Comparison

Stepwise vs StepChallenge

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

Head to head
About

Stepwise

Features
Read full description

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.

About

StepChallenge

Transform your daily walks into engaging races with friends and groups. Track progress, compete on leaderboards, and stay connected through in-app messaging. Enjoy a private and fair experience with data from Apple Health.

Highlights
  • Race friends step-by-step
  • Compare daily, weekly, and hourly stats
  • Create and join groups for collective races
  • Set up multi-day or monthly challenges
  • Earn awards for streaks and top performance
  • In-app messaging and customizable notifications
  • Private and secure data sharing via Apple Health
Features
Read full description

StepChallenge turns your everyday walking into a friendly race. RACE YOUR FRIENDS Add friends with a code or a link. Everyone runs on the same winding road toward today's finish line, so you can see at a glance who's ahead and how far you have to go to catch them. HEAD TO HEAD Open any friend to compare today, this week and your best hour side by side, with a running score of who's won more days this month. GROUPS Create a group for your family, colleagues or walking club. Invite friends or share the group code, and race together on one leaderboard. CHALLENGES Set up a step or distance challenge for a few days or a month, share the invite code, and follow the live leaderboard to the finish. The winner gets the trophy. AWARDS AND STREAKS Keep a run of days at number one, top the weekly board, and see who had the fastest hour. STAY IN TOUCH Message your friends, and get notified when someone passes you, sends a request, or a challenge is about to end. You choose which notifications you want. FAIR AND PRIVATE Steps come from Apple Health and manually entered steps never count. Only your daily totals are shared, and only with people you accept. Block or report anyone at any time, and delete your account whenever you like. Available in English and Arabic.

Screenshots

Stepwise4 screens
StepChallenge4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: StepChallenge at 17.0 against Stepwise's 26.0. 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Stepwise ships an update every 3 days, StepChallenge every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Stepwise versus StepChallenge: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStepwiseStepChallenge
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer璇 冯Hassan .

In-app purchases

None

Stepwise

No in-app purchases

None

StepChallenge

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Stepwise free?
Stepwise is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is StepChallenge free?
StepChallenge is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Stepwise or StepChallenge have ads?
Neither Stepwise nor StepChallenge shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Stepwise or StepChallenge?
Stepwise ships an update every 3 days, and StepChallenge every 4 days. Most recently, Stepwise was updated on November 6, 2026 and StepChallenge on November 6, 2026.

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