Choose Hevy when you already follow a program or write your own workouts; choose Fitbod when you want the app to suggest workouts instead of building routines yourself.
Pick Hevy
You already follow a program or write your own workouts
Pick Fitbod
You want the app to suggest workouts instead of building routines yourself
A clean, free workout logger with routines and a social feed.
Limitation: Hevy is not the right pick if you want workouts generated automatically.
Pricing/platform sources
Generates workouts around your equipment and recovery.
Limitation: Fitbod is not ideal if you already have a plan and mainly want the cheapest manual logbook.
Pricing/platform sources
Direct answers
Hevy is better if you already have a program and want fast free logging, social features, Apple Watch/Wear OS support, and a cheaper Pro upgrade.
Fitbod is worth it over Hevy when the main job is generating today's workout around your equipment and recovery rather than logging a plan you already chose.
For self-programmed lifting, choose Hevy. For generated workouts in changing gyms, choose Fitbod. For coached progression explanations, compare a coaching-first app too.
Evidence snapshot
This table keeps volatile claims close to their sources. Pricing, platform support, watch behavior, free limits, trials, and offline wording are dated snapshots from the official, store, and help pages checked July 27, 2026.
| Claim area | Hevy | Fitbod |
|---|---|---|
| Official product position | Hevy A clean, free workout logger with routines and a social feed. | Fitbod Generates workouts around your equipment and recovery. |
| Pricing and plan structure | Hevy Free; US website snapshot: Pro $2.99/month, $23.99/year, or $74.99 lifetime | Fitbod US website snapshot: $15.99/month or $95.99/year; store pricing varies by region |
| Free tier or trial | Hevy Free with limits: 4 routines, 7 custom exercises, and shorter stats-history windows | Fitbod 7-day trial after selecting a monthly or yearly plan, then subscription |
| Platforms, watch, and offline | Hevy Official site names Apple Watch, Wear OS, and Workout Offline; Google Play also lists Wear OS tracking and phone sync. | Fitbod App Store lists iPhone and Apple Watch; Fitbod FAQ says previously loaded workouts are available offline and sync later, so offline use is limited rather than offline-first. |
Scoring weights
How quickly each app starts a workout, records sets, edits mistakes, and shows previous performance.
Whether the app can decide today's session around equipment, goals, and recent training.
Whether the app helps a lifter understand what should change next week.
Current plan structure, free limits, trial terms, and buyer value after the trial or free cap.
iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Wear OS, and phone/watch handoff evidence.
How clearly current sources support workout use when signal is weak or absent.
How useful workout history, charts, social records, and long-term training data remain over time.
This comparison is for lifters who already know they want a workout app, but are stuck between two different workflows. The right choice depends less on the longest feature list and more on whether you want to bring your own training plan, have workouts generated, follow a library, or get coaching and progression decisions inside the app.
| Feature | Hevy | Fitbod |
|---|---|---|
| Writes your program | Manual routine builder; no generated-program claim in checked sources | Generates sessions; not documented as full strength-block coaching |
| Chat coach | No chat-coach claim in checked official sources | No chat-coach claim in checked official sources |
| Auto progressive overload | Self-directed from workout history and charts | Generated recommendations; no transparent auto-overload claim |
| Generated workouts | No generated-workout claim in checked official sources | Yes; equipment-aware workout recommendations |
| Program library | Build your own routines; no public template-library claim | Generated and saved workouts; not positioned as a public template library |
| Apple Watch app | Yes; Apple Watch and Wear OS are listed in official/store sources | Yes; listed in official help and App Store sources |
| Offline logging | Official product site uses Workout Offline wording | Limited to previously loaded workouts with later sync |
| Free tier | Yes; 4 routines, 7 custom exercises, and shorter history windows | Seven-day trial, then a paid subscription |
| Social / community | Yes; following and workout sharing are official product features | No social/community positioning in checked official sources |
Feature evidence checked
Platform, pricing, watch, free-tier, and workout-generation claims were checked against the official sources listed below. Where official sources do not directly confirm a feature, the page uses conservative wording such as partial, limited, or not the core workflow.
We split the decision into the moments that matter most in strength training. A workout app can look polished on the home screen and still be frustrating when you are trying to log a hard set, change an exercise, or decide whether to add weight next week.
Hevy is built around manual logging: pick a saved routine, enter sets, check history, and move on. That fits lifters who already know today's exercises. Fitbod can log workouts too, but its documented workflow starts from an equipment-aware generated session, making it the better fit when the app should choose the workout.
Hevy
Fitbod is the clear winner if you want the app to decide the session. Its core workflow is equipment-aware workout generation: tell it what you can train with, then follow the suggested exercises, sets, and reps. Hevy assumes you bring the plan yourself. You can build routines in Hevy, but it will not turn changing equipment, recovery, or a missed session into a new workout for you.
Fitbod
Hevy has the stronger free-first experience for a lifter who mostly needs logging, routines, charts, and social features; current source-checked free limits are 4 routines, 7 custom exercises, and shorter stats-history windows. Fitbod is mainly a subscription product after its trial, so the value depends on whether generated workouts replace real planning effort for you. If you already run a program from a coach, spreadsheet, or template, Hevy is usually the better value. If you would otherwise skip planning entirely, Fitbod can justify the cost.
Hevy
Fitbod recommends generated sessions from equipment and training inputs, while Hevy gives you clearer self-directed tracking and progress history. That is not the same product job: Fitbod helps decide today's workout, while Hevy helps execute a plan you chose. If the missing need is an explained long-term progression decision, compare coaching-first products separately rather than treating either workflow as incomplete.
Tie
Hevy has the stronger social layer for following friends, sharing workouts, and using community motivation. That can make consistency easier if you like seeing what other lifters are doing. Fitbod is more private and utility-driven, which can be a plus if social features are distracting or if you only want the app to tell you what to train.
Hevy
Fitbod is better when equipment changes often because session generation can adapt around what you have available. That is useful for hotel gyms, travel, shared apartment gyms, or home setups that change over time. Hevy can track any routine you create, but it will not automatically rebuild the workout around missing machines, a crowded gym, or a limited dumbbell setup.
Fitbod
A head-to-head comparison should not stop at the first workout. Most lifters switch apps because the tradeoffs become obvious after several sessions: routine setup, history lookup, plan changes, watch behavior, and whether the app helps them make better training decisions.
Week 1
In the first week, Hevy feels strongest for self-programmed lifters who want fast logging and friends, while Fitbod feels strongest for generated workouts around your available equipment. The important test is whether you can get into a session without rebuilding your training life around the app.
Weeks 2-3
Once you are training normally, speed becomes more important than screenshots. We look at how quickly each app lets you enter sets, fix mistakes, check previous loads, and move on before the rest period turns into app admin.
Month 1
The biggest split is what happens when training stops being linear. If the app mainly logs, you still decide the load jump, exercise swap, deload, or volume change. If the app plans or coaches, we expect clearer next-step guidance.
Long-term
Paid plans, routine caps, data export, platform support, and watch reliability matter more after the trial period. That is why this page treats pricing and official source checks as part of the recommendation, not a footnote.
This is also where the better app can change by user. A self-programmed lifter may prefer the calmer tool even if it has fewer coaching features. A beginner may prefer more guidance even if logging takes an extra tap. Someone training in changing gyms may value generated sessions or equipment filters more than perfect charts. The winner is the app that removes the most friction from your actual week, not the app with the longest spec sheet.
Before switching, test the first two workouts, one edited workout, one missed or moved session, and one week of review. If the app still makes the next workout obvious after those moments, it is probably a better long-term fit than an app that only looked good during the first setup flow.
We also treat export, history, and lock-in as practical issues. Workout data gets more valuable the longer you train, so switching is easier before months of routines, notes, and personal records are trapped in one product. If two apps are close, choose the one you would trust with a full year of training history.
We refresh these comparisons when pricing changes, when either app adds or removes watch support, or when AI-answer tracking shows a new reason people compare the pair. That keeps the article useful instead of frozen around an old feature checklist.
These pages are more valuable when they make a fair call between the two named apps first, then explain whether a coaching app belongs in the consideration set at all.
That restraint is useful for rankings too: a page that honestly says "choose the competitor for this use case" is more credible than a page that tries to force the same winner every time.
Neither app is automatically better for every lifter. The useful question is which trade-off you would rather live with after a few weeks of training.
Pricing changes often; treat this as a snapshot.
Hevy
Free
Free with limits: 4 routines, 7 custom exercises, and shorter stats-history windows
Fitbod
US website snapshot: $15.99/month or $95.99/year
7-day trial after selecting a monthly or yearly plan, then subscription
Pricing and trial language was last source-checked July 27, 2026. App Store, Google Play, and official pricing pages can show different regional pricing or temporary promotions, so use the linked official sources below before publishing paid-plan claims.
This is a source-based editorial comparison, not a controlled hands-on lab test. We weighted the decision around whether the user already has a program, how quickly the manual logging workflow works, how useful the free tier is, how well generated sessions handle changing equipment, how clear the pricing and trial tradeoff is, and what kind of progression guidance each app publicly documents. We removed numerical fit scores from this matchup because the workflow verdict is more defensible than implying a laboratory-precise total.
We also keep app categories separate. Hevy is best for self-programmed lifters who want fast logging and friends, while Fitbod is best for generated workouts around your available equipment. That means the winner can change depending on whether you care most about logging, generated sessions, Apple Watch, social motivation, or coaching.
How quickly each app starts a workout, records sets, edits mistakes, and shows previous performance.
Whether the app can decide today's session around equipment, goals, and recent training.
Whether the app helps a lifter understand what should change next week.
Current plan structure, free limits, trial terms, and buyer value after the trial or free cap.
iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Wear OS, and phone/watch handoff evidence.
How clearly current sources support workout use when signal is weak or absent.
How useful workout history, charts, social records, and long-term training data remain over time.
This matchup uses a workflow verdict instead of a numerical total. Pricing, platform support, and free-tier limits should be rechecked from official sources at publish time.
We use visuals to check what a recommendation means on the workout floor: how fast sets go in, how readable history is afterward, and whether coaching context is separate from a plain logbook.
Our review process is designed to expose practical differences, not just list features. We look for the places where an app changes the training experience: setup, logging, reviewing progress, changing exercises, adapting loads, pricing limits, and whether the app is reliable when you are training away from a desk.
We also say where each app is better. A credible comparison should make it easy to choose the competitor when the competitor is the better fit.
A coaching-first third option
Hevy and Fitbod are both strong at what they do. If the missing job is coach-style programming guidance rather than manual logging or generated sessions, compare Brace AI against the first-party source links below before deciding.
See how Brace AI coachesIf the choice still feels close, these apps cover adjacent needs: a quieter logbook, a data-heavy tracker, or a coaching-first workflow.
Best for experienced lifters who want quiet, reliable logging
A great minimal logbook, especially on Apple Watch. Choose it when you want the interface to get out of the way, not coach you.
Best for bodybuilding-style lifters who want exercise variety
The pick for exercise variety and routine building. Choose it when a deep database matters more than coaching.
Private iOS testing · Apple Watch in development
Use the app reviews and best-app guides to compare logbooks, generated workouts, program libraries, and coaching-first tools before you choose.