Comparison

Stepwise Go vs Pulse

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

Head to head
About

Stepwise Go

Features
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Stepwise helps you stay consistent with your daily activity by showing your step progress in a clean, motivating way across iPhone and Apple Watch. Today - Live step count with circular progress toward your daily goal - Distance (km or miles) and active calories at a glance - Weekly comparison โ€” see if you're up or down from last week History - Bar charts for the last 7 days, 30 days, and full year - Goal line and 7-day rolling average trend on the 30-day chart - Personal records: best day ever, best day this month, best week Streaks - Consecutive days at or above your goal, shown on iPhone and Apple Watch - Milestone badges at 7, 14, 30, and 100 days Notifications (all optional) - Goal reached, evening nudge, streak milestones, weekly summary Apple Watch - Glanceable complications for watch faces - Home screen widgets in small and medium sizes Stepwise uses Apple Health as the sole source for step data โ€” no account required, no data leaves your device.

About

Pulse

Features
Read full description

Pulse turns the heart rate data already in Apple Health into something you can actually use. Instead of opening the Health app and scrolling through raw readings, Pulse shows your minimum, maximum, and average BPM across four time windows โ€” right where you already look: your iPhone Home Screen widget and your Apple Watch face. KEY FEATURES โ€ข Four time windows in-app โ€” last 1 hour, last 12 hours, today, and the current month. The full set is available inside the iPhone and Apple Watch apps; widgets and complications cover the three rolling windows (last hour, last 12 hours, today). โ€ข iOS Home Screen widgets โ€” fifteen widgets in total: nine small "single stat" widgets (one per combination of window and metric), three medium chart widgets with min/avg/max and a workout-shaded chart, and three small arc-gauge widgets. Add as many as you like and pin the views that matter most. โ€ข Apple Watch complications โ€” circular arc-gauge complications for watch faces with circular slots (Modular, Infograph, Modular Compact, and others), and rectangular chart complications for the watchOS Smart Stack and rectangular watch face slots. Three time windows per family โ€” pick the one you want by adding the matching complication. โ€ข Standalone watchOS app โ€” view all four time-window statistics on your wrist, even when your iPhone isn't nearby. Includes a chart and min/avg/max for each window. โ€ข Workout correlation โ€” when heart rate readings overlap a recorded workout, Pulse highlights those samples in the chart with a distinct color and a workout icon, so you immediately know whether a spike was exercise-driven. โ€ข Automatic refresh โ€” widgets and complications refresh on a 15-minute WidgetKit timeline schedule that's gentle on battery. The in-app view re-queries HealthKit when you open or pull-to-refresh. โ€ข Light, Dark, and System appearance โ€” pick your preferred theme in Settings. PRIVACY FIRST Pulse is built on a single rule: your health data never leaves your device. There is no account, no sign-in, no cloud sync, no analytics SDK, and no server. Pulse reads heart rate and workout data directly from Apple HealthKit, computes statistics locally, and stores them in a private App Group container shared only between Pulse and its own widget and watch extensions. Our App Store Privacy nutrition label is "Data Not Collected" โ€” and we mean it. You stay in control. You can grant or revoke HealthKit access at any time from Settings, and Pulse will gracefully show "--" placeholders instead of stale numbers when access is revoked. DESIGNED FOR APPLE PLATFORMS Pulse is a native iOS and watchOS app written in Swift, built specifically for the latest Apple platforms. It uses WidgetKit for Home Screen widgets and watchOS complications, supports Dynamic Type for readable text at any size, and meets Apple's accessibility tap-target guidelines. REQUIREMENTS โ€ข iPhone running iOS 17 or later โ€ข Apple Watch running watchOS 10 or later (optional โ€” the iPhone app and widgets work without a paired watch) โ€ข Apple Health permission for Heart Rate and Workouts (read only) NOT A MEDICAL DEVICE Pulse is intended for general fitness and informational purposes only. It is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical advice. Have feedback or run into a problem? Visit our support page linked below โ€” we read every message.

Screenshots

Stepwise Go4 screens
Pulse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Stepwise Go at none against Pulse's 1. Pulse's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Pulse sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Stepwise Go asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Stepwise Go versus Pulse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStepwise GoPulse
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 daysโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS26.017.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size11 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKjetil AndersenAdam Malik Yusof

In-app purchases

None

Stepwise Go

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Pulse

One-time1
  • Pulse Pro$4.99

Questions

Is Stepwise Go free?
Stepwise Go is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pulse free?
Pulse is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Stepwise Go or Pulse have ads?
Neither Stepwise Go nor Pulse shows ads.

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