Comparison

Pacely Step vs Footfall

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

Head to head
About

Pacely Step

Read full description

Every step becomes a journey. Your daily walking distance carries you around Tokyo's Yamanote Loop, one stop at a time, and every flight of stairs adds up to a real landmark. A calm, beautifully simple pedometer and step counter. โ–  What Pacely Step does - Steps, distance, calories and stairs โ€” tracked automatically Reads your iPhone's Motion & Fitness data to log daily steps, walking distance, pace, and floors climbed. - Journey: walk your way along real routes Your walking distance moves you around the Yamanote Loop (about 34.5 km). "1.3 km to the next stop" and "4 stops reached today" give every walk somewhere to go. - Climb to world landmarks Your height climbed is measured in Eiffel Towers, Mt. Fuji, the Empire State Building and more. "1.5ร— Eiffel Tower this month" turns the stairs into a small adventure. - Calorie estimates that reflect how you walk Estimates use your walking speed and stair activity with MET-based calculations. - A calendar that keeps your progress Goal days are marked in vermillion. See your streak, best steps day, best height day and monthly progress at a glance. โ–  Who it's for - Anyone who found step counts alone weren't enough to keep walking - Daily walkers and commuters who want a reason to go one stop further - People who prefer a quiet, minimal design over busy fitness apps - Anyone tired of subscriptions and looking for a one-time purchase - Anyone who wants a reason to take the stairs โ–  Privacy - No account required - Your step records stay on your iPhone and are never sent anywhere - No access to HealthKit or your location - No advertising identifier (IDFA), no third-party ads or tracking - To show our other apps, the app may fetch public App Store information (app names and icons) Distances, calories and heights are estimates based on your iPhone's measurements.

About

Footfall

Features
Read full description

Footfall shows the steps your iPhone already counted, and almost nothing else. It has no step counting algorithm of its own, and that is the point. It reads the daily totals from Health, the one place on iOS where an iPhone and an Apple Watch are added up without the same walk being counted twice. The number here is the number there. No second opinion, no arguing with your watch about this morning. The rest of the app puts that number in front of you. A widget on the Home Screen. A circle or a rectangle on the Lock Screen. A medium widget for the week. They refresh through the day, and say so rather than pass off yesterday's total as today's. ON YOUR WRIST Ten years after the first Apple Watch, no built-in complication shows a step count as a number. Footfall does, in four shapes, on any face with room for one. The watch reads Health on the watch, so the count is right even when the iPhone stayed at home, and there is nothing to fall out of sync. The complications are free, like every other widget here. ONE SCREEN, TOP TO BOTTOM A ring that warms from clay to amber and turns gold at your goal, with the count rolling in the middle. The shape of the day: twenty four hourly bars that show when you walked, not only how much. The week in seven bars you can tap, and tapping one moves the top of the screen to that day. The month as dots, each one sized by its steps, and a swipe back through the months before it. Then four numbers: your seven day average, your thirty day average, your best day, and the days you met your goal. NOTHING YOU DID NOT ASK FOR No account. No ads. No analytics. No notifications, no badges, no levels. The streak stays off until you turn it on, because a streak nobody asked for turns into a debt. The app opens no network connection at all, so nothing can leave the phone. Nothing is written back into Health either. FOOTFALL PLUS Counting, the widgets, the watch complications, the goal, kilometers or miles, the day, the week and the month are free and stay free. Footfall Plus is one payment, once, and it adds every past month one by one, the full year day by day, your rhythm by day of the week, records and totals from the first day Health holds, and a CSV export. No subscription. Nothing renews. WHAT IT NEEDS Permission to read steps and walking distance from Health, and nothing else. iOS has been recording those since you got the phone, so your history is usually there the first time you open the app. If you have never walked with the iPhone on you, Footfall will show you an honest empty day. Available in 45 languages. iPhone, iOS 18 and later. Apple Watch, watchOS 11 and later.

Screenshots

Pacely Step4 screens
Footfall4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Footfall at weekly against Pacely Step's every 2 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Pacely Step sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Footfall sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pacely Step ships an update every 2 months, Footfall weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Pacely Step versus Footfall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPacely StepFootfall
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.0 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size2 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DevelopertorankiriteTHEO MARTIN

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Pacely Step

One-time1
  • Premium$3.99
1 purchases

Footfall

One-time1
  • Footfall Plus$4.99

Questions

Is Pacely Step free?
Pacely Step is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Footfall free?
Footfall is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Pacely Step or Footfall have ads?
Neither Pacely Step nor Footfall shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pacely Step or Footfall?
Pacely Step ships an update every 2 months, and Footfall weekly. Most recently, Pacely Step was updated on October 31, 2026 and Footfall on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons