Cycle Diary vs Red Diary
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cycle Diary
Track your cycling activities with GPS, including speed, distance, and calories burned. Save your rides, set goals, and share your progress. Offers two map styles and background operation for uninterrupted tracking.
- GPS tracking for speed, distance, and route
- Calorie burn calculation based on user data
- Save and log cycling sessions
- Two map styles: Satellite and Street
- Background operation and lock screen support
- Set cycling goals
- Share ride logs
Read full descriptionHide full description
Cycle Diary will keep you motivated for your cycling process. This app uses GPS to locate and give the current speed, used time, distance and route in map, also calculates calorie burned when cycling according to your weight, speed and time used. You can save the log directly after cycling or add manually later. Features: ⁃ Show current speed, used time, calorie burned and route in map. ⁃ Two map styles: Satellite and Street. ⁃ Keep cycling 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 cycling 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.
Red Diary
Log your walks, runs, and rides with detailed stats like distance, speed, and elevation. Capture photos and notes, and view your route on a map. Enjoy automatic trip start/stop and voice announcements, even with headphones on.
- Log walks, runs, and rides
- Detailed trip statistics
- Route maps with elevation
- Add photos and notes
- Automatic trip start/stop
- Voice announcements
- Independent watch app
Read full descriptionHide full description
Red Diary is the ultimate trip diary, keeping log of your walks, runs and rides, including details as distance, top speed, time, route map, elevation changes, points of interest, photos and notes taken. SPECIAL FEATURES * Privacy first: Trips are kept locally on the phone and synchronised using iCloud * Automatic trip start: Start trips automatically when the phone starts moving * Automatic idle detection: Trips are automatically stopped and saved after a period of inactivity * Voice announcements: The app announces ride time, distance and top speed changes, even when it is running in the background. Ideal for exercising with the headphones on! * Take photos during the trip or add photos later * Take notes during the trip or add notes later * Trip maps with points of interests, photos and notes, elevation maps and detailed trip statistics * Share trips via social media, chat, email etc. * Independent watch app: The Red Diary watch app can be used without the phone. Trips are recorded on the watch -- you can even leave the phone behind! The recorded trips will be synchronised when your watch and phone meet again. * Widgets for the Home Screen DISCLAIMER Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Red Diary at 5.0 against Cycle Diary's 1.5. Red Diary also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 12 months). Cycle Diary's advantage is ratings volume (6 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.1). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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. Cycle Diary sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Red Diary sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Red Diary holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cycle Diary has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Cycle Diary ships an update every 12 months, Red Diary every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cycle Diary | Red Diary |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.5 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 27.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 倩 赵 | Akos Polster |
Customer experience
Cycle Diary
Red Diary
In-app purchases
Cycle Diary
- Remove ads$0.99
- Map$1.99
Red Diary
- Power User$4.99
Questions
Is Cycle Diary free?
Is Red Diary free?
Which has better reviews, Cycle Diary or Red Diary?
Do Cycle Diary or Red Diary have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cycle Diary or Red Diary?
Other comparisons
