What is the best bodybuilding app in 2026?

For pure logging, Strong. For a free tier, Hevy. For algorithmic coaching, RP Hypertrophy. Taper is the overall pick because it is the only one that tracks whether you are actually growing: per-muscle progress plus a verdict on whether your bulk or cut is working.

What is the best free lifting app in 2026?

Hevy. Its free tier includes unlimited logging with 4 routines and 7 custom exercises, which covers a typical program. Strong's free tier caps you at 3 routines.

What is the best workout app for beginners?

Strong or Hevy. Both are simple loggers that get out of your way. Strong is the more polished veteran; Hevy is friendlier and free-er. A beginner does not need programming apps like RP yet.

Is RP Hypertrophy worth $300 a year?

If you want volume and recovery managed for you and you don't want to think, it genuinely delivers. Once you understand what its algorithm is doing, you can make most of its adjustments yourself, which is why I eventually stopped paying.

Which app tracks muscle growth rather than just exercise numbers?

Taper grades progress per muscle instead of per exercise, so a lagging triceps shows up even when your pressing numbers look fine. It also reads weight, waist, and strength together to judge whether a bulk or cut is working.

Do any lifting apps track body composition?

Most loggers chart body weight as a line and stop there. Taper is built around the question the scale can't answer: whether the weight you're gaining or losing is muscle or fat.

Are these apps available on both iOS and Android?

Strong, Hevy, and RP Hypertrophy run on both. Taper is iOS-only right now, with no cross-platform sync, which is its biggest current limitation.

The 4 Best Bodybuilding Apps in 2026 (From 5 Years of Actually Using Them)

Five years of lifting, four apps that lasted more than a month. The short version: Strong is the best pure logger, Hevy has the best free tier but sold too hard for my taste, RP Hypertrophy is the best coaching algorithm at the worst price, and Taper tracks the thing the others don’t: whether you’re actually growing. After all of these, I built Taper. It’s the last entry.

Workout Tracking

1. Strong

strong.app · $4.99/mo, $29.99/yr, free tier capped at 3 routines

This was one of the first apps I used; a buddy of mine introduced me to it. For someone who was just getting started, could only bench 95 lb, and had no idea what he was doing, this app worked really well. I loved how simple it was, and I actually enjoyed the in-line rest timers (hot take, apparently).

The problem was the tracking side. I didn’t care for the graphs much, I found the 1RM estimates inaccurate even though they use the standard formulas, and the recent Apple Watch update was rough for me: it wouldn’t sync, the app would freeze, and I eventually stopped wearing the watch to lift.

Overall: 7/10. Still the logger I’d hand a beginner. (Outgrowing it? Here’s what to use instead of Strong.)

2. Hevy

hevyapp.com · $23.99/yr, the most generous free tier here

I used this briefly, but it felt like the app was constantly selling me something: a big Pro banner on the dashboard, coaching upsells, always something. I also found per-exercise progress graphs oddly buried; you tap through your profile a few levels before you can see them, and when you get there the charts are plain.

To be fair about what it does well: the free tier is the best of any app on this list, and if you want a social feed for accountability, it’s the only one here that has one. If I were choosing a free logger today it would be Hevy, grumbling included. I wrote a full Strong vs Hevy comparison if you’re deciding between the two.

4/10 for my needs. Higher if free matters more to you than polish. (Leaving it? Here’s what to use instead of Hevy.)

Bodybuilding

1. RP Hypertrophy

rpstrength.com · about $300/yr

This app did well for my lifting when I was more advanced. It managed my recovery, kept my volume in the right range, and auto-incremented reps and weights so every session had a target. The coaching logic is legitimately good.

I just couldn’t keep justifying roughly $300 a year for recommendations I could eventually make myself. Once you internalize what the algorithm is doing (add a set here, back off there), you’ve absorbed the product.

One of the best, but too expensive: 8/10.

2. Taper

thetaperapp.com · $4.99/mo, $29.99/yr, 30-day free trial

I built Taper after five years of the apps above, because none of them answered the question I actually cared about: is any of this working?

It does the usual logging with auto-incremented reps and weights, but the part I built it for is per-muscle progress instead of per-exercise progress. Some exercises fly while others for the same muscle stall, and per-exercise charts hide that; my triceps lagged for months behind a great-looking pressing chart, and that’s exactly the kind of thing it surfaces. It also reads strength, body weight, and waist together and tells you whether a bulk or cut is on track, and it made progress-photo comparisons stop being a chore, which I’d always found painful enough to skip.

Honest downsides: it’s iOS-only right now, there’s no cross-platform sync, and if your work phone is Android and you want to carry one phone to the gym, that’s a real annoyance. It imports your full Strong or Hevy history with one-tap revert, so trying it costs nothing but the download.

9/10 with the caveats above.

The Comparison at a Glance

	Strong	Hevy	RP Hypertrophy	Taper
Best at	Simple logging	Free tier + social	Programming your training	Telling you if it’s working
Annual price	$29.99	$23.99	~$300	$29.99
Free tier	3 routines	4 routines	Trial only	30-day full trial
Platforms	iOS + Android	iOS + Android	iOS + Android	iOS only
My score	7/10	4/10	8/10	9/10

If you’re new: Strong or Hevy. If you want a coach: RP, if the price doesn’t sting. If you want to know whether the work is working: that’s why I built the last one.