Best MapMyWalk Alternatives in 2026: 8 Walking Apps Compared
The best MapMyWalk alternatives in 2026 depend on why you’re leaving. Apple’s built-in Workout and Fitness apps are the easiest swap if you’re on iPhone and don’t want to pay for anything. Strava is the closest match for MapMyWalk’s social side, Pacer for its challenges, Walkmeter for deep stats with live tracking included, and AllTrails for finding new places to walk. Below we compare eight options on price, Apple Watch support and route maps, with prices checked against each app’s official listing as of October 2026.
MapMyWalk shows up on nearly every “best walking apps” list (including ours), and it earned the spot. It’s built for walkers and the free version still does a lot. But it has changed hands and the best extras sit behind a subscription. So start with what MapMyWalk looks like today, then pick the replacement that fixes your actual complaint.
Who owns MapMyWalk now?
Not Under Armour anymore. Under Armour sold MapMyWalk, MapMyRun and MapMyRide to Outside Interactive (the company behind Outside magazine and the Outside+ membership) in a deal that closed on August 30, 2024. The App Store now lists the seller as Outside Television Inc, and the app is still updated often. Version 26.12.0 landed on October 6, 2026.
The core app hasn’t been gutted. According to the MapMyWalk App Store listing, the free version still gives you real-time GPS tracking with a map of your route, audio updates on pace, distance and calories, a Routes feature for finding and saving walks, challenges and badges, and sync with Apple Watch, Garmin and Apple Health. Garmin owners also get Form Coaching tips on their walking stride.
The paid tier is called MVP. It unlocks personalized walking and weight loss plans, Live Tracking (so friends and family can follow your walk in real time), heart rate zone analysis, custom splits and what the listing calls deeper insights. As of October 2026, that same listing shows Monthly MVP at $9.99 and Annual MVP at $39.99, alongside several older or discounted plans priced lower, including $29.99 a year and $6.99 a month.
One more thing if you already pay for Outside+. When the sale was announced, Outside said Outside+ members would get premium benefits in the MapMy apps as the integration rolled out. Check your Outside account before you pay for MVP separately.
So why do people leave? Usually it’s one of three things. They don’t want to pay for live tracking when other apps include it, they find the interface busier than a simple walk needs, or they never touch the social and challenge features. If any of that sounds familiar, one of the apps below will fit better.
MapMyWalk alternatives at a glance
| App | Best for | Price (US, as of October 2026) | Apple Watch | Routes and maps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Workout and Fitness | Paying nothing extra | Included with iPhone and Apple Watch | Yes (iPhone alone also works on iOS 26 and later) | Route map after each walk, no route planning |
| Strava | Keeping the social side | Free, subscription $11.99/mo or $79.99/yr | Yes | Popular route suggestions plus a route builder |
| Pacer | Challenges and all day step counting | Free, Premium $49.99/yr | Yes | GPS walk maps, nearby routes and parks |
| Walkmeter | Deep stats and live tracking | Free (basic recording, ads), Elite listed from $4.99 to $29.99 | Yes, records without the iPhone | Maps plus turn by turn navigation |
| Walking Distance Tracker by Vima | Simple GPS tracking, no social feed | $29.99/yr subscription | Yes, records without the iPhone | Route map color coded by speed, no route discovery |
| AllTrails | Finding new trails and routes | Free, Plus $35.99/yr, Peak $79.99/yr | Yes | Huge trail database, offline maps with Plus |
| StepsApp | Clean, simple step counting | Free, PRO yearly listed from $19.99 to $32.99 | Yes | GPS workouts with routes on PRO |
| Google Health (formerly Fitbit) | Fitbit and Pixel Watch owners | Free, Premium from $9.99/mo | No Apple Watch app | Not built around route maps |
Each price links to its official source below. The order isn’t a ranking; it’s grouped by the reason you’re switching, starting with the cheapest swap.
1. Apple Workout and Fitness: best if you don’t want to pay anything
If you have an iPhone, you might already own your MapMyWalk replacement. On Apple Watch, the Workout app records an Outdoor Walk with GPS, heart rate, pace and distance, and the route map shows up in the Fitness app on your phone afterward. You can even leave the phone at home and the watch syncs everything when you get back.
No watch? Since iOS 26, the Fitness app on iPhone can record workouts by itself. Apple’s support guide lists Outdoor Walk and Hiking among the workout types you can do with just an iPhone.
Why switch: It costs nothing beyond hardware you already own, and your walks land in Apple Health automatically.
The catch: There’s no route discovery, no route planning and no community challenges. The history view is built around rings and trends rather than a list of walks on a map, so if you liked browsing routes in MapMyWalk, you’ll miss that here.
2. Strava: best if you’ll miss the social side
If the community was your favorite part of MapMyWalk, Strava is the obvious move. Every walk becomes a post your friends can react to, and you can follow people and join challenges. Its Routes tool suggests popular routes based on de-identified Strava activity and lets you build your own, and Beacon shares your real-time location with people you choose while you’re out.
Price: The free version records your walks and runs the social feed. The subscription costs $11.99 a month or $79.99 a year according to Strava’s pricing page, and that’s where the advanced analytics and personalized insights live.
The catch: Strava’s heart is running and cycling, so walking can feel like a side activity. The annual subscription costs double MapMyWalk’s annual MVP. And because the app is social by design, review your privacy settings before logging walks that start at your front door.
3. Pacer: best for challenges and all day step counting
Pacer is a pedometer at heart, with a walking community built around it. It counts your steps all day using your phone’s motion sensors (no need to press start), maps outdoor walks with GPS when you want a route, and runs step and distance challenges with daily streaks and a league leaderboard. It also suggests routes, trails and parks near you.
Price: The basics cost nothing. Pacer Premium is listed at $49.99 a year on the Pacer App Store page as of October 2026, with a handful of other promotional tiers listed too. Premium adds personalized fitness plans, weight management tools and guided workouts.
The catch: Pacer is a step counter first and a GPS tracker second. If detailed maps of individual walks matter most, a GPS-first app will suit you better.
4. Walkmeter: best for stat lovers who want live tracking included
Walkmeter, from Abvio, is the opposite of minimal. Its features page promises more than 250 statistics, spoken stats on whatever schedule you set, built-in turn by turn navigation, and live tracking and messaging for friends and family included at no cost. That last one matters, because Live Tracking is one of the headline features of MapMyWalk’s MVP tier.
The Apple Watch app can record a walk on its own, and you can plan a route on the map and have Walkmeter speak each turn as you approach it.
Price: The no-cost version covers basic recording and shows ads. Elite, the subscription that unlocks intervals, zones, training plans and deeper split analysis, appears on the Walkmeter App Store page at several price points from $4.99 to $29.99 as of October 2026.
The catch: All that power comes with a lot of settings. If MapMyWalk felt busy, Walkmeter can feel busier until you trim the screens down.
5. Walking Distance Tracker by Vima: best for simple GPS tracking without a feed
Disclosure: Walking Distance Tracker by Vima is made by the team behind this blog.
Walking Distance Tracker by Vima (Vima Walk for short) is for walkers who want MapMyWalk’s map and stats without the feed, the challenges or the coaching. Tap start and walk. You get a GPS route map color coded by speed, plus distance, pace, time, altitude, splits, calories and your daily steps. Voice updates call out your progress at intervals you choose, shoe mileage tracking tells you when your walking shoes are wearing out, and walks sync to Apple Health.
Since July 2026, the Apple Watch app records walks fully standalone, with no iPhone nearby, and syncs everything afterward. It holds a 4.5 star rating from about 3,000 ratings on the App Store.
Price: $29.99 a year.
The catch: It’s a paid subscription, with no ad-supported tier. It’s iPhone and Apple Watch only, so Android walkers are out of luck. And there’s no route discovery, no community and no training plans, so if those were the parts of MapMyWalk you loved, Strava or Pacer is a better fit.
6. AllTrails: best for finding new places to walk
If MapMyWalk’s Routes feature was your favorite part, AllTrails does route discovery on a much bigger scale. It’s built around a massive database of trails with distance, elevation gain, photos and reviews, and it records your activity as you go. It works on Apple Watch too, with tiles and complications for starting and checking an activity.
Price: You can browse trails and record without paying. According to the AllTrails App Store listing as of October 2026, AllTrails Plus costs $35.99 a year and adds offline maps, wrong-turn alerts and live sharing. AllTrails Peak, at $79.99 a year, adds custom routes you can create or edit on the go plus heatmaps of recent trail activity. We broke down whether the AllTrails subscription is worth it if you’re on the fence.
The catch: It’s made for trails and parks, not your neighborhood loop, so it pairs best with a simpler tracker for everyday walks.
7. StepsApp: best for clean, simple step counting
StepsApp is a pedometer with a tidy design and an Apple Watch app. The no-cost version counts your steps and tracks progress toward your daily goal. GPS workout tracking with routes, advanced analytics and an ad-free experience come with PRO, and the listing says PRO members can track GPS workouts on Apple Watch as well.
Price: As of October 2026, the StepsApp App Store page lists PRO yearly plans from $19.99 to $32.99, plus monthly options.
The catch: Route mapping is part of the paid tier, so StepsApp suits people who mainly want a good step count more than people replacing MapMyWalk’s maps.
8. Google Health (formerly Fitbit): best if you wear a Fitbit or Pixel Watch
The Fitbit app is now the Google Health app, as the Google Store puts it. If you wear a Fitbit or Pixel Watch, this is where your steps, walks, heart rate and sleep end up, and the core app costs nothing.
Price: Google Health Premium starts at $9.99 a month on the Google Store as of October 2026. It adds the Gemini-powered Google Health Coach and personalized fitness plans.
The catch: There’s no Apple Watch app, so it only makes sense if you already own a Google or Fitbit device. It’s also a whole-health dashboard rather than a walking app, so don’t expect MapMyWalk-style route browsing.
Which MapMyWalk alternative should you choose?
Choose Apple Workout and Fitness if you’re on iPhone or Apple Watch and you want to stop paying for a walking app altogether.
Choose Strava if your friends are already there and a little social accountability is what gets you out the door.
Choose Pacer if daily step goals and challenges motivate you more than route maps do.
Choose Walkmeter if you want live tracking without a subscription and you enjoy digging into numbers.
Choose Vima Walk if you want a clean GPS map and stats on iPhone and Apple Watch, with no feed and no coaching.
Choose AllTrails if finding new trails and parks matters more than logging your daily walk.
Choose StepsApp if you mostly want a good-looking step counter.
Choose Google Health if you already wear a Fitbit or Pixel Watch.
Stay with MapMyWalk if you like its mix of maps, routes and challenges and the free version covers what you use. It’s still a solid app.
Not sure which features you actually need? Our guide to what to look for in a GPS walking tracker boils it down to a short checklist.
Before you cancel MapMyWalk MVP
If you subscribed through the App Store, cancel in your Apple Account subscription settings on the iPhone. Deleting the app doesn’t stop the billing.
Then run your new app alongside MapMyWalk for a week or two. Walk a loop you know well with both recording and compare the distances. If they’re close, you can trust the switch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns MapMyWalk in 2026?
Outside Interactive. Under Armour sold MapMyWalk, MapMyRun and MapMyRide to Outside in a deal that closed August 30, 2024, and the App Store now lists the seller as Outside Television Inc.
How much does MapMyWalk MVP cost?
As of October 2026, the App Store lists Monthly MVP at $9.99 and Annual MVP at $39.99, with some older or discounted plans priced lower. MVP adds Live Tracking, personalized plans, heart rate zone analysis and custom splits.
What’s the best free alternative to MapMyWalk?
On iPhone, Apple’s Workout app on Apple Watch or the Fitness app on iPhone (iOS 26 and later) records walks with GPS at no extra cost. Strava and Pacer also have capable free tiers if you want social features or challenges.
Which MapMyWalk alternative works best with Apple Watch?
Apple’s own Workout app is the default. Walkmeter and Vima Walk both have Apple Watch apps that record a walk with no iPhone nearby and sync afterward. Strava, Pacer, AllTrails and StepsApp have watch apps too. Google Health doesn’t.
The bottom line
MapMyWalk isn’t broken. It’s a capable app with a new owner and its best extras behind MVP. If you’re leaving, let your reason pick the replacement: Apple’s apps if you want to pay nothing, Strava for the community, Pacer for challenges, Walkmeter for every stat imaginable, and Vima Walk for a quiet, simple map of every walk on your phone and wrist.
Give whichever you pick a couple of weeks of real walks. The best walking app is the one you’ll actually open tomorrow morning.
Derek Clark
Co-founder of Vima Fitness. Building simple, privacy-focused fitness apps for iPhone and Apple Watch since 2011. Runner, cyclist, and firm believer that fitness apps shouldn't need a tutorial.