Fitbod vs Hevy (2026): $79.99/yr vs free — an honest comparison
Quick answer: These aren't really competitors. Fitbod ($12.99/mo, $79.99/yr, no permanent free tier) decides what you train each session and hands you the workout. Hevy (free; Pro $2.99/mo, $23.99/yr, $74.99 lifetime) is a logger — you bring the program, it records and charts it. Pick Fitbod if you want the app to decide. Pick Hevy if you have a program, or want the best free tier in the category. Hevy is dramatically cheaper either way.
Full disclosure: we make Trainer Gym AI, a third app in this space. This page is about Fitbod and Hevy, and we've kept ourselves out of it until the last section — the comparison is only useful if it's honest about two apps we don't sell.
The one-line difference
Fitbod answers "what should I do today?" Hevy answers "what did I do, and am I getting stronger?"
Almost every practical difference falls out of that. If you buy the wrong one, it's usually because the App Store screenshots make them look like the same product.
Price
| Fitbod | Hevy | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Limited trial only | Yes — no deadline |
| Monthly | $12.99 | $2.99 |
| Annual | $79.99 (~$6.67/mo) | $23.99 (~$2.00/mo) |
| Lifetime | Not offered | $74.99 |
Hevy Pro annual costs about 30% of Fitbod annual. And Hevy's lifetime tier costs less than one year of Fitbod.
That gap isn't arbitrary — it reflects what each app does. Generating a fresh, recovery-aware session every day is a heavier product to run than logging sets. You're paying Fitbod for decisions, and Hevy for record-keeping.
Detailed breakdowns: how much Fitbod costs and how much Hevy costs.
Programming
Fitbod builds each workout at the moment you open it. It tracks which muscle groups you've recently trained, estimates recovery, and assembles a session around what's fresh. Over time it learns your working weights and adjusts. This is the core of the product and it's good — for people who genuinely don't want to think about programming, it removes the decision entirely.
Hevy started as a pure logger and added Hevy Trainer, a Pro-only feature that builds a full program from your goal, experience, equipment and available days, then auto-progresses your working weights based on how your sets went.
An important distinction that fitness-app marketing tends to blur: Hevy describes Trainer as "an adaptive strength programming system based on a sophisticated algorithm," and its help centre is explicit: "Our programs are generated using an algorithm and do not rely on AI to create users' programs." Fitbod's session engine is likewise algorithmic. Neither of these is an AI coach in the language-model sense — they're both rule systems, and that's a legitimate design choice. Deterministic progression is predictable and hard to get wrong.
The real difference is scope: Trainer sets up a program that you then run for weeks. Fitbod regenerates each individual session. If you like following a stable program, Trainer's model suits you better. If you want daily variety and don't want to commit to a block, Fitbod's suits you better.
Logging and tracking
This is Hevy's home turf and it isn't close.
Hevy has the better logging experience by a clear margin: fast set entry, supersets, RPE, plate and warm-up calculators, rest timers, Live Activity support, and progress charts that most users find genuinely motivating. It also has a real social layer — a feed, leaderboards, shared routines, Strava integration — and a large community (Hevy reports 15M+ users).
Fitbod logs perfectly competently, but logging is a means to an end for it: the data mostly exists to feed the recommendation engine. If you like poring over your own numbers, Hevy gives you more to pore over — though note the free tier limits graph history to 3 months, which is the cap most long-term users eventually hit.
Platforms
Both are on iOS and Android. Fitbod also has a web app; Hevy has a public API and a coach-facing product (Hevy Coach) for personal trainers. Both have Apple Watch support. Neither is a meaningful differentiator for most people.
Who should pick which
Pick Fitbod if:
- You want to open an app and be told exactly what to do, with no program to maintain
- You train inconsistently and want each session built around what's actually recovered
- You already lift and can enter sensible starting weights
- $79.99/year is not a factor
Pick Hevy if:
- You already have a program, or want Trainer to set one up and then run it
- You want the best free tier in the category — it's genuinely usable forever
- Logging quality, long-term charts and community matter to you
- You'd rather pay $74.99 once than $79.99 every year
Honest verdict for most people: start with Hevy free. It costs nothing, the logging is best-in-class, and you'll learn whether you actually want an app to program for you before paying anyone. If you then find that deciding what to train is the thing you hate, that's when Fitbod's subscription earns its price.
Where we fit — and where we don't
Both of these apps assume something that's often not true for the person reading this: that you know what you're doing at the gym. Fitbod assumes you can enter your starting weights. Hevy assumes you have a program. If you're past that stage, stop here — one of the two above is your answer, and we're not a better logger than Hevy or a better session generator than Fitbod.
If you're not past it, that's the gap we built for. Trainer Gym AI is $5.99 once (R$29.90 in Brazil) and generates the plan itself, grounded in 17 peer-reviewed strength and conditioning meta-analyses, with onboarding written for people who've never trained, plain-language explanations of why each exercise is there, and on-device 3D form correction. It's iOS-only, it has no social feed, and it isn't trying to replace Hevy as your long-term log.
More: Trainer Gym AI vs Hevy, Trainer Gym AI vs Fitbod, or the wider field in 7 Hevy alternatives and 5 Fitbod alternatives.
FAQ
What's the actual difference between Fitbod and Hevy? Fitbod decides what you should train each session and hands you the workout. Hevy is a logger — you decide the training, Hevy records it and charts the trend. They look similar in the App Store but solve opposite problems: Fitbod answers 'what should I do today,' Hevy answers 'what did I do and am I progressing.'
Is Hevy cheaper than Fitbod? Substantially. Hevy is free with a genuinely usable free tier; Hevy Pro is $2.99/month, $23.99/year or $74.99 lifetime. Fitbod is $12.99/month or $79.99/year with no permanent free tier. Hevy Pro annual costs about 30% of what Fitbod annual costs.
Does Hevy generate workouts like Fitbod does? Partly, since Hevy Trainer launched. Trainer is a Pro-only feature that builds a program from your goal, equipment and available days, then auto-adjusts your working weights. The difference is scope: Trainer sets up a program you then follow, while Fitbod regenerates each individual session based on what you've recently trained and what it thinks is recovered.
Which is better for a complete beginner? Neither is ideal. Fitbod assumes you can enter your starting weights for compound lifts, which most beginners can't. Hevy assumes you already have a program. A beginner's real problem is that they don't know what to do or how to do it safely, and both apps mostly assume that's solved.
Can I use both? People do, but it's redundant and annoying — you'd be logging every set twice. If you want Fitbod's session generation, use Fitbod's logger. If you like Hevy's logging and community, use Hevy Trainer or a written program instead of Fitbod.
Which has the better free option? Hevy, clearly and by a wide margin. Hevy's free tier has no deadline and includes unlimited logging, the full exercise library and progress graphs. Fitbod has a limited free trial and then requires a subscription.