Quick Answer
Hevy is worth using if you already know your workout plan and only need a clean place to log sets, reps, and weight.
If you are a beginner, trying to lose fat, building your first routine, or juggling workouts plus food tracking, Hevy can feel unfinished. In that case, choose a setup that handles the plan, workout log, calories, protein, and weekly progress check together.
| What you need | Best pick |
|---|---|
| Simple workout logging | Hevy |
| Social workout sharing | Hevy |
| A private bare-bones log | Strong |
| Generated workouts | Fitbod |
| Workouts plus calories, macros, and progress | Soma |
The action: decide whether your bottleneck is logging or the whole plan. If it is just logging, Hevy is good. If it is knowing what to train, what to eat, and what to adjust next week, use Soma for 14 days and track both workouts and food in one place.
What Is Hevy?
Hevy is a workout tracking app built around logging exercises, sets, and reps. It launched in 2020 and has grown into one of the most popular gym logging apps on iOS, largely through word of mouth among lifters who wanted something cleaner than a spreadsheet but less bloated than the big all-in-one fitness platforms.
It does one thing: track your lifts. And it does that one thing well.
What Hevy Gets Right
Clean, fast logging interface. Hevy's core loop — open app, start workout, log sets — is frictionless. The exercise library is large and searchable. You can duplicate previous workouts with one tap. Rest timers are built in. The interface doesn't get in your way.
Progress charts. Hevy shows volume, estimated 1RM, and set history for every exercise. The visualisations are genuinely useful for spotting strength trends over time.
Workout templates. You can save programmes as templates and cycle through them. For people running structured periodisation, this is a solid workflow.
Social feed. Hevy has a basic social layer — you can follow friends and see their workouts. It's lightweight but adds a mild accountability element.
Routine sharing. One of Hevy's more popular features is the ability to share routines publicly or via link. It's become a hub for coaches to share programming with clients.
Basic free tier. Core workout logging is available without paying. That is useful if logging is all you need. If you also want food logging, protein targets, adaptive workout guidance, and progress feedback, you will need another app or a fuller setup.
What Hevy Doesn't Do
Here is the honest part of this review: Hevy is a workout tracker. That is the strength and the limit.
No nutrition tracking. Hevy has zero calorie or macro logging. If you care about what you eat — and if you're training for body composition, you should — you need a second app. That means context-switching constantly and mentally connecting data points that should live in the same place.
No adaptive programming. Hevy tracks what you do. It doesn't tell you what you *should* do. You can save templates, but the app won't adapt your plan based on your performance, recovery, or goals. You are responsible for progression.
RPE support is limited. Hevy added RPE logging as a field, but it doesn't do anything with the data. There's no analytics on perceived exertion trends, no adaptation based on RPE, no coach feedback. It's a text box.
No coach-style feedback. There is nobody to ask "should I deload this week?" or "my bench hasn't moved in six weeks — what do I change?" That guidance doesn't exist in Hevy.
Who Hevy Is Best For
Hevy suits lifters who specifically want a standalone, minimalist workout log and nothing else. If you already have a separate nutrition app and a programme you follow, and you actively don't want AI guidance or integrated tracking, Hevy does the logging job simply.
Choose Hevy if:
| You are... | Hevy fit |
|---|---|
| Already following a coach's program | Good fit |
| Running a plan from Reddit, a PDF, or a spreadsheet | Good fit |
| Mainly forgetting what you lifted last week | Good fit |
| Trying to build your first plan from scratch | Weak fit |
| Tracking calories and protein for body recomposition | Weak fit |
That is the real decision. Hevy is strong when the plan already exists. It is weaker when the app needs to help you build the plan.
Where Hevy Falls Short for Serious Gym-Goers
The longer you train, the more you realise that workouts and nutrition are inseparable. You can't meaningfully optimise body composition with a training log alone. You need to see how your food is fuelling your sessions, whether your protein intake aligns with your volume, how your deficit affects recovery.
Hevy doesn't see any of that. It's half the picture.
There's also the question of adaptation. The best training programmes adjust based on how you're responding — if you're consistently hitting your sets at RPE 7, weight should go up. If you're grinding at RPE 10 every session, something needs to change. Hevy tracks what you logged; it doesn't identify what should change.
Hevy vs Soma
If you're comparing Hevy to something like Soma, the difference is scope.
Hevy: workout log, progress charts, social feed.
Soma: generated workout programmes, RPE-aware training, photo food logging, macro tracking, progress feedback, social leaderboard.
Hevy is a good logbook. Soma is a full training and nutrition system.
For lifters who are serious about progressing — not just recording — the difference matters. Hevy tells you what happened. Soma helps you decide what to do next, and it does everything Hevy does on the free tier too.
Soma is the better choice if you want workout planning, food tracking, useful RPE, and progress feedback in one place instead of stitching together a workout app and a calorie app.
You can also compare Hevy vs Soma, Strong vs Hevy, and Fitbod vs Hevy if you are choosing between the main workout trackers.
The Verdict
Hevy has a clean interface and strong workout logging basics. If all you want is a logbook, it does the job.
If you want visible body change, the workout log is only one piece. You still need a plan, calories, protein, progression, and a weekly check to know what to change.
Download Soma free on the App Store, log your next workout and meals for 14 days, and keep it if your next workout and next food decision are clearer.