If you are asking whether WalkGains is legit, the first question is which WalkGains you mean, because there have been two in 2026 and they have nothing to do with each other. One was an iPhone app that climbed into the US top 100 for Health & Fitness in the summer, collected well over a thousand ratings, and was removed from the App Store in September while users were still trying to redeem $30 balances. The other is a small Android app from a Pakistani developer that used to be called Walkify and still installs under that name. We have gone through both listings, the review histories, the successor app that appeared with the same subtitle, and what people who reached the payout screen say happened next.
Disclosure: Fitcoin is our own fitness-rewards app, so we are a competitor of sorts. We have no relationship with either developer and earn nothing from your choice. Everything here comes from the Google Play listing and reviews, the archived App Store listing and third-party app trackers that recorded its removal, user complaints logged in August 2026, and the App Store listing of the successor app, all checked on November 7, 2026. We have not reached a payout on either app.
The short version
Neither WalkGains is one we would install for money. The iPhone app is gone, and the manner of its going, a four-month run, a 17+ rating, generous "Vitality Coins", then an exchange button that only served more adverts to people holding $30 and $50 balances, is the whole life-cycle of a disposable rewards app in miniature. The Android app is small and still live, with a stated 9 cents per 1,000 coins and payment options at low amounts, but the one user who documented a payment request heard nothing back, and the app's own listing cannot decide whether it is WalkGains or Walkify. If you want to be paid for steps, use an app that has survived more than one year and publishes a rate.
The iPhone WalkGains: May to September 2026
WalkGains: Walk & Gain More arrived on the App Store in May 2026 under an individual developer name, Tu Dao Trong, with a 17+ age rating, a 216 MB download, seventeen languages from Uzbek to Khmer, and a description that is worth reading slowly: "Action Mining", in which "every step converts into earnings" shown as a "step income trend"; a "Reward Bazaar" where "Vitality Coins" buy gift cards; and a mechanic in which your steps light up world landmarks from the Eiffel Tower to Mount Fuji. The contact address was an Outlook account. None of that is a crime, and the landmark idea is rather charming, but notice what is absent: a company, a rate, a minimum, a payment method.
It did well. By the end of the summer it had a 4.4 average from somewhere between 1,300 and 1,800 ratings, depending on which tracker you read, and reached 95th in the US Top Free Health & Fitness chart. Then, in August, the complaints that matter started to appear on third-party support sites, because the app offered no support of its own. One user on 11 August had "almost $50" in the app and had written to the company four times with no reply, their emails bouncing to another site. Another, on 12 August, had reached "the goal of 30,000 = $30 pretty easily", and found that pressing the exchange button simply played more adverts, every time, with no payment and no response. Both had done the thing the app asked of them. The last update was version 1.6 on 13 July; the app trackers recorded it as removed from the App Store on 4 September by one count and 17 September by another. Whoever still held Vitality Coins at that point holds nothing now.
On 13 July, the same day WalkGains shipped its final update, an app called PaceGains: Walk & Gain More appeared on the App Store from a company called MindsEye Mobile, with the same subtitle, the same 17+ rating, the same "Step Assets" language about steps accumulating "like savings", and a description that at one point calls itself PaceCash. It has 416 ratings at 4.3 as we write. We are not asserting that the two share an owner; we are noting that the name, format and timing line up, and that the first app's history is the only evidence you have about the second.
The Android WalkGains: the app formerly known as Walkify
Walkgains: Walk to Earn on Google Play, package name com.qutech.cashwalk, is a different and much smaller thing. The publisher is QutechSoft, the support contacts are a Gmail address and a Pakistani mobile number, the website and privacy policy are hosted on a Blogspot page under the name walkifyapp, and the listing shows 5,000-plus installs, a 4.1 rating, adverts, and a 17+ Cash Rewards label. It was last updated on 14 June 2025, when version 4.0.0 raised the reward for watching a video advert from 25 to 50 coins and promised to have fixed "missing reward cases and payment issues". Nothing has shipped in the seventeen months since.
The naming confusion is not ours. Reviewers on the listing call the app Walkify throughout, one notes that it "comes up as Walkify when downloaded, not Walk Gains", and the same person takes care to add that "the Walkify from Ghamza is valid", meaning the larger, unrelated Walkify app from Ghamza Studios with 14,000 ratings on iOS. The package name borrows from CashWalk. If you are keeping score, that is one app wearing three other apps' names, which is not how a company with a payout budget behaves.
To its credit, that same reviewer is the most useful source on the app: they found the interface easy, the step tracking slightly delayed, and the exchange rate stated as 1,000 coins to 9 cents, with "options for small payments", and said it "adds up quickly", presumably through the adverts and the spin wheel rather than the walking, since the listing never says how many coins 1,000 steps earns. Then the update: "Requested payment and emailed. No pay and no communication in four days equals a no from me." The other recent reviews are a run of complaints about crashes, lost progress, unclear redemption, excessive adverts, battery drain and unresponsive support, several of them so similar in phrasing that they may have been seeded for a different purpose, and a handful of hopeful "I'm looking forward to my first withdrawal" five-stars. We found no one who says they received money.
| WalkGains (iPhone) | Walkgains (Android) | |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Tu Dao Trong (individual) | QutechSoft |
| Live | May to September 2026; removed | Yes; last updated June 2025 |
| Scale | 4.4 from about 1,300 to 1,800 ratings | 4.1, 5,000-plus installs |
| Rate | Not published; "Vitality Coins" | 1,000 coins = 9 cents (user report); steps-to-coins unstated |
| Payout reports | $30 and $50 balances unpaid | Request unanswered; none confirmed |
| Support | Outlook address; emails bounced | Gmail, phone number, Blogspot site |
What both apps have in common
Strip the names away and the two WalkGains are the same product: a pedometer, a coin balance that rises quickly from adverts and welcome tasks, a gift-card shelf with a round-number threshold, and no company that could be made to honour it. The iPhone version shows you how that ends when the app does well; the Android version shows you how it ends when it does not, which is quietly, with a listing nobody updates. In both cases the people who lost were the ones who did everything right and reached the line. That is why our standing advice for any young rewards app is to withdraw at the very first threshold and to treat a round "30,000 coins = $30" as a reason for suspicion rather than a target. The legitimate step apps pay a few cents a day and tell you so in advance: WeWard and Macadam for cash, CashWalk and Winwalk for gift cards, and Sweatcoin for discounts. They are boring. Boring is what paying looks like.
Who should install it
Nobody, on the evidence. The iPhone app cannot be installed; the Android app has not been maintained for well over a year and its one documented payment request went unanswered. If you are in Pakistan, India or another market where the big Western apps are thin, Step Master and FitCash are games-and-offers apps with a pedometer on the front that at least have a track record of paying UPI and gift cards, and we have been frank about their step rates. Our wider guide to whether walking apps that pay are legit lays out the checks we apply, and Step Coin is the same story told by a different app this year.
Frequently asked questions
Is WalkGains legit?
Not in any form we would recommend. The iPhone app WalkGains: Walk & Gain More was removed from the App Store in September 2026, four months after launch, with users reporting $30 and $50 balances that could not be redeemed because the exchange button only served more adverts. The Android app Walkgains: Walk to Earn is a small QutechSoft app that was previously called Walkify, with 5,000-odd installs, a published 9 cents per 1,000 coins and at least one detailed report of a payment request going unanswered.
What happened to the WalkGains iPhone app?
It was published by an individual developer, Tu Dao Trong, in May 2026, reached a 4.4 rating from around 1,300 to 1,800 ratings and a top-100 place in US Health & Fitness, and was removed from the App Store between 4 and 17 September 2026. Anyone with a Vitality Coin balance at that point lost it. A near-identical app called PaceGains: Walk & Gain More, from MindsEye Mobile, appeared in July 2026 with the same subtitle.
How much does WalkGains pay on Android?
A user reported an exchange rate of 1,000 coins to 9 cents, with small payment options and 50 coins per video advert after the version 4 update. The listing does not publish the coins-per-step rate. The same reviewer requested a payment, emailed support, and heard nothing in four days; we found no dated payout confirmation.
Is WalkGains the same as Walkify?
The Android WalkGains is the renamed Walkify from QutechSoft: the website and privacy policy still sit on a walkifyapp blog, the app installs under the Walkify name, and the reviews talk about Walkify. It is not the larger Walkify from Ghamza Studios, which is a separate app.
Which walking apps are safer than WalkGains?
Apps with a published rate and a company behind them: WeWard and Macadam for cash by bank or PayPal, CashWalk and Winwalk for gift cards, and Sweatcoin for discounts. All pay a few cents per 10,000 steps, which is what honest step rewards look like.
Method: Checked November 7, 2026 against the Google Play listing for Walkgains: Walk to Earn by QutechSoft (com.qutech.cashwalk: 5,000+ installs, 4.1 rating, 17+ Cash Rewards, contains adverts, version 4.0.0 of 14 June 2025, walkifyapp Blogspot site) and its written reviews; the archived App Store listing for WalkGains: Walk & Gain More by Tu Dao Trong (id 6761610554, released May 2026, version 1.6 of 13 July 2026) together with AppBrain and AppTracker records of its rating and its removal in September 2026; user complaints logged on JustUseApp on 11 and 12 August 2026; and the App Store listing for PaceGains: Walk & Gain More by MindsEye Mobile (released 13 July 2026, version 1.4, 416 ratings). We have not reached a payout on either app. Listings and rates change without notice.
Related reading: Are walking apps that pay you legit?, Is Step Coin legit?, Is Walk Coin legit?, Is Walk Pay legit?, Apps that pay you to walk
About the author: Harris Khan is the co-founder and CTO of Fitcoin, a UK fitness-rewards and health-insights app that reads Apple Health and Health Connect.