Comparison

Cadence vs Pacewall

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

Head to head
About

Cadence

Track your daily steps, distance, floors climbed, and calories burned with a focus on simplicity and privacy. Set custom weekday and weekend goals and visualize your activity patterns with interactive heatmaps. Integrates seamlessly with Apple Watch.

Highlights
  • Daily step, distance, floors, and calorie tracking
  • Customizable weekday and weekend goals
  • Interactive hour-by-hour heatmaps
  • Apple Watch app and complications
  • Private by design, no account required
  • Automatic iCloud history restore
Features
Read full description

Step tracking that stays out of your way Cadence helps you build a consistent walking habit without the usual noise. No social feed. No gamification. No upsells. Just an honest, clear picture of how you move every day. Weekday and Weekend Goals Most days aren't the same, so your goals shouldn't be either. Set separate targets for weekdays and weekends. Cadence automatically applies the right goal each day, and your history always reflects the target that was active on that specific day. Past records are never rewritten. Changed your mind about a goal? You can apply any update retroactively across your entire history with a single tap. Heatmaps You Can Actually Explore See your walking rhythm hour by hour. Scrub through today's heatmap to pinpoint exactly when you were most active, or zoom out to spot long-term patterns across weeks, months, and years. Beautifully color-coded and easy to understand. No chart reading required. Steps, Distance, Floors, and Calories Every day shows your full activity picture — steps, walking distance, flights climbed, and active calories. See how your week is shaping up with a projected end-of-week step total based on your current daily pace. Apple Watch and Complications A native three-page Apple Watch app gives you today's steps and progress, your full week chart, and goal settings directly on your wrist. Eight thoughtfully designed complications work beautifully on any watch face. Goals sync instantly between iPhone and Watch in both directions. Private by Design No account. No sign-up. No ads. Your health data stays on your device and syncs privately through your own iCloud. No analytics. No tracking. Your History, Restored Install Cadence on a new device signed into the same iCloud account and your complete history restores automatically — goals included. No exports or manual backups needed. Core step tracking, the Apple Watch app, and all complications are completely free and will always remain free. There's an optional tip jar if you'd like to support ongoing development.

About

Pacewall

Features
Read full description

Pacewall shows you your steps — clear, motivating, and without the clutter. Pick your goal: set a fixed daily target, or let Pacewall calculate it for you. With an active monthly or yearly goal, the app automatically adjusts your daily target based on your progress so far — recalculated fresh every day. STEPS AT A GLANCE • A big, easy-to-read progress ring • Distance and calories in one view • Current streak: how many days in a row have you hit your goal? A HISTORY THAT MOTIVATES • Week, month, and year views • Calendar heatmap for the month • Trend compared to the previous period • Best days, with the date FLEXIBLE GOALS • Set your own daily goal • Or set a monthly or yearly goal — Pacewall works out a dynamic daily suggestion for you • You decide, consciously, whether to adopt the suggestion WIDGETS • Home Screen: small and medium • Lock Screen: circular, rectangular, and inline text REMINDERS THAT MAKE SENSE • An evening nudge if today's goal isn't reached yet • With a dynamic goal: a morning heads-up with today's suggested step target • An instant congratulations the moment you hit your goal YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Pacewall reads your data from Health and processes everything directly on your device. Nothing is ever sent to a server or a third party. No account required, no tracking, no ads. Pacewall is built for anyone who wants to keep an eye on their daily movement — without distraction, without complexity. Just you and your steps.

Screenshots

Cadence4 screens
Pacewall3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pacewall at none against Cadence's 5. Pacewall also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Cadence sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Pacewall asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cadence ships an update fortnightly, Pacewall weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Cadence versus Pacewall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCadencePacewall
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVlad GankinMax Brunsch

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Cadence

One-time5
  • Small Coffee$0.99
  • Medium Coffee$1.99
  • Large Coffee$2.99
Show 2 more
  • Coffee & Muffin$3.99
  • You're too kind$4.99
None

Pacewall

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cadence free?
Cadence is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pacewall free?
Pacewall is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Cadence or Pacewall have ads?
Neither Cadence nor Pacewall shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cadence or Pacewall?
Cadence ships an update fortnightly, and Pacewall weekly. Most recently, Cadence was updated on October 3, 2026 and Pacewall on October 11, 2026.

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