StepNova vs SimpleStep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
StepNova
Track your daily movement with GPS, map routes, and receive coaching for intervals. Set personal records, follow training plans, and stay motivated with achievements and streaks. Share your live location for safety and log your post-activity feelings.
- GPS route tracking
- Interval training programs
- Personal records and route bests
- Structured training plans
- Live location sharing
- Home and lock screen widgets
- Post-activity journal
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StepNova is a step counter and pedometer for everyday movement. Whether you're walking, running, cycling, or hiking — StepNova counts every step, maps your route, coaches you through intervals, and celebrates every personal record along the way. SMART ACTIVITY TRACKING Automatic step, distance, calorie, and pace tracking using your iPhone's built-in sensors. Supports walking, running, cycling, hiking, and elliptical — indoors or out. APPLE WATCH APP Start, pause, and finish a walk from your wrist. Live steps, pace, distance, and elapsed time on the watch, a seven-day chart, and a watch face complication for today's progress. Start on the wrist and your iPhone picks the walk up while it is still running. LIVE ACTIVITY & DYNAMIC ISLAND Your walk stays on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island — live timer and stats, with pause and resume, without ever opening the app. SIRI & CONTROL CENTER "Start my StepNova activity." "How many steps today?" Ask Siri hands-free, or start an activity from Control Center with one tap. Saved routes appear in iOS search. PERSONAL RECORDS & ROUTE BESTS StepNova tracks your all-time bests for steps, distance, calories, and pace. Save your favorite routes and StepNova will tell you every time you beat your personal record on them — with a full-screen celebration to mark the moment. INTERVAL TRAINING Choose from 5 guided interval programs — Walk-to-Run, C25K Week 1, HIIT 40/20, Tabata, and Active Recovery — or build your own with StepNova Pro. Voice prompts guide you through every work and rest phase automatically. WALK WINDOWS See the best upcoming hours to head outside based on real-time weather — AQI, temperature, UV index, wind, and rain chance, all ranked so the ideal window is always visible on your dashboard. LIVE MAPS & PERFORMANCE GRAPHS GPS route tracing with pace, elevation, and speed graphs. Review your splits, see your elevation profile, replay your exact path, and share your route after every activity. STREAKS & ACHIEVEMENTS Build daily streaks, unlock 50 achievement badges across Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum tiers, and compete with friends on a weekly step leaderboard. TRAINING PLANS Follow structured multi-week training plans — beginner, endurance, or race-ready — with daily targets and CloudKit sync across all your devices. SAFE WALK Share your live location with a trusted contact while you walk solo. They see your real-time position and path for peace of mind — yours and theirs. HOME SCREEN & LOCK SCREEN WIDGETS Glanceable step count, daily goal progress, and streaks — right on your home screen or lock screen without opening the app. VOICE COACHING Milestone announcements and interval cues spoken in your device's language. StepNova keeps you informed without you ever having to look at your phone. Your health, location, and activity data stays on your device and in your private iCloud account. It is never sold. StepNova uses anonymous usage statistics to improve the app; see the privacy policy for details. ——— STEPNOVA PRO Unlock the full StepNova experience: • Custom interval program creation • Unlimited saved routes • Unlimited friends on leaderboard • 25 more achievements to unlock • All training plans & structured challenges • Safe Walk live location sharing • Custom app themes Try StepNova Pro free for 30 days (available for eligible new subscribers). After the trial, your subscription automatically renews at $9.99/year unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the trial period. Monthly plan available at $1.99/month (no trial). Lifetime access available as a one-time purchase. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
SimpleStep
Track your daily steps, distance, and goal progress with this straightforward iPhone pedometer. View historical activity through daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly charts. Enjoy a clean, ad-free experience with no account required.
- Step, distance, and goal tracking
- Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly charts
- Customizable daily step goal
- App icon badge for steps
- Light/dark/system appearance options
- Accent and app icon color choices
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Your steps, without the clutter. SimpleStep is a simple iPhone pedometer that shows today’s steps, walking and running distance, and goal progress at a glance. Look back at your activity with daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly charts. No ads. No account. No tracking. One purchase, with no subscriptions or in-app purchases. WHAT YOU CAN DO • View today’s and past days’ steps, distance, and goal progress • Swipe to move between days and chart periods • Review daily (hourly), weekly, monthly, and yearly step charts • See totals and averages for steps and distance • Tap a weekly chart bar to view that day’s activity • Set a daily goal from 1,000 to 30,000 steps in 1,000-step increments • Show today’s steps on the app icon badge with notification permission • Receive a silent goal notification once per day • Choose light, dark, or system appearance • Choose from seven accent colors and seven app icon colors IPHONE-RECORDED ACTIVITY SimpleStep reads Steps and Walking + Running Distance from Apple Health. Only records created by your iPhone are included. Apple Watch data, manual entries, and records written by other apps are excluded. Health data is read-only and stays on your iPhone. SimpleStep does not send your health data to an external server. Distance is displayed in kilometers. Step badges and goal notifications update when you open or return to the app, or when HealthKit delivers a background update. They do not update continuously while the app is closed. REQUIREMENTS An iPhone running iOS 18 or later. Languages: English and Japanese.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: StepNova at Free against SimpleStep's $0.99. StepNova also leads on device support (3 vs 1). SimpleStep's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6). On review sentiment, update cadence, ads 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
StepNova is free to download; SimpleStep costs $0.99 up front. StepNova sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. SimpleStep asks for nothing beyond the download.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | StepNova | SimpleStep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $0.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (8 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | NAVEEN CHOWDARY PUTHUMBHAKU | Hiroyuki Yagi |
Customer experience
StepNova
SimpleStep
In-app purchases
StepNova
- StepNova Pro — Monthly$1.991 Month
- StepNova Pro — Annual1 Month trial$9.991 Year
- Keep StepNova Free$0.99
- Fund New Features$2.99
- Power Future Updates$6.99
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- StepNova Pro — Lifetime$29.99
SimpleStep
No in-app purchases









