Hevy is, without much argument, the best pure lifting logger on the market. The UX is fast, logging a set takes a tap, the social layer is genuinely fun, and Pro costs about $23.99/yr — less than a month of most coaching apps. Ten million people use it and they are not wrong.
So let us be precise about what it is, and what it is not.
Where Hevy wins
- Logging speed. In-session friction is close to zero, which is the single most important property of a gym app.
- Social. Follow friends, see their sessions, copy their routines. Nothing else in the lifting category does this as well, and for a lot of people it is the accountability mechanism that keeps them going.
- Price. The free tier allows unlimited workout logging. Pro is a rounding error.
- Apple Watch. Full app with live sync and heart rate.
What it is not
It is a notebook, not a coach
Hevy records. It shows you what you lifted last time and it tracks your PRs. Every decision — add weight, add a rep, add a set, back off, deload — is yours. That is a legitimate design choice, and for an experienced lifter running a well-designed program, it is all you need.
But if you are guessing at those decisions (and most people are), the log is a record of your guesses rather than a correction to them. Progressive overload has six levers, and Hevy will faithfully record whichever one you happened to pick.
It has never seen a single thing you have eaten
This is the structural one. Hevy has no nutrition tracking of any kind — no food log, no macros, no calorie targets.
Which means the following situation is invisible to it, and it is extremely common:
You are eight weeks into a cut. You have been averaging 500 kcal below maintenance. Your squat top-set RPE has climbed from 7.5 to 9 at the same load. Hevy shows you last week's numbers and, quite reasonably, invites you to beat them.
The right call there is almost certainly to hold the loads and cut volume — because your recovery capacity has dropped with your intake, and that is the predictable cost of a deficit, not a fitness problem. Hevy cannot make that call. Not because it is badly built, but because it cannot see half of the inputs.
Where Gymrock is different
Gymrock logs your sets, reps, loads and RPE in-session — the core job Hevy does — and it also logs your food (photo, barcode, free). Then one model reads both, plus your recovery signals from HealthKit.
Every Monday at 7 a.m., one message: push, hold, or pull back, with the math shown. It is the decision layer that a notebook, by definition, does not have.
What Gymrock does not have is Hevy's social feed. If training with friends is what keeps you in the gym, that is a real trade and you should weigh it honestly.
Which should you pick?
| If you… | Pick |
|---|---|
| Want the best pure lifting log, cheap | Hevy |
| Train with friends and want a social feed | Hevy |
| Already run a program you trust and just need to record it | Hevy |
| Also track food, and want the two connected | Gymrock |
| Are cutting or bulking and want training adjusted for it | Gymrock |
| Want a weekly decision instead of a blank log | Gymrock |