Tracking Your Runs: Runkeeper vs. iMapMyRun

Posted by: Spencer // May 13 2010

Ever since I got on a weight loss kick, I’ve been getting out to walk and ride my bike for exercise. Being a techo geek, I’ve been using my iPhone and one of two apps to track my distances, routes, and times. Keeping track of your exercises is a great way to measure your progress. Since the iPhone has an active Internet connection and GPS along with a built-in iPod, this makes it a perfect workout partner. So which app did I like? Here are a few of my thoughts.

First off, here are a few standard features that each apps share:

Music will play in the background while the app tracks your workout
GPS tracking of your route
Tracking of workouts on a connected website
Linked to your Facebook and Twitter accounts to update your friends

iMapMyRun (iPhone) – This is the first app I used and it does the basics, but after a while, I couldn’t get past its deficiencies. First off it was a little buggy – music skips through the songs while the app runs and crashes from time to time. Running an iPhone 3G, I’m used to some crashes, but comparing this to other apps of the same ilk, I realized this app was buggier than I should expect. The other thing is a minor annoyance – the app cost $2, but even though you pay for the app, there are ads. At $2, you’re not paying much, but to pay and get ads is wrong. The website is even worse - the site is busy and hard not very intuitive, and the ads on the site get in the way of using the site.

Runkeeper (iPhone and Android) – When I tired of iMapMyRun, I tried Runkeeper. It has all the things I liked about MapMyRun but where that app fails, Runkeeper excels. The app is very stable – I’ve had one crash in the time I’ve used it. Secondly, there are two versions – a free ad supported version and a paid ad free version. The ad free version has a couple more features (iPod control within the app, target pace, audio cues, and geo-tagged photos), but even with the ads, the app and the supporting website are very cleanly design, the ads never get in the way of usage. Even though the pro version is $10, they’ve whet my appetite, and I’m willing to spend a few extra dollars for an application that works properly.

There are other apps that do the same thing as these two, but these are two of the best. If you were to go by the name of the apps, you’d think that these apps do one thing – but you can use each for cycling, running, and walking. One thing to note – using these apps, with GPS running and music blaring can be hell on your battery life. If you’re going to use them - I suggest making sure your iPhone is fully charged.

There you go – your iPhone keeping you on track. Let me know your thoughts and comments. Also let me know if you have other suggestions (especially Android owners).

See you on the trails.

Update: It appears that MapMyRide is testing a beta site that would address all the noise on the current site. I haven't used it, but will try it out soon.

Read More: