Pedometer apps can help us efficiently fight sedentary behavior. They allow us to set fitness goals for ourselves, provide insight into the progress made and give us the necessary motivation to stay active.
Taking advantage of the built-in motion coprocessor in the iPhone, they provide us with a useful set of data regarding our physical activity, are super easy to use, work indoors as well and are quite gentle with our battery life. In comparison, if you want to use GPS-based apps to track your daily activity, you can expect a significant impact on your battery and not so accurate results when used indoors.
You can use any of the following apps to measure your daily movement without worrying that they’ll drain your iPhone’s battery:
ActivityTracker
ActivityTracker is a pedometer app for iPhone created to automatically keep track of your all-day activity. The app comes with a modern and intuitive interface and therefore it will take you little time to familiarize yourself with the way it works.
ActivityTracker can monitor the steps taken, distance covered, active time, total calories burned and flights of stairs climbed. To maintain your motivation at a higher level, the app enables you to set a weekly target and shows you a daily goal based on that target. You’re free to set the target for the metric that’s most relevant to your needs: steps, distance or calories. You can check your progress on an hourly basis and also visualize totals and averages for your daily, weekly and monthly activities.
For a quick look at your progress, ActivityTracker offers a Today widget with customizable stats. You can also take advantage of the app badge, which displays your daily step count directly over the app icon. Additionally you’ll find useful options to import your history from Apple Health, export your data to another device, sync steps between your iPhone, Apple Watch and Health app and share your results with friends and followers.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $14.99/year)
- Requirements: iOS 12.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Pedometer++
Pedometer++ is the oldest app in the App Store that uses the motion processor, which means it has a minimum impact on your battery life. This iPhone step tracker does offer though a map-based workout mode, available even on your Apple Watch, to record your outdoor activities. The interface is pretty simple and is primarily focused on your step count. In the main view you can see the number of steps taken for the day, as well as graphs for the last seven days.
You can use the app to measure your steps, the duration, the distance walked, calories burned or your speed and pace if GPS is enabled. Pedometer++ gives you the opportunity to analyze your progress from the iPhone app, as well as from the numerous widgets available. The app lets you set a daily step goal and offers rewards when you reach specific milestones, such as daily floors, lifetime steps or lifetime distance.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $19.99/year)
- Requirements: iOS 15.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Pacer
Pacer is designed to help you lose weight by being more physically active. The app can keep track not only of your daily steps, but also of your weight and BMI, and provide advanced insights and detailed statistics about your progress in time. At the same time, you can benefit from fitness plans based on your individual needs and guided video workouts.
Pacer tracks your steps with the aid of the motion co-processor in your iPhone, but it also allows you to activate GPS and monitor more activities, including hiking, running and cycling, on a map. To make exercise more exciting, the app gives you the possibility to enter diverse activity challenges, to create walking groups with friends and family and compare results in real time.
Pacer has options to sync steps and calories with MyFitnessPal and sync your fitness data to Apple Health. The app also offers multiple activity widgets to quickly see your weekly steps or your progress towards the daily goal.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $49.99/year)
- Requirements: iOS 11.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Pedometer α
Pedometer α is an easy-to-use pedometer app developed to help you get in shape. Once you tap on the Start button, the app will begin to record your activity and will keep you up-to-date with the progress made. You’ll be able to see how much you’ve walked during the day, how much time you’ve been active, how many calories you’ve burned and also your average speed per hour.
To motivate you to move more, Pedometer α offers the opportunity to set a personal step goal and lets you visualize your progress through various report graphs. Simply tap on the report graph, and the app will display fitness data for a certain time interval. If you’d like to customize the interface, it’s good to know you can change the appearance of the app by choosing from 19 different types of themes.
- Price: Free (Contains Ads)
- Requirements: iOS 11.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Steps
If you don’t want something complicated, Steps may be the right solution for you. The app comes with a simple design and leaves no room for confusion. Your step count is clearly highlighted in the main view, while below that number you can see how much you’ve got left (in percentage) until you reach your daily goal.
You can keep track of all the major fitness metrics and resort to Siri and Shortcuts to quickly find out your daily results. Steps places at your disposal summaries of your physical activity and allows you to see and share your entire history. The app offers various widgets to choose from and integrates with Apple Health and Apple Watch. You also have an option to enable GPS and track your walking route on a map.
- Price: Free (IAP: $1.99)
- Requirements: iOS 14.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
StepUp
StepUp is an option to consider if you want to add a social component to your step tracking. The app gives you the opportunity to invite friends to step competitions, challenge one another and see who’s walking more today or who’s got the overall lead. It’s important to mention that a Google, Apple or Facebook account is required in order to invite friends and family to join in.
In terms of tracking, StepUp uses the motion coprocessor in your iPhone and never resorts to GPS. The app allows you to set your own goals, to see your daily and weekly achievements and create streaks. There’s also an option available to sync steps with fitness gadgets and apps compatible with Apple Health, such as the Apple Watch, Jawbone, Withings or Google Fit. A noteworthy fact is that StepUp is entirely free and contains no ads.
- Price: Free (Tip the developer: $4.00 – $5.00)
- Requirements: iOS 13.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Accupedo
If you’re a fan of graphic charts, history logs and plenty of fitness stats, this is definitely worth a try. Accupedo is designed to automatically track your daily movement and provide as many details as possible regarding your progress. You can use it as a classic pedometer, but you also have the possibility to activate GPS and visualize your walking, running or biking route on a map.
With Accupedo you can monitor various metrics, from your step count to the miles covered and speed. You can view a daily log, as well as analyze your entire history: each day, week, month and year. The app provides inspirational quotes and smart messages to increase your motivation and help you stay on track. You can use the Today widget for a quick view at your progress and share your achievements on social networks.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $9.99/year)
- Requirements: iOS 15.1 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Steps+
Steps+ is another app that provides plenty of details regarding your physical activity. The app lets you see your activity by hour for any given day, overview your weekly, monthly and yearly totals and also visualize averages for specific time intervals. The interface though isn’t the most simple to navigate and may feel cluttered in comparison to other similar apps.
Steps+ allows you to set a daily goal for either the number of steps or the calories burned, shows your progress towards that goal for each day and notifies you when you’ve reached it. You can sync the app with Apple Health and import your step history. Steps+ comes with a Today widget and offers the possibility to share results from any given day. An interesting feature is the fact that you can delete activity data after 30 or 90 days.
- Price: Free (Subscription: $9.99/year)
- Requirements: iOS 13.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Step Counter Maipo
Step Counter Maipo is an simple-to-use pedometer for iPhone. The app is quite easy to set up and places at your disposal nine theme colors to select from. An interesting feature is the fact that it can display your step count in the form of a calendar, with colorful graphic charts for the daily activity.
In addition to the steps taken, the app records your distance, the active time and the calories burned. The influence on your iPhone’s battery is minimum, given the fact that Step Counter Maipo takes advantage of the integrated motion sensors. The app can be synched with Apple Health and offers a home screen widget to quickly see your stats for the day.
- Price: Free (IAP $2.99)
- Requirements: iOS 13.0 or later
- Download Link: App Store
Walk More
Walk More is a simple app to track your walking activity throughout the day. This basic pedometer uses the motion coprocessor to record your movement and monitors three fitness metrics: your step count, the distance walked and the floors climbed.
The app enables you to set a daily goal and visualize your progress towards that goal in the Notification Center widget. You can take a look at your activity in the last seven days and also view interesting stats, such as the most steps taken, the longest distance or the most floors climbed in a single day. There’s also an option to share with others your results.
- Price: Free (Remove Ads: $0.99)
- Requirements: iOS 12.1 or later
- Download Link: App Store
