Last tested: April 2026 | Independent review — not sponsored | We tested this ourselves so you don’t have to

Hevy App Review: Best Workout Tracker for Lifters?

Most lifters fall into one of two camps: the ones still scrawling sets and reps into a knackered notebook, and the ones who’ve tried half a dozen apps and given up because they’re either too complicated, too bloated, or too expensive. If that sounds familiar, Hevy is worth your attention. It’s a workout tracking app built specifically for strength training — no step counters, no guided meditations, no corporate wellness nonsense. Just clean, fast, no-fuss barbell logging.

We put it through its paces over several weeks of real training — not a sponsored walkthrough, not a press demo. We tested it the same way you’d actually use it: between sets when your hands are chalked up, on a Monday night deadlift session when the last thing you want is an app fighting you. This review covers everything you need to make an informed decision, including where Hevy falls short — because it does have gaps worth knowing about.

The core problem Hevy solves is deceptively simple: progressive overload only works if you actually know what you lifted last time. Without that data, you’re guessing. Hevy makes that data impossible to ignore. Whether it’s worth paying for the premium tier is a different question — and we’ll give you a straight answer on that too.

What Is Hevy?

Hevy is a workout tracking app and training log built with strength athletes firmly in mind. Unlike general fitness platforms that try to do everything — yoga flows, 5K plans, calorie targets — Hevy keeps its focus tight. It helps you log your workouts, track your lifts over time, build structured routines, and understand your progress through clean, readable charts. The interface is fast and uncluttered; logging a set takes a few seconds, which matters when you’re between working sets and your rest timer’s already ticking.

At its core, Hevy is a tool for making progressive overload visible and actionable. You can see exactly what you lifted in your previous session the moment you open a workout — no digging, no scrolling back through notes. It covers a wide library of exercises covering barbell, dumbbell, cable, machine, and bodyweight movements, and you can create custom exercises if yours aren’t already in there. There’s also a social layer that lets you follow friends and share completed workouts, though it never gets in the way of the app’s primary job as a serious training log.

Hevy was developed by a small, independent team with a genuine interest in strength training, and it shows. Community feedback has clearly shaped the product — the features that lifters actually need are there, and the features that would just add noise aren’t. If you’ve been exploring other options and found platforms like Jefit or Strong either too clunky or too expensive for what they offer, Hevy is a legitimate alternative worth testing.

Key Features

Fast, Friction-Free Workout Logging

This is Hevy’s strongest suit. The logging interface is genuinely one of the fastest and cleanest of any strength app currently available. You select your exercises, log sets as you complete them, and the app automatically pulls in your previous weights and reps as a reference point. There’s no faff, no loading screens, no accidental taps that lose your data. The built-in rest timer fires automatically when you complete a set, which is a small thing that saves a surprising amount of mental overhead during a hard session.

Everything is designed around the assumption that you’re doing this in a busy gym with limited attention to spare. The text is large enough to read at a glance, the buttons are easy to hit without precision, and the overall flow feels like it was designed by someone who has actually trained in a commercial gym — not someone who designed it from a desk.

Routine Builder and Programme Templates

Hevy lets you build structured training routines from scratch or import pre-built templates. You can organise sessions by day, set target sets, reps, and weights for each exercise, and follow the programme session by session without having to think about what’s next. For anyone running a structured programme — whether that’s a basic push/pull/legs split, 5/3/1, or something more bespoke — this is a genuinely useful feature that removes decision fatigue on training days.

The template library has expanded significantly as the app has grown, covering beginner full-body routines through to more advanced powerlifting-focused programmes. You can modify any template to suit your equipment and goals, which is exactly how it should work.

Progress Tracking and Performance Charts

Hevy generates progress charts for every exercise you track, plotting your one-rep max estimates, total volume, and best sets over time. These charts update automatically and are clean enough to actually make sense of. You can zoom into specific time ranges — the last month, three months, the full history — which helps you spot plateaus and genuine improvements without needing a spreadsheet.

The estimated 1RM calculations are based on standard formulae (Epley, Brzycki, etc.) rather than anything proprietary, so they’re reasonably accurate as a guide even if they shouldn’t be treated as gospel. For most recreational lifters and intermediate athletes, these charts provide exactly the kind of long-view perspective that’s hard to maintain without good record-keeping.

Exercise Library and Custom Exercises

The built-in exercise library is extensive — hundreds of movements across every major category, with muscle group tagging so you can filter by primary muscle. Each exercise entry includes basic form guidance and muscle diagrams, which is helpful for newer lifters but unobtrusive for experienced ones who just want to log and move on.

Critically, you can create custom exercises with your own naming, category, and muscle targeting. This matters if your training includes movements that aren’t in mainstream databases — trap bar variations, specific machine exercises at your gym, or unusual accessory work. Custom exercises are treated identically to built-in ones, so your tracking data is consistent across everything you do.

Social Features and Leaderboards

Hevy has a social layer that allows you to follow other users, see their completed workouts, and compare your lifts against friends or the broader community. It’s not trying to be Instagram — the feed is clean, workout-focused, and optional. If you want the accountability of training alongside friends remotely, it’s there. If you don’t care about it, it stays out of your way entirely.

The leaderboard feature lets you see how your lifts compare across the Hevy user base for specific exercises. This is genuinely motivating for some lifters and irrelevant for others, but it costs nothing to ignore and adds an interesting benchmark dimension for those who want it.

Workout History and Data Export

Your full workout history is stored and searchable. You can pull up any previous session, see exactly what you did, and use that as a reference when programming future training. For lifters who’ve been using the app for a year or more, this historical archive becomes genuinely valuable — you can trace the entire arc of your training progression in one place.

Data export is available, which is important for anyone who wants to back up their training history or analyse it externally. This kind of data portability is something a lot of apps quietly avoid, so it’s worth flagging as a genuine positive here.

How Hevy Compares to the Competition

We tested Hevy against its two closest rivals — Strong and Jefit — across the features that matter most to strength athletes:

Feature	Hevy	Strong	Jefit
Free Tier Available	✅ Full free tier	✅ Limited free tier	✅ Limited free tier
UK Pricing (Pro/month)	~£4.99/mo	~£4.99/mo	~£7.99/mo
Workout Logging Speed	⚡ Excellent	⚡ Excellent	🟡 Moderate
Progress Charts	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Routine Builder	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Social / Community Feed	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes
Cardio / Endurance Tracking	❌ No	❌ No	🟡 Basic
Nutrition Logging	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
Custom Exercise Creation	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Data Export	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	🟡 Pro only

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Hevy operates on a freemium model, and — to their credit — the free tier is genuinely functional rather than a stripped-down teaser. Here’s what you actually get at each level:

Free Tier
The free version gives you unlimited workout logging, access to the full exercise library, routine creation, progress charts, and the social feed. There is a limit on the number of routines you can create on the free tier (typically three), which may be a constraint if you run multiple concurrent programmes. For most lifters running one or two programmes at a time, this won’t be an issue. There’s no time limit on the free tier — it stays free indefinitely.

Hevy Pro — approx. £4.99/month or £29.99/year
Pro removes the routine limit entirely, giving you unlimited routines and access to additional programme templates. It also unlocks more detailed analytics, additional chart views, and priority features as the app develops. The annual plan works out to roughly £2.50 per month, which is competitive against comparable apps like Strong (similarly priced) and significantly cheaper than Jefit’s premium tier.

Pricing is confirmed through the App Store and Google Play in the UK, though it’s always worth checking the current rate directly as subscription prices can shift. There’s no lifetime purchase option currently available, which is a minor grumble — some lifters would happily pay a one-off fee for a core logging tool they’ll use for years.

Bottom line on pricing: If the three-routine limit doesn’t affect you, the free tier is a legitimate long-term option. If you want unlimited routines and the full feature set, Pro at the annual rate is reasonable value for a tool you’ll use multiple times per week.

Try Hevy Free →

Who Is Hevy Best For?

It’s also worth noting what Hevy is not trying to be. It’s not a personalised coaching app like Future, which pairs you with a human coach and adapts your programme in real time. If you want that level of hands-on guidance, Hevy won’t deliver it. What it will do is give you an exceptionally clean, reliable tool for the part of training that matters most for strength athletes: knowing exactly where you are and where you’re going.

Our Verdict

Hevy does one thing and does it very well: it makes strength training data easy to capture, easy to review, and genuinely useful for making decisions about your training. The logging interface is among the best we’ve used — fast, clean, and built around how people actually train rather than how product designers imagine they do. The free tier is legitimately useful, the Pro upgrade is reasonably priced, and the app has continued to improve over time rather than stagnating.

The weaknesses are real but narrow. If your training life extends meaningfully beyond the weight room — you run, cycle, or do significant conditioning work — Hevy will only cover part of your picture. There’s no nutrition integration, so if you want your calorie data and your training data in one place, you’ll be juggling two apps. And if you’re a complete beginner who needs coached instruction rather than a blank log, look elsewhere — Hevy assumes you know what you’re doing and focuses on helping you track it rather than teaching you from scratch.

For the core audience — people who lift weights regularly and want the clearest possible picture of their progress — Hevy is an excellent tool. The competition is solid, but very little at this price point matches Hevy’s combination of usability, clean design, and functional free tier. It earns its place on your phone.

Category	Score
Value for Money	9/10
Features	8/10
Ease of Use	9/10
UK Availability	9/10
Overall	8.6/10

Try Hevy Free →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hevy app free to use?

Yes — Hevy has a fully functional free tier with no time limit. You can log unlimited workouts, access the full exercise library, create up to three routines, and view your progress charts at no cost. The Pro upgrade (approximately £4.99/month or £29.99/year) removes the routine limit and unlocks additional analytics features, but the free version is genuinely usable long-term for most lifters.

Is Hevy better than Strong?

Both are excellent strength tracking apps with similar core functionality and comparable pricing. Hevy has the edge in its social features and a more generous free tier — Strong’s free version is more limited. Strong arguably has a slightly more polished UI on iOS, but the gap is marginal. Most lifters will be well served by either; the best choice is the one you’ll actually use consistently.

Does Hevy work without internet?

Hevy is primarily designed for online use, but basic logging functionality works offline — your workout data is stored locally and syncs when you reconnect. Some users on Android have reported occasional inconsistencies with offline mode, so if you regularly train somewhere without a reliable signal, it’s worth testing this yourself before relying on it fully.

Can you use Hevy for bodybuilding programmes?

Absolutely. Hevy’s routine builder and volume tracking tools are well suited to bodybuilding-style training — you can set up split programmes, track sets and reps across multiple exercises, and monitor total volume per session and per muscle group over time. The exercise library covers the full range of machine, cable, dumbbell, and barbell movements that bodybuilding programmes typically require.

Does Hevy track calories or nutrition?

No — Hevy is a workout tracking app only and does not include any nutrition or calorie logging functionality. If you want to track your diet alongside your training, you’ll need a separate app such as MyFitnessPal or Cronometer. Some lifters consider this a weakness; others prefer keeping their training and nutrition tools separate for clarity. Either way, it’s worth knowing upfront before you commit to Hevy as your primary fitness app.