MetricWire alternatives for studies where EMA is only part of the protocol

MetricWire is a capable EMA and digital intervention platform, and for context triggered sampling studies it's a serious option. When an investigator led study also needs validated ePRO, eConsent with version control, native Garmin, Apple Health, Health Connect and Fitbit Air data, and two way REDCap sync, WeGuide brings that into one whitelabel participant app on a managed platform.

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No pressure, no hard sell. A 30 minute walkthrough with a research colleague who's built platforms like yours.

Where WeGuide differs

Validated ePRO and regulatory eConsent
Garmin, Apple Health, Health Connect and Fitbit Air
Two way sync with the systems you already run

Used by leading research and medical institutes.

Why research teams look for a MetricWire alternative

The short version

MetricWire does one thing very well: it captures what happens in participants' daily lives, in the moment, and lets researchers react to it. Context triggered surveys, passive sensing and adaptive interventions are its core, and it has been doing this for academic and clinical researchers for more than a decade.

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Why teams look elsewhere

The pressure usually starts when an EMA study grows into a broader clinical protocol. The ethics committee wants eConsent with version control and a re-consent path for amendments. The statistician wants validated patient reported outcome instruments, not custom items. The data manager wants everything to land in the institution's REDCap project without a manual export. And the participants own a mix of iPhones, Android phones, Garmin watches and other devices. MetricWire covers parts of that: it lists eConsent and comprehension, Apple HealthKit data and wearable sensors such as Fitbit and Polar. But its centre of gravity is experience sampling and intervention research, and its public website shares relatively little detail, so much of the evaluation happens in demos.

Timelines matter too. A sampling burst runs for days or weeks. A cohort, registry or follow up trial can run for years, and over that time the questions shift from "did participants answer today's prompts?" to "are they still engaged next year, have they re-consented, and is their device data still flowing?" Those are engagement, consent and integration problems as much as survey problems.

We built WeGuide for teams in that position. If MetricWire still fits your protocol, that's completely fine, and we'll tell you honestly if staying put is the better choice. If you need ePRO, eConsent, wearables, engagement and integration in one participant experience under your own brand, read on.

Key differences between WeGuide and MetricWire

For teams whose EMA study has grown into a longitudinal or clinical protocol, here's what changes when you move to WeGuide.

Validated ePRO and regulatory eConsent

WeGuide pairs eCOA and ePRO from a library of validated instruments with eScreening and eConsent that has version control, re-consent workflows and a full audit trail. When a protocol is amended, participants re-consent in the app and the record shows who agreed to which version, and when. That is often the difference between an exploratory EMA dataset and one that can support a trial outcome.

Garmin, Apple Health, Health Connect and Fitbit Air

MetricWire's Catalyst app collects Apple HealthKit data and its Android store listing names wearable sensors such as Fitbit and Polar. WeGuide has native Garmin, Apple Health, Health Connect and Fitbit Air integrations, so iPhone and Android participants can both connect the devices they already own without a custom pipeline. On supported Garmin models, WeGuide also collects raw accelerometer and gyroscope data at 25 Hz through the Garmin Health SDK.

Two way sync with the systems you already run

WeGuide's Integration Engine offers two way REDCap sync through the REDCap API, plus Salesforce, HL7 / FHIR, a REST API and webhooks. For academic teams whose data management lives in REDCap, participant data stays in step with the project your statisticians already use, with no export and import cycle at every data cut.

Compare

Full comparison: WeGuide vs MetricWire

REDCap

Feature

Request a Demo

Primary use case

Participant platform for trials, registries and longitudinal studies, with eCOA, eConsent, wearables, engagement and telehealth

EMA, mobile diary and digital intervention platform for academic, clinical and commercial research

Participant app

Whitelabel native iOS and Android apps under your organisation's own App Store account and name, or the existing WeGuide app

Catalyst by MetricWire app on iOS and Android, plus study specific apps published under MetricWire's developer name

EMA scheduling and triggers

Scheduling, push notifications, reminders and in app messaging configured in the no code Program Builder

Surveys and notifications triggered by location, previous responses, passive data, dates and times or randomised options, plus adaptive protocols

Validated instruments

eCOA and ePRO with a library of validated instruments

No validated instrument library described on MetricWire's public website. Study teams design their own surveys in the MetricWire Research Portal

eConsent

Built in, with version control, re-consent workflows and audit trail

eConsent and comprehension listed as a platform capability

Wearable integration

Native Garmin, Apple Health, Health Connect and Fitbit Air, plus raw accelerometer and gyroscope data at 25 Hz through the Garmin Health SDK on supported Garmin models

Apple HealthKit (sleep, steps, exercise, distance) in Catalyst, with Fitbit and Polar named as examples in the Android listing. No Garmin integration documented publicly

Passive sensing and location

No GPS, geofencing or smartphone passive sensing. Raw motion data comes only from supported Garmin watches

Passive smartphone sensors, geolocation and background location, with participant permission

Cognitive tasks and interventions

Medical Form Builder with conditional logic, patient education content and gamification

Cognitive experiments and adaptive digital interventions evaluated in real world conditions

Participant engagement

Push notifications, in app messaging, scheduling, education content and gamification

Reminders, tools to communicate with the study team, and resources and educational materials in the app

Languages

Translation management across consent, eCOA and participant content (used on the INHERIT study)

Catalyst app available in English, French, German and Polish

Telehealth

Built in televisits

No video visit feature described on MetricWire's public website or app store listings

Integrations

Two way REDCap sync, Salesforce, HL7 / FHIR, REST API and webhooks

Customisable result sets and exports. No named integrations (such as REDCap or FHIR) documented publicly

Security and compliance

ISO 27001:2022, HIPAA (BAA available), GDPR, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, TGA registered Class I medical device software

States HIPAA, GDPR and FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, ISO 27001 certification and SOC 2 Type II

Hosting

Managed cloud, included in the project

Managed, with data stored in the United States on Google Cloud Platform

Pricing

Project based, quoted on request, includes hosting, support and modules

Not published. Academic Site Licence for institutions, with independent licences also offered through some universities

Onboarding and support

Configuration alongside your team, typically two to four weeks, with a named delivery contact

Site licence includes a dedicated account manager and dedicated engineering resources for novel protocol designs

REDCap

Top alternatives to MetricWire in 2026

Here's the shortlist most academic and investigator led teams evaluate when they're moving on from MetricWire. Some are EMA specialists, others are broader research platforms. Each one has a different sweet spot.

Alternative #1

Where WeGuide goes further

For teams that want the participant side of a study in one platform, here's what changes when you move to WeGuide.

Clinical outcome measures, not just momentary items

eConsent built for ethics committees and regulators

Wearables on iPhone and Android alike

REDCap, Salesforce and FHIR in both directions

Engagement that lasts beyond the sampling window

Telehealth in the same app

Multilingual delivery across the whole study

Configured with you, supported for the life of the study

A regulated device software posture

Built for regulated research

Every WeGuide study runs on our managed infrastructure. Your IT team doesn't patch servers, manage backups, or run disaster recovery drills.

TGA Registered

Registered Class I medical device software with the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

ISO 27001

Certified information security management covering access, audit, and incident response.

Data Hosted in Australia

Participant data is hosted in Australian data centres with sovereign data controls.

GDPR Compliant

GDPR, HIPAA, and 21 CFR Part 11 ready for multi-country and US-based studies.

Biometric Security

Participant access protected by PIN code and biometric authentication on device.

256-bit AES Encryption

All data encrypted at rest and in transit with automated backups and disaster recovery.

Where MetricWire excels

Context triggered sampling is its core. Surveys, notifications and passive data capture can fire on location, previous responses, passive sensor data, dates and times or randomised options, and protocols can adapt to each participant's behaviour. For just in time intervention research, that is exactly the right toolset.

It combines self report with objective data. Passive smartphone sensors, geolocation, multimedia and HealthKit data sit alongside survey responses, which is what ecological validity research needs.

It has a strong security posture. MetricWire states HIPAA, GDPR and FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, reports ISO 27001 certification and SOC 2 Type II, and publishes a data privacy and security summary describing US hosting on Google Cloud, AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.2 or higher in transit.

It partners closely with academic institutions. The Academic Site Licence includes self serve administration, a dedicated account manager and dedicated engineering resources for novel protocol designs. Penn State's Survey Research Center added MetricWire to its research technology portfolio in 2024 with several licence options for its investigators.

It works across devices and connectivity. Participants can take part on mobile and web devices, in connected and offline environments, and compliance management workflows surface response rate and participant safety issues to the study team early.

It builds study specific apps. Alongside its Catalyst app, MetricWire publishes named apps for individual studies, such as the TRACC MH app for a McLean Hospital study that is part of the NIMH funded IMPACT-MH consortium. For a large funded study, a dedicated app is a real advantage.

If your study fits comfortably inside those strengths, honestly, staying on MetricWire is the right call. We'd rather tell you that than sell you something you don't need.

Can WeGuide work alongside MetricWire?

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Usually it's one or the other for a given study. Both platforms ask participants to install an app and both send notifications, so running them side by side on the same cohort means two apps on one phone, which tends to hurt adherence rather than help it. Where we do see both in one organisation, the split is by study: a lab keeps MetricWire for intensive passive sensing and just in time intervention studies, and runs registries, cohorts and investigator led trials that need validated ePRO, regulatory eConsent and REDCap integration on WeGuide.

If your institution runs REDCap, that is often the common ground. WeGuide's Integration Engine syncs with REDCap both ways, so data from WeGuide studies lands in the same research database your team already uses for everything else.

We'd also say it plainly: if your next study is another intensive sampling study built on passive sensing and real time triggers, there is little reason to switch. The case for WeGuide is strongest when the protocol needs the things an EMA platform wasn't built around, such as validated outcome measures, regulatory consent, broad wearable support and integration with your research database.

How the switch works

For teams ready to move a study beyond MetricWire, here's how a typical onboarding plays out.

Discovery Call

A 30 minute conversation with our research delivery team. We look at your protocol, how your sampling schedule and triggers are set up today, and which parts need validated instruments, eConsent, wearables or REDCap integration. If MetricWire is still the better fit for the study in front of you, we'll say so. No pressure, no sales pitch.

Study Configuration

Our team works alongside yours to configure the study in WeGuide: schedules and notifications, eCOA and ePRO, consent flows, wearable connections and, if you use REDCap, the Integration Engine. Typical timeline: two to four weeks.

Participant Onboarding

The whitelabel app goes live under your organisation's brand. Your coordinators invite participants, consent flows and notification templates are ready, and data starts arriving from day one. If the study runs in more than one language, translations for consent, instruments and participant content are managed in the same place.

Ongoing Support

You get a named research delivery contact, not a ticketing queue. We stay involved for the life of the study, including protocol amendments and re-consent.

Case studies: research teams that needed more than momentary surveys

BRACE Trial (Murdoch Children's Research Institute)

Murdoch Children's Research Institute ran the BRACE trial, an international randomised trial testing whether the BCG vaccine could protect healthcare workers during COVID-19. It enrolled thousands of participants across several countries. Vaccination and blood collection happened in person, while WeGuide carried the participant side of the study, a hybrid design that needs consent, scheduling and engagement working together rather than sampling alone.

GenV (Generation Victoria)

Generation Victoria is a whole of state birth cohort in Victoria, Australia, following roughly 124,000 people: about 50,000 children and 74,000 parents. A study on that scale and timeline needs a branded app families keep on their phones for years, consent that can evolve with the study, and engagement that goes well beyond a sampling burst. WeGuide is the platform GenV uses to do that, for a cohort that will follow its children well beyond the life of a typical grant.

FSHD Global

FSHD Global runs a longitudinal patient registry for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy on WeGuide, combining patient reported outcomes with wearable integration. A registry like this has to keep patients engaged between clinic visits, capture outcomes they report themselves alongside data from their devices, and do it under the name of a patient organisation they already trust.

Helping researchers transform ideas into discoveries.

Hear what our clients have to say!

"GenV trusted WeGuide to run a multi-year population health study with roughly 124,000 Victorians, about 50,000 children and 74,000 parents. Longitudinal engagement at this scale requires push notifications, multi-modal data capture, and a whitelabel app that families will keep on their phones for years.""

Susan Clifford

Senior Research Officer

“The main benefit of WeGuide is its convenience. I can’t imagine how we would follow thousands of participants and collect their data without WeGuide!”

Kaya Gardiner

Trial Project Manager

"WeGuide has transformed how we manage our patient registry. The ease of digital screening and obtaining eConsent has significantly improved our workflow."

Emma Weatherley

Managing Director

"The WeGuide trial offers staff a practical tool for recording daily COVID-19 symptoms and temperatures. For those in high-risk areas, daily reminders and alerts provide peace of mind and reassurance about their health."

Kate Cranwell

Manager

"It’s obvious that WeGuide is committed to develop technology that benefits people in the community. WeGuide has been a great partner in achieving this goal within Western Health."

Paul Eleftheriou

Chief Medical Officer

Questions

Straight answers on how WeGuide compares to MetricWire, what moving looks like, and when staying on MetricWire is the right call.

Is WeGuide an EMA platform like MetricWire?

WeGuide supports the core of an EMA protocol: scheduled surveys, push notifications, reminders and in app messaging, configured without code. But it isn't an EMA specialist in the way MetricWire is. MetricWire goes deeper on context triggered sampling, passive smartphone sensing, location and adaptive interventions, and WeGuide does not offer GPS capture or geofencing. WeGuide is broader: validated ePRO, regulatory eConsent, native wearables, telehealth, engagement and REDCap integration in a whitelabel app. If your study is pure intensive sampling with passive sensing, MetricWire may be the better fit. If EMA is one component of a longer study that also needs consent, validated measures and device data, WeGuide is designed for that mix.

Which wearables does MetricWire support?

MetricWire's Catalyst app integrates with Apple HealthKit to collect sleep, step count, exercise and distance when the study team enables it, and its Android store listing gives Fitbit and Polar as examples of wearable sensors researchers may use. MetricWire does not publish a full device list, and we found no Garmin integration documented publicly. WeGuide has native Garmin, Apple Health, Health Connect and Fitbit Air integrations, covering both iPhone and Android participants, and collects raw accelerometer and gyroscope data at 25 Hz through the Garmin Health SDK on supported Garmin models. For smartphone sensors and location data, MetricWire goes further.

How does MetricWire pricing compare with WeGuide?

MetricWire does not publish prices. It offers an Academic Site Licence for institutions, and some universities offer their own licence routes. Penn State's Survey Research Center, for example, describes independent investigator licences, centre managed licences and free access for pilot and thesis projects for its own researchers. WeGuide is project based and quoted on request, and the quote includes hosting, support and modules. Because both vendors quote, the fairest comparison is to send each the same protocol and compare what's included.

Is MetricWire 21 CFR Part 11 compliant?

MetricWire states that it complies with FDA 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA and GDPR, and its data privacy and security summary reports ISO 27001 certification and SOC 2 Type II. WeGuide is also FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliant, ISO 27001:2022 certified, HIPAA compliant with a BAA available and GDPR compliant, and is TGA registered Class I medical device software. For a regulated study, ask either vendor for the validation documentation directly.

Can participants get a branded app with MetricWire?

MetricWire publishes study specific apps on the app stores, for example TRACC MH and Rhythms In Daily Life, under MetricWire's own developer name, alongside its general Catalyst app. With WeGuide, each study can ship under your organisation's own App Store account and name, or use the existing WeGuide app. If the publisher name on the store listing matters to your ethics committee or your participants, ask each vendor how it is handled.

Can we move an ongoing study from MetricWire to WeGuide?

For a study already in the field, we usually recommend finishing the current wave on MetricWire and starting the next wave or the follow on study on WeGuide, so participants don't switch apps mid protocol and your sampling schedule stays intact for analysis. We'll work with you during discovery on how exported historical data and new WeGuide data line up, including in REDCap if you use it.

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