Comparing Bazu, Strong, and Hevy as free workout trackers for lifters. See which app gives you the most without hitting a paywall, a routine cap, or a 3-month history limit.
Three apps. Three very different opinions on what "free" means.
Bazu, Strong (by Strong Fitness PTE Limited), and Hevy (by Hevy Studios S.L.) are the most common names that come up when lifters search for a free workout tracker. All three let you log workouts at no cost. But the free tiers are not equivalent — and the differences show up exactly where they matter most: routine limits, how much history you can actually see, and whether the app works when your gym's Wi-Fi doesn't.
This comparison covers what each app gives you for free, where each one draws the paywall, and which type of lifter each one serves best.
In short: Bazu and Hevy both cap free routines at 4; Strong caps at 3. Bazu is the only one with unlimited graph history and individual-muscle drill-down in the free tier.
| Feature | Bazu (Free) | Strong (Free) | Hevy (Free) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-workout experience | |||
| Smart, science-based rest timer | Yes (4 modes, exercise-aware) | No (fixed duration only) | No (fixed duration only) |
| Mid-session rest adjustment | Yes (quick +/− buttons) | Yes | Yes |
| Autofill sets (pre-fill from last session) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Warm-up sets | Yes — excluded from PRs, volume, and PO | Yes (warm-up tags/calculator) | Yes (warmup set type) |
| Supersets | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-play music with workout | Yes (Apple Music) | Manual | Manual |
| Apple Watch set logging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live heart rate on Watch | Yes — BPM during rest | Not listed as a headline feature | Yes |
| Post-workout next targets | Yes — when progression guidance is available | No published equivalent found | Pro only (Hevy Trainer) |
| Offline mode | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Setup & routines | |||
| Routines | Up to 4 | 3 (hard cap) | Up to 4 |
| Auto-advancing routine queue (Home) | Yes | Manual | Manual |
| Exercise library | 500+ (guides, anatomy, notes) | Large library | Large library + videos |
| Custom exercises | Up to 10 | Limited | Up to 7 |
| Personalized setup (equipment & goal) | Yes — tunes library & defaults | Manual | Manual |
| Progress & analytics | |||
| PRs | Permanent history, every exercise + workout history | Yes | Yes |
| 1RM estimates & Progress chart | Yes — estimates + all-time chart | Pro only | Limited (3-month cap) |
| Goals with deadlines | Yes (up to 3 — weight, reps, duration, added-load) | No | No |
| Volume analytics | Yes (full) | Basic | Limited (3-month cap) |
| Muscle breakdown | Yes — individual-muscle drill-down, unlimited history | Pro only (heatmap) | Yes — muscle-group level (3-month cap) |
| Cardio distance + Distance PRs | Yes — pace-ranked | Manual log | Manual log |
| Workout history | Unlimited | Unlimited | 3-month graph cap |
| Progressive overload suggestions | Pro feature | Not available | Pro only (Hevy Trainer) |
| App & pricing | |||
| Ads | None | None | None |
| Social features | None | None | Yes (community feed) |
| Platform | iPhone + Apple Watch | iOS + Android | iOS + Android |
| Pro price | $4.99/mo · $24.99/yr | $4.99/mo · $29.99/yr · $99.99 lifetime | $2.99/mo · $23.99/yr · $74.99 lifetime |
Free tier data reviewed against official product pages and App Store listings, July 2026. App-store pricing can vary by region.
If you do upgrade, here's what each Pro tier adds beyond the free limits. The most significant functional difference across the three is progression guidance — Bazu and Hevy publish automated guidance systems; Strong's official materials emphasize logging, history, charts, timers, and broad tracking tools rather than an equivalent automated progression coach.
| Feature | Bazu Pro | Strong Pro | Hevy Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited Goals with deadlines | Yes | No | No |
| Muscle insights | Free for all users — drill-down to individual muscles | Heatmap (Pro) | Muscle-group distribution chart |
| Progressive overload suggestions | Smart recommendations + pace selector (Conservative / Standard / Aggressive), shown on iPhone and Apple Watch; Next Workout Targets after sessions | No published equivalent found | Hevy Trainer (adaptive) |
| Full history + analytics | Yes, deeper insights | Yes + advanced charts | Yes (removes 3-month cap) |
| Routines | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Custom exercises | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Price | $4.99/mo · $24.99/yr | $4.99/mo · $29.99/yr · $99.99 lifetime | $2.99/mo · $23.99/yr · $74.99 lifetime |
Strong's lifetime option ($99.99) is the only one-time payment across all three if you plan to use an app permanently. Hevy Pro is the most affordable at every price point. Bazu Pro is the only tier that adds goals with deadlines — no equivalent in Strong or Hevy at any price. Bazu Pro also uses your training goal to keep progressive overload recommendations in the right rep range — strength, muscle, or endurance — so guidance is not one-size-fits-all. Note that Bazu's muscle breakdown with drill-down is available free to all users, not a Pro upgrade — Strong's muscle heatmap is Pro-only, and Hevy's muscle-group distribution chart, while genuinely useful, stays at the muscle-group level and follows Hevy's free-history limits rather than drilling down to individual muscles across your full training history.
Short notes on progression, workout logging, and product improvements. No noisy fitness spam.
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Before going app by app, it's worth naming the criteria that actually affect your training — not just what sounds good in a features list.
Routines without a hard cap. Most real training programs require more than 3 distinct routines. Push/Pull/Legs is 3 workouts. Add a deload or accessory day and you're over. Upper/Lower with a third variation, any 4-day bodybuilding split, any periodized program — all exceed 3. A cap at 3 routines means you will either constantly delete and recreate workouts, or you will pay from day one.
History you can actually see. Progress tracking is the reason to log. If your exercise graphs are locked to 3 months, you cannot see your 6-month or 12-month strength curve without a subscription. A true free tier stores your full data. A 3-month window is a trial with extra steps — the limit only bites once you've been training long enough to care most about the data.
Offline reliability. Basement gyms, hotel fitness rooms, rural facilities, and spots with dead zones are common. An app that requires internet to log sets will fail you in exactly the locations where a dedicated gym app should work best.
Goals that move with you. Logging is the foundation, but it's not enough on its own. Knowing whether you're on track toward a specific lift by a specific date turns your history from a record into a plan.
Bazu is a focused strength training tracker and gym log app built around distraction-free lifting. No social feed. No leaderboards. No ads in any version of the app, free or Pro.
Bazu home view.
What the free tier includes:
W, log them normally, and keep them out of PRs, volume totals, and Progressive Overload calculationsWhere the free tier has limits:
In the logging view, Bazu is the most visually stripped back of the three apps. No exercise icons, no notes placeholders, no stats bar — just bold exercise names, clean input fields, and your previous session data. The new warm-up and superset controls keep the structure available without turning the set list into a dashboard. For lifters looking for a minimalist workout tracker that stays out of the way during a session, this is the fastest screen to read at a glance.
Bazu workout logging — 1-tap sets, rest timer, and progressive overload in action
For lifters focused on long-term trends, spotting PRs and tracking progress over time is where Bazu's unlimited history pays off most.
Strong has been around long enough to be the default recommendation in most "best workout tracker" roundups. Millions of users, no ads anywhere in the app, clean interface, good logging speed. For a certain type of lifter, it's an excellent choice.
Strong home view.
What the free tier includes:
The one issue worth knowing before you download:
Strong's free tier limits you to 3 custom routines. That's the number. There's no workaround, no grace period — 3 routines, and then you're prompted to upgrade.
For a full-body program or a simple upper/lower split with two days, 3 routines is enough. But Push/Pull/Legs is already at the limit. Add any variation — a deload week, a separate conditioning session, a different template for travel — and you're over. Most intermediate lifters running standard programming will hit this wall within the first week of setup. Strong's answer to this is a Pro subscription at $29.99 per year or a $99.99 lifetime purchase — a one-time option that gives you everything Strong Pro offers permanently, with no future subscription required.
Other limitations of the free tier:
Strong's logging view adds contextual detail that Bazu omits: rest time shown as a divider between each set, reps pre-filled from your last session, and your workout name and date in the header. More elements on screen than Bazu, but each has a purpose — they reduce decisions rather than adding noise.
The active workout view is where the difference matters most: Bazu prioritizes the next set, rest timer, and progression cues.
Strong is a well-built app with a free tier that works well for lifters running simple programs. If you're likely to go Pro eventually, the $99.99 lifetime option is worth considering over annual billing. For a focused, one-on-one look at switching from Strong — pricing, the 3-routine cap, and what moves over — see our best Strong app alternative guide.
Hevy is the largest app in this comparison by user count, with strong community features, instructional exercise videos, and a genuinely usable free tier in many respects. It's the default choice for lifters who want to share workouts, follow training partners, or browse community routines.
Hevy home view.
What the free tier includes:
The primary limitation for serious lifters:
Hevy's exercise graphs only show 3 months of history in the free tier. You can log unlimited sessions — all your data is saved — but the visual progress charts are capped at 90 days unless you subscribe. For a lifter who signs up in January and reaches April still on the free tier, their January baseline is gone from the graphs. You cannot see your full strength curve, your 6-month volume trend, or your year-over-year PR progression without paying.
This limit gets more significant over time. A new lifter won't notice it. A lifter six months in will hit it exactly when their training history has become most valuable.
Other considerations:
Hevy's logging view is the richest visually — exercise illustrations, a live stats bar showing volume and set count, and a "Previous" column pulled from prior sessions. More information on screen during a session, which serves lifters who want context at a glance; more visual elements for those who prefer a quieter interface.
Hevy's free tier is the right choice if community motivation matters to you and you're early enough in your training that 3 months of graph history covers what you need to see.
One constraint worth stating plainly: Bazu runs on iPhone and Apple Watch — no Android yet. If you're on Android, it's not an option. Strong and Hevy are both solid on Android.
Strong's free tier is worth it for lifters running programs with 3 or fewer routines — the app has no ads, good logging speed, a warm-up calculator, and Apple Health integration at no cost. The 3-routine cap is the single issue that affects most lifters: if your program has more than 3 distinct workout days, you will hit it immediately. If you're running a basic full-body or two-day split, the free tier works well. For anything more structured, the $29.99/year Pro tier (or $99.99 lifetime) is the realistic starting point.
Hevy's free tier gives you unlimited logging, up to 4 routines, up to 7 custom exercises, rest timers, PRs, and community features. The main practical restriction for long-term lifters is the graph history cap: exercise charts only show 3 months of history free. After that, your strength curve is only visible with a Pro subscription at $23.99/year or $74.99 lifetime. Measurement tracking and advanced stats are also limited free.
The core differences are history access, platform, offline capability, and design philosophy. Bazu gives you full unlimited graph history free; Hevy caps long-term graph history unless you upgrade. Bazu has true offline mode with auto-sync; Hevy supports offline Watch workouts and syncs when reconnected. Hevy is on iOS and Android; Bazu runs on iPhone and Apple Watch. Bazu offers 10 custom exercises free versus Hevy's 7. Hevy is built around a social community — following, posting, sharing workouts. Bazu has no social features and is designed for focused, private training. Both apps support Apple Watch logging and heart-rate visibility; Bazu adds permanent PR history on each exercise, PRs in completed workout history, a smart exercise-aware rest timer, warm-up sets that stay out of PR/volume/overload metrics, and strength goals with target dates. Both apps surface muscle insights, but Hevy's distribution chart works at the muscle-group level and follows Hevy's free-history limits, while Bazu drills down to individual muscles with unlimited history at no cost.
For iPhone lifters running standard splits (PPL, Upper/Lower, 3–4 days/week), Bazu's free tier covers the most ground: no time restriction on history, permanent PR history on every exercise, PR milestones in workout history, offline mode, 4 routines, warm-up sets, supersets, 1RM estimates, volume analytics, goals with deadlines, an Apple Watch companion app with Digital Crown logging and live BPM during rest, a smart exercise-aware rest timer, and 10 custom exercises. For Android lifters who want a clean, ad-free experience with a simple program (3 routines or fewer), Strong is a reliable free option. For lifters who want community features, Hevy is the choice — with the understanding that long-term graph history requires Pro.
There is no universal winner. For iPhone users who want minimalist and long-term tracking, Bazu is usually the better fit. For cross-platform polish, Strong is great if the routine cap does not block your setup. For community motivation, Hevy is hard to beat.
Yes — all three support progressive overload tracking for free by logging sets, reps, and weight over time. You can always see what you lifted last session and manually increase from there.
Automatic guidance is a separate feature. Bazu Pro adds smart recommendations based on your last session, with a pace selector, next-set targets on iPhone and Apple Watch, and post-workout Next Workout Targets. Hevy Pro adds Hevy Trainer, an adaptive system that adjusts target weights based on your performance. Strong's official feature list emphasizes logging, history, charts, timers, and broad tracking tools rather than an equivalent automated progression coach.
For a practical framework on applying progressive overload consistently, see Progressive Overload 101.
Yes — Bazu has a built-in feedback option in the app. You can submit feature requests or report issues directly without leaving the app. The team actively reviews submissions, so if something is missing or not working as expected, it's worth sending it through.
Clean, powerful, and free to use.
If you're on iPhone (or want to log sets from your Apple Watch) and want a free workout tracker that stores your full training history, keeps permanent PRs attached to each exercise, works in the gym without internet, and keeps you focused on lifting instead of scrolling, Bazu was built for exactly that.
Founder of Bazu · 10+ years strength training
I'm the builder and user of Bazu. I've been lifting for over 10 years across strength and hypertrophy work, and I built Bazu to make progress simpler for serious lifters — every feature is designed around how real training actually works.
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