“Free” in the App Store means almost nothing, so the test used here is specific: what still works thirty days in, with no card on file. That filters the category hard.
For logging lifts
Hevy. Generous free tier, clean interface, and a social layer if you want one. The most commonly recommended free lifting logger for good reason.
FitNotes. Android, free, no account, no cloud, no nonsense. Ugly and extremely fast. If you want a spreadsheet with a better keyboard, this is it.
Strong. A free tier exists with limits on custom routines. Excellent interface, and the limits arrive sooner than with Hevy.
For running and cardio
Strava. Recording, basic analysis and the social feed remain free. A steadily growing amount has moved behind the subscription over the years, so check what you actually need is still outside it.
Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club. Guided runs and workouts, free, with no serious catch beyond being a marketing channel for a shoe company. Genuinely good for people who want to be told what to do.
Apple Fitness. Already on the phone, already free, and underrated for basic workout tracking if you own the watch.
For recovery, which is where free tiers get thin
This is the category where “free” is least honest, because recovery apps mostly exist to sell subscriptions.
Helix. Ours. Recovery, strain, sleep and stress stay free permanently, with no account and no trial clock, reading the overnight signals your Apple Watch already records. Pro adds a VO₂max lab, per-muscle recovery and bloodwork, and never removes the daily loop.
Bevel. Has a real free tier, and the paid tier is oriented toward AI coaching and health records rather than training depth. A fair comparison is in Bevel vs Helix.
Welltory. Free tier exists and is fairly limited. Its strength is HRV measurement via the phone camera, which is a genuinely different approach.
Athlytic is not free, at around $25 a year. Included because it is good and cheap, and because pretending it is free would fail this page’s own test.
The four business models behind a free app
The frustrating free tier. Works, barely, by design. Common in logging apps that cap routines.
Advertising. Increasingly rare in this category because health audiences are worth more via supplements than via banner ads.
Your data. The one worth checking. The questions are whether there is a server-side copy at all, what the privacy policy permits in an acquisition, and whether deletion is available. We went through those clauses in does WHOOP sell your data, and they apply to every app in this category.
A complete free tier with paid depth. The model where the free version is genuinely finished and the subscription adds something separate. Rarer, and the only one where “free” means what it says.
For the Apple Watch category specifically, see the best Apple Watch recovery apps, and for programs rather than apps, free workout plans.