Strong has been one of the best-known gym logging apps for years, and it still carries a 4.9 rating from about 109,000 reviews on the US App Store. On Google Play it is a different picture, at 4.3 from about 43,000 reviews, both read on 21 September 2026. That gap is a clue to the most useful thing about this review: what Strong’s own help centre says about the differences between its iPhone and Android apps, and a few places where Strong’s paperwork does not match its app.
How we put this together. We have not used Strong ourselves; this is a research-based review. Prices come from the US App Store and Google Play, and feature details from Strong’s own help centre and website, all read on 21 September 2026. Where Strong’s documents disagree with each other, we say so.
Strong at a glance
| Item | What Strong publishes |
|---|---|
| Price | Free; PRO $3.99 or $4.99 a month, $19.99 for 6 months, $23.99 or $29.99 a year, Forever $79.99 or $99.99 (US App Store) |
| Free limits | Unlimited workouts, 3 templates, no plate or warm-up calculator, limited charts and measurements |
| Platforms | iPhone, Apple Watch, Android |
| Ratings | 4.9 (about 109,000) US App Store; 4.3 (about 43,000) Google Play |
| Company | Strong Fitness PTE. Ltd. |
| Ads and social | No ads; no social feed |
| Our score | 4.0 out of 5 |
What Strong is
Strong is a workout logger in the plainest sense. You build templates (Strong renamed routines to templates), start a workout, and record weight, reps and set type as you go, with a rest timer, charts and personal records. There is no feed, no leaderboard and no coach. Its account article says “Your workout data is completely private and under your control (unless you explicitly choose to share it)”, and its help centre promises “no ads, ever”. The app is published by Strong Fitness PTE. Ltd.; we found no founder or headquarters details on its official pages.
That privacy-first, no-frills design is why people choose it. If you want an app that suggests your next workout, Strong is not it; if you want a clean log that stays out of your way, it is one of the two obvious choices, alongside Hevy.
Pricing: free, PRO and Forever
The US App Store listing states: “The free version of Strong can save unlimited workouts, but is limited to 3 custom routines. Upgrade to a Strong PRO subscription ($4.99/month or $29.99/year) for an unlimited number of routines”. Its in-app purchase list is longer than that sentence suggests: Strong PRO at $3.99 and $4.99 a month, $19.99 for 6 months, $23.99 and $29.99 a year, and Strong PRO Forever at $79.99 and $99.99. The listing does not say which of each pair a new buyer is offered, so expect the higher figure and be pleased if you see the lower. Google Play shows $0.99 to $99.99 per item. The listing also notes that in-app purchases cannot be shared through Family Sharing.
What free includes
Strong’s templates article says “You can create up to 3 Workout Templates with the free version of Strong.” Its PRO article lists what PRO adds: unlimited workout templates, body part measurements, access to all charts, the plate calculator, the warm-up calculator, custom icons and themes, and “More Future Features”. It also promises: “You will never be ‘locked out’, and you will ALWAYS be able to use the free version of Strong to track your workouts.”
Just as useful is what the PRO list does not include. Apple Watch, supersets, RPE, custom exercises, Apple Health sync and CSV export are not on it, and the help articles for each describe them without a PRO gate. Several ranking reviews say those are PRO features; Strong’s own documents do not.
How it compares on price
Strong’s yearly plan, at $23.99 to $29.99, sits at or above Hevy’s $23.99, and its Forever option at $79.99 to $99.99 sits above Hevy’s $74.99 lifetime. Its free plan is tighter, with 3 templates to Hevy’s 4 routines, though Hevy also limits custom exercises and history on free and Strong does not list those as PRO limits. Neither app has ads.
Features
Logging
Strong’s help centre covers supersets, set tags for warm-up, drop set and failure (warm-up sets are left out of charts), RPE on a 6 to 10 scale with a table mapping RPE to reps in reserve, and a rest timer. Per its rest timer article, “The default Rest Timer for all exercises is 2:00 and triggers immediately after a set is completed”, with per-exercise durations. Its custom exercise article says the app has “over 200 built in exercises” and lets you create your own on iPhone and Android. The plate calculator and warm-up calculator are PRO only.
Apple Watch
The Apple Watch app is Strong’s long-standing strength. Its Apple Watch article describes live sync with the iPhone, Handoff between devices and a watchOS 10 requirement, with two caveats in Strong’s own words: “Not all features of Strong are available on Apple Watch”, and live sync “does increase Apple Watch battery consumption”. The plate and warm-up calculators are not on the watch. We found no Wear OS app in Strong’s help centre or on its Google Play listing, whose device tabs show phone, Chromebook and tablet only.
Health and other apps
Strong’s Apple Health article says it “fully syncs with Apple Health”. On Android, its Health Connect article says Health Connect support arrived with Strong 6.0 “currently available in public beta” and that Google Fit is no longer supported, though the Play listing still mentions Google Fit, so check the current state on your phone. Direct MyFitnessPal integration has been dropped, per its help centre, in favour of Apple Health. Workouts can be shared by link.
iPhone and Android are not the same app
This is the detail that matters most for Android users, and it comes from Strong itself. Its superset article says the iPhone and Android flows differ and “We’ll be unifying the user experience of Supersets across all platforms in a future update”. Its plate calculator article notes “minor differences in functionality between Android and iPhone”. Its Focus Metric article describes a feature for “the iPhone and upcoming Android 6.0 version”. Together with the gap between a 4.9 App Store rating and a 4.3 Google Play rating, the message is consistent: Strong is at its best on iPhone and Apple Watch.
No AI, no coaching
We found no AI features and no coaching or trainer product on Strong’s official pages. It does not build programmes for you. If you want that, see our guide to the best AI workout apps or our Fitbod vs Strong comparison.
Exporting your data: an exit, not a backup
Strong’s export article says “You can export your workout data to a spreadsheet friendly CSV format. Please note that exported files cannot be imported back into Strong.” A 2025 update added exports with or without timers and notes, and measurements export to CSV. So an export will not restore your history if you reinstall or switch phones through a fresh account; your Strong account is the backup. The export is, however, a clean way out: Hevy’s import feature accepts Strong’s CSV files, which makes moving from Strong to Hevy straightforward and moving in the other direction impossible.
Making the free version work
Strong’s free limit is on templates, not on workouts, so a lifter with a settled programme can use it for a long time. These suggestions follow from the limits Strong publishes.
- Fit your split into three templates. A full-body programme run three times a week, or a push, pull and legs split, fits the free limit exactly. A four or five-day split does not, and is the most common reason to upgrade.
- Start empty workouts for one-offs. Unlimited workouts on free means a deload day or a travel session can be logged from scratch without spending a template on it.
- Keep your own export. Because the CSV cannot be re-imported into Strong, treat it as a record for spreadsheets or a future move to Hevy, and rely on your Strong account for day-to-day history.
- Check which calculators you need. The plate and warm-up calculators are the only logging tools Strong lists as PRO. If you work out plates in your head, free loses little.
Choosing between Strong’s paid plans
With monthly, six-month, yearly and Forever options, the choice comes down to how long you expect to stay. By simple arithmetic on the US prices, a year of PRO at $23.99 to $29.99 costs about the same as six months on the monthly plan, so paying monthly only makes sense for a short trial of PRO. Forever at $79.99 to $99.99 matches a little over three years of the yearly plan. If Strong has been your log for years and you are on iPhone, Forever is the cheapest long-run option. If you are on Android, or think you might move to Hevy, a yearly plan keeps you flexible, and remember that Strong’s export can take your history to Hevy but not bring it back.
Strong’s help centre notes that “Prices may vary between regions”, and that PRO is bought through the App Store or Google Play, so refunds go through Apple or Google rather than Strong.
Where Strong’s paperwork does not match
None of these affect how the app logs a set, but they are worth knowing, and no ranking review we read mentions them.
- A deactivated privacy policy link. The US App Store description links a privacy policy hosted on iubenda. That page now says “The Privacy Policy of Strong is no longer active”. Strong’s current privacy policy, dated 21 May 2026, lives on its own site.
- A Google Play rating Google does not show. Strong’s homepage claims a “4.9 star average” on Google Play. Google Play showed 4.3 on 21 September 2026.
- Two user counts on one page. The same homepage says “Trusted by over 5 million users worldwide” and “Trusted by over 3 million users worldwide”, and both 30 million and 15 million workouts logged. The App Store description says 1.2 million downloads and Google Play says 3 million people.
- Duplicate prices. The US listing shows two monthly, two yearly and two Forever prices, as above.
Privacy
The US App Store privacy label lists health and fitness data, purchases, email address, identifiers, crash data and other data as linked to you, and declares no data used to track you. Google Play’s data safety section says no data is shared with third parties and that deletion can be requested. Strong’s current policy says it uses Fathom for website traffic and Sentry for bug tracking, “we do not send personal information to these services”, that Health Connect data “is stored locally on your device and is not uploaded to Strong servers”, and that it retains data “indefinitely in order to provide the Services”. Deleting your account in the app deletes related data.
Recent updates
Strong shipped regularly through 2026 on iPhone: calendar and activity widgets in May, a Liquid Glass theme and Apple Watch crash fixes in June, and Live Activity and Dynamic Island support for rest timers in August. Several spring releases fixed PRO not unlocking until purchases were restored. The last iPhone release before our read was on 12 August 2026, and Google Play showed an update on 10 August. Older reviews calling Strong “rarely updated” are out of date on this evidence.
For comparison, Hevy released an iPhone update four days before our read and says it updates every one to two weeks, so Strong moves more slowly than its main rival. The difference shows most on Android, where Strong 6.0 features such as Health Connect and Focus Metric were still described as upcoming or in beta in its help centre.
What ranking reviews get wrong
Of the five Strong reviews we read on 21 September 2026, one quotes Strong Premium at $9.99 a month, which is not on the US listing, and says custom exercises, Apple Health, Apple Watch and CSV export are paid, which Strong’s PRO list does not say. The same page claims a 450+ exercise library against Strong’s own “over 200”. Three of the five are published by companies selling competing apps. None mentions the one-way export, the Android differences Strong documents, or the deactivated privacy link.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Private by design, no social feed and no ads | Free plan limited to 3 templates |
| Established Apple Watch app with live sync | Android app differs from iPhone, by Strong’s own account |
| Apple Watch, RPE, supersets and export not behind PRO | No Wear OS app listed |
| Forever option for a one-off price | CSV export cannot be re-imported into Strong |
| “Never locked out” of the free version | No programmes, AI or coaching |
| Regular 2026 iPhone updates | Pricier than Hevy at every tier |
Who Strong is for
- iPhone and Apple Watch lifters who want a mature watch app and a clean log.
- Anyone who dislikes social fitness apps. There is no feed to ignore.
- Lifters with a fixed programme of three or fewer templates, for whom the free version is enough.
- Long-term iPhone users who have logged in Strong for years and want a one-off Forever price rather than another subscription.
Look elsewhere if you are on Android or Wear OS, where Hevy is the stronger choice; want your app to plan your training; or want the cheapest paid tier. Our Hevy review covers the main alternative, our Hevy vs Strong comparison puts the two side by side, and beginners should see our best workout apps for beginners.
Strong compared with other trackers
Strong competes with other loggers rather than AI coaches. Figures are from each app’s US App Store listing or help centre, read on 21 September 2026.
| App | Free plan | Paid from | Watch support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strong | Unlimited workouts; 3 templates | $3.99 a month, $23.99 a year, Forever $79.99 | Apple Watch |
| Hevy | Unlimited workouts; 4 routines, 7 custom exercises, 3 months of stats | $2.99 a month, $23.99 a year, $74.99 lifetime | Apple Watch and Wear OS |
| Caliber | Unlimited workouts, 800+ exercises | Caliber Plus $9 to $12 a month | Not checked |
| FitNotes | Fully free, no ads, no in-app purchases | Not applicable | Android phone app only |
If you are on iPhone and value a private log, Strong and Hevy are the two to compare; Hevy is cheaper and more generous on free, Strong has no feed at all. On Android, Hevy or the fully free FitNotes are the stronger picks by Strong’s own description of its Android app. Our best free workout apps guide covers the wider field.
Strong’s releases, 2025 to 2026
| When | What changed |
|---|---|
| July 2025 | Rename custom exercises |
| September 2025 | Export with or without timers and workout notes; export measurements to CSV |
| March to April 2026 | Template search and better exercise search ranking; several fixes for PRO not unlocking until purchases were restored |
| May 2026 | Calendar and activity widgets |
| June 2026 | Apple Watch crash fixes; Liquid Glass theme; keyboard and RPE fixes |
| August 2026 | Live Activity and Dynamic Island support for rest timers; Apple Health import fixes |
The pattern is steady polish on iPhone and Apple Watch rather than big new features, which fits an app whose selling point is that it stays simple.
What to check if you use Android
- Supersets. Strong says the Android flow differs from iPhone and will be unified “in a future update”.
- Health Connect. Strong’s help centre describes Health Connect support as part of Strong 6.0 “currently available in public beta”, and says Google Fit is no longer supported.
- Calculators. The plate calculator has “minor differences in functionality between Android and iPhone”.
- Focus Metric. Described for iPhone and the “upcoming Android 6.0 version”.
- Watch. We found no Wear OS app; the Google Play listing shows phone, Chromebook and tablet.
Our verdict: 4.0 out of 5
Strong does one job well: it is a private, ad-free log with a mature Apple Watch app, and the free version never locks you out. It scores below Hevy because it costs more at every tier, its free plan is tighter on templates, its Android app trails its iPhone app by Strong’s own description, it has no Wear OS app, and its export cannot bring your history back in. On an iPhone and an Apple Watch, with no interest in a social feed, it remains an easy recommendation.
Where the facts on this page come from
- US App Store and Google Play listings for Strong, read 21 September 2026: prices, ratings, privacy label, version history.
- Strong help centre articles on PRO, templates, supersets, set tags, plate and warm-up calculators, Focus Metric, RPE, rest timer, Apple Watch, live sync, Apple Health, Health Connect, MyFitnessPal, CSV export, custom exercises and accounts, read 21 September 2026.
- strong.app homepage and privacy policy (updated 21 May 2026); the deactivated iubenda policy linked from the App Store.
- Hevy’s help centre on importing Strong CSV files.
- Five ranking Strong reviews, read 21 September 2026.
Written by
FazFaz is the founder of AIToolsBakery. Some tools here are tested hands on. Others are assessed from vendor documentation and pricing verified on the live page, and every review says which one it is. Sponsors can buy a position in a guide. They cannot buy the score, the criticism, or silence about a better option.
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