Run Diary vs SimpleLifts
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Run Diary
Track your runs with GPS, monitor speed, distance, and calories burned. Save logs with details like mood and weather, set goals, and share your progress. Supports background running and lock screen controls.
- GPS tracking for speed, distance, and route
- Calorie burn calculation
- Running log with mood, weather, and area icons
- Background running and lock screen support
- Pause and resume functionality
- Running goal setting
- Standard and metric unit support
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Run Diary will keep you motivated for your running process. This app uses GPS to locate and give the current speed, used time, distance and route in map, also calculates calorie burned when running according to your weight, speed and time used. You can save the log directly after running or add manually later. Features: ⁃ Show current speed, used time, calorie burned and route in map. ⁃ Two map styles: Satellite and Street. ⁃ Keep running logs and also with mood, weather and area icon. ⁃ Calculates total time used, calories burned and average speed for all logs. ⁃ Supports running in background and lock screen. ⁃ Supports pause and resume. ⁃ Share logs info by Facebook, Twitter and Email. ⁃ Create running goal with days and distance. ⁃ Supports standard & metric units. This app may use your location even when it isn’t open, which can decrease device battery life. If you have any question or suggestion, please send email to maxwellsoftware@gmail.com.
SimpleLifts
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Log your lifts. Track your runs. Sync your devices. SimpleLifts is a privacy-first gym and run tracker for iPhone and Apple Watch — with no account, no ads, and no servers. Built for people who want a clean, fast workout log without giving up control of their data. WHAT YOU CAN DO • One-tap set logging — weight, reps, perceived effort, all from the watch or phone • Apple Watch companion — start a workout from your wrist, with live heart rate and calories captured through HealthKit • Outdoor runs — GPS route, pace, distance, and elevation, alongside your lifts in the same app • Indoor runs — log treadmill sessions by distance, speed, and time • Templates and programs — save your routines, build multi-day splits, run them in sequence • Exercise library — hundreds of bundled exercises with images, plus your own custom ones • Apple Health integration — completed workouts save to Apple Health and contribute to your Activity rings • Widgets and complications — see your last workout and weekly volume at a glance on your home screen and Watch face • Share extension — paste a workout from any app (Notes, Messages, the web) and SimpleLifts parses it into structured sets PRIVACY BY DEFAULT SimpleLifts has no backend server. Your workouts live on your device and — if you choose — sync to your other devices through your own iCloud account, never through us. We don't collect personal information, we don't run analytics, and we don't sell data. • No account or sign-up required • No ads, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions • No analytics SDKs or tracking • Location used only during outdoor runs (when in use, never in the background) • Optional Notion sync — connect a Notion database to mirror workouts there if you keep a training journal in Notion ICLOUD SYNC Your lifts, templates, history, and exercise library sync between your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch via Apple's CloudKit framework. It's the same mechanism Notes and Reminders use — your data never touches a SimpleLifts server, because there is no SimpleLifts server. APPLE WATCH The Watch app is a fully native watchOS companion. Start a workout from your wrist, log sets via the digital crown or on-screen buttons, capture heart rate and active energy through HealthKit, and review your last session — all without your phone nearby. Outdoor runs use the Watch's built-in GPS. ON-DEVICE INTELLIGENCE Where SimpleLifts uses AI — for example, parsing a workout you share into the app from another source — it runs on Apple's on-device Foundation Models framework. No workout text is ever sent to a cloud AI service. (Requires iOS 26 or later on a device with Apple Intelligence enabled.) FREE, FOREVER SimpleLifts is free. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, and no premium tiers. If you'd like to support development, the best way is to leave a review and tell a friend. QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK? Email azeltzdev@gmail.com — we read everything.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SimpleLifts at none against Run Diary's 2. SimpleLifts also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 12 months). Run Diary's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price and device support 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
Both are free to download. Run Diary sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. SimpleLifts asks for nothing beyond the download.
Run Diary ships an update every 12 months, SimpleLifts every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Run Diary | SimpleLifts |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 96 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 倩 赵 | Amir Zeltzer |
In-app purchases
Run Diary
- Remove ads$0.99
- Map$1.99
SimpleLifts
No in-app purchases









