Six workout tracker apps compared on the thing reviews leave out: what the free tier actually caps. Routines, history, custom exercises and price, each one traced to the vendor's own help centre.
September 23, 2026
The best workout tracker app depends on what you need before you pay. Hevy is the most complete free tier if four routines is enough; Strong is the cleanest logger, capped at three templates; StrengthLog gives away the most; and FitNotes is free forever on Android. The caps are below.
Every claim about a competitor here comes from that vendor's own site or help centre, not from installing the app — links and check dates are in the Sources section. Six apps are covered: Hevy, Strong, StrengthLog, FitNotes, Fitbod, and Sweatora, which we build ourselves. Its section says so plainly.
All of them log sets fine. Progressive overload only needs a record of what you did last time, and that's a solved problem. What differs is how much you get before the app asks you to pay. For what to log and why, see how to track your workouts.
“Generous free tier” shows up in almost every review of these apps. None of them say what that means in numbers. Here's what free actually gets you, and what it costs once you're training seriously enough to hit the cap.
| App | What the free tier caps | Paid price | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hevy | 4 routines, 7 custom exercises; stats history capped at 30 days or 3 months; body measurements limited to weight and waist, per Hevy's help centre | Hevy Pro: $2.99/month, per Hevy's help centre | iOS, Android, web, Apple Watch, Wear OS |
| Strong | 3 workout templates; logging itself is unlimited | Not published — “prices may vary between regions,” check the App Store or Google Play | iOS, Android, Apple Watch |
| StrengthLog | Unlimited logging, 450+ exercises, basic stats, calculators, muscle map, body measurements and goals — the most generous free tier here | Not published — the help centre points to the App Store or Google Play; 14-day free trial | iOS, Android |
| FitNotes | Nothing — fully free, no ads, ever | None. No paid tier exists | Android only |
| Fitbod | No free tier; 7-day trial only | $15.99/month or $95.99/year, billed via the Fitbod website | iOS, Android |
| Sweatora | 1 AI-generated program per 3 months; manual programs, logging, the full 927-exercise library, stats and macro targets are unlimited | Planned: €10/month or €100/year (2 months free) — not billable yet, still in closed beta | Android, web; no iPhone app yet |
Two of the four paid apps here won't tell you what they cost. Strong and StrengthLog both say only that prices vary by region and send you to the App Store or Google Play — so you can't compare them without installing them first. Hevy and Fitbod publish a figure. Ours is in the table too, but it's a planned price rather than one you can pay today, for the reason given in Sweatora's section below.
The caps also split into two different offers. FitNotes is free because it's a finished app with no server behind it — nothing to sync, nothing to pay for. Hevy and Strong are free to start, with caps that bite exactly when training gets serious: a fourth routine, a second block of history. Knowing which kind of “free” you're looking at matters more than the word itself.
Hevy is the app most people mean when they say “workout tracker app.” Hevy's help centre states that the free tier gives you 4 routines and 7 custom exercises, and that your stats history is capped at 30 days or 3 months depending on what you're looking at. Body measurements are limited to weight and waist circumference — no chest, arms or hips unless you upgrade (Hevy Help Centre). We could not open those help-centre pages directly, so treat the four numbers as Hevy's own published terms rather than figures we confirmed in the app.
Hevy Pro is listed at $2.99/month and removes those caps (Hevy Help Centre). That's the cheapest paid tier on this page by a wide margin, and it's worth knowing what you're actually paying for: unlimited routines and custom exercises, and full stats history.
Where Hevy genuinely leads is outside the caps table. It has a real social feed — you can follow other lifters and see their sessions — which none of the other apps here offer. It also covers more hardware than anyone else: iOS, Android, web, Apple Watch and Wear OS, with offline logging built into both watch apps (Hevy Help Centre). If a smartwatch is part of your setup, that alone can decide it.
Strong's tagline is “Think less. Lift more,” and the free version mostly delivers on it: logging is unlimited, and the app stays out of your way while you train (Strong Help Centre). The limit is on the setup side — you can create up to 3 workout templates for free. A fourth means upgrading to Strong PRO (Strong Help Centre).
PRO adds unlimited templates, body part measurements, the full set of charts, a plate calculator, a warm-up calculator, custom icons on iPhone, and themes (Strong Help Centre). What it doesn't add is a published price. Strong's own help centre says only that “prices may vary between regions” and sends you to the App Store or Google Play to check.
If your routine doesn't rotate much — the same 2 or 3 templates, cycled for months — the free version may never ask you to pay at all. If you like building and swapping templates often, you'll hit the cap fast.
StrengthLog gives away more for free than anything else on this list. Unlimited workout logging, no ads, 450+ built-in exercises plus your own custom ones, basic statistics like PRs and history, an automatic set timer, a muscle map, body measurements, goals, and calculators for 1RM, calories and warm-ups — all free (StrengthLog Help Centre).
Premium is aimed at people programming their training, not just logging it: full programs and workouts, more advanced statistics (reports, per-muscle-group breakdowns), instant per-set feedback like estimated 1RM and rep PRs, RPE and RIR support, an RPE calculator, building workouts around a percentage of your 1RM or RPE, unlimited goals and streaks, and monthly or yearly training reports (StrengthLog Help Centre). Like Strong, StrengthLog doesn't publish a price — the help centre just says to search for it in the App Store or Google Play. Billing runs monthly, quarterly or yearly, and there's a 14-day free trial.
If you just want to log sets and see your history, the free tier is probably all you'll ever need. If you want RPE-based programming built in, that's what Premium is for.
FitNotes takes a different approach to “free” than anything else here: there's no paid tier at all. The app's own site states it plainly — “Free to use and no ads - ever!” (FitNotes). There's no cap to hit, no Pro version waiting behind a paywall, nothing to upgrade to.
The trade-off is what makes that possible. FitNotes is Android only, and there's no cloud sync, so your history lives on the device. That's not a flaw so much as the reason it can stay free forever — there's no server to pay for, so there's nothing to charge you for. If you're on Android, only ever use one device, and don't need your log to follow you anywhere else, that's a fair trade for permanently free.
Fitbod is the odd one out on this list: there's no free tier, just a 7-day trial. After that, Fitbod's FAQ states the price directly — $15.99 a month or $95.99 a year, when purchased through Fitbod's own website (Fitbod FAQ). Pricing through the App Store or Google Play may differ.
What you're paying for is a planner, not a logger. Fitbod builds each session from your logged data — in its own words, it “dynamically personalizes every workout, optimizes your recovery, and applies progressive overload” (Fitbod FAQ). You review and run what Fitbod picked rather than choosing sets yourself. That's a different product from Hevy, Strong and StrengthLog, which all assume you bring your own program: useful if you want the planning done, wasted money if you already have a program. More planners of this kind are compared in our AI workout apps roundup.
Sweatora is ours, so take this section as a pitch as much as a review — we're not a neutral party here. Nothing below is a vendor claim we're relaying; it's how our own app works.
The free tier gives you unlimited manual programs and workout logging, the full 927-exercise library, stats, and macro targets. The cap is on AI-generated programs: one every 3 months for free. Planned pricing removes that cap — €10/month VAT included, or €100/year (2 months free). It's a planned price, not a live one: Sweatora is still in closed beta and isn't billable yet.
Two things are specific to Sweatora. You keep separate Home and Gym equipment inventories, not one combined list, so the program you get matches the kit you actually have in that context. And after each session, Sweatora averages your RPE for every exercise you did. If that average is 7 or lower, it suggests adding 2.5 kg to the heaviest set of that exercise next time. If the average is above 7, and the previous session that included that exercise also averaged 8 or higher, it suggests dropping to 80% of that weight, rounded to the nearest 2.5 kg. Otherwise, it holds. Bodyweight exercises run the same rule on reps: +1 rep, or 80% of reps rounded, floored at 1.
Two details matter here: the increment applies to the heaviest set of that exercise in that session, not an average “working weight,” and “previous session” means the most recent earlier session that included that exercise, not simply your last workout.
Logging is offline-first and keeps working with no connection, syncing once you're back online. Signing in and generating an AI program both need connectivity — a real limitation if you train somewhere with no signal.
Sweatora is new. The community around it is small, there's no social feed like Hevy's, and Hevy and Strong are both more mature loggers with years of polish we don't have yet.
Try Sweatora free! Get your personalized program today.
Match the app to what will actually stop you, not to the app with the most features:
Weighing any tracker against a paper log instead? That comparison — paper journal or app — is a separate question, and one we'll cover on its own.
For most lifters, yes — at least at first. StrengthLog and FitNotes both cover logging, stats and history without a paywall. Hevy and Strong stay free until you hit a specific cap (a fourth routine, a second stats window), and by the time you hit it, you'll know exactly what you're paying to remove.
It depends on the app. FitNotes has no cloud sync at all, so it's offline by nature. Hevy's help centre advertises offline logging on its Apple Watch and Wear OS apps (Hevy Help Centre). Sweatora logs offline by default and only needs a connection to sign in or generate an AI program. Check each app's own docs before relying on it underground or on a flight.
Sometimes. Hevy's help centre documents a direct import for Strong CSV exports — Profile → Settings → Export & Import Data → Import Strong CSV — and notes the file has to be in English to be accepted (Hevy Help Centre). That's the only first-party import path between two apps on this list that we found documented. Otherwise, assume moving means re-entering your custom exercises and starting history fresh, so pick with some care rather than planning to switch later.
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