← Blog

Sparky vs Steppin: Counted Steps or Reported Habits

November 1, 2026

I build Sparky, and this is the comparison where Sparky loses the most rows. The short answer: Steppin trades steps for screen time, counts them with your phone’s own sensors, costs nothing and collects no data. Sparky trades any habit for screen time, counts nothing and sells a Pro tier. Pick Steppin if walking is the habit you want to build. Pick Sparky only if the habits that matter to you are not walking.

What does Steppin do?

Steppin locks the apps you pick and unlocks them as you walk. The default rate is 100 steps for 1 minute, and you can make it easier or harder. Steps come from the iPhone’s step counter or Apple Health, so a sensor does the counting, not you. At the default, an hour of scrolling costs 6,000 steps.

Those details come from Steppin’s App Store listing, version 2.2.10 from 1 October 2026, and from steppin.net, both checked 4 October 2026. The homepage says “100 steps buys a minute by default. Make it easier or harder, your call.” It also says you “can override any lock instantly”, so Steppin is a nudge you agree to, not a cage.

Apple’s own Screen Time sits underneath both apps and does the locking half for free. If a daily limit holds you, start there. Steppin and Sparky exist for people who keep tapping “Ignore Limit.” Both sit in a wider field of earn-your-time apps, mapped in our earned screen time guide.

Is Steppin really free?

Yes, as of 4 October 2026. The listing shows no in-app purchases at all, and the homepage says “There is no paid tier, no subscription, and no trial that expires.” Version 2.2, released on 27 May 2026, made the change: “Steppin Pro features are now free for all users.” Steppin did not start out that way.

Here is that trail, in order:

• January 2025: Steppin launched free. TechCrunch reported a planned annual subscription “around $20.”
• 12 January 2026: the version 2.1 notes describe Steppin Pro, with separate limits for apps and websites, and mention users from “before subscriptions were introduced.”
• 27 May 2026: version 2.2 makes Pro free for everyone.
• 4 October 2026: the Steppin FAQ still lists a question from people who “paid for Steppin Pro”, asking “how do I get a refund now that it’s free?”

The FAQ answer did not load when I checked, so I cannot tell you what Steppin says back. The question alone tells you the free turn was recent, and that some people paid before it.

Where does Sparky lose to Steppin?

On almost every row a careful buyer checks first. Steppin is free, and Sparky sells Pro at $8.99 a month, $59.99 a year or $129.99 once. Steppin’s privacy label says “Data Not Collected”, and Sparky’s declares tracking. Steppin is 43.4 MB, and Sparky is 59.9 MB. Steppin runs on iOS 18.6, and Sparky needs iOS 26.0.

Sparky’s label lists Purchases, Identifiers and Usage Data as data used to track you. Steppin’s homepage puts its own position bluntly: “Your steps and screen time never leave your phone, because there is no server for them to go to.” I cannot match that sentence, and I would rather say so than bury it.

The bigger gap is verification. Sparky 1.6, the App Store build on 4 October 2026 (build 30, commit bc5163bc), has no step counting at all. Its code imports neither Apple’s HealthKit nor its Core Motion framework, so the Move habit is a tap on your word. Steppin’s minutes come from steps a sensor saw. Sparky’s come from check-ins nobody saw.

Steppin is also on Android, per its homepage. Sparky is not.

Where does Sparky fit better than Steppin?

Sparky fits when the habit you want rewarded is not walking. In Sparky 1.6, a glass of water pays 1 Energy, Read or Learn pays 5 per check-in, and Sleep Wind Down pays 10. One Energy buys one minute. Steppin pays for steps only, which does not help if your bad hours start on the couch at 10 p.m.

The full Sparky price list, with its bonuses and daily caps, is in Sparky vs LockedIn. The short version: no default habit pays more than 10 Energy a day, and unused session minutes go back to your bank.

There is a cost to that breadth. A step count is hard to fake by accident. A habit list is easy to fake on purpose. Sparky’s bet is that a quiet lie to yourself is still a moment of friction. Steppin’s bet is that a sensor should settle it. I think Steppin’s bet is the safer one for most people. The same question comes up with Clearspace’s pushups, though Clearspace does not say how it counts them.

Does a step price actually change behaviour?

Nobody has published a trial of Steppin or of Sparky. The best evidence in the category is about friction in general. In the PNAS study of the one sec app, 280 people over 6 weeks closed the target app on 36% of their attempts after a pop-up interrupted them.

Co-author Frederik Riedel is the originator of one sec, as the paper discloses, so read that result with his stake in mind. Steppin publishes one number of its own. Its homepage says 28% of users are “still active at 30 days”, with no method or sample size. Treat that as a company claim. Sparky publishes no retention number at all, and our evidence write-up explains why no app here has an outcome trial yet.

Which one should you pick?

Pick Steppin if walking is the habit, which for many people it is. It is free, it counts for you, and its privacy label says it collects nothing. Pick Sparky if the habits you want to reward happen sitting down, and you are willing to be trusted with the taps. Both lock the same apps through the same Apple framework.

Pick Steppin if you can. It does one trade, it does it with a sensor, and it asks nothing of you but a walk. Check that your iPhone runs iOS 18.6 or later, then set the rate and go.

If walking is your habit and you want it to feel like a game rather than a gate, there is one more option, and I have a stake in it too. Chonky Corgo is made by the same developer as Sparky. It is a walking RPG for iPhone and Apple Watch where every 250 steps charges an attack on a daily monster. It does not lock any apps. It is free with optional purchases, and like Sparky, its privacy label declares tracking.

Pick Sparky if your list is water, reading, teeth and an early night, none of which a step counter will ever see.

Sparky turns small habits into screen time you earn. Download it free on the App Store.