The best running app for Apple Watch depends on what you're missing.

Start with the app that’s already on your wrist

Apple’s Workout app is built into the watch, costs nothing and records a run properly. If all you want is a record of your runs, you can stop here.

That is the standard every other app has to beat, so the useful question isn’t which one is best. It is what you are missing that the Workout app doesn’t give you.

What each of the main apps is for

• Strava— the community: following friends, segments and a feed. Much of its analysis, including Fitness & Freshness and weekly Relative Effort, is for subscribers, and it doesn’t read heart rate variability, resting heart rate or sleep.
• Nike Run Club — free, with guided audio runs and training plans. It is lighter on analysis than Strava.
• Runna — structured plans towards a race, by subscription. It is a coach rather than a log.
• TrakRun — records runs free on iPhone and Apple Watch, and adds a readiness score, a training load view and a daily call on whether to push, adapt or recover.

Garmin Connect is left out on purpose. It is a good app, but it needs a Garmin watch, so it isn’t an option on an Apple Watch.

Choose by the gap, not the ranking

• If you want people, routes and friendly competition, that is Strava.
• If you want to be told what to run and don’t want to pay, Nike Run Club. If you are training for a race and will, Runna.
• If you want to know whether today is the day to push, TrakRun. It reads your sleep, heart rate variability and recent training against your own baseline.
• If you want intervals you can run without looking at your wrist, TrakRun again: you build the session, and the watch cues each rep.

You don’t have to pick one

Apps that write their workouts to Apple Healthcan be combined painlessly: record in whichever suits the run, and anything that reads Health sees it. Apple’s own Workout app does this, and so do Strava and Runna.

That is how TrakRun works next to Strava: allow Strava to write workouts to Health and the runs arrive on their own, labelled as Strava. There is more on this in the piece on Strava alternatives.

Where TrakRun fits, and where it doesn’t

TrakRun’s Apple Watch app records the whole run from the wrist, without your phone, and recording is free with no adverts. The analysis built on top of it is TrakRun Pro.

It isn’t a training plan. Your Coachholds no plan and never assumes one: it reads what you have actually done and says what fits today. If you follow a plan from Runna or anywhere else, it works as a daily check on whether today suits the session that plan has in it. And it is only for iPhone and Apple Watch, so on Android it isn’t an option.

Common questions

What is the best free running app for Apple Watch?

Apple's built-in Workout app is free and records a run well. Nike Run Club is free too, and adds guided runs and training plans. TrakRun records runs free on iPhone and Apple Watch, with no adverts, including interval sessions and spoken cues, and charges only for the recovery and training analysis.

Do I need a running app, or is the Workout app enough?

For recording a run, the Workout app is enough. A second app earns its place by adding something you are missing: a community and segments (Strava), coached plans (Nike Run Club or Runna), or a daily read on whether to push or rest (TrakRun).

Can I use more than one running app on my Apple Watch?

Yes, and many runners do. Record each run in one app, and let the others read it from Apple Health. TrakRun reads runs recorded in Strava and Apple's Workout app that way, and if the same run arrives from two sources it merges them and keeps one, so your weekly load isn't counted twice.

Which running app for Apple Watch is best for intervals?

TrakRun is built for them: you set a warm-up, a block of repeats by distance or by time, the recovery between them and a cool-down, and the watch coaches you through it with a buzz and a spoken cue at every boundary. Building and running sessions is free, on the watch and the phone.