WorkOutDoors Reviews

I’ve used WOD for a month now and have yet to get it work like I want it to. I don’t consider myself computer illiterate but WorkOutDoors has so many settings without any documentation saying what a setting does is mind boggling. Every time I make a change I have to do a run to test it out, if it doesn’t work like I expected I have to wait for the next day to test again. The developer knows in his mind what a setting does but there’s no documentation as to what the setting abbreviations mean. The only way to find out is to try it, this means another run to see what a setting does. There’s so many settings it would take a lifetime of test runs to figure them all out. I’m sure WorkOutDoors is great but without documentation WorkOutDoors is close to useless. At least I get benefit from the basic Apple Workout app, so far over the past month I haven’t received any useful info from WOD. I spend most of my running time stopping to screw with settings when I should be running.

I’ll let my monthly subscription run out and cancel it and go back to the Apple Workout app. At least that app gives me useful info and I’m not spending all my time tweaking settings.

My frustration level with WOD is maxed out

Apps like this have a pretty high bar to meet for stability. For most people that would use WorkOutDoors, it is a means to augment functionality in Apple’s Workout app. In that area it does well. My ONLY reason for selecting WorkOutDoors was to gain the ability to add other sensors that Apple does not add. (Specifically my power meter for cycling.) WorkOutDoors did that perfectly. (With a caveat I will note in a bit.)

However, the features mean absolutely nothing if WorkOutDoors isn’t stable. Sadly, WorkOutDoors is not in its current version. About fourteen miles into my bike ride today, WorkOutDoors crashed. That means that the rest of my ride wasn’t tracked. This negates any of the pretty features, as I noted earlier. With that said, I would avoid WorkOutDoors if you are someone who cares about having your full workout tracked. (Which I assume is the majority of users of WorkOutDoors .)

As for the power meter sensor, I found that the time WorkOutDoors did track my workout it failed to leverage and represent the power meter data accurately. I had it displaying my average during the workout. It overstated my average by about 8-10 watts. My power meter is both Ant+ and Bluetooth enabled. The average shown on my bike computer was the baseline; it leveraged Ant+, the Apple Watch leveraged the Bluetooth connection.

So, the kiss of death for WorkOutDoors was the crash and ultimate loss of a portion of my workout. It just isn’t usable without reliability, and therefore not worth purchasing. (I wouldn’t personally use it even if it was free.)

This is an exceptional app, especially on the iWatch Ultra! The amount of information that you are able to see while participating in whatever activity you are passionate about is truly invaluable, and it gave me an insight into data that I never really thought about. I will admit, for those who are not experienced with interpreting this type of data can be intimidated and overwhelmed, but that’s what is so fascinating about WorkOutDoors because it actually encouraged me to do more research and learn about what this data means so I am more informed as an athlete while allowing me lead more efficient workouts. That said, the screens are endlessly customizable so the information that you can see is always at visible in a clear and easy to read layout!

I will add that if the developers are reading this I would like a more features that test my v02 max, analyze my recovery periods, and sleep while providing that in maybe a morning notification so I can see how my training is going and where I need to improve. I am not an ultra athlete so I don’t need something like a Garmin, but I did like a lot of those forward looking metrics that provide me with some predictive analysis as opposed having to input that information onto a another app to synthesize that information. Overall, this is a very good app and in love with the functionality.

Super promising. Great reviews. My earlier review is below. Turns out I’m an idiot. The 45 degree compensation thing was throwing me off. Changed to 0 and all is better.

Went on two hikes so far. The data is great! The maps lacked trails in my hiking spot, which is a little disappointing. Gaia and AllTrails have trail routes marked on their maps. Not sure why this app doesn’t have the trails. Can I add new map sources?

Anyway, the data is great. Will continue to experiment on future hikes.

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The dealbreaker for me is that the map won’t show my current forward orientation. Other similar apps show your position on the map with your gps position locked pointing forward, and when you turn, the map turns, not the pointer. This is nice because you always see what’s ahead of you at the top of the map. There are map settings to rotate the map, but as far as I can tell, they don’t do a thing. In fact, a few times I made a change, only to return to the setting screen to find that it had been reset?! Is this a bug? Am I’m doing something wrong? I can’t tell… but I play with a lot of these types of apps and haven’t run into something like this. I’m using an XS Max and a Series 5. I’ll keep an eye on this and continue to play around. I’ll def update if it’s due to my misunderstanding. Thanks for reading.

I got a S3 Apple Watch recently and I like the basic functionalities provided by a few native apps but the main problem I have with the smart watches in general is I don’t find any other apps particularly useful on watch. I rarely find myself prefer to use the watch version of WorkOutDoors when I have the phone. I am very glad I found WorkOutDoors though since it actually provided added utility to the watch when i am outdoor either doing exercise or hiking. The transfer of map from iPhone to watch is especially cool since you don’t need the phone around to look at the map on the watch. It basically replaced my native watch exercise app whenever I am outdoor. I liked it so much that I gifted one to my wife so she had to try it out. I’m not 100% how much battery it uses compared to the native app but so far seems alright.

WorkOutDoors has just about every feature you could think of. It allows offline maps data to be downloaded to the Apple Watch so you can use the maps without an internet connection. It is very useful when running in unfamiliar areas and helps me to get around.

There are all sorts of workout modes. The developer support is also top quality and he responded to my request in what must have been under an hour. He was very helpful and gave easy instructions to access the feature I was asking for, which was the ability to use maps on the Apple Watch without starting a workout.

You can customize just about everything in WorkOutDoors, even more so than Apple’s Workout app. There are tons of notification options for all different events, and you have options between haptic, voice, and more.

This is a MUST HAVE application for any serious runner. And is an absolute steal at the one time $5.99 price.

The amount of customization and accuracy is unbelievable and blows the competition out of the water. Every other application I have tried has reported inaccurate distance on long runs and it’s a black box so your only option is to contact support and then get some useless excuse answer typically passing blame back to the user.

With this application there is full customization of how information is collected and full transparency. For example you can see your current pace/speed while running as calculated by the pedometer vs GPS (and yes the numbers typically won’t lineup as expected). And when examining a completed run you can see exactly how good/bad your GPS signal was at every step of your run which is key for diagnosing any inaccuracies.

Examining completed workouts is extremely simple. All information is available on a single page with minimal user input to find what you want. Easily one of the best user interfaces I have EVER seen on ANY application on ANY platform.

The only thing “missing” is no social aspect like others have. But this is not a bad thing as it seamlessly allow you to share your workout to Strava directly from your watch. And if you need to transfer the workout to other platforms you can manually export any format or use another tool like RunGap. Personally I like that it does not try to get involved in the social network aspect. It does one thing exceptionally well so leave it at that. And let the jack of trades competitors be “average” because they try to do too many things (and do none of them exceptional).

I have been using an Apple Watch for a few years now and love the overall functionality as a smart watch but it leaves a lot to be desired for tracking anything but the basics. Once I started running seriously I felt tempted to get a Garmin but knew I’d only use for running so it was hard justifying another smart watch. WorkOutDoors really bridges the gap. I use it for primarily for running but also walking, cycling and hiking. You can just start it and go or build your own custom training plans. It’s great for intervals and easy to setup. There are a ton of metrics and alerts you can enable to give you audio cues and keep you on track. Everything from pacing, heart rate, distance, and so on. The screens are customizable, great maps, you can import/export and sync with other apps like Strava. I highly recommend it.

I’m a competitive runner, and have used a Garmin watch for years. I’ve tried switching over to the Apple Watch on numerous occasions in the past, and although I love the smartwatch capabilities, the Apple fitness app was always severely lacking in my opinion. I couldn’t customize the information I saw, and didn’t have access to anywhere near the amount of data I did with my Garmin, so I was never able to stick with the Apple Watch for long. That all changed thanks to WorkOutDoors however. The level of customization, and the amount of data available to me rivals — if not surpasses — that of my Garmin, and has FINALLY made the Apple Watch a viable competitor to dedicated sports watches. If you’re a runner, or an athlete of any kind, and find the Apple fitness app lacking, I HIGHLY recommend checking this one out. Well worth the cost.

If you’re like me, and you trail run/hike a lot and you have an Apple Watch but want the functionality of a Garmin or Suunto, WorkOutDoors effectively turns your Apple Watch into one. I love how customizable it is, so I can see on one screen my map and route, distance, time, cumulative elevation gain, speed vs my target speed, and my heart rate. Amazing.

But beyond that, I emailed the developer Ian today about how to extend battery life since I’m going on a long 8 hour run, and he responded within 20-30 minutes with a list of super helpful tips, including a major one—if I decide to recharge the watch mid-run with a power pack , make sure to end the workout because watchOS may kill WorkOutDoors and I’d lose my workout data. I find it’s rare to have such a committed and engaged developer, so this puts this app at the top of the GPS mapping/outdoor activity tracking apps for the Apple Watch. Thanks Ian!

The new version of WorkOutDoors has taken a really good app and has made it great. Turn-by-turn navigation (with either navigation waypoints or bend detection), waypoint creation, and climb and descent detection are all features that are massive improvements for my use case. And what a nice surprise finding that I can rate my effort directly in the Watch app.
What follows is my review of the previous version of WorkOutDoors .
I only use WorkOutDoors for hiking/backpacking,
outdoor walking, and a small set of gym activities, which is a small subset of all the activities it can track. It is fantastic for my use case on my Apple Watch Ultra. The developer continues to improve WorkOutDoors . The addition of topo maps and now AOD has made WorkOutDoors, which was really good, even better. I’m looking forward to the next major release, which the developer says will have route navigation. This latest release has a tip jar, which I was happy to use

Where has this been all my life? I was a diehard paying Runkeeper user for 10+ years but watched it steadily stagnate over the past few years (don't even get me started on their buggy Apple Watch app). I tried Strava five different times over the course of several years but kept getting annoyed by the appallingly limited utility it offers serious runners and how insipidly dumb the whole social self-promotion component of it was. Tried the default Apple Watch Activities app, which to its credit, at least worked consistently and wasn't as bug riddled as the other running apps, but kept bumping into customization limitations, especially with the layout of the Watch app screens. Tried Nike Run Club twice and was instantly turned off by the social aspect and the dumb inspirational coaching. Finally found WorkOutDoors through some Reddit and Quora discussions and decided to give it a try. WOW! I'm only about a month into using it, but I'm still blown away by all the customization capabilities. This is clearly an app developed by serious runners for runners, not by the marketing department of a lifestyle brand. I've only begun to scratch the surface of what WorkOutDoors does, and to be fair, it's daunting, but I'll be darned if it isn't exactly what I've been looking for all these years but didn't even know it.

I am a ultra long distance hiker (Camino de Santiago, Tour Du Mont Blanc, Japan Camino and many others). Until the Apple Watch 5 and this app app, I could not justify making the switch from my trusty Garmin HR watch. However, WorkOutDoors provides all the info (plus much more) of the Garmin. And importantly, the battery life of the Apple Watch now allows me to make it through a full day of hiking without having to charge the battery. this app’ii user interface and ease of use is excellent. To date, I have only used the hiking portion of WorkOutDoors , but there are also many others, including running, cycling, skiing, etc.

One other point- I initially had a problem getting WorkOutDoors to record altitude climbs. I wrote an email to Ian at the customer support desk for WorkOutDo. Within 2 hours, he responded with the fix (I need to give “permission” for WorkOutDoors to get this info. Part of apples’s privacy protections, which is a positive). Ian was very helpful and friendly, and most importantly, fixed my problem.

Count me a very happy user of WorkOutDoors.

I’m not exaggerating when I say this is THE best app on AppleWatch. The amount of customization feels a bit overwhelming at first, but once you figure it out, you’ll be blown away by everything it can do. Whenever metric or customization you want, WorkOutDoors will have it. It’s crazy how much it can do. I love all the metrics options, the multiple screens, the maps, the ability to track route and get notifications for straying off them, the autopausing, the buttons, I could go on forever. I love it all. I’ve had WorkOutDoors for years, and I cannot imagine life without it.

The ongoing updates are great, and I love the fact there is no subscription (though I donate through the tip jar every few months and encourage others to do so as well!). You can tell the developers put a lot of care into this.

If you want an easy way to create maps to use with WorkOutDoors on your Apple Watch, I highly recommend Footpath. You can export them to the this app app on your Apple Watch. It’s great.

This is a phenomenal app! So far, I’ve used it for Cycling, Running, Walking, and Hiking and I’m blown away. I will admit the flexibility and configurability of WorkOutDoors is a bit much — but for the control freaks out there (like me) it’s amazing. You can change the screen layout, notifications, warnings, etc. for every activity; this means that when you hike you can pick what data you want to see and it’s different from the screens you see when you run, or ski, or golf, or whatever. I think my favorite feature is the customizable notifications. The Apple Fitness app would tell me my pace after each mile I ran; now I’ve configured this app to tell me my pace, heart rate, heart rate zone, distance, and time of day every half mile (and I could have it read out two dozen other pieces of data to me). When I went hiking, it would remind me to eat a snack every 40 minutes which is awesome!

Here’s the TL;DR: WorkOutDoors has amazing customizability, tracking stats, and is worth every penny!

If you are using Apple Fitness or Strava to track your workouts you should buy WorkOutDoors now. Here’s why, WorkOutDoors allows you to see vastly much more data than Apple Fitness and you can see it it your own custom way (better than Strava). Worried about not being able to show your workouts on Strava? You can upload them to Strava whenever you want. You can customize the watch app for when you’re on a run or a bike ride or anything else to give you exactly the data you want. You can import GPX track files to go to the route you want. Downloading maps to the watch, yep you can do that too. It allows you to get an amazing view of maps and terrain. If you’re thinking of buying a Garmin and ditching the apple watch? Buy WorkOutDoors, save all that money you were going to spend on a Garmin and buy something to help your fitness journey. Literally the best money you will ever spend. I am actually bummed out that I didn’t use this earlier so I could analyze every detail of my workouts like I do now. Get WorkOutDoors !

I downloaded this app for the same reason most people probably do-it’s the most customizable, user-friendly workout app out there. I’ve been able to use my watch without needing to have a phone handy, and with the customizable watch faces, I basically have everything I feel I need during my runs.

I’ll say this however, earlier today (yes, today) the watch app crashed twice during a one-hour run which was really frustrating-I have been going through multiple different fitness apps during the last few weeks, and hate losing data. In any case once I got home, I wrote to the developer and he helped me fix the problem and address the issue directly. It’s by far the best customer service I’ve ever encountered, and he was able to suggest a few different fixes (sometimes iOS crashes WorkOutDoors when there are too many other apps open, or if I’ve run too much in the same area, something having to do with memory stored on WorkOutDoors ).

I highly highly recommend downloading this app to anyone working with a heart rate monitor looking to stay in their zones during their runs/bikes etc. and anyone who’s interested in more than the normal data available with most apps.

WorkOutDoors blows my mind with how many features it has. The watch app is completely configurable to whatever needs you have. It has every option I could imagine. It’s also so cheap for the power it provides! The developers are obviously true fitness enthusiasts who want to give us everything. Thank you! My recommendation is to sit down for an hour and really dig in to the different options for the various screens on the watch app. The default configurations are very good but everyone has different goals. Once you start customizing it you’ll start to appreciate the power and depth of the analytics and live stats available to you. I set up my primary running screen to have huge numbers for average pace and instantaneous pace. These are the two stats most relevant to me at the moment but on my secondary screens I can see granular detail on absolutely anything I want. Amazing! I can even get map navigation and gpx files for trail runs. Truly awesome. Works great on all watches but it’s a necessity if you have the Apple Watch ultra. This is app makes it a truly pro-level fitness watch.

Edit: months later I’m still blown away by WorkOutDoors.

WorkOutDoors is the REAL DEAL! It is worth every penny and then some! I am an average workout person, but all the other apps do not have enough controllable data. Also, WorkOutDoors announces any run metrics I want. You can choose any metrics (including graphs) you want to see on the screen from as little as 2 metrics to over 10!! The customization doesn’t end with the screen or announced metrics, you can even create your own custom intervals into whatever workout you like. Make no mistake, WorkOutDoors does anything you want and can be for basic users to advanced users. I would say there is some customizing you will want to do, but it can just be a “download and use” app too. I don’t just use this for running, I also use it for HIIT training, strength training and interval training. WorkOutDoors does it all! Forget all the other apps. All of your info exports to Apple Health accurately and you can even export the files from WorkOutDoors to upload into other apps manually. Before I purchased it, I messaged the developer and he responded right away and answered my questions! They are really cool and want to make sure you are getting the help you need when you have questions. I could go on, but just get WorkOutDoors and you’ll see for yourself!

I am a runner and a cyclist. I enjoy mountain biking and riding new trails. I have found the Apple Watch to be a great tool for tracking my activities and even playing music when running but was severely lacking in maps for off road activities. WorkOutDoors was the solution to that problem and most likely prevented me from buying a dedicated fitness device like a Garmin watch or cycling computer.

I was bit skeptical that this would actually work well but I was blown away. I customized the screens just the way I want to have them for my activities, downloaded some maps to the watch for offline use, and even loaded a gpx route. I hopped on my mountain bike and went for a ride and it all worked perfectly. The upload to strava at the end of the ride was perfect as well.

Bottom line: This is a fantastic app! Well worth $5.