Bottom line up front: Hevy is the best free strength tracking app available right now. The logging experience is fast, the exercise library is extensive, and the progress charts are actually useful. If you lift weights seriously and aren’t tracking your workouts in detail, Hevy will change how you train.
What Is Hevy?
Hevy is a workout logging app built specifically for strength training. You log sets, reps, and weight — and the app tracks your volume, personal records, and progression over time. It’s available on iOS and Android, with a free tier that covers everything most lifters need.
Unlike all-in-one platforms that bolt on a workout tracker as an afterthought, Hevy was designed from the ground up around the logging experience. That focus shows in how fast and frictionless it is to use mid-workout.
The Logging Experience
The core workflow is simple: pick a routine, start a workout, and log each set as you go. Hevy auto-fills your previous weights and reps so you always know what you did last time — which is the single most useful feature for progressive overload.
The exercise library is large and well-organized. You can filter by muscle group or equipment, and adding custom exercises takes about ten seconds. Rest timers are built in and trigger automatically after each logged set — no separate timer app needed.
After testing it for six weeks across push/pull/legs and upper/lower splits, logging never felt like a chore. The UI is responsive enough that you can log a set, put your phone down, and pick back up without losing your place.
Progress Tracking
Hevy’s charts show volume per muscle group over time, per-exercise weight progression, and total workout frequency. These are the metrics that actually tell you if a program is working — not just how many steps you took or how many calories you burned.
Personal records are tracked automatically, and the app celebrates them in-workout with a small notification. It’s a small touch, but it’s motivating without being obnoxious.
Free vs. Pro
The free tier includes unlimited workout logging, full exercise library access, routine creation, and progress charts. That’s genuinely everything you need for serious training.
Hevy Pro ($5.99/month or $34.99/year) adds advanced analytics, custom routine sharing, and a few UI extras. It’s worth it if you coach others or want deeper volume breakdowns, but not necessary for personal use.
What Hevy Doesn’t Do
Hevy is a logging app, not a coaching app. It doesn’t write your program for you, adjust loads based on recovery, or connect to wearables. If you want AI-based periodization or HRV integration, look elsewhere — but for clean, fast, data-driven workout logging, nothing does it better at this price.
Our Score: 8.7/10
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Hevy is the first app we’d recommend to any lifter who isn’t already tracking their workouts. The free tier is legitimately good, the logging experience is the fastest we’ve tested, and the progress data is exactly what matters for long-term strength gains.
Where to Buy
Free on iOS and Android
Hevy App Rating
| Workout Logging | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Exercise Library | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Free Tier Value | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Analytics & Insights | ⭐⭐⭐½ |
| App Experience | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Overall | ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ |
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How Hevy Compares to Other Free Strength Apps
When you stack Hevy against other free options like Strong (which locks most features behind a paywall), JEFIT, or even spreadsheet tracking, Hevy holds up remarkably well. The free tier gives you unlimited exercise logging, a full exercise database with over 1,000 movements, and the ability to build custom routines — features that cost money on competing apps. Strong limits you to three custom routines on the free plan, and JEFIT’s free version is cluttered with ads that interrupt your rest timer. Hevy stays clean and functional without asking for your credit card.
The social features are where Hevy genuinely differentiates itself. You can follow training partners, view their workouts, and compete on leaderboards — all for free. If you train with a friend or follow a popular lifter’s programming, this makes the app feel alive rather than a static logger. Having accountability built into the free tier is a design choice most competitors don’t make.
Who Should Actually Use Hevy
Hevy works best for intermediate lifters who already know what they want to do in the gym and need a clean, fast way to log it. If you’re following a proven program like 5/3/1, GZCLP, or a Push/Pull/Legs split, Hevy gets out of your way and lets you focus on training. The plate calculator, rest timer, and previous performance overlay are all exactly where you need them — no hunting through menus mid-set.
Where Hevy falls short is in structured guidance for beginners. There’s no adaptive programming, no built-in progressive overload recommendations, and no coaching layer to tell you when to deload or adjust intensity. If you’re just starting out and need a program that evolves with you, something like Fitbod or a coach-designed app might serve you better. Hevy assumes you already know the plan — it just helps you execute and track it.
The Hevy Pro Upgrade: Is It Worth It?
Hevy Pro runs about $5.99/month or $34.99/year. The main additions are advanced analytics (volume charts, muscle group breakdowns, personal records over time), routine sharing, and the ability to create supersets and dropsets in your logs. For serious lifters who track periodization and want to visualize training load over months, the analytics alone can justify the cost.
Getting Started With Hevy: First Workout and Setup
Hevy’s onboarding is one of the cleanest in the fitness app category. Download, create an account, and you can log your first set in under 90 seconds. No paywall upfront, no mandatory fitness assessment, no algorithm asking you to pick your goals before showing you the app. You just start logging.
The exercise library ships with over 1,000 movements, each with category tags (muscle group, equipment, movement type) and short instructional notes. For the vast majority of training styles — barbell, dumbbell, machine, bodyweight, cable — you’ll find what you need without ever adding a custom exercise. If you do need to add one, it takes 30 seconds.
Creating a routine in Hevy is where it earns its “best free strength app” reputation. You can build a full program — A/B split, PPL, 5/3/1, whatever — with warmup sets, working sets, and target rep ranges. Once built, starting a workout session from a routine pre-loads everything. You just tap the set as complete and it logs the reps and weight automatically from your last session. Progressive overload tracking happens by default.
Volume and Progress Tracking: What the Data Actually Shows You
Hevy’s progress charts are where a lot of strength apps fail — they show you data but not insight. Hevy does this reasonably well. The 1RM estimator for each lift updates automatically based on your sets and shows a trend line over time. You can see your bench 1RM history going back to day one, broken down by week or month.
Volume tracking — total sets × reps × weight per muscle group — is visible in the Analytics tab. This is genuinely useful for spotting imbalances (are you training chest 3x more than back?) and for understanding why recovery feels harder in certain phases. Most free apps don’t give you this level of breakdown.
One honest limitation: Hevy doesn’t offer periodization planning or auto-regulation. It logs what you do — it doesn’t tell you what you should do next. If you want the app to prescribe your training based on performance, look at something like WHOOP’s strain coach or a dedicated programming app. Hevy is a logger, not a coach.
Hevy vs. Strong App vs. FitBod
These are the three apps most serious strength trainers compare before committing. Here’s the honest breakdown:
Hevy wins on free tier depth — you get full routine building, progress tracking, and volume analytics without paying. The social feed (following other users’ workouts) is either a useful accountability feature or something you’ll ignore — your call.
Strong App wins on interface polish and workout timer UX. The rest period timer, plate calculator, and one-rep max history are all slightly more refined than Hevy’s. But Strong’s free tier is more limited, and the Pro subscription is required for routine building beyond basic templates.
FitBod wins if you want AI-generated workouts based on muscle recovery and your equipment. It’s a fundamentally different product — FitBod tells you what to do; Hevy logs what you decide to do. FitBod is better for inconsistent trainers or those who want programming guidance. Hevy is better for self-directed lifters following their own program.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hevy really free? Yes — the core app is free with no time limit. Hevy Pro adds unlimited routines, custom workout themes, and priority support. Most lifters never need Pro.
Can you use Hevy offline? Yes. Workouts log locally and sync when you reconnect. Useful for gym environments with spotty Wi-Fi.
Does Hevy track cardio? Minimally — you can log cardio sessions but the tracking depth is basic (duration, distance if entered manually). Hevy is built for strength training. Use a dedicated running or cycling app for cardio metrics.
Is Hevy available on both iOS and Android? Yes. The experience is consistent across both platforms, which isn’t always true of fitness apps that start on one platform and port to the other.
Hevy for Intermediate and Advanced Lifters: Does It Scale?
A lot of logging apps are great for beginners and fall apart when your training gets more nuanced. After nearly a year of using Hevy through a powerbuilding block and a dedicated hypertrophy phase, here’s where it holds up and where it shows its limits.
Program complexity: Hevy handles straightforward linear progression and standard periodization well. Where it starts to strain is with more advanced structures — wave loading, daily undulating periodization, or programs with multiple inter-dependent variables. You can build these manually but the interface doesn’t make it easy.
Volume tracking: Weekly volume per muscle group is trackable if you tag exercises correctly, but Hevy doesn’t surface this automatically the way a spreadsheet or a more analytical app like JEFIT might. You’re doing the math yourself.
The social layer: For intermediate lifters, seeing other people’s workouts and sharing your own has more utility than you’d expect. It creates low-key accountability and occasionally exposes you to exercise variations you hadn’t considered. It’s not Instagram — it’s more like a training log that other serious people can follow.
Verdict for intermediate/advanced lifters: Hevy is an excellent logging tool for well-defined programs. If you’re following a coach’s spreadsheet or a structured block, Hevy is a clean way to execute and track it. If you’re designing complex programming yourself, you may eventually outgrow it — but most people won’t hit that ceiling for a long time.
Related reviews: Strong App Review · Cronometer Review · MyFitnessPal Review
If you’re a casual gym-goer logging workouts a few times a week and mainly want to remember what weight you used last session, the free version is completely sufficient. The core logging experience doesn’t degrade without Pro — you still get rest timers, the exercise library, custom routines, and previous performance data. The upgrade is genuinely optional, which is increasingly rare in the fitness app space.
Marcus Webb
Marcus has been training for over a decade with a focus on strength and progressive overload. He tests workout logging apps the way he approaches programming — methodically, looking at what actually changes behavior versus what just looks good on a dashboard.
Related:how to build a strength program