Let me say this up front: Slopes is brilliant. It's the app most people mean when they say “ski tracking app,” and if you want deep run-by-run analytics and 3D replays of your day on the mountain, I'd point you straight at it. So this isn't a takedown - it's a “here's what else is out there” for the people who, for one reason or another, want something different.

And there are plenty of good reasons to go looking. Maybe the premium price gives you pause once you add up the seasons. Maybe you want something simpler than a full analytics dashboard. Maybe you care more about remembering a trip than dissecting every metre of vertical. Or maybe you just like trying things (no judgement - I built a ski app, so I'm hardly one to talk).

First, why Slopes is the app everyone compares against

It helps to know what you're comparing to. Slopes gets recommended so often because the free version is genuinely useful - unlimited tracking, your key stats and summaries, snow conditions, season overviews, and it's ad-free. The paid tier (roughly $30–35 a year at the time of writing, with a family plan and a rather clever day-pass option for occasional skiers) adds interactive 2D and 3D resort maps, live lift and trail status, proper performance analytics, and Apple Health fitness data.

So the bar is high. The apps below don't all clear it on every axis - but each one does something Slopes doesn't, or does the basics in a way that might suit you better.

1. Ski Tracks - the old reliable (with an asterisk)

Ski Tracks has been around for well over a decade, and for good reason. It's a rock-solid, battle-tested GPS tracker with a huge user base. It records your speed, distance and vertical descent without needing a data connection, keeps geotagged photos linked to your day, and just… works. The interface is starting to show its age - it feels a generation behind the slicker apps - but plenty of people don't mind that in exchange for reliability.

Now the asterisk. Ski Tracks recently changed hands, and the new owners moved it from a one-time paid app to a subscription (around $50 a year, with weekly options too). That hasn't gone down well with longtime users who'd already bought it - and it's worth knowing that a separate “Ski Tracks Lite” app exists that appears to preserve older purchases and features for existing owners. None of this makes it a bad tracker; it's still a good one. But the value equation has shifted, so go in with your eyes open.

Best for: people who want a proven, no-nonsense tracker and don't mind an older interface - as long as the new subscription maths works for you.

2. Snowmate - for remembering the trip, not just measuring it

This is mine, so here's the honest version. Snowmate lives in a slightly different lane to most of the apps here. It's less “performance dashboard” and more “winter journal.” There's no account to create - everything saves automatically to your own iCloud, so your seasons are just there, on your devices, without you signing up for anything. The UI is deliberately light and fresh (I got tired of ski apps that feel like spreadsheets).

Under the hood you still get session tracking - speed, distance, runs, vertical - but the heart of it is the memory side: collecting photos from the day, rating your sessions, and seeing where you've been on a map. It's built around the trips and the moments, not just the numbers.

Where it doesn't compete: if what you want is the deepest analytics - granular per-run breakdowns, heatmaps, the works - Slopes is ahead, and I won't pretend otherwise. Snowmate isn't trying to out-analyse it. It's trying to be the app you open in April to remember February.

Best for: skiers and snowboarders who want to journal their season - photos, memories and a map - without accounts or clutter. If you're a stats obsessive, look elsewhere on this list.

3. Apple's built-in skiing tracking - the one you might already own

Here's the option a lot of people overlook: Apple's own Workout and Fitness combination. If you've got an Apple Watch, it includes Downhill Skiing and Snowboarding as workout types - no third-party app required. Your day feeds straight into Apple Health, closes your activity rings, and you can see your route rendered on a map afterwards.

The honest limitation is that it treats skiing like any other workout. There's no photo collection, no trip journal, no ski-specific flourishes - it looks and feels the same as a run or a bike ride. And crucially, it leans on the Apple Watch, so it's not really an iPhone-only solution the way the other apps here are.

Best for: Apple Watch owners who mainly want their skiing to show up alongside the rest of their fitness data, and who don't want to install anything extra.

4. Exa Ski Tracker - for a bit of friendly rivalry

Exa Ski Tracker is a solid, capable tracker with a competitive streak. Alongside the usual measurements - max speed, distance split between downhill and lifts, altitude highs and lows - it has a “Fast Ride” feature that lets you measure your top speed, time and distance over a specific section, which is a nice touch if you like chasing a personal best on one particular run.

The twist that sets it apart is the social angle: you can compare your results with friends and effectively set up little competitions, and share photos with your stats overlaid on them. It's free with a premium tier that unlocks the extras and removes ads.

Best for: groups of friends who ski together and enjoy turning the day into a bit of a contest.

5. Ski Tracker & Snow Forecast - tracking with a weather brain

This one's made by a solo developer (an avid snowboarder, by his own account) - which, as a solo dev myself, I have a soft spot for. Its standout feature is the weather integration: a 7-day snow forecast pulled from NOAA, with elevation-specific and hourly forecasts for your favourite resorts. Fair warning - that forecast data is USA-only, so if you mostly ski the Alps or elsewhere in Europe, that particular feature won't do much for you.

On the tracking side it covers the essentials - max speed, total vertical, total distance, calories - with runs colour-coded by speed on the map and lifts left off it to reduce clutter. There's an Apple Watch app and a home-screen widget, automatic iCloud backup, and it's noticeably optimised for battery life (kept warm and in airplane mode, it can genuinely last a full day). The pro upgrade is only a few dollars, which is refreshingly modest.

Best for: US-based skiers who want tracking and snow forecasts in one place - and anyone whose phone tends to die halfway down the mountain.

So which one should you actually pick?

It really does come down to what you want from the day. Here's the short version:

If you loved Slopes but the cost or the analytics-heavy feel wasn't for you, Snowmate or Ski Tracker & Snow Forecast are the gentler landings. If you want raw tracking, Ski Tracks and Exa have you covered. And if you already wear an Apple Watch, try the built-in option before you download anything - you might already have what you need.