Comparison

Exist vs The Way

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

Head to head
About

Exist

This app helps you understand and optimize your behavior by combining manual tracking with automatic syncing from various services. Track health, productivity, and more, uncover relationships between habits, and run experiments on your behavior. Gain daily insights and weekly summaries to improve your life.

Highlights
  • Track any data point manually
  • Automatic syncing from health and productivity services
  • Daily insights and weekly summaries
  • Discover correlations between habits
  • Run behavioral experiments
  • Integrates with Apple Health and other services
Read full description

THIS APP REQUIRES A PAID ACCOUNT. Signing up for a new account will start a 30-day free trial. After your trial, you can choose to purchase a subscription using in-app purchase if you wish to continue using Exist. By combining manual tracking with automatic syncing from other services, we can help you understand and optimise your behaviour. Track whatever you like. Bring your activity from your phone or fitness tracker, add other services like your calendar for greater context on what you're up to, and manually enter anything else you care about. Track everything in one place See numbers about things like your health, activity, productivity, social media, and local weather all together. Data syncs automatically from connected services, so your step count and time asleep are right next to manual data points, like your energy level and how many coffees you drank. But it's not just about raw numbers. We deliver extra context like daily insights on how you're going, track long-term trends and averages, uncover relationships, and send it all in a weekly summary email too. Which habits go together? Correlations are the most powerful part of Exist. By finding relationships in your data, we can help you answer questions like: “What makes me happiest?” “What can I do to be more active?” “When am I most productive?” Track anything you can think of Some things in life can’t be counted by your watch or fitness tracker. With Exist, you can create your own data points to track anything else you want. Use it as a habit tracker, keep a record of medications and symptoms, or track subjective measures like energy and stress levels. Run experiments on your behaviour, and Exist will confirm or rule out your hunches.You can enter data as a quantity, time period, scale from 1–9, percentage, or time of day. Or just add a tag to a day as a quick way to say "this happened". We support the following Apple Health data from your iPhone: * Steps, active minutes, floors, cycling distance, stand hours, active energy burned * Sleep * Food and water (energy intake, fat, protein, etc.) * Workouts * Heartrate (max., resting, average, HRV) * Weight, body fat percentage, lean mass * Mindfulness sessions * Alcoholic drinks * Sexual activity * Menstrual flow Other data you can sync from your iPhone: * Location (Exist will use this to track weather data for you) * Events from your calendar Exist works best when connected to other services — add even more data by connecting any of these: * Fitbit * Oura * Garmin * Withings * Strava * RescueTime * Todoist * Toggl * Instapaper * GitHub * iCal Calendars (Google, iCloud) * Swarm by Foursquare * last.fm * Weather from Apple Weather Take Exist with you on your iOS device and see all your metrics, wherever you are. If you choose to continue using Exist after your free trial, you will need to purchase a monthly auto-renewing subscription. The current price for an Exist monthly subscription is 7.99 USD. Price will depend on your local currency. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your Subscription and turn off auto-renewal by going to your Account Settings after purchase. Privacy policy: https://exist.io/privacy/ Terms of use: https://exist.io/page/terms/ This app uses software licensed under the MIT License. Note: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

About

The Way

This app offers a structured, single-path meditation training program led by an authorized Zen master. It guides users through key meditation practices to foster peace, insight, and awakening, with options for those who cannot afford the subscription.

Highlights
  • Single, linear meditation path
  • Guided by authorized Zen master
  • Explores Zen koans and non-dual awareness
  • Reduces stress and releases trauma
  • Uncovers gratitude and states of flow
  • Daily guided meditations and talks
Features
Read full description

THE WAY is a new kind of meditation app: a single path, led by an authorized Zen master, that guides you on a deep meditation training program. Study alongside Zen master Henry Shukman as you uncover the deep peace, love, insight and awakening that meditation can bring. The simple path to deeper meditation. With THE WAY, you will: *** Never feel overwhelmed by choice. The Way guides you step-by-step along a single, linear path through all the key areas of a deep and fulfilling meditation practice. You never have to worry about which meditation to choose. *** Experience real transformation and deep wellbeing. Progress along a proven pathway of meditation that helps you to awaken to the true nature of your mind, your self, and your relationship to the world. Explore Zen koans, non-dual awareness and other awakening techniques. *** Benefit from an authorized Zen Master as your guide. Study with a beloved teacher with over 35 years of meditation practice. Learn Henry Shukman’s innovative fusion of modern mindfulness, Jhana practice and Sanbo Zen teaching. HENRY SHUKMAN teaches mindfulness and awakening practices to a wide range of students from all traditions and walks of life. Henry is an authorized Zen Master in the Sanbo Zen lineage, and is the Spiritual Director of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His struggles and traumatic experiences as a youth, combined with a spontaneous awakening experience at 19, paved the way for Henry to develop a well-rounded approach to meditation. On the journey of THE WAY, you can learn to: *** Calm the nervous system, reduce stress on a daily basis and release trauma over time *** Uncover previously unknown support and gratitude in our lives *** Access beautiful states of flow and absorption during meditation *** Get tastes and glimpses of awakening - insights into your own true nature, and discovering what non-duality really means, and the deep freedom and joy it can give. THE WAY works through a series of daily guided meditations and talks along a single path of practice. Through these guided meditations you will explore with Zen Master Henry Shukman: teaching from ancient Buddhist traditions, finding peace and unconditional wellbeing in the heart of our lives, learning how to sit with and process negative emotions, healing from past traumas, uncovering deep joy in the bare fact of being alive, discovering a deep and connected presence, understanding insights into non-duality and awakening to the true nature of reality. All grounded in modern mindfulness and ancient Zen wisdom. SUBSCRIPTION AND SCHOLARSHIPS THE WAY is free to download and try out the pathway. You can manage your subscription from your Apple account settings. Payment will be charged to your Apple account. If you can’t afford the cost of the subscription, please let us know and we will arrange a free subscription to THE WAY for you through our scholarship program. Terms of service: https://www.thewayapp.com/legal/terms-conditions Privacy policy: https://www.thewayapp.com/legal/privacy-statement

Screenshots

Exist4 screens
The Way4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: The Way at 5.0 against Exist's 4.1. The Way also leads on monetization model (freemium vs subscription) and review sentiment (98% vs 68%). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Exist sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $8.49 per month and The Way sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

The Way holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Way has 3K ratings behind it against 46, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of Exist's written reviews are positive against 98% of The Way's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Exist ships an update every 3 weeks, The Way weekly. The most recent releases landed on June 9, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Exist versus The Way: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExistThe Way
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (46 ratings)5.0 (3K ratings) — better
Positive reviews68.4% of reviews98.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings463K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFreemium — better
Best chart rank#150 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB158 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHello Code Pty LtdThe Way App Inc

Customer experience

Exist

All ratings46 ratings
Positive76.1%
Neutral8.7%
Negative15.2%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive68.4%
Neutral5.3%
Negative26.3%

The Way

All ratings2,956 ratings
Positive99.3%
Neutral0.3%
Negative0.4%
Written reviews395 reviews
Positive98.2%
Neutral0.3%
Negative1.5%

Bugs and requests

Exist

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

The Way

Reported bugs

1 issue
  • Clunky and lost progress

Requested features

1 request
  • Customizable meditation length

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Exist

Subscriptions1
  • Exist monthly subscription$8.491 Month
10 purchases

The Way

Subscriptions7
  • Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription$12.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription1 Month trial$99.991 Year
  • Annual Subscription$99.991 Year
  • Family Subscription$139.991 Year
One-time3
  • 3-Month Gift Subscription$29.99
  • 12-Month Gift Subscription$99.99
  • Lifetime Gift Subscription$699.99

Questions

Is Exist free?
Exist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is The Way free?
The Way is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Exist or The Way?
The Way is rated higher. Exist averages 4.1 out of 5 from 46 ratings, while The Way averages 5.0 from 3K ratings.
Do Exist or The Way have ads?
Neither Exist nor The Way shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Exist or The Way?
Exist ships an update every 3 weeks, and The Way weekly. Most recently, Exist was updated on June 9, 2026 and The Way on September 23, 2026.

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