VDOT Running Calculator vs Runvas
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
VDOT Running Calculator
This app helps runners and coaches calculate training paces, equate race performances, and adjust for environmental factors. Based on decades of scientific research, it provides a VDOT score to measure running ability and compare performances across different distances.
- Calculate time, distance, and race paces
- Determine current training paces
- Equate race performances across distances
- Adjust paces for heat and altitude
- Measure running ability with VDOT score
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The official VDOT Running Calculator, designed by Dr. Jack Daniels - named World's Best Running Coach by Runner's World Magazine - and the team at VDOT O2. Thanks to over 50 years of scientific research conducted by legendary coach Dr. Jack Daniels, runners and coaches can quickly determine appropriate training paces, equate race performances and adjust for heat and altitude. Features: • Calculate time, distance and race paces • Calculate your current training paces • Calculate and compare the equivalent performances of a race result at other distances • Calculate the effect of temperature or altitude on training and race paces What's Your VDOT? VDOT is a measure of your current running ability. It assigns a score to all running performances, let's you determine your current training paces, and equates a race time in one distance to another. For instance, you can compare your VDOT score from a recent 5k result to a friend's score who just ran a half marathon. Who won? What VDOT Level Have You Reached? Input a race result or estimated performance and learn what score it reaches on the VDOT scale. Enter all your past performances to see which race result scores the highest. There are 10 levels starting at Beginner - White (Female: 34.3, Male: 36.8) all the way up to Professional - Gold (Female: 71, Male: 80).
Runvas
Transform words into custom running routes. Explore new areas and share your fitness journeys on social media. Keep your workouts engaging and exciting with unique, word-generated paths.
- Create running routes from words
- Explore new areas
- Share routes on social media
- Engaging fitness journeys
- Customized running paths
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Your run. Your canvas. Runvas turns running into an act of expression. Sketch any shape, trace a word, or let the app compose a route that fits your pace, then go run what you drew. This isn't another tracker that just counts miles. Runvas is the first running app built for people who want their route to mean something. Paint a heart through your neighborhood. Spell your kid's name across the park. Sign the city. — WHAT YOU CAN DO — • DRAW ANY SHAPE Tap, drag, or trace freehand. Runvas snaps your sketch onto real streets using walkable, runnable routes, with no illegal shortcuts through buildings. • WRITE WITH YOUR FEET Type a word and Runvas plots each letter across the map, sized to your target distance. • CHOOSE FROM A LIBRARY OF SHAPES Hearts, dinosaurs, lightning bolts, peace signs. Pick a shape, drop it anywhere, and it auto-sizes to hit your goal mileage. • TRAIN FOR YOUR RACE Pick a race (5K, 10K, half, marathon, or ultra), set your date and experience level, and Runvas builds a week-by-week plan. Each workout is a real route, drawn as the shape you'll trace. Skip a day and it redistributes the mileage across the week. Run two plans at once if you're training for more than one race. • SURPRISE ME Out of ideas? Tap once and Runvas drops a random shape on your city, then turns it into a route. • ADAPTIVE MUSIC Pace-matched soundtracks that follow your cadence as you run. Speed up and the BPM rises with you. • CINEMATIC RUN PREVIEW Watch your planned route animate before you step outside, with a globe-to-street flyover and a few camera modes. You'll know where you're going and how long it'll feel. • GPX EXPORT One tap sends your route to Strava, Garmin Connect, Apple Health, or your watch. Your art, your stats, everywhere you want them. • LAYERS Design a whole session. A warm-up letter, a main-event shape, a cool-down loop, stacked, saved, and runnable in any order. — WHY RUNVAS? — Most running apps ask you to care about splits. Runvas asks you to care about what you leave behind. Every route you run is a brushstroke on a map that nobody else will ever run the same way. You're not logging miles, you're making something. And when you're done, you've got a shareable piece of your city, traced in your own footsteps. — BUILT FOR — • Runners who've plateaued on the same 5K loop and want variety • Strava artists who want the drawing tool as good as the run itself • Anyone who runs for fun more than for finish times • Parents, couples, and friends who want to run meaningful routes for each other • Coaches and trainers looking for a creative way to hit weekly mileage — FREE. ADS BETWEEN GENERATIONS. OPTIONAL ONE-TIME UPGRADE. — Runvas is free to use, forever. A brief ad appears between every few generations. If you love it, a single one-time purchase removes ads for the lifetime of your account. No subscription. No surprises. — PRIVACY — Your routes live on your device and sync to your account, and that's it. We don't sell your location and we don't share your data. You can run Runvas without creating an account at all. — START PAINTING — Your city is waiting to be drawn on. Download Runvas, sketch something, and go run it. It's that simple. Questions, requests, or a cool route to share? Reach us at hello@runvas.app or @runvas on Instagram and TikTok.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Runvas at none against VDOT Running Calculator's 2. Runvas also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 4 months). VDOT Running Calculator's advantage is ratings volume (1.6K vs 4) and review sentiment (74% vs 60%). On price, rating 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
Both are free to download. VDOT Running Calculator sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Runvas asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for VDOT Running Calculator against 5.0 for Runvas. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: VDOT Running Calculator has 1.6K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of VDOT Running Calculator's written reviews are positive against 60% of Runvas's.
VDOT Running Calculator ships an update every 4 months, Runvas every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | VDOT Running Calculator | Runvas |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (1.6K ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.8% of reviews — better | 60.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.6K — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Run SMART Project, LLC | Ryan Temple |
Customer experience
VDOT Running Calculator
Runvas
Bugs and requests
VDOT Running Calculator
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when upgrading to premium
- Can't scroll beyond 200/400m results
- Custom distance doesn't support metric
Requested features
4 requests- Expand time field to support ultras
- Add 6k and 8k distances
- Allow inputting VDOT score directly
- Allow typing in times instead of scrolling
Runvas
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
VDOT Running Calculator
- VDOT Calculator Premium2 variants$8.99
Runvas
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is VDOT Running Calculator free?
Is Runvas free?
Which has better reviews, VDOT Running Calculator or Runvas?
Do VDOT Running Calculator or Runvas have ads?
Which is updated more often, VDOT Running Calculator or Runvas?
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