Comparison

Critter Walk vs Pathlings

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

Head to head
About

Critter Walk

This app encourages activity with virtual companions. Track your steps, engage in focused walking sessions, and monitor your progress with customizable goals and cheerful characters. An Apple Watch app offers convenient tracking on your wrist.

Highlights
  • Step tracking with HealthKit
  • Focused walking sessions
  • Unlockable walking companions
  • Daily, Weekly, Monthly step trends
  • Apple Watch app integration
  • Customizable goals and preferences
Features
Read full description

Critter Walk is a warm, storybook-inspired walking app for people who want a softer way to stay active. Track daily steps, start focused walking sessions, build streaks, and keep an eye on your progress with cheerful companions by your side. The app connects with HealthKit to show your step progress, daily goal, estimated active time, streak status, and walking history. When you are ready to move, start a dedicated walk session to see live time, steps, distance, and goal progress in a full-screen companion scene. Critter Walk also includes an Apple Watch app for quick starts and glanceable walk tracking from your wrist. Key features: - Follow today's steps, daily goal progress, active time, and current streak from the Home screen. - Start focused walks with live elapsed time, steps, distance, pause, and finish controls. - Review Daily, Weekly, and Monthly step trends in the Journey tab. - Choose a walking companion, including Bunny plus unlockable Kitty, Foxy, Owl and Mouse companions. - Customize your daily step goal, distance units, reminders, haptics, encouragement, and end-of-day summary preferences. - Use Apple Watch to start walks, view goal progress, track distance, and monitor heart rate during a walk. - Keep an eye on your walking progress right from your Home Screen with widgets. Choose the simple progress widget or bring your current companion along with the Premium widget.

About

Pathlings

This app transforms your daily steps into a gentle adventure with a virtual companion. Nurture your unique buddy, unlock new stages of growth, and complete daily quests to build a consistent routine. Goals are customizable to fit your lifestyle, making fitness fun and private.

Highlights
  • Virtual companion with unique personalities
  • Daily step-based adventures and quests
  • Unlockable growth stages and rewards
  • Customizable step goals
  • Collect in-game items
  • Private and ad-free experience
Features
Read full description

Walk more with a little buddy who grows alongside you. Pathlings turns your real daily steps into a cozy game. Choose a tiny creature, give them a name, and help them grow through five forms as you reach milestones and finish quests. There are snacks to share, Rubies to collect and a home to make your own. • Find your walking buddy. Start with a leaf-eared forest mouse, a lava frog or a water panda, each with their own personality and five forms to discover. Feed them snacks, play with toys, and watch them grow. • Make room for more friends. Save your Rubies to adopt other Pathlings, including a storm owl and Pebblehorn, the sandstone rhino. Decorate their home with plants, lanterns and treasures, unlock new habitats, and watch your little crew wander around together. • See who walks the most. PathLeague turns your weekly steps into a friendly race with your Game Center friends. See their Pathlings, chase a place on the podium, and win weekly Ruby prizes. Earn 100 Rubies for each new friend you add who plays Pathlings. • Turn your steps into playtime. Earn a Trail Run pass halfway to your daily goal and another when you reach it. Then dash down forest, volcanic, underwater, mountain or canyon trails: switch lanes, jump over obstacles and collect Rubies to bring home. • Take your Pathling for a stroll. Follow your walk live on your iPhone’s Lock Screen and look back on your outings in Walk History. Walk half your daily goal in one stroll, with a minimum of 2,000 steps, to earn 50 bonus Rubies once a day. • Find a pace that fits. Choose your own daily step goal and change it whenever you need to. Complete daily and weekly quests, collect badges, and look back on your progress with a weekly recap. When you need a day off, a Rest Day Shield can protect your streak. • Keep your buddy close. Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets let you check in at a glance, with Feed and Play shortcuts on the Home Screen widget. See your synced progress and PathLeague race on Apple Watch, start and end walks from your wrist, or ask Siri to start a stroll. Pathlings counts your steps using Apple Health and your iPhone’s motion sensor. Free to play with optional Ruby packs. No ads, no subscriptions, and no Pathlings account needed. PathLeague is optional and uses Game Center. Choose your buddy and take your first walk together.

Screenshots

Critter Walk4 screens
Pathlings4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Critter Walk at 5.0 against Pathlings's 4.5. Critter Walk also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 88%). Pathlings's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, ratings volume, 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. Critter Walk sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Pathlings sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Critter Walk holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 8 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Critter Walk's written reviews are positive against 88% of Pathlings's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Critter Walk ships an update fortnightly, Pathlings weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Critter Walk versus Pathlings: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCritter WalkPathlings
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.5 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better87.5% of reviews
Number of ratings38 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB249 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTodd SeabrookDave Mohan

Customer experience

Critter Walk

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Pathlings

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive87.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative12.5%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Critter Walk

One-time1
  • Premium Companion Pack$1.99
4 purchases

Pathlings

One-time4
  • 500 Rubies$0.99
  • 1,200 Rubies$1.99
  • 3,000 Rubies$4.99
Show 1 more
  • 6,500 Rubies$9.99

Questions

Is Critter Walk free?
Critter Walk is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pathlings free?
Pathlings is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Critter Walk or Pathlings?
Critter Walk is rated higher. Critter Walk averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Pathlings averages 4.5 from 8 ratings.
Do Critter Walk or Pathlings have ads?
Neither Critter Walk nor Pathlings shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Critter Walk or Pathlings?
Critter Walk ships an update fortnightly, and Pathlings weekly. Most recently, Critter Walk was updated on October 31, 2026 and Pathlings on November 5, 2026.

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