Hevy vs Fitbod: Which One Should You Actually Pay For

Our bias, stated first

We make a competing app. Pocket Fit is ours, we sell a subscription, and we would obviously rather you used it than either app in this title. That is a good reason to read what follows sceptically, so here is the rule we set ourselves before writing it: Pocket Fit is not in the ranked comparison, it appears once near the end in a section you can skip, and the verdict recommends one of these two outright.

Everything factual about Hevy and Fitbod here comes from those two companies' own websites, help centres and App Store listings, checked in July 2026, and every source is listed at the end. We have not installed a review copy of either and pretended to a long term test we did not run. Where a number is a vendor's published figure rather than something we measured, we say so.

If you want a wider comparison that includes Strong, Jefit and Boostcamp, read best workout tracking app. If your deciding factor is specifically how each app handles adding weight, read progressive overload app. This article is the narrow head to head.

The short answer

Hevy and Fitbod are not competing for the same job, which is why the comparison feels slippery when you read the feature lists side by side.

Hevy is a workout logger that will also write you a program if you pay for Pro. Fitbod is a program generator that logs as a side effect. Both are good at what they are. The question is not which app is better, it is whether you want to decide what you are doing in the gym.

If you want to run a program you chose, whether that is one you wrote, one from a coach, or one you copied off the internet, buy Hevy. It is the better logger, it is dramatically cheaper, and its free tier is genuinely usable rather than a trial in disguise.

If you want to open an app and be told what to do today, with no programming decisions on your part, buy Fitbod. It is built for exactly that and Hevy is not.

The rest of this is the evidence, including one number that we think should change most people's answer.

The number that should change your answer

Hevy Pro costs $23.99 a year. Fitbod's yearly plan is listed on Fitbod's own FAQ page at $95.99, and the App Store shows year long purchases at $79.99 and $95.99 depending on which offer you land on.

So a year of Fitbod costs about four times a year of Hevy Pro. That is the headline, but it is not the striking part.

The striking part is that Hevy's lifetime purchase is $74.99. One single payment for permanent access to Hevy Pro costs less than one year of Fitbod at the price Fitbod's own FAQ quotes. If you keep training for a decade, and most people reading a comparison article like this one intend to, that is not a small difference in price. It is a difference in category.

Both companies publish more than one price. Hevy's App Store listing shows monthly tiers at $2.99 and $3.99, yearly at $23.99, lifetime at $74.99. Fitbod's listing shows monthly at $12.99 and $15.99, a year of Fitbod Elite at $79.99 and $95.99, plus legacy tiers between $7.99 and $59.99 that existing subscribers were grandfathered onto. Which one you see depends on your storefront, your region and when you signed up, so check the price your own store shows before you commit to anything, including ours.

None of this makes Fitbod bad value. It makes Fitbod a different purchase. You are paying for someone else to write the program, and program design is the expensive part of coaching. Whether that is worth roughly seventy dollars a year to you is a genuine question with a genuine answer on both sides.

What you actually get free

Hevy has a permanent free tier. Fitbod does not.

This is the second thing we would want to know before choosing, and it is easy to miss because both apps show as "free with in-app purchases" on the App Store, which is the same label for two very different arrangements.

Hevy's free plan lets you log unlimited workouts forever. What it caps is the stuff around the logging. You get four routines rather than unlimited, seven custom exercises rather than unlimited, and progress graphs that only load the last thirty days or three months rather than the last year or all time. Hevy Trainer, the feature that writes and progresses a program for you, is Pro only. Hevy's own FAQ is blunt about it: Trainer is a Pro feature.

Worth noting, because it caused us a moment of confusion while checking: Hevy's App Store description says you can "create an unlimited amount of routines," which is true of Pro and not of the free plan. If you install Hevy expecting unlimited routines free, you will hit the fourth one and be surprised.

Fitbod's arrangement is a free trial, not a free tier. The App Store description refers to what happens "after the free trial concludes," at which point an auto renewing subscription is required to keep using the premium workouts and features. Fitbod's FAQ mentions a seven day trial for international users. There is no version of Fitbod you can keep using indefinitely without paying.

For a lot of people this single distinction settles it. Four routines and three months of graphs is enough to run an upper lower split indefinitely at no cost. If your honest expectation is that you might stop training in six weeks, Hevy costs you nothing to find out and Fitbod costs you a subscription you will forget to cancel.

Progression: one of them publishes its rule

Both apps will add weight for you. Only one tells you what has to happen first.

Hevy Trainer's condition is published and specific. To get an increase on a lift, you have to hit the upper end of the prescribed rep range with a given weight on all of the prescribed sets. Hit that, Trainer raises the weight. Miss it, the weight stays. Hevy also describes automatic weight adjustments based on performance and reminders to push harder if progression stalls.

You may think that rule is too conservative. We would argue it is slightly too conservative for a beginner on lower body compounds, where you can usually add weight faster than that. But you can see it, which means you can predict it, and when it does not increase your bench you know exactly why. That is worth more than it sounds.

Fitbod does not publish an equivalent rule. What it publishes is the shape of the system: a proprietary algorithm that tracks your logged data to personalise every workout, optimise recovery and apply progressive overload, using non linear periodization, and rotating muscle groups to prioritise the ones that are fresh. All of that is a reasonable description of a well built programming engine. None of it lets you answer the question "why is today's squat lighter than last Tuesday's."

This is not us accusing Fitbod of hiding something. Proprietary algorithms are proprietary for ordinary commercial reasons, and Fitbod's approach is defensible: if you wanted to think about the rule, you would not be buying a generator. It is a real trade though, and it is the trade. Fitbod asks you to trust the output. Hevy Trainer asks you to understand the input.

There is a practical consequence. When a lift stalls for three weeks, a visible rule tells you whether the app is refusing to progress you or whether you have stopped hitting the target. An invisible one leaves you unable to distinguish "the algorithm is being cautious" from "I am undertrained" from "I am underslept." You end up guessing, and guessing is what you paid to avoid.

Exercise library, platforms and the small stuff

Fitbod claims over a thousand exercises with high resolution multi angle videos. Hevy's App Store listing describes hundreds of exercises with free high quality form videos, and its own exercise library page puts the figure at 400+, with custom exercises on top of that.

Fitbod has the bigger library and it is not close. Whether that matters depends entirely on whether you train in a well equipped gym with unusual machines. For a barbell, dumbbell and cable trainee, four hundred exercises is already more than you will use in a decade, and the marginal value of exercise number 780 is approximately zero. For someone training around a busy commercial gym floor with whatever is free, or around an injury that rules out several standard movements, a deeper library and Fitbod's equipment selection are genuinely useful.

On platforms, Hevy is broader. Hevy runs on iOS and Android, on Apple Watch and Wear OS, and in a browser at hevy.com for planning routines on a full sized screen. Fitbod's App Store listing covers iPhone, iPad, Mac on Apple silicon, Apple Vision and Apple Watch, and Fitbod's site states availability on both Android and iOS. If you are on Wear OS, that is decided for you. If you like building routines on a laptop and then following them on your phone, that is also decided for you.

The other Hevy feature worth naming is the social side, because it is easy to dismiss as a gimmick and it is not. You can follow people, see their sessions and copy their routines directly. If you train with friends, being able to copy your training partner's routine in two taps removes a genuine chunk of friction, and the mild accountability of a visible log is the only thing in this entire article with a plausible effect on whether you show up. Fitbod has nothing comparable, by design.

Hevy vs Fitbod side by side

Every figure here is the vendor's own published number as of July 2026, not something we measured. Prices vary by region and storefront.

What the research says about the thing you are actually buying

Neither app can give you the thing that produces results, so it is worth being clear about what the thing is.

The dose response work on training volume is reasonably consistent: across studies, more weekly sets per muscle group is associated with greater hypertrophy, in a graded relationship rather than a threshold. Higher weekly volumes also produce greater strength gains than low volumes, though the effect on strength is smaller than the effect on size. What both findings have in common is that they are about volume accumulated over weeks and months, not about what you did in any single session.

Two other findings are relevant because they cut against the idea that programming precision is where the gains are. Training frequency, once weekly volume is equated, does not appear to matter much for hypertrophy, so whether your app splits your week into three sessions or five is largely a scheduling preference. And training very close to failure does not appear to be required for hypertrophy when volume is equated, which means the exact rep target your app prescribes has more slack in it than the interface implies.

Put those together and the conclusion is slightly deflating for both apps. The variable that dominates your outcome is total work done consistently over months. That makes app choice a question about adherence, not accuracy. The app that gets you into the gym on the day you did not feel like it is the correct app, and no comparison table can tell you which one that is for you.

Which is why we would weight the free tier and the social feed more heavily than the exercise count, and why the honest version of this article cannot promise you a specific result from a software purchase.

Who should buy which

Buy Hevy if you already know what you are doing in the gym, or you are running a program from a coach or a book, or you train with friends, or you are on Wear OS, or you want to spend the smallest possible amount of money, or you are not yet sure you will still be training in three months. That is most people reading this. Hevy Pro at $23.99 a year, or $74.99 once, is the better default and we would tell a friend the same thing.

Buy Fitbod if the programming decision is the thing stopping you from training. If you have started and quit three times because you did not know what to do on Wednesday, paying Fitbod to remove that decision is a rational purchase even at four times Hevy's price, because a program you follow beats a cheaper app you abandon. Also buy Fitbod if you train around variable equipment, or you want the deeper library and the multi angle video, or you specifically do not want to think about periodization.

Do not buy Fitbod expecting to also get a great manual logger, and do not buy Hevy's free tier expecting Trainer. Those are the two mismatches that produce refund requests.

Where a third option comes in

Skip this section if you have decided. We make Pocket Fit and this is the part where we are selling something.

Pocket Fit exists because of a gap neither app above is trying to fill. Hevy and Fitbod are both training apps, and a stalled lift is frequently not a training problem. It is under eating, or four hours of sleep, or a week of stress. Because Pocket Fit holds your training, your food and your sleep in one place, a plateau is diagnosable rather than mysterious, and our progression rule is published in the same way Hevy's is: reps first, then weight, and only off a confirmed plateau.

It costs $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, with food logging included during launch. That is more than Hevy and less than Fitbod. If food and sleep are already handled elsewhere and you just want a logger, Hevy is a better buy than us and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Our pricing page has the current numbers.

Hevy vs Fitbod: common questions

Is Hevy or Fitbod better?

Neither is better in general, because they do different jobs. Hevy is the better app if you decide your own training and want to log it, and it costs about a quarter of what Fitbod costs. Fitbod is the better app if you want the programming decision taken away from you entirely. If you have no strong preference, start with Hevy, because its free tier is permanent and costs nothing to test.

Is Fitbod worth the price compared to Hevy?

At roughly four times Hevy's yearly price, Fitbod is worth it only if you value the automatic programming specifically. You are not paying for a better logger, because you are not getting one. You are paying to never choose an exercise again. That is worth it for people whose training stalls at the planning stage and poor value for people who already have a program they like.

Does Hevy write workout programs like Fitbod does?

Yes, through Hevy Trainer, which builds a program from your goals, experience, equipment, frequency and available time and then adjusts your weights as you progress. Trainer is a Pro feature and is not available on the free plan. The main difference from Fitbod is that Hevy publishes its progression condition, which is hitting the top of the rep range with a given weight on all prescribed sets, whereas Fitbod describes its approach as non linear periodization without publishing the rule.

Is Hevy actually free?

Yes, permanently, with limits. You can log unlimited workouts on the free plan indefinitely. You are capped at four routines and seven custom exercises, your progress graphs only load the last thirty days or three months, and Hevy Trainer requires Pro. Note that Hevy's App Store description advertises unlimited routines, which applies to Pro rather than the free plan.

Can I use Hevy or Fitbod on Apple Watch and Android?

Both run on Apple Watch and both are on Android. Hevy covers more ground beyond that: it also supports Wear OS and has a browser version at hevy.com for building routines on a bigger screen. Fitbod's listing adds iPad, Mac on Apple silicon and Apple Vision. If you wear a Wear OS watch, Hevy is the only one of the two that fits.

References

1. Hevy. Hevy Trainer: adaptive strength programming system, including the progression condition and the statement that Trainer is a Pro feature. hevyapp.com/features/workout-plan-generator
2. Hevy. Track your gym progress, including the free plan graph history limits. hevyapp.com/features/gym-progress
3. Hevy. How to use Hevy, stating the free plan limits of four routines and seven custom exercises. hevyapp.com/hevy-tutorial
4. Hevy. Exercise library, stating 400+ exercises. hevyapp.com/features/exercise-library
5. Hevy. Platform availability including Wear OS and the web version. hevyapp.com
6. Apple App Store. Hevy Workout Tracker Gym Log, in-app purchase list and description, checked July 2026. apps.apple.com
7. Fitbod. Frequently asked questions, including the $15.99 monthly and $95.99 yearly figures and the algorithm description. fitbod.me/faqs
8. Fitbod. Product claims on recovery and progressive overload. fitbod.me
9. Apple App Store. Fitbod Workout & Fitness Plans, in-app purchase list, compatibility and trial reference, checked July 2026. apps.apple.com
10. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Krieger J. How many times per week should a muscle be trained to maximize muscle hypertrophy? Journal of Sports Sciences. 2019;37(11):1286-1295. doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2018.1555906
11. Grgic J, Schoenfeld BJ, Davies TB, et al. Effect of resistance training frequency on gains in muscular strength. Sports Medicine. 2018;48(5):1207-1220. doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0872-x
12. Ralston GW, Kilgore L, Wyatt FB, Baker JS. The effect of weekly set volume on strength gain: a meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2017;47(12):2585-2601. doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0762-7
13. Refalo MC, Helms ER, Trexler ET, Hamilton DL, Fyfe JJ. Influence of resistance training proximity-to-failure on skeletal muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2023;53(3):649-665. doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01784-y
14. Pocket Fit pricing, as published on pocket-fit.app/pricing.

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Pocket Fit is a fitness and wellbeing app, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting or changing a training or nutrition programme.

Georgi, founder of Pocket Fit. He went from 122 kg to competing at The Yard Games, having lost 38 kg along the way.