What do runners actually want from a tracking app?

Most runners fall into one of two camps. The first wants real-time GPS tracking during a run: live pace, heart rate, and automatic lap splits. The second wants to review their history: look back at past routes, compare paces across months, and see where they've been.

Strava tries to do both. That breadth is its strength and its weakness. If you only care about reviewing your lifetime of routes - not tracking in real time - you're paying for a lot of features you'll never use.

The apps below are grouped by what they're actually built for.

For reviewing your GPS history (no live tracking)

1. Best for lifetime maps

MoveMap

MoveMap reads your entire GPS workout history from Apple Health and draws every route on one map. It works with any app that writes to Apple Health - Strava, Garmin Connect, Nike Run Club, Apple Fitness, AllTrails - so you don't need to switch trackers. Routes are color-coded by year, with a timeline scrubber that lets you replay your running history month by month.

Standout features include country and city stats (total distance per place), a Year in Review export, and Ghost Lap - which overlays your earliest run of a route as a ghost trail when you revisit it.

Verdict: Best option if you want to see your whole running life on one beautiful map. Free tier covers the last 12 months; Pro unlocks the full lifetime view (or a one-time Lifetime unlock if you'd rather skip subscriptions).
2. Best for Garmin users

Garmin Connect

If you run with a Garmin device, Garmin Connect is the most detailed view of your Garmin data. The route replay, training load charts, and VO2 max estimates are hard to match. It's free with any Garmin device.

Verdict: Essential if you own Garmin hardware. Less useful if you mix devices or use your iPhone's GPS.
3. Best for Apple Watch users

Apple Fitness

The built-in Fitness app shows every workout recorded by your Apple Watch, including GPS maps for outdoor runs. The Trends section compares your current activity to 90 or 365-day averages. It's free, private, and doesn't require any setup.

Verdict: A solid default if all your workouts come from Apple Watch. No route-on-map visualization for full history, but great for per-workout detail.
MoveMap
See your lifetime of runs on one map.
Reads from Apple Health. No account. Free to try.
Download Free

For live GPS tracking during a run

4. Best free tracker

Nike Run Club

Nike Run Club (NRC) is free and syncs to Apple Health, which means everything you track with NRC will appear in MoveMap. Guided runs, achievement milestones, and a clean pace display make it a strong everyday tracker.

Verdict: Best free live tracker. Pair it with MoveMap to get the lifetime map view NRC doesn't offer.
5. Best for trail runners

AllTrails

AllTrails is the go-to app for hiking and trail running. The map library covers millions of trails globally with elevation profiles, user reviews, and offline download. Free tier is generous; Pro adds turn-by-turn navigation and more detailed maps.

Verdict: Unmatched for trail discovery and navigation. AllTrails syncs to Apple Health, so your hikes show up in MoveMap automatically.

Is Strava worth keeping at $80/year?

Strava is worth the price if you actively use segments, follow friends' activities, or rely on the social feed for motivation. The segment leaderboard ecosystem is genuinely unique - no other app has it.

If your main use is reviewing your own data and visualizing your routes, you can save $80/year by tracking with a free app (Nike Run Club, Apple Fitness, or Garmin Connect) and using MoveMap for the lifetime map view. Both sync through Apple Health with no manual export required.

Why is Apple Health the key to switching apps?

Every major running app on iPhone writes to Apple Health. That means you can switch trackers without losing your history. Your Strava runs, Garmin workouts, and Nike Club routes all appear in the same Health database - which is what apps like MoveMap read.

The practical upshot: you don't have to commit to one app. Track with whatever you prefer and use a visualization app like MoveMap to see the big picture.