step counter apps that are actually free

"Free" on the App Store means free to download, and almost every step counter qualifies. What differs is what happens next. Of thirteen checked here, four list no in-app purchases at all — Pedometer α, Steps — Simple Pedometer, STEPPI and Plod. The rest sell something inside, at prices running from 99¢ to about $50.

How this was checked

Apple's search interface doesn't report in-app purchases, so these figures come from each app's own App Store page, where the store lists its purchases and their prices. That makes them facts from the listing rather than a reading of the marketing text — which is the only reason this page is worth publishing.

One thing this cannot tell you: advertising. The App Store doesn't disclose ads at all. An app with no purchases can still be paid for by ads, and the listing will never say so. The reviews usually will. We're not going to imply otherwise just because the column looks clean.

What thirteen apps really cost

All thirteen are free to download. Prices are what the store listed on 17 August 2026; the highest figure is usually a lifetime unlock and the lowest a single small item, but the store doesn't label which is which.

What the prices say

Nothing about size predicts it. The app with no purchases and 168,000 ratings sits next to one with 32 ratings and six price points. Being big doesn't mean charging, and being tiny doesn't mean generous.

A wide spread usually means tiers, not one price. Six price points from $1.99 to $39.99 is a monthly, a yearly and a lifetime sitting in the same list.

Subscription or one-off — the names are the tell. This is the thing people search for most after the price itself, and the store does answer it, quietly: the purchase names sit right next to the prices. Weekly, Monthly, Yearly is a charge that comes back; Lifetime, Unlock, Forever is once. A list with both is offering you a choice, and the cheapest number in the range is almost always the recurring one. It is a hint rather than a contract — only the purchase sheet inside the app is binding — but it is the one you can read before you install anything.

The four with nothing to sell are worth a second look — but ask how they are paid for. A step counter costs its maker something to keep alive; if it isn't purchases, it is ads, or it is someone's hobby, or the app is drifting. All three happen, and only the first is visible from outside — though not from the listing. Step counters without ads covers the one place the store lets that slip.

Where we stand

Full disclosure: we're building one, and we haven't set a price. Angel Step is a step counter for iPhone whose daily goal is an angel number, shown as one number on a living sky with a widget that reads Apple Health itself. It isn't on the App Store yet, so it isn't in the table — and when it goes in, its prices go in with it, in this same column.

What we can say now, because it costs nothing to promise and is checkable the day we ship: no account, no analytics, and nothing sold to anyone. That part is written out on the privacy page, and what the app deliberately doesn't do is on about.

Sources

• In-app purchase presence and prices: each app's own App Store page, read 17 August 2026. Apple's search interface does not report purchases, which is why the pages themselves were used.
• Rating counts: the US App Store, same date.
• Advertising is not disclosed by the App Store and is therefore not in this table.
• The other two halves of this category: cute step counters and simple step counters.