Vero Labs vs Stepwise
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Vero Labs
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Vero Labs takes the heart-rate, sleep, and activity data your wearable already records and turns it into three numbers you can act on each morning: recovery, strain, and sleep. A live energy score updates through the day. Recovery, strain, sleep Three numbers, color-coded. Recovery is built from heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and respiratory rate, scored against your own 30-day baseline rather than a population average. Strain runs a TRIMP model on your continuous heart rate and lands on a 0–15 scale. Sleep weights the part of the night that actually restored you, REM and deep, with stage breakdown, efficiency, and total time underneath. Energy A live 0–100 read on how your body is trending right now. It tracks your HRV across the day and the night and shows where it sits compared to your usual range. Trends higher at rest or during sleep, drops with stress or exertion, recovers as you rest. Different from Recovery: Recovery freezes when you wake up, Energy keeps moving as your watch logs new readings. Why HRV matters Heart rate variability is one of the more reliable signals your autonomic nervous system gives off about how recovered you are. For people training hard, a sustained dip over a few weeks often points to overtraining or accumulated load. For everyone else, it's an early read on how well you're handling work stress, poor sleep, or a tough week. A single lower-than-baseline morning is normal noise. It's the trend that matters, and Vero Labs scores you against your own trend, not a textbook average. Train when you're ready, rest when you're not Each morning you get a strain target sized to today's recovery. Green recovery, push. Red recovery, take it easy. The strain bar updates through the day so you can see whether you're under, on, or over the line. Vitals HRV, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen, and wrist temperature, each shown next to a 7-day baseline. The drift in those numbers, more than any single day's reading, is what you're watching for. Trends Each score and vital opens to a 7 or 30-day chart with your personal baseline as a reference line. The signals underneath are laid out too: HRV and RHR inside Recovery, restorative percentage and stage stacks inside Sleep, active and basal calories inside Strain. You can see what's driving the daily number, not just the number. Your year at a glance A 12-month calendar heatmap colors every day by recovery, strain, or sleep. Drag your finger across the grid to scrub through any day and read its scores. Step back a year at a time to see longer arcs. Apple Watch app and three complications A watch app that mirrors today's scores and the full vitals row, no graphs, designed to be readable in a glance. Three separate complications, Recovery, Strain, and Sleep, each a colored ring with the number in the middle. Place all three on a face or pick one. Tap a complication to open the watch app. Lock and home screen widget Three concentric rings using the same color language as the rest of the app. Works with what you already have Vero Labs reads from Apple Health. An Apple Watch gives the richest set of signals, but anything that syncs HRV and resting heart rate into Apple Health will work, including Garmin, Whoop, Oura, Polar, and third-party chest straps. The app uses whatever's there. Private by default Runs entirely on your iPhone and Apple Watch. No account, no server, no analytics, no third-party SDKs. Works in airplane mode. Delete the app and the data goes with it. Vero Labs is for personal informational use. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Consult a qualified clinician for medical decisions.
Stepwise
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Make every step count. Stepwise is a clean, battery-friendly pedometer and GPS activity tracker that turns daily movement into lasting momentum—with 3D awards, customizable widgets, and 100% on-device privacy. Whether you're taking a mindful walk, commuting, hiking a scenic trail, or training for a run, get real-time metrics, precision GPS route tracking, interactive widgets, and collectible 3D awards—all in one battery-friendly, privacy-first experience. TRACK YOUR DAILY MOVEMENT & HABITS • Daily Activity at a Glance: Monitor steps, active calories, walking distance, flights climbed, and active minutes in real time. • Smart Goals & Streaks: Set personalized daily step targets and build motivating streaks. Need a rest day? Pause your goal without breaking your streak. • Interactive Trends & Visual Calendar: Explore daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly trends with fluid charts, or look back at any date using the visual calendar. • Meaningful Activity Insights: Uncover your most active hours, weekday patterns, and fun milestone comparisons as you move. • Smart Weather & Running Advisories: Check temperature, UV index, and conditions before stepping out, with smart advisories for great walking and running weather. RECORD OUTDOOR & INDOOR WORKOUTS • Multi-Sport Tracking: Track walking, running, cycling, and hiking with dedicated indoor and outdoor activity modes. • Precision GPS & Lock-Screen Routes: Follow your route, live pace, elevation, split times, and GPS signal strength—even with your phone locked. • Built-In Apple Music Player: Enjoy your favorite workout playlists and curated radio stations without ever leaving the app, with convenient lock-screen controls. • Brag-Worthy Share Cards: Add photos to your workouts, overlay your route and statistics, and share your achievements with friends. • Apple Health Two-Way Sync: Seamlessly sync workouts, steps, and distance with Apple HealthKit to keep your health data centralized. COLLECT 3D AWARDS & MEDALLIONS • Interactive 3D Medals: Celebrate achievements with beautifully rendered 3D medals that you can drag, rotate, and inspect up close. • Collector Ranks & Sneaker Drops: Unlock exclusive sneaker drops and level up your status from Novice Stepper all the way to Obsidian Legend. • Lifetime Milestones: Earn trophies for consistency, distance milestones, and special workout challenges. CRAFTED EXCLUSIVELY FOR APPLE • Live Activities & Dynamic Island: Glance at your active workout time, distance, and pace directly from your Lock Screen or Dynamic Island. • Home & Lock Screen Widgets: Keep your step progress and current streak front and center throughout your day. • Apple Watch Companion: Check daily steps, monitor activity metrics, and start workouts right from your wrist. • Thoughtfully Customizable: Choose between Dark and Light mode, pick custom app icons, select metric or imperial units, and set your preferred week start day. BATTERY EFFICIENT & PRIVACY FIRST • Gentle on Your Battery: Powered by Apple’s built-in motion coprocessor for all-day tracking without draining your battery. • 100% On-Device Privacy: Your health, motion, and location data stay safely on your device and inside Apple Health. No third-party data tracking or selling—ever. Supported Languages: English, Simplified Chinese (简体中文), German (Deutsch), Korean (한국어), Japanese (日本語), Traditional Chinese (繁體中文), French (Français), and Spanish (Español). Start moving, build lasting habits, and celebrate your progress—one step at a time.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Stepwise at every 3 days against Vero Labs's every 10 days. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Vero Labs ships an update every 10 days, Stepwise every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 15, 2026.
| Parameter | Vero Labs | Stepwise |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.4 | 26.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Fokke Dekker | 璇 冯 |
In-app purchases
Vero Labs
No in-app purchases
Stepwise
No in-app purchases









