Stepple vs Sleepy Train
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Stepple
This app features a virtual pet that grows and thrives based on your daily physical activity. Set personalized goals, track your progress through Apple Health, and watch your pet evolve through various life stages. It offers a forgiving system for missed days and encourages consistent movement.
- Virtual pet grows with movement
- Customizable daily step or calorie goals
- Integrates with Apple Health
- Pets evolve through life stages
- Forgiving system for missed goals
- Streak building and lifetime progress
- Collectible creatures with unique colors
- Home screen widget for progress updates
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Stepple is the little pet that grows when you move. Even a walk around the block is enough. Hatch an egg, pick a daily goal that fits where you are right now, and watch your pet thrive as you move. Meet your goal and your Stepple gains hearts. Miss a day and they lose one, but a good walk tomorrow starts winning them back. START WHEREVER YOU ARE Choose a steps goal or an active-calorie goal, as small as a short daily walk or as big as marathon training. Stepple reads your steps, active calories and workouts from Apple Health, so walking the dog, a gym session, a bike ride or a flight of stairs all count. A hearts bar shows exactly how your pet is doing: thriving, content, tired, sick or critical. WATCH THEM GROW Every goal day brings your pet closer to their next form. Keep showing up and they grow from Baby to Teen, Adult, Prime and finally Elder, each stage with a new look and its own celebration. FORGIVING BY DESIGN One bad day won't break anything. A missed day costs a heart, and each goal day earns half a heart back. Your pet only reaches the end of their story after several missed days in a row, so there's room for a rough week, a trip or a sick day. Every evolution also earns credit toward a Streak Freeze, which can cover a missed day before it counts against you. BUILD A STREAK Hit your goal today, tomorrow and the day after, and watch your streak climb. Stepple tracks a streak for each pet and a lifetime streak across every pet you raise, so your progress carries on. A COLLECTION THAT FEELS PERSONAL 10+ creatures to discover, each with their own look and attitude. Every egg hatches in a randomly rolled color, so no two pets are alike, even of the same species. Keep hitting your goal to earn your next egg. Some pets unlock only through dedication: one after enough goal days, another at a long streak, and more waiting to be found. THE GARDEN & THE GRAVEYARD Pets you've moved on from live in a pixel-art garden, where you can visit them or bring one back. Pets whose story has ended rest in a graveyard, each tombstone marking their name and lifespan. Every pet you raise becomes part of your history. COMPETE WITH FRIENDS Join a leaderboard with friends and see who moves the most each week. Turn your pet and progress into a story-sized card and share it anywhere. EARN YOUR REPUTATION 20+ tiered accolades for running, swimming, cycling, yoga, hiking, strength training, dance and team sports. Your pet develops an Activity Trait that reflects how you like to move, plus 15+ achievements that stay with you across every pet. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN An animated pet lives in a free home screen widget, in small and medium sizes, reacting to your progress without opening the app. STEPPLE+ Go further with an optional subscription: • Premium pets and exclusive characters • Raise two pets at once • Hatch new pets faster • Host your own leaderboards • Live Activity tracking on your lock screen • Pixel-art scenes, custom hearts, pattern overlays and app icons Free players can still choose from 20+ heart colors and several background gradients. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-up, no ads. Your Apple Health data is read on your device to care for your pet and isn't shared anywhere, unless you turn on optional social features like leaderboards, which publish activity stats (like steps and goal progress) through Apple's CloudKit. You're always in control of what you share. --- STEPPLE+ SUBSCRIPTION Payment is charged to your Apple ID at purchase. Subscription auto-renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage subscriptions in your Apple ID account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://stepple.fit/terms Privacy Policy: https://stepple.fit/privacy
Sleepy Train
This app helps children establish a calming bedtime routine through interactive play with a train character. It addresses big feelings and teaches breathing exercises, making bedtime a peaceful experience for both child and parent. The content is fully spoken and designed for independent use by young children.
- Interactive bedtime ritual
- Emotional regulation tools
- Guided breathing exercises
- Fully spoken content
- Offline functionality
- Ad-free experience
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Sleepy is contagious. Every night, your child puts a little train to bed. They feed it, wash it, and tuck it in. Somewhere between the washing and the tucking, bedtime stops being a fight — because whoever does the tucking in gets sleepy too. THE GOODNIGHT RITUAL A gentle wind-down your child runs themselves. The screen dims as bedtime gets closer, the depot gets quiet, and the last thing anyone hears is a lullaby, soft rain, or a sleep story. The screen says goodnight. So does your kid. BIG FEELINGS AND TANTRUMS Feelings are weather here — never bad, always passing. Your child checks in with how they feel, helps their train friends through grumpy mornings and stormy afternoons, and learns the words for what's happening inside. No wrong answers. No shame. The storm always passes. BREATHE WITH THE TRAIN Puff, puff, slow. Breathing exercises built around train steam — the kind even wiggly two-year-olds will actually follow, because the train does it first. A CALM FRIEND FOR BIG DAYS The same friend is waiting every day. Hard days get a gentler goodnight. FULLY SPOKEN — NO READING NEEDED Over 1,100 recorded lines. Your child can do everything on their own, from the first tap to the last goodnight. BUILT FOR PARENTS WHO CHECK • No ads. Ever. • No subscription. $4.99 unlocks everything, once. • No data collected. Nothing tracked, nothing shared. • Works completely offline — airplane mode, road trips, blackout bedtime. • COPPA compliant. Made for ages 2–6. Made by a parent, for our own bedtime battles. If it helps your family half as much as it helped mine, it was worth building. From Little Wheels — the maker of Talk & Listen and Art & Music.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Stepple at freemium against Sleepy Train's paid. Sleepy Train's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Stepple sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Sleepy Train 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 Stepple against 5.0 for Sleepy Train. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Stepple ships an update every 3 weeks, Sleepy Train every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Stepple | Sleepy Train |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 100 MB | 615 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Joseph DeGrand | Record Creative Co. LLC |
Customer experience
Stepple
Sleepy Train
In-app purchases
Stepple
- Stepple+$4.991 Month
- Stepple+7 Days trial$39.991 Year
Sleepy Train
- Sleepy Train - Full Unlock$4.99









