Steppin alternative

Steppin made the idea popular: you walk, and your steps buy you screen time. It’s free, it asks for no account, and it runs on iPhone and Android. If you’re looking for an alternative, it isn’t because the idea is wrong — Tempo runs on the same one. This page says what Steppin does well, where it stops, and what Tempo does differently in the execution.

What Steppin does well

Steppin took a mechanism that sounds like a gimmick and made it feel obvious. Its own line sums it up: there is no wall, just a price, and the price is a walk. By default a hundred steps buy a minute, and you can make that easier or harder. The steps come from the phone or from a tracker through Apple Health or Health Connect, so a Garmin, an Oura or a Fitbit can feed it too. You can block apps, whole categories and websites, keep everything shut until a step threshold is met, and carve out Deep Focus schedules where the balance can’t be spent at all. Streaks and challenges between friends sit on top, for those who want them.

Today all of it is free: no paid tier, no subscription. No account either, no sign-up, no email; your steps and your screen time stay on the phone. And Steppin refuses to trap you: any lock can be overridden on the spot, as a matter of principle. It got there first, it got the press, and the core of it is sound.

Where Steppin stops

Steppin counts one thing: steps. A run without the phone earns nothing, and one reviewer says exactly that. An hour on the bike, a swim, a strength session earn nothing either, unless your tracker turns them into steps. Crediting workouts as such has been announced as coming since early 2025; it still isn’t a source. If your exercise is mostly walking, that’s fine. If it isn’t, the currency doesn’t match the effort.

The second limit is the exit. To spend your minutes you open Steppin, pick a duration, and the target app opens until it runs out. That’s a small ritual, and it’s the only one: there is no strict mode, and any lock can be lifted instantly. Steppin presents this as a feature, and for many people it is one. It also means that in the moment you most want the block to hold, it holds only as long as you do.

Then there is the accounting, which is where Steppin’s reviews are hardest on it. Users describe step counts arriving late, wrong or not at all, to the point that the official FAQ has an entry for “the app says I have 0 minutes even though I’ve earned time”. Others describe a timer that hands back less than the duration chosen, ten minutes asked and three given. Some describe apps that stay open once the time is up, until Steppin is opened again, and banked hours that vanished on a refresh. These are reviews, not measurements of ours, and some of it may well have been fixed since. But they all point at the same place: the idea holds, the ledger wobbles.

One last thing is a design choice rather than a flaw. The balance can reset daily, weekly, or never. Never means a week of walking can pay for a whole Sunday on the couch. Whether that’s a feature depends on what you came for.

What Tempo does differently

• Workouts first, steps as the fallback. Tempo reads the workouts recorded in Health or Health Connect by a watch or an app like Strava, and credits them with a per-sport rate: an hour of cycling and an hour of walking don’t pay the same. Without a watch, steps take over: a thousand of them are worth about ten minutes of walking, paid at the walking rate. On iPhone with a watch, Tempo also reads intensity: when your heart rate says you’re pushing, the minute pays more than your rate, never less (Tempo Pro).
• Hand-entered workouts don’t count. A session typed into Health or Health Connect is left out of the totals; only sensor-recorded ones get through. We found nothing on how Steppin treats these, so we make no claim about it. All we can say is that here, the door is closed.
• One balance, no duration to pick, and iOS closes the door. Your minutes are one balance shared by all the apps you block. While it’s positive they all open, and their real use drains it minute by minute, following the system’s own Screen Time: 43 minutes debited for 44 counted by iOS, measured on device. At zero everything closes at once, without opening Tempo — on iPhone the block is applied by iOS itself and holds with Tempo shut. On Android it’s Tempo’s own service, with a permanent notification.
• Credit expires after 24 hours. There is no “never” option and no weekly bank. Minutes you earned yesterday are gone; what you spend today, you moved for today. That’s a choice, and it’s the one the mechanism is built on.
• A strict mode, if you want one. Out of the box Tempo, like Steppin, can be loosened at any moment. Strict mode (Tempo Pro) changes that: tightening a setting is immediate, loosening one waits 24 hours, and on iPhone it can remove the “Delete App” button from the home screen. It’s self-restriction you chose, not parental control.

On privacy the two agree: no account, no server. Nothing leaves the device with Tempo either, there are no analytics, and the App Store listing carries the “Data Not Collected” label.

Who Steppin suits better

If steps are the only movement you want counted, and you want no cap on anything, stay on Steppin. Everything is free, the balance can be set to never reset, and no paid tier stands between you and your minutes. Same if you want to be able to lift a lock at any moment: Steppin makes that a principle, and Tempo’s strict mode exists for the opposite reason. Steppin also has its Deep Focus schedules, its streaks and its friend challenges; Tempo has none of that, on purpose, because its mechanism works by exposure rather than motivation. And if you have no watch and never record a workout, both will credit you from steps; the difference then sits in the accounting, the spending and the re-block, not the source.

Neither of them blocks your computer. If that’s where your evenings leak, look at Freedom or ScreenZen’s desktop side first.

On money: Steppin is free today, and Tempo’s current grid is on the App Store and Play listings. Both change: check them there rather than in a comparison page, this one included.

Frequently asked questions

Steppin vs Tempo: what’s the actual difference?

Both trade movement for screen time, and Steppin was there first. Steppin counts steps and has you pick a duration to spend each time you open it. Tempo credits workouts read from Health or Health Connect with a per-sport rate, keeps steps as the fallback, leaves out hand-entered workouts, drains one shared balance by real use, lets iOS close everything at zero, and expires credit after 24 hours.

Can I use Steppin and Tempo at the same time?

Yes, they don’t know about each other and don’t get in each other’s way. But two blockers on the same apps do: each one closes the door the other just opened, and you stop knowing which balance is being spent. Block different apps with each, or try Tempo for a week on the apps that matter most.

Do I lose my Steppin history if I switch?

Tempo doesn’t touch it. Steppin keeps its data on your phone; Tempo reads Health or Health Connect and has no reason to go near what Steppin stored. Your steps stay in Health, your streaks stay in Steppin.