Outstep vs StepUp: Which Step Challenge App Should Your Group Use?
The short answer
Pick StepUp if you want a free, simple leaderboard for a very large group (up to 15,000 people) and don't mind ads. Pick Outstep if your group wants a real competition: an alert the second someone passes you, formats like Group target, Race to X, Survivor and team challenges, no ads, and Strict mode to stop phone-shaking and copied steps. Outstep's free plan is smaller (3 groups of 8); Group Premium raises that to 50–500 people.
On this page
StepUp and Outstep both turn your daily steps into a group leaderboard, and both work across iPhone and Android. They differ in what happens after the leaderboard: how often it changes hands, what kinds of challenges you can run, and how much you can trust the numbers on it.
We make Outstep, so read this knowing that. We've tried to be straight about where StepUp is the better choice, and every StepUp fact below comes from its own website, FAQ, privacy policy or store listing, checked on October 19, 2026.
One naming note: Outstep has a challenge format called "Step Up" (beat your own baseline). In this article, StepUp always means the app.
Outstep vs StepUp at a glance
| Outstep | StepUp | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; Outstep Plus $2.99/mo; Group Premium from $6.99/mo | Free with ads; optional one-time "Support StepUp" purchases ($1–$25) to go ad-free |
| Ads | None | Yes, on the free version |
| Group size | 8 free; 50, 100, 250 or 500 with Group Premium | Up to 15,000, free |
| Leaderboards | Daily, Yesterday, Weekly (Mon–Sun), Monthly | Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or a custom date range |
| Alert when someone passes you | Yes, live, both ways | Not documented |
| Challenge formats | Leaderboard, Group target, Race to X (free); Survivor, Step Up and teams (Group Premium) | Leaderboard over a custom date range; Mystery Mode hides counts until the next day |
| Team vs team | Yes, 2–6 teams (Group Premium) | No |
| Manually entered steps | Never count | Blocked |
| Phone-shaking and copied-step protection | Strict mode and hour-by-hour Step audit (Group Premium) | None documented |
| Chat | Reactions only (fire, muscle, turtle) | Group chat, DMs, photos and GIFs |
| Rankings beyond your group | City, region and country | Country and global |
| Platforms | iPhone, Android, iOS widget | iPhone, Apple Watch app, Android, widgets |
Where StepUp wins
Huge free groups. StepUp groups hold up to 15,000 people for free. If you're running a school, a big online community or a company-wide leaderboard with no budget, nothing in Outstep's free plan comes close; you'd need Group Premium's 500-member plan, and even that's smaller.
It's free, with no feature paywall. StepUp has no subscription. Every feature is free, paid for by ads, and a small one-time purchase removes them.
Chat. StepUp has group chat, direct messages, photos and GIFs. Outstep keeps the social layer light: you react to people's days with a fire, muscle or turtle, and the leaderboard does the talking.
Track record. StepUp has been on the App Store since 2015 and has over 145,000 ratings averaging 4.8. It's a proven app, and it has an Apple Watch app with complications.
Mystery Mode and bots. StepUp can hide today's counts until tomorrow, and you can add pacing bots to a group so a small group has someone to beat.
Where Outstep wins
You know the second someone passes you. This is the reason Outstep exists. When a friend overtakes you on the daily or weekly board, you both get a notification, and a "closest battle" alert fires when two people are within 500 steps. StepUp's FAQ says its leaderboards update automatically, but it doesn't describe overtake alerts.
Challenges, not just leaderboards. StepUp gives you one kind of competition: most steps over a period. Outstep's free plan adds Group target (everyone pools steps toward one shared goal) and Race to X (first to a total wins). Group Premium adds:
- Survivor: a daily bar that rises every day; miss it and you lose a life, then you're out.
- Step Up: each day scores your steps against your own 30-day baseline, so a 6,000-step walker can beat a 15,000-step walker by improving more.
- Team challenges with 2 to 6 teams, balanced automatically by recent steps. StepUp's FAQ says it doesn't do group-vs-group leaderboards.
Fair competitions. Both apps refuse manually added steps. But StepUp publishes no protection against the other tricks: shaking a phone, or steps copied in from another app. A Reddit user described exactly that in a 2026 work challenge on StepUp: one person "was just shaking it all day long". Outstep's Group Premium has Strict mode, which only counts steps the phone or watch recorded itself, and Step audit, which shows each person's steps hour by hour and flags hours over 10,000 steps, days over 50,000 and suspiciously steady hours. More in our guide to stopping cheating in a step challenge.
No ads. Outstep's free plan has none.
Seasons and medals. Every group plays the same 8-week season, earning points for hitting personal targets, beating your own median, overtaking people and winning boards. It gives slower walkers a way to score.
Calendar weeks. Outstep's weekly board runs Monday to Sunday, so everyone starts the week at zero together.
Sync: both depend on your phone
Neither app can promise instant numbers. StepUp's FAQ says background reading "doesn't work if the app is killed or your phone is in low power mode", and reviewers often mention Garmin and Fitbit counts lagging. Outstep also syncs on open and in the background, within what iOS and Android allow; on Android, background sync needs Android 14 or later. If your group lives on Garmin or Fitbit, check that the watch's app is writing to Apple Health or Health Connect before you start.
Pricing compared
StepUp is free with ads, and the ad-free purchase is a one-time payment.
Outstep is free for up to 3 groups of 8 people, with no ads. The paid plans are:
- Outstep Plus: $2.99/month or $24.99/year, for your full personal stats and history.
- Group Premium: $6.99/month or $49.99/year for groups of 50, with every challenge format, teams, Strict mode and unlimited challenges. 100-, 250- and 500-member plans cost more. One member backing the group gives everyone in it these perks.
Which should you choose?
- A family or friend group of up to 8 who want to compete properly: Outstep's free plan.
- A competitive group of up to 50, or a team challenge at work: Outstep with Group Premium.
- A very large, casual, zero-budget group: StepUp.
- A group that mainly wants to chat: StepUp.
Looking further afield? See our round-up of StepUp alternatives and the best step challenge apps of 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is StepUp really free?
Yes. StepUp's FAQ says it is "completely FREE" with no subscription; it shows ads and offers optional one-time purchases to go ad-free. Outstep is also free, without ads, and has optional subscriptions for bigger groups and extra formats.
Does StepUp tell you when someone passes you?
StepUp's FAQ and store listing don't describe overtake notifications. Outstep sends one to both people the moment the lead changes on a daily or weekly board, plus an alert when two people are within 500 steps.
Can StepUp do team challenges?
Not directly. StepUp's FAQ says it doesn't show group-vs-group leaderboards and suggests one group per team as a workaround. Outstep's Group Premium runs team challenges with 2 to 6 teams in one group.
Which app is better for a big group?
For a very large free group, StepUp: groups hold up to 15,000 people. Outstep's free groups hold 8, and Group Premium plans hold 50, 100, 250 or 500.
Can people cheat in StepUp?
StepUp blocks manually added steps, but it doesn't publish any protection against phone shaking or steps copied from other apps, and users have reported both. Outstep's Strict mode only counts steps recorded by the phone or watch itself.
Do iPhone and Android users work together in both apps?
Yes. Both read Apple Health on iPhone and Health Connect on Android, so mixed groups work in either.
Sources
- StepUp website and FAQ (StepUp)
- StepUp privacy policy (StepUp)
- StepUp on the App Store (Apple App Store)
- StepUp on Google Play (Google Play)
- Steps challenge at work, r/walking (Reddit)