Comparison

Onbeat Running vs MacroSense

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

Head to head
About

Onbeat Running

This app provides a metronome to help runners achieve a quicker, lighter stride. It plays a steady beat that syncs with your steps, even under music or podcasts, and offers interval workouts and a four-week program to retrain your cadence. It also features a standalone Apple Watch app for phone-free runs.

Highlights
  • Adjustable running metronome
  • Plays under music/podcasts
  • Interval workouts with voice cues
  • Four-week cadence retraining program
  • Standalone Apple Watch app
  • Customizable workouts
Features
Read full description

Sore knees? Overstriding? Quicker, lighter steps are the fix. Onbeat gives you a steady beat in your ears. Your feet lock onto it. The beat plays under your music or podcast. You can still hear it on a loud road, with your phone in your pocket or just your watch on your wrist. Run to the beat and your cadence goes up. The training layer makes it stick: interval workouts with voice cues, and a program that retrains your cadence in four weeks. THE BEAT • Exact timing at any steps per minute. No drift, no stutter • Plays under whatever you listen to. Loud enough for the road • Change tempo without breaking stride. Controls on the Lock Screen THE TRAINING LAYER • Interval workouts. A voice tells you when to push and when to recover. You never look at the screen • Cadence Builder: four weeks of small steps that raise your cadence for good • Build your own workouts and keep them APPLE WATCH • Works on its own. Leave the phone at home and the real beat plays from your wrist • Intervals and voice cues on the watch too. Every run saves to Apple Health FREE, FOR EVERYONE Every feature is free: the running metronome that plays under your podcast, interval workouts with voice cues, the four week cadence program, and the standalone Apple Watch app. No trial. No unlock. No subscription. No account. No ads. Works offline. My mission is to expand what people can do and be so that we each can build a life worth living. Since the costs to maintain the apps are minimal, I freely offer these tools to the public in service to the mission. If you would like to support the cause, you can leave a tip, rate the app, or join the newsletter from Settings. Tips are optional and unlock nothing, because everything is already yours.

About

MacroSense

This app offers a straightforward way to log meals, monitor calorie and macronutrient intake, and manage pantry items. It allows users to create custom recipes and track weight progress with clear nutritional targets.

Highlights
  • Daily food diary
  • Macro and calorie targets
  • Pantry list
  • Barcode scanning
  • Recipe creation
  • Weight tracking
Features
Read full description

MacroSense learns your metabolism. Your calorie and macro targets adapt to what you actually eat and how your weight trends — no guesswork. Most trackers hand you a fixed number and leave the rest to you. MacroSense watches your real intake and your weight trend, estimates what you're actually burning, and suggests updated targets as your body changes. You stay in control — nothing changes until you accept it. ADAPTIVE COACH • Targets recalculated from your real intake and weight trend, not a one-size calculator. • An expenditure estimate that updates as the weeks go by — see it drift as you cut, bulk, or maintain. • Suggestions you approve. Your targets only change when you say so. LOG IN SECONDS • Scan a barcode to pull up foods instantly. • Search a huge open food database, or save your own custom foods. • Recents and favourites for the meals you eat on repeat. • Plan ahead — pre-fill meals for the days to come. EATING OUT? ESTIMATE WITH AI (PRO) • Describe a restaurant or takeaway meal, or snap a photo of the dish, and get an editable recipe broken down into ingredients with per-ingredient macros — in seconds. • Review and tweak before you save. Estimates are clearly labelled, so you stay honest. SEE THE REAL TREND • A trend-weight line that smooths out daily water-weight noise so you can see what's actually happening. • Daily rings and macro bars that show your whole day at a glance. PANTRY & SHOPPING (PRO EXTRAS) • Keep a pantry of what you have, with pack sizes and servings. • Compare products in the aisle and swap the best options into your recipes. FREE CLOUD BACKUP • Sign in to back up your food log, weigh-ins, and targets, and sync across your devices — no subscription required. FREE VS PRO • Free: full logging, barcode scan, food search, trends, planning, and cloud backup. • Pro: apply the adaptive coach's suggested targets, Similar & Compare shopping, recipe ingredient swaps, and the AI meal estimate. MacroSense is free to download. Pro is an auto-renewing subscription; cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Features: • Daily food diary • Macro and calorie targets • Pantry list for foods you keep in stock • Barcode scanning and food search • Manual nutrition label entry • Recipe creation and logging • Recipe and pantry QR sharing • Weight tracking and progress trends • Optional cloud backup with MacroSense Pro MacroSense uses manual-first targets: you can accept a suggested starting point, choose a preset, or set your own calorie and macro goals. MacroSense Pro unlocks storage, so your diary, pantry, recipes, weigh-ins, and targets can move with you to a new phone. No account is required to use the core tracker. Privacy Policy: https://frevanto.com/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Onbeat Running4 screens
MacroSense4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MacroSense at none against Onbeat Running's 3. MacroSense also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 weeks). Onbeat Running's advantage is ratings volume (6 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Onbeat Running sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. MacroSense asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Onbeat Running against 5.0 for MacroSense. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Onbeat Running has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Onbeat Running ships an update every 3 weeks, MacroSense every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Onbeat Running versus MacroSense: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOnbeat RunningMacroSense
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB52 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperAlterras LLCPeter Williams

Customer experience

Onbeat Running

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

MacroSense

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Onbeat Running

One-time3
  • A coffee$2.99
  • A generous tip$9.99
  • Pay it forward$19.99
None

MacroSense

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Onbeat Running free?
Onbeat Running is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MacroSense free?
MacroSense is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Onbeat Running or MacroSense?
Onbeat Running and MacroSense are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Onbeat Running or MacroSense have ads?
Neither Onbeat Running nor MacroSense shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Onbeat Running or MacroSense?
Onbeat Running ships an update every 3 weeks, and MacroSense every 4 days. Most recently, Onbeat Running was updated on November 5, 2026 and MacroSense on November 13, 2026.

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