Comparison

Interval Timer vs RUN interval

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

Head to head
About

Interval Timer

Organize your running and high-intensity interval training sessions with ease. Quickly set up custom time intervals for running, walking, warm-ups, and cool-downs. Receive voice and vibration notifications for interval changes, and enjoy background music playback.

Highlights
  • Intuitive design
  • Customizable time intervals
  • Warm-up and cool-down timers
  • Voice and vibration notifications
  • Background music support
  • Foreground/background operation
Features
Read full description

Choose from 25+ ready-made running workouts—or build custom run-walk intervals, HIIT sessions, and cardio workouts in seconds. Customize every step, duration, and repeat cycle, then train with voice announcements and haptic cues. Control workouts from Apple Watch, save completed sessions to Apple Health, and review your workout history. Choose a workout, tailor it if you want, hit Start, and focus on your training—not the clock. EXPLORE 25+ READY-MADE WORKOUTS • Find run-walk sessions, interval runs, sprints, hill repeats, tempo workouts, and more • Choose from curated workouts for different training styles and goals • Start any workout as-is or customize it to fit your training • Save your favorites to My Workouts for quick access BUILD ADVANCED CUSTOM WORKOUTS • Create multi-step workouts with timed intervals and recovery periods • Add warm-up, running, walking, rest, and cool-down sections • Set a duration for each step and repeat cycles for interval blocks • Add custom cues to guide you through each step • Build anything from simple run-walk intervals to advanced training sessions • Save multiple workouts for quick access • Preview your complete workout before you start STAY IN THE FLOW • Hear clear voice announcements at every interval transition • Feel haptic cues when it’s time to change pace • Keep your workout active while your iPhone is locked or the app is in the background • Listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks while you train TRAIN WITH APPLE WATCH • Sync your workouts to Apple Watch • Start, control, and monitor workouts directly from your wrist • Train phone-free with workouts ready on your Watch • Track heart rate, distance, and active energy during your workout • Save completed workouts to Apple Health TRACK YOUR PROGRESS • Browse completed workouts in calendar and history views • Review duration, intervals, distance, and active energy • Follow your training over time • Share your workout results • Export and restore backups of your workout data BUILT FOR EVERY WORKOUT Whether you’re starting a beginner run-walk program, adding speed intervals, preparing for a race, or building a focused HIIT session, Interval Run gives you the flexibility to train your way. Start with one of 25+ ready-made workouts or build your own from scratch. Interval Run handles the timing so you can focus on your training. Some features shown, including the full workout library, advanced workout creation, multiple saved workouts, and full workout history, require Interval Run Pro. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

RUN interval

This app simplifies interval and Fartlek running by allowing you to set custom targets for time or distance during hard, easy, and rest efforts. It offers detailed post-run summaries, audio and visual feedback, and an Apple Watch app for enhanced training.

Highlights
  • Customizable interval sessions
  • Time and distance targets
  • Distance Goal option
  • Audio and visual feedback
  • Detailed run summaries
  • Apple Watch app
  • Strava sharing
Features
Read full description

Easily set up and record your Interval and Fartlek running sessions. With the flexibility of using time and/or distance as interval targets for your "Hard", "Easy" and "Rest" efforts. The simple but highly configurable interface on your phone and watch will have you running sooner. Now with a Distance Goal option for your session. Along with great audio and visual feedback, detailed post-run summary, share your runs to Strava, and a full-featured Apple Watch app. You can also record your regular runs with voice-over calling out distance and pace feedback. Key Features: • Easily create flexible custom interval sessions. • Utilize three effort targets "Hard", "Easy" and "Rest" in each set, targeting time or distance (meters or miles). • You can "Skip" any of the three efforts to create flexible sets, like building a progressive intervals session. • NEW: Set a Distance Goal for your session, that repeats the sets from the start until the distance has been reached. • Set a Warm-Up and Warm-Down timer or distance around your session. • Clear and easily glanceable visuals and audio prompts, including vibrations. • Voice-over prompts to save you from looking at the screen, great for iPhone or headphone users. • Voice-over prompts include the upcoming intervals effort and time/distance amount, and your last intervals average pace and heart rate. • Full-featured Apple Watch App! • Heart Rate Zones! (see description below) • Indoor Mode, no GPS, for treadmill running. • Sound Mode, for normal, discrete or silent audio prompts on your watch. • Vibration feedback on both the phone and watch. • Detailed run summary, showing pace for hard and easy efforts. • The run summary also includes interval breakdown, distance breakdown and heart rate details. • Play music or podcasts while running and still hear the audio prompts. • Sharing. Share a summary photo with your friends. • Private data. We don’t send any of your data to a server or share it with anyone. Session Types: • Normal Run – Record a normal run, long or short. • Record Intervals – If you run with a group or do an undefined session, then use the Record Interval option. It allows you to manually change between "Hard" and "Easy" reps, allowing you to record your session. • Custom Intervals – Our fully flexible intervals that allow you to use time and/or distance for the efforts. Add multiple intervals sets together to create the session you want. Sharing: From the summary screen, you can share your runs with friends or across social media. If you want to share directly with friends or across other social media, you can share a summary image with the details of your run. Heart Rate Zones: (Apple Watch Only) Zones are displayed as grouped percentages of your maximum heart rate. Giving you an indication of your current work rate based on your current heart rate. Just enter your maximum workout heart rate into our Settings screen and they will display on your Watch the next time you run. Zone 1: Very Light Effort 50-60% (Gray) Zone 2: Light Effort 60-70% (Blue) Zone 3: Moderate Effort 70-80% (Green) Zone 4: Hard Effort 80-90% (Yellow) Zone 5: Maximum Effort 90-100% (Red) Privacy: We don’t want to know where you have run, that's for you to worry about. We don’t send any of your data to a server or share it with anyone you don't want too. We keep your running records safe in Apple Health so you have control. Apple Heath gives you the control over who accesses your data. We only write and read the data we record from your running. Feedback: And because we don't send any data to a server, we need you to send us feedback and suggestions. Hit the Support link below or visit our website to contact us.

Screenshots

Interval Timer4 screens
RUN interval4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: RUN interval at 77% against Interval Timer's 21%. RUN interval also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.5) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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. Interval Timer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and RUN interval sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

RUN interval holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 534 and 1K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 21% of Interval Timer's written reviews are positive against 77% of RUN interval's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Interval Timer versus RUN interval: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterInterval TimerRUN interval
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (534 ratings)4.7 (1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews21.1% of reviews77.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5341K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPod, Apple Watch
Requires iOS26.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB34 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRoma SosnovskyCAN YOU HEAR ME SOFTWARE

Customer experience

Interval Timer

All ratings534 ratings
Positive86.9%
Neutral3.4%
Negative9.7%
Written reviews95 reviews
Positive21.1%
Neutral8.4%
Negative70.5%

RUN interval

All ratings1,003 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral1.6%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews191 reviews
Positive77.5%
Neutral5.2%
Negative17.3%

Bugs and requests

Interval Timer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Timer resets or freezes during workout
  • Prompts not working when phone is locked or in pocket
  • Unexpected interval changes or duration changes
  • Compatibility issues with music playback

Requested features

6 requests
  • Option to pause/resume timer
  • Larger time remaining display
  • Apple Watch app
  • Ability to play audio prompts even with screen off
  • More interval options (run/walk/jog)
Show 1 more
  • Congratulatory audio cue at the end

RUN interval

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Interval Timer

Subscriptions2
  • Interval Run Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Interval Run Pro Annual7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Full Version$2.99
2 purchases

RUN interval

One-time2
  • The full RUN interval$1.99
  • The full RUN interval$3.99

Questions

Is Interval Timer free?
Interval Timer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RUN interval free?
RUN interval is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Interval Timer or RUN interval?
RUN interval is rated higher. Interval Timer averages 4.5 out of 5 from 534 ratings, while RUN interval averages 4.7 from 1K ratings.
Do Interval Timer or RUN interval have ads?
Neither Interval Timer nor RUN interval shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Interval Timer or RUN interval?
Interval Timer ships an update every 3 months, and RUN interval every 3 months. Most recently, Interval Timer was updated on September 27, 2026 and RUN interval on September 25, 2026.

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