Comparison

PB vs Runner Lab

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

Head to head
About

PB

Features
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Tell ChatGPT or Claude what you're training for, and your plan lands in PB-Runner, where it can play as guided sessions on your watch or phone. Now in both official directories: a plugin in ChatGPT and a connector in Claude. A free account works on either. - Record runs on Apple Watch (standalone, phone left at home) or on iPhone. - Garmin Support with PB-Runner ConnectIQ app - Detailed run breakdowns, route maps, and splits. - Create custom training schedules with AI you can follow on your wrist/phone with audio and haptic cues. - Recovery context from Apple Health (resting heart rate, sleep, HRV, VO2max). - An analytics dashboard on the web at pb-runner.com. - Share your run with a built-in editor for sharing your runs — stats over the map or your photo, dragged into place and styled to match. Bring your own AI: connect an AI you already use - ChatGPT, Claude or another - to your own training data and build your Athlete Profile so it can analyse your runs and help plan your sessions based on the athlete you are, not a generic runner in an age group. PB-Runner is the connector; the AI is your own separate account, and the app works fully without it. PB-Runner is free to download. Recording every run, your history and stats, exporting your data, and your AI reading your training and saving a plan all work with no subscription. Your first training block plays in full as guided sessions, with no card needed. After it, guided sessions and Custom Runs require a subscription: PB-Runner Monthly or PB-Runner Yearly, billed to your Apple Account. A subscription renews automatically until you cancel it, at least 24 hours before renewal, in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://pb-runner.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://pb-runner.com/privacy Privacy: your health and location data is used only to run the features you use, never for advertising, and never sold. It is only shared with an AI when you explicitly choose to connect one.

About

Runner Lab

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Runner Lab reads your runs from Apple Health and turns them into a clear picture: how much you've done, where you're heading and what you can reach by the end of the year. Everything happens ON YOUR IPHONE. Runner Lab reads Health read-only, never writes to it, has no account and uses no tracking. THE YEAR AS A LAP OF THE TRACK • Set a goal in miles or kilometers: the checkered finish is the goal, the lap run is your distance to date. • Below the track, one line at a time: the finish at this pace, the gap to the plan, the year end, the markers passed, the years at the same hour. • The current week as bars, day by day, against the plan, last week or your typical week; and every run with the thing to notice. MY YEAR • Free: your year page by page — the distance, the day you run most, your biggest month, the weeks, the climbing, the year's best time. • The goal gets its page only if you reached it, with the day. FORM & TRAINING LOAD • Today's form with its curve, and recovery: HRV, resting heart rate, VO₂max. • With Runner Pro: acute/chronic load week by week, time in zone and efficiency. RECORDS & PREDICTIONS • Personal records on standard distances, outdoors and indoors, and how much each one beat the previous. • The race of the years: each year's best on the same track. • With Runner Pro: the race prediction with its range, and the years on the distance. RECURRING ROUTES • Runner Lab recognizes the loops you repeat by comparing the shape of the GPS tracks: the runs, the best time, every repeat. • Rename, merge or split routes. • With Runner Pro: the latest repeats compared, and the best and the latest split by split. HABITS • Your running days with the calendar, the longest break, your typical week, the time you set off, how often you run, long runs, the months and the years. • With Runner Pro: every month and every year against the year before. EVERY RUN • Time, pace, track, elevation and zones; the splits with their climb and heart rate; power, cadence, stride, energy and cardiac drift. • With Runner Pro: comparisons with your record and the same route, split by split, load and the two halves. WIDGET, SHORTCUTS & NOTIFICATIONS • The "Year" widget on your Home Screen and Lock Screen: the year's oval, the goal share and the distance left. When the data gets old, it says so. • Three actions for the Shortcuts app. • Optional, local notifications: Sunday, the first of the month, after every run, records, goal reached. SHARE & EXPORT • A card for a run, a record, the goal or the year, with no coordinates and no maps. • Every run as GPX and the archive as CSV. THE RUNNER LAB EDGE Apple only computes form and load for natively recorded workouts. Runner Lab computes them ALSO for runs imported into Health from other apps or devices. RUNNER PRO The numbers are free: goal and projection, the week, the archive, every run, today's form, records, routes, habits. Runner Pro opens the analyses: load and time in zone, efficiency, predictions, the comparisons of every run and every route, months and years against the year before. Monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time purchase. The yearly subscription starts with a seven-day free trial. ACCESSIBILITY Larger Text up to accessibility sizes, charts with VoiceOver's Audio Graph, contrast measured in both themes, 44-point tap targets, Reduce Motion respected. PRIVACY No server, no account, no tracking. Run maps come from Apple Maps. Two optional features, off by default: "Names from places" sends a route's halfway point once to Apple's geocoding to obtain its name; "Your choices in iCloud" keeps a copy of your goals and preferences in your iCloud, with no health data. Requires runs recorded in Apple Health. No data yet? You can explore the app with sample data. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://privacy.coden.cloud/runner

Screenshots

PB4 screens
Runner Lab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Runner Lab at 18.0 against PB's 26.4. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. PB sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Runner Lab sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PB ships an update every 6 days, Runner Lab every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 5 level
PB versus Runner Lab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPBRunner Lab
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.418.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPB-RunnerLuigi Coden

In-app purchases

2 purchases

PB

Subscriptions2
  • PB-Runner Monthly$3.991 Month
  • PB-Runner Yearly$39.991 Year
3 purchases

Runner Lab

Subscriptions2
  • Runner Pro - Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Runner Pro - Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • Runner Pro - Lifetime$59.99

Questions

Is PB free?
PB is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Runner Lab free?
Runner Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do PB or Runner Lab have ads?
Neither PB nor Runner Lab shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PB or Runner Lab?
PB ships an update every 6 days, and Runner Lab every 5 days. Most recently, PB was updated on November 5, 2026 and Runner Lab on October 31, 2026.

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