analyzes nutritional content, ingredients, and certifications to provide a comprehensive rating, helping you make healthier choices based on your individual goals.

Highlights
  • AI-powered food label scanning
  • Restaurant menu analysis for protein options
  • Personalized ProScore based on user goals
  • Detailed nutritional and ingredient breakdown
  • Allergen flagging
  • History of scans and menu selections
  • Curated category listings of best-scoring options
Features
Read full description

Koala is for the days when you can only eat this much. You're losing weight on a GLP-1. Your appetite is mostly gone, you're full after a few bites, and everyone has told you the same thing: protein first, or the weight you lose will be muscle. Nobody told you how to do that on half a plate. Koala answers one question, at the moment you're deciding: is this worth the few bites I have? POINT IT AT THE MENU Open the app and point it at a menu. It reads the whole thing and picks the dish that gets you to your meal's protein in a portion you'll actually finish. It says why, gives you a couple more that work, and crosses out the ones that sound good but aren't worth it. When the pick is big, it says to ask for a box. Every pick is a line from the menu you shot. The menu is read on your phone and only its words go up to be picked from. SNAP YOUR PLATE Point it at what's in front of you. Koala names the dish and works out its protein, calories and fiber. If it got it wrong, tell it what it really was and the numbers are worked out again. You can also just type what you had. SCAN A LABEL One scan of a barcode gives a plain answer: "Worth it", "Fine", "Not today" or "Skip", with what it does for you in grams. When something isn't worth it, you get swaps from the same shelf with more protein for fewer calories. WATCH YOUR DAY BLOOM Your day is one flower with five petals: protein, calories, fiber, minerals and movement. Everything you have fills it in. Tap a petal to see where you are. After each answer Koala asks one thing, how much of it you had, so a few bites count as a few bites. KEEP THE MUSCLE The Keep page is about what you're holding on to: a thirty second strength check once a week, lean mass from Apple Health if a scale writes it, and your weight over time. Share your week when you want to. NOTHING YOU CAN'T FACE Greasy things, very sweet things, eggs, whatever it is this week. Tell Koala what you can't face and every pick steers round it. On the days right after your shot it goes easier on fat. Allergies are flagged on sight. NOTHING SOUNDS GOOD? Some days are like that. Koala keeps a short list of easy things that still count, like a shake, Greek yogurt or broth with an egg stirred in. COMING OFF Tell Koala you're maintaining or coming off and the targets ease, and the picks stop favouring the smallest plate. WHY PROTEIN FIRST Depending on the medication, a quarter to 40% of the weight lost on a GLP-1 can be muscle rather than fat. Enough protein and a little strength work are how you keep it. PRIVACY What you're on is kept private. It sizes your targets and nothing in the app says it out loud. To read a plate, a menu or a line you type, Koala sends it to Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, and it asks for your permission before it does. Plate photos aren't kept. Apple Health is read only, and your steps and workouts stay on your phone. No ads and no data sale. SUBSCRIPTION Koala requires a subscription to use. Monthly and annual plans are available. There is no free tier. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of that period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://protein-scanner.vercel.app/privacy Koala is a nutrition reference tool. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, and it is not a substitute for advice from your prescriber. Figures for menus and plates are estimates.

Screenshots

RunIntensity4 screens
Koala4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: RunIntensity at free with in-app purchases against Koala's subscription. RunIntensity also leads on ratings volume (10 vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). Koala's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. RunIntensity sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per year and Koala sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for RunIntensity against 5.0 for Koala. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RunIntensity has 10 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

RunIntensity ships an update every 2 weeks, Koala every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
RunIntensity versus Koala: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRunIntensityKoala
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (10 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings10 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZero Di, LLCActual Occasions LLC

Customer experience

RunIntensity

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Koala

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

RunIntensity

Subscriptions2
  • Coach Brady — Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Coach Mode — Yearly7 Days trial$39.991 Year
3 purchases

Koala

Subscriptions3
  • Protein Scanner Pro (Monthly)$9.991 Month
  • Protein Scanner Pro (Annual)$24.991 Year
  • Protein Scanner Pro (Annual)$39.991 Year

Questions

Is RunIntensity free?
RunIntensity is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Koala free?
Koala is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, RunIntensity or Koala?
RunIntensity and Koala are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 10 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do RunIntensity or Koala have ads?
Neither RunIntensity nor Koala shows ads.
Which is updated more often, RunIntensity or Koala?
RunIntensity ships an update every 2 weeks, and Koala every 3 days. Most recently, RunIntensity was updated on October 24, 2026 and Koala on October 24, 2026.

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