Gold Tracker vs APMEX: Which gold tracking app is better?

How is Gold Tracker different from the APMEX app?

The APMEX app is a mobile storefront from one of America's largest online precious metals dealers. It's designed around shopping: browse coins and bars, place orders, check out deals, and manage your APMEX account. You can also view spot prices, set price alerts, and read market news. But the app requires an account, and the experience is built around driving purchases through APMEX's marketplace.

Gold Tracker serves a different need — it's a precious metals app for iPhone built for people who follow gold and silver closely, whether they stack coins and bars, buy jewelry, work with scrap, or just want better tools for tracking the market. Log every coin, bar, and round with the price you paid. Track your real-time gain or loss per position. Calculate melt values for any karat or purity. Check prices from your watch face or lock screen. Your portfolio is stored locally on your device, syncs through iCloud, and can be locked with Face ID or Touch ID — no account required, no ads.

Feature comparison between Gold Tracker and APMEX
Feature	Gold Tracker	APMEX
Spot Prices
Live gold, silver, platinum & palladium spot prices	✓	✓
Price in troy ounces, grams, kilograms & pennyweights	✓	✕
150+ currency support	✓	✕
Historical price charts	✓	✓
Automatic background price refresh	✓	✓
Daily high / low & change percentage	✓	✓
Price alerts	—	✓
The Vault — Portfolio Tracking
Physical inventory tracking (coins, bars, rounds)	✓	✓
Log purchases with price, weight & date	✓	✓
Track sales and record realized profit / loss	✓	✕
Track value in grams, kilograms & pennyweights	✓	✕
Average cost per oz / g / kg / dwt	✓	✕
Real-time unrealized gain / loss on each position	✓	✕
FX gain / loss tracking across currencies	✓	✕
Lot-level purchase history	✓	✕
Vault synced across iPhone & iPad via iCloud	✓	✕
Calculators
Melt value calculator (live spot price)	✓	✕
Karat gold calculator (8K – 24K)	✓	✕
Silver purity calculator (.925, .999, etc.)	✓	✕
Platinum & palladium melt calculators	✓	✕
Calculate across oz, grams, kg & pennyweights	✓	✕
Apple Watch & Widgets
Dedicated Apple Watch app	✓	✕
Watch face complications (multiple styles)	✓	✕
Home screen widgets	✓	✕
Lock screen widgets	✓	✕
Choose which metal to display in widget	✓	✕
Privacy & Your Data
No account required	✓	✕
Ad-free	✓	✓
Local-first — your data stays on your device	✓	✕
Synced via iCloud with end-to-end encryption	✓	✕
Shopping & Marketplace
Browse & buy coins, bars, and rounds in-app	—	✓
Sell precious metals back through the app	—	✓
Order tracking & purchase history	—	✓
Broader Market Data
S&P 500 & stock index tracking	—	✓
Oil price tracking	—	✓
Bitcoin price tracking	—	✓
News & articles	—	✓

Information is based on publicly available App Store listings and is accurate to the best of our knowledge. Features may change with future updates.

What Gold Tracker does that APMEX doesn't

The Vault — Full Portfolio Tracking

APMEX has a basic vault feature where you can log holdings in ounces and dollars. Gold Tracker's Vault goes much further. Every purchase is recorded as a separate lot with the exact price, weight, date, and currency. The app calculates your average cost per ounce, tracks unrealized gain or loss against the live spot price, and updates in real time. You can view your portfolio in troy ounces, grams, kilograms, or pennyweights — and in any of 150+ currencies.

If you bought gold in Canadian dollars, euros, or pounds, Gold Tracker tracks the FX gain or loss separately from the metal price movement. When you sell, it records the realized profit and keeps a full history. APMEX's vault only works in ounces and USD — it doesn't track cost basis, FX exposure, or lot-level history, and you can only add one item at a time.

Melt Value Calculators

APMEX is built for buying finished products — coins, bars, and rounds with a known premium. Gold Tracker is also built for the scrap and jewelry market. The melt value calculators handle gold from 8K through 24K, silver at any purity (.925, .999, or custom), plus platinum and palladium. Enter a weight in troy ounces, grams, kilograms, or pennyweights and get the melt value at the current spot price. Pawn shops, gold buyers, and dealers have relied on these calculators since 2015. APMEX doesn't offer anything like this.

Apple Watch & Widgets

APMEX doesn't have an Apple Watch app or widgets. Gold Tracker has a dedicated Apple Watch app with watch face complications — small, always-visible displays that show your chosen metal's price directly on your watch face. On iPhone, Gold Tracker offers home screen widgets and lock screen widgets where you choose which metal to display. If you want gold or silver prices visible at a glance throughout your day without opening an app, Gold Tracker is the only option here.

Privacy & Encryption

The APMEX app requires an account — your name, email, and purchase history all live on APMEX's servers. Gold Tracker requires no account at all. Your portfolio data is stored locally on your device, and if you enable iCloud sync, Apple encrypts that synced data in transit and on its servers. You can also lock the vault on your device with Face ID or Touch ID. Your vault isn't tied to an account.

For stackers who consider their precious metals holdings private financial information, this is a fundamental difference. Gold Tracker is a privacy-focused precious metals tracker built to keep your data under your control.

Which app should you choose?

Choose Gold Tracker if...

You want better tools for following gold and silver, whether you own coins and bars, buy jewelry, work with scrap, or keep an eye on the market every day. You need detailed cost basis, gain/loss, and FX tracking. You want melt value calculators for scrap or jewelry. You want Apple Watch complications and lock screen widgets. You want a private tracker with no account required and Face ID or Touch ID lock.

Choose APMEX if...

You buy primarily from APMEX and want to shop, place orders, and manage your account from your phone. You want price alerts and market news in the same app where you make purchases. You're looking for a mobile storefront, not a portfolio management tool.