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The "walk and earn" group has grown a lot over the past three years, and at this point I've tested enough step-tracking reward apps to fill a small library. Most of them follow a predictable pattern: you download the app, it counts your steps, it turns those steps into some form of virtual money, and you eventually trade that money for rewards that rarely match the time and work you put in. I've written about this pattern a lot in my reviews of platforms like Sweatcoin, which leads the group through name recognition and long life alone. But there's a quieter competitor that's been growing — especially among users annoyed with Sweatcoin's virtual money model and its limits on indoor steps. That competitor is Macadam, a French-born walking app that makes a strong promise: it pays in actual cash, not virtual coins, and it counts all your steps — indoor and outdoor alike.

I spent two weeks running Macadam side-by-side with my existing Sweatcoin setup, logging the same steps on both platforms at the same time to create a direct, data-backed comparison. This wasn't a casual test. I tracked step counts, conversion rates, earning differences between indoor and outdoor walking, the cash-out experience, and the overall user experience across both apps. I also looked into the business model behind Macadam to understand whether its cash-based rewards are lasting or just a customer-getting move that will eventually be pulled back. What I found was a platform that truly improves on several of Sweatcoin's well-known weaknesses — but brings some trade-offs of its own that possible users need to understand before making the switch. For a wider view of how walking apps fit into the money-making world, my roundup of reward apps covers several choices across different types.

Key Takeaways
  • Macadam pays in real cash (Euros, changeable to your local money) rather than a closed virtual money — a basic difference from Sweatcoin's model.
  • All steps count at the same rate whether you're walking indoors or outdoors — a major plus for treadmill users and home exercisers.
  • The earning rate is clear but small: expect roughly €0.50-€1.50 per day for active walkers hitting 8,000-12,000 steps.
  • Cash out via PayPal with a €10.00 minimum level — higher than some competitors but paid in real money.
  • The app includes an optional paid subscription tier that boosts earning rates, creating a different reward structure than free-only platforms.

What Is Macadam and How Is It Different From Other Walking Apps?

Macadam is a mobile step-tracking app made by a French technology company that started in 2022. The name — a play on "macadam," the layered road surface — shows the app's main promise: it rewards you for the steps you take on pavement, treadmill, or anywhere else your feet carry you. Unlike Sweatcoin, which turns steps into a special virtual money that can only be spent within its own marketplace, Macadam builds up earnings in Euros that can be taken out as actual cash. This difference is more than surface-level. It truly changes the user's relationship with the platform and the value of every step tracked.

The business model behind Macadam is built on a mix of advertising money, premium subscription fees, and data partnerships. The free tier makes money through in-app ads — banner ads, occasional full-screen pop-ups, and sponsored challenges from brands looking to reach health-aware buyers. The premium tier (Macadam Plus) removes ads and boosts the step-to-cash conversion rate for a monthly subscription fee. Additionally, the anonymized, grouped walking data — patterns of when and where users walk, average step counts by area, seasonal activity patterns — holds value for city planners, store location researchers, and health researchers. Macadam's privacy rules state that single user data is not sold; rather, insights drawn from the grouped data are what create partnership income.

This multi-income-stream model is important to understand because it answers the lasting-power question that hangs over every "walk and earn" platform. Sweatcoin has been able to keep its virtual money model for years because it controls both the earning and spending sides of its economy — the coins you earn can only be used within Sweatcoin's marketplace, where the company sets the exchange rate between coins and rewards. Macadam's cash model is more open to real economics: the company must make enough actual money to cover the cash it gives to users. This creates both a top limit on earning rates and a pressure to keep a working business — which, from a user view, is both a limit and a comfort. The platform can't just print more virtual money if business slows down; it must create real value. For those checking other background earning choices, my reviews of Honeygain and Pawns cover bandwidth-sharing apps with different background models.

"The basic difference between virtual-money walking apps and cash-based ones is responsibility. When a platform pays in actual money, its business model has to work in the real world — not just within a closed system where it controls both sides of every deal." — Mohammed Wahab

Getting Started: Setup, Permissions, and First Impressions

Setting up Macadam took me about six minutes — slightly longer than the average reward app, but for a reason that actually helps the user. The app is available on both the Apple App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android. After downloading, the registration process walks you through creating an account with email or Google sign-in, then quickly asks you to set up the app with your phone's motion sensors. This setup step — which involves walking a short distance while holding your phone in a natural position — is something I haven't seen on other walking reward apps, and it serves an important purpose. By learning your specific walking style and phone-carrying way, Macadam can more accurately tell true walking from other motion that might falsely raise step counts.

The permission requests are standard for this group: motion and fitness data for step tracking, and location access for outdoor walk checking. Unlike Sweatcoin, Macadam clearly states that location data is used only to check outdoor movement and count distance — not for continuous background tracking or third-party sharing. The app works without location permissions on, but you'll miss out on distance-based bonus counts and the GPS-checked step bonuses that boost earnings for outdoor walks. I gave full permissions for the testing time and saw no unusual battery drain beyond what's normal for any GPS-enabled fitness app running in the background.

One setup detail that needs attention: Macadam asks for your height during profile creation, and this matters. The app uses height to estimate step length, which feeds into its step-counting system. If you skip this or enter wrong information, your step counts may be too high or too low compared to reality. Take the 30 seconds to enter your actual height — it directly affects the truth of your earnings.

After finishing setup, the app shows a clean, good-looking dashboard. Your current step count for the day is shown clearly at the top, with your earnings balance below it. A progress ring shows how close you are to the daily step goal you've set (changeable in settings). Navigation is handled through four clearly labeled tabs at the bottom of the screen: Home, Challenges, Wallet, and Profile. The design language is modern European — clean lines, open space, soft accent colors — and feels more like a fitness app with reward features than a reward app that happens to track steps. This is a purposeful design choice that shapes the user experience in ways I'll cover throughout this review.

The Step-to-Cash Conversion: Exactly How Much You Earn Per Step

This is the question that brings most people to a Macadam review, and I want to answer it with exactness rather than unclear words. Here's the breakdown based on my two-week testing data:

On the free tier, Macadam turns steps to cash at a rate of about 1 Euro cent (€0.01) per 1,000 steps. This means:

  • 5,000 steps = €0.05
  • 8,000 steps = €0.08
  • 10,000 steps = €0.10
  • 12,000 steps = €0.12
  • 15,000 steps = €0.15

On the Macadam Plus premium tier (€4.99/month at the time of writing), the conversion rate improves to about €0.02 per 1,000 steps, doubling the free-tier earnings. At 10,000 daily steps on the premium tier, you'd earn about €0.20 per day — or about €6.00 per month. The subscription costs €4.99, meaning you need to walk enough to earn more than the subscription fee for the premium tier to make money sense. At the doubled rate, that needs about 8,300 steps per day, every day, to break even on the subscription cost. Below that level, the free tier is the better money choice.

These numbers are small. I want to be upfront about that. If you're walking 10,000 steps daily on the free tier, you're earning about €3.00 per month — about the price of a single coffee in most European or American cities. This is not an income source. It's not even a clear addition to your budget. What it is, however, is actual cash — not virtual coins, not marketplace credits, not gift cards with end dates. The money builds up in your Macadam wallet and can be moved to your PayPal account once you reach the €10.00 level. For a user averaging 10,000 steps per day on the free tier, that's about 3-4 months of walking to reach a single cash-out. On the premium tier at the same step count, it's about 6-8 weeks.

To put this in direct comparison with Sweatcoin: during my two-week side-by-side test, I averaged about 9,200 steps per day. On Sweatcoin, those steps created roughly 8.7 Sweatcoins per day (changing slightly based on indoor/outdoor mix). Over 14 days, that's about 122 Sweatcoins — which, based on the marketplace values I wrote about in my Sweatcoin review, equals roughly $1.00-$1.50 in gift card value. On Macadam (free tier), those same 9,200 daily steps created about €0.09 per day, or €1.26 over the two-week time — roughly $1.38 at current exchange rates. The real earning rate is very similar. The difference is that Macadam's earnings are cash you can spend anywhere, while Sweatcoin's earnings are locked into a marketplace with changing stock and value.

The Indoor vs. Outdoor Step Debate: Macadam's Key Advantage

One of the most regular complaints I wrote about in my Sweatcoin review was the platform's treatment of indoor steps. Sweatcoin relies on GPS checking to confirm true outdoor movement, which means treadmill walking, home workouts, and indoor mall walking all earn at a clearly reduced rate — sometimes as low as 10-20% of outdoor step conversion. For users in cold places, people who like gym workouts, or anyone whose daily routine involves more indoor than outdoor movement, this is a real limit.

Macadam takes a basically different approach. The app uses your phone's built-in movement sensors — the same sensors that power Apple Health and Google Fit — to find true walking motion no matter where you are. All checked steps, whether taken on a sunny sidewalk or a basement treadmill, earn at the same rate. During my two-week test, I purposely varied my walking places to test this: three days of pure outdoor walking, three days of mixed indoor-outdoor, three days of mostly treadmill walking, and several days of normal mixed activity. The step counts were regular across all places, and more importantly, the earnings were the same per step no matter where those steps happened.

This is, in my view, Macadam's single strongest competitive advantage over Sweatcoin. If you're a treadmill user, a home workout fan, or someone who lives in a place where outdoor walking isn't practical for several months of the year, Macadam's indoor fairness alone makes it the better platform — even before thinking about the cash-versus-virtual-money difference. The only limit on indoor steps is a daily checking cap: Macadam's systems flag accounts that create suspiciously high step counts without matching GPS movement, as an anti-cheating measure. Real indoor walkers won't hit this cap, but it's worth knowing that the system does watch for clearly fake step creation.

Feature Macadam (Free Tier) Sweatcoin (Free Tier) Winner
Indoor Step Conversion Full rate — all steps count equally Reduced rate — GPS checking unavailable Macadam
Reward Type Real cash (Euros via PayPal) Virtual money (Sweatcoins) for marketplace Macadam (flexibility)
Daily Earning (10K steps) ~€0.10 ~9.5 Sweatcoins (~$0.08-$0.12 value) Roughly equal
Minimum Cash-Out €10.00 (~$11.00) ~1,000-1,250 Sweatcoins for $10 gift card Sweatcoin (lower real level)
Referral Program Bonus steps/coins for referrals Large bonus Sweatcoins per referral Sweatcoin (more giving)
Premium Option €4.99/month for doubled earnings Premium membership available Depends on use
Interface Quality Modern, clean, fitness-app feel Clean, useful, reward-focused Macadam (view-based)

The Macadam Plus Subscription: Is Premium Worth It?

The paid tier needs its own section because the choice to subscribe or not has real money effects. Macadam Plus costs €4.99 per month (about $5.50 USD at current exchange rates) and gives two main benefits:

  • Doubled earning rate: Steps convert at about €0.02 per 1,000 instead of €0.01.
  • Ad-free experience: All banner ads and pop-up ads are removed from the app.

The math on whether this makes money sense is simple but depends fully on your step amount. At the doubled rate, you need to earn more than €4.99 in extra step money to come out ahead compared to staying on the free tier. The break-even point is about 8,300 steps per day. Walk more than that, and the premium tier makes a net positive return. Walk less, and you're paying more for the subscription than you're gaining in extra earnings.

Here's a clear example based on different step levels:

  • 5,000 daily steps: Free tier earns €1.50/month. Premium earns €3.00/month — but costs €4.99, resulting in a net loss of €3.49 compared to free.
  • 8,300 daily steps: Free tier earns €2.49/month. Premium earns €4.98/month — basically breaking even after the subscription cost.
  • 10,000 daily steps: Free tier earns €3.00/month. Premium earns €6.00/month — net gain of €1.01 after subscription.
  • 12,000 daily steps: Free tier earns €3.60/month. Premium earns €7.20/month — net gain of €2.21 after subscription.
  • 15,000 daily steps: Free tier earns €4.50/month. Premium earns €9.00/month — net gain of €4.01 after subscription.

For most people, the premium tier isn't a money-maker — it's an ad-removal feature with a small earning boost attached. If you find the ads annoying and you walk more than 8,000 steps daily, the subscription basically pays for itself while removing ads from your experience. If you're purely looking for top net earnings, the free tier is almost surely the better choice unless you're regularly walking 12,000+ steps every single day.

My Two-Week Earning Diary: The Side-by-Side Data

Over 14 days, I ran both Macadam and Sweatcoin at the same time on the same phone, tracking the same steps. This direct comparison removes things like different daily activity levels between testing times. Here's what the data shows:

Day Steps Macadam Earnings (€) Sweatcoin Earnings (SC) Indoor/Outdoor Mix
1 (Mon) 10,247 €0.10 9.7 SC 70% outdoor
2 (Tue) 8,912 €0.09 8.5 SC 60% outdoor
3 (Wed) 12,103 €0.12 11.5 SC 80% outdoor
4 (Thu) 7,456 €0.07 4.2 SC 30% outdoor (rain day)
5 (Fri) 11,890 €0.12 11.3 SC 75% outdoor
6 (Sat) 6,234 €0.06 5.9 SC 50% outdoor
7 (Sun) 4,567 €0.05 4.3 SC 40% outdoor
8 (Mon) 9,876 €0.10 9.4 SC 65% outdoor
9 (Tue) 11,234 €0.11 10.7 SC 70% outdoor
10 (Wed) 8,045 €0.08 5.1 SC 25% outdoor (treadmill day)
11 (Thu) 13,567 €0.14 12.9 SC 85% outdoor
12 (Fri) 9,321 €0.09 8.9 SC 60% outdoor
13 (Sat) 5,678 €0.06 5.4 SC 45% outdoor
14 (Sun) 3,210 €0.03 3.1 SC 20% outdoor (lazy day)
14-Day Summary: Macadam vs. Sweatcoin
  • Total Steps: 122,340
  • Daily Average: 8,739 steps
  • Macadam Total Earnings: €1.22 (about $1.34 USD)
  • Sweatcoin Total Earnings: 110.9 Sweatcoins (guessed $0.90-$1.10 in gift card value)
  • Indoor Step Impact: Macadam earnings were regular no matter the indoor/outdoor mix. Sweatcoin earnings dropped 40-50% on low-outdoor days.
  • Cash-Out Status: Neither platform reached minimum cash-out level in two weeks — Macadam needs €10.00, Sweatcoin needs ~1,000-1,250 SC for a gift card.

The main finding: at my activity level, Macadam created slightly more real-world value than Sweatcoin over the two-week time, with the gap getting wider on days when indoor steps were most. Day 4 and Day 10 are especially useful — on those low-outdoor days, Macadam's earnings held steady while Sweatcoin's dropped by about 40-50%. Over the course of a winter month where most walking happens indoors, that difference would build into a clear gap in real earning power.

The Macadam Wallet: How Cash-Outs Actually Work

Your earnings build up in the Macadam wallet, shown in Euros no matter your location. The minimum cash-out level is €10.00, and at the time of my review, the only withdrawal method is PayPal. The platform has said that more withdrawal choices — including direct bank transfer and cryptocurrency — are being worked on, but they're not available as of this writing.

The €10.00 level is both Macadam's most clear practical limit and, in a way, a design feature. At an average earning rate of €0.08-€0.12 per day for usual users, reaching the cash-out level needs 3-4 months of regular walking. That's a long time, and it needs patience that many users — used to the faster reward cycles of survey platforms or gaming apps — may not have. When I tested Freecash, users could cash out within days of starting. Macadam works on a basically different timescale.

The design feature part: Macadam is placing itself as a wellness companion that happens to pay you, not a money-making tool that happens to track steps. The long cash-out time pushes away users who are only chasing dollars and encourages a mindset shift — "I'm walking for my health, and the cash is an extra that builds over time." Whether you find this framing true or a handy excuse for low payouts depends on your view. I lean toward the first reading, partly because the earning rate is clear — Macadam doesn't hide the fact that you're earning very small amounts per day — and partly because the app's design regularly shows health numbers alongside earnings.

One practical note on the PayPal withdrawal: because Macadam works in Euros, users outside the Eurozone will face money conversion when withdrawing to a non-Euro PayPal account. PayPal's standard money conversion fees apply, which usually run 3-4% above the mid-market exchange rate. For a €10.00 withdrawal to a USD account, you can expect to get about $10.60-$10.70 after conversion fees, slightly less than the main Euro value would suggest. This isn't Macadam's fee — it's PayPal's — but it's worth adding into your real earning math if you're outside the Eurozone.

Where Macadam Falls Short: Honest Limitations

No platform is perfect, and Macadam has several limits that possible users should weigh carefully before spending their time and phone storage.

The Earning Rate Is Truly Low

There's no way around this. Even at 12,000 daily steps — which is above the activity level of most people — you're earning about €0.12 per day on the free tier. That's €3.60 per month, or about the price of a single special coffee. If you're checking Macadam only as an earning chance, the math doesn't work. The value only makes sense when you see the earnings as an extra on top of walking you'd be doing anyway for health, commuting, or fun. If you're thinking about increasing your walking specifically to earn more from Macadam, the return on that extra work is measured in cents per thousand steps. Your time and energy are worth more than that.

The Cash-Out Level Creates a Long Wait

Three to four months of daily walking before you can reach your first €10.00 is a clear mental barrier. Many users will lose interest or forget about the app before reaching that point. Platforms like Sweatcoin reduce this with lower real levels (you can trade for smaller gift cards) and a marketplace that gives visible, real rewards to work toward. Macadam's wallet shows a Euro balance that grows slowly over weeks, and there's no middle step — no €2.00 gift card, no €5.00 partial cash-out — to give a sense of progress.

Limited Withdrawal Choices

PayPal-only withdrawals, while working, leave out users who don't have or want a PayPal account. Competing platforms offer a wider range of trade choices — Amazon gift cards, Visa prepaid cards, direct bank transfers, charity gifts. Macadam's single-channel approach is clean but limiting.

The Premium Tier's Value Is Situational

As I showed in the subscription analysis above, Macadam Plus only makes money sense for users walking more than 8,300 steps daily. Below that level, the subscription costs more than the extra earnings it creates. This makes a somewhat awkward reward structure: the platform's most active users (those paying for premium) are also the ones for whom the subscription is only slightly useful.

Who Should Use Macadam — and Who Should Stick With Sweatcoin

Macadam Is the Better Choice If:

  • You do clear indoor walking — treadmill, home workouts, mall walking — and are annoyed by Sweatcoin's reduced indoor conversion rates.
  • You like actual cash over virtual money or gift cards, even if the earning rate is lower in total terms.
  • You value a clean, modern fitness-app look and want your step tracker to feel like a wellness tool rather than a reward-chasing game.
  • You're outside the United States — Macadam's Euro-based system and European start may make it easier for international users than Sweatcoin's US-focused marketplace.
  • You're willing to wait 3-4 months for a cash-out and won't get annoyed by the slow build-up.

Sweatcoin Remains the Better Choice If:

  • You walk mostly outdoors and benefit from Sweatcoin's full GPS-checked conversion rate.
  • You want faster access to rewards — Sweatcoin's marketplace offers lower-level gift card choices and more variety in trade.
  • You're interested in the referral program as a clear earning boost — Sweatcoin's referral bonuses are much more giving than Macadam's.
  • You enjoy the marketplace browsing experience and the variety of rewards (gift cards, goods, charity gifts, digital products).
  • You want a platform with a longer record and larger user group — Sweatcoin has been working since 2015 and has sent over $100 million in rewards.

Final Verdict

7.2 / 10

Macadam is a truly refreshing entry in the "walk and earn" group — not because it pays more than competitors (it doesn't, in most cases), but because it approaches the idea with honesty and clarity. The cash-based model means you're earning real money, not a special money whose value can be changed at the platform's choice. The indoor-step fairness removes the most annoying limit of GPS-dependent apps. The interface is clean and nice to use. But the earning rate is clearly low, the cash-out level needs patience, and the premium tier's value only works for high-step-count users. Macadam works best when you treat it as a wellness app that happens to pay you small amounts of real money over long times — not as a money-making tool hidden as a fitness app. If that framing lines up with your expectations, it's absolutely worth downloading. If you're looking to get the most earnings from your steps, Sweatcoin stays the stronger platform for reward variety and referral-based earning boost. For users who want to spread across multiple earning methods, combining a walking app with a survey platform like CashKarma or a data-sharing app like Honeygain creates a more balanced small-earning set. For a complete guide to building such a plan, see my 15 Money Apps Tested for Extra Cash.

Frequently Asked Questions

 What is Macadam and how is it different from Sweatcoin?

Macadam is a walking reward app made by a French company that pays users in real cash (Euros) rather than virtual money. Unlike Sweatcoin, which turns steps into a special money usable only within its marketplace, Macadam builds up actual money withdrawable via PayPal. Macadam also counts indoor and outdoor steps at the same rate, while Sweatcoin clearly reduces indoor steps due to the lack of GPS checking. The trade-off is that Macadam's real earning rate is slightly lower, and the minimum cash-out level of €10.00 needs more patience to reach.

 How much can I realistically earn with Macadam?

On the free tier, Macadam turns steps at about €0.01 per 1,000 steps. A user walking 10,000 steps daily earns about €3.00 per month. On the premium tier (€4.99/month), the rate doubles to €0.02 per 1,000 steps — €6.00 monthly at 10,000 steps per day, though the subscription cost must be taken away. The real hourly rate is very small. Macadam is not an income source; it's a small cash extra for walking you'd be doing anyway. For users looking for more substantial earning chances, platforms like Data Annotation Tech or OneForma offer higher pay for skilled work.

 Does Macadam count treadmill and indoor steps?

Yes — and this is Macadam's strongest competitive advantage. The app uses your phone's movement sensors (the same technology powering Apple Health and Google Fit) to find walking motion no matter where you are. All checked steps earn at the same rate whether you're walking outdoors on a sidewalk, indoors on a treadmill, or moving around your home. This is a clear improvement over GPS-dependent apps like Sweatcoin, which reduce indoor steps by 50-80% due to the lack of location-based checking. The only limit is an anti-cheating cap that flags accounts creating suspiciously high step counts without matching GPS movement — real walkers won't hit this.

 How do I withdraw money from Macadam?

Macadam currently offers withdrawal only through PayPal. The minimum cash-out level is €10.00, which takes about 3-4 months to reach for a user averaging 8,000-10,000 daily steps on the free tier. Once the level is met, you request the withdrawal through the app's Wallet section, and funds are moved to your PayPal account. Users outside the Eurozone should know that PayPal applies standard money conversion fees (usually 3-4%) when changing from Euros to local money. More withdrawal methods — including direct bank transfer and cryptocurrency — have been said to be coming but are not yet available.

 Is the Macadam Plus premium subscription worth it?

Macadam Plus costs €4.99/month and doubles the step-to-cash conversion rate (from €0.01 to €0.02 per 1,000 steps) while removing all in-app ads. The money break-even point is about 8,300 daily steps. Below that level, the subscription costs more than the extra earnings it creates. For a user walking 10,000 steps daily, premium makes about €6.00/month — a net gain of €1.01 after the subscription fee. At 12,000 steps, the net gain is €2.21. For most users, the premium tier is best seen as an ad-removal purchase that pays for itself if you walk regularly, rather than a clear earning boost. The free tier is the better pure money choice for users walking fewer than 8,000 steps daily.

 Is Macadam available worldwide?

Macadam is available globally through both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The app works in Euros by default, and earnings are counted in Euros no matter your location. Users outside the Eurozone should add in PayPal's money conversion fees when counting real earnings. The platform has a especially strong user base in Europe (where it started) but is fully working for users in North America, Asia, and other areas. Step counting and earning rates are regular globally — there are no area limits on earning or withdrawal.

 Which is better — Macadam or Sweatcoin?

The answer depends on what you care about most. Choose Macadam if: you do clear indoor walking and want all steps counted equally, you like real cash over virtual money, or you value a clean fitness-app look. Choose Sweatcoin if: you walk mostly outdoors, you want faster access to rewards through lower-level gift cards, you're interested in getting the most through a giving referral program, or you enjoy looking through a varied marketplace of rewards. In my two-week side-by-side test, total earning value was about the same — Macadam made slightly more real-world value, while Sweatcoin offered faster reward access and more variety. Neither platform is a clear income source.

Disclaimer

Results vary by person. What worked for me may not work for everyone. The income figures mentioned are estimates based on my personal experience and are not typical or guaranteed. This review is based on my personal testing of Macadam for two weeks alongside Sweatcoin on the same device. I did not receive any compensation for this review. All external links are provided for your convenience only and are not affiliate links. This is an honest personal assessment, and individual results may differ. Earning money through these platforms requires time and effort, and outcomes are not guaranteed. For more information, please visit our About Us, Contact Us, FAQ, Privacy Policy, and Disclaimer pages.