Hevy and Strong Alternative: When a Switch Is Worth It

Anyone looking for an alternative to Hevy or Strong usually does not need yet another training app.

Normally something specific is bothering them: the free version gets too tight, the history is limited, you no longer want a running subscription, or you want your progression rules to live inside the training plan itself.

That is a better starting point than asking which app is “the best” in the abstract.

Because Hevy and Strong are good training loggers. If your current workflow works, there is no reason to move three years of training history out of curiosity.

A switch is worth it when the new app solves a problem that affects you regularly.

First work out what actually bothers you

The differences between training apps today lie less in whether they can store weight and reps. Practically all of them can.

Four other questions are more interesting:

If none of those questions is a problem with your current app, staying is probably the most sensible decision.

When Hevy probably suits you better

Hevy combines training logging with a pronounced social side. You can follow others, see workouts in a feed, give likes and comments, and share routines.

On top of that there is now Hevy Trainer: a Pro feature that builds programs from your goals and past performances, adjusts working weights automatically and can swap exercises.

That is a different approach from a classic rule-based training plan.

So if you want the app to take on as much of the programming work as possible, or if the social side gives you motivation, Hevy is not merely a logger to be replaced as fast as possible.

The free version does have limits, though. According to Hevy, the current ones include:

• a maximum of 4 routines
• a maximum of 7 custom exercises
• 3 months of history in the corresponding statistics

Whether that bothers you depends entirely on your training. Anyone who has trained the same three sessions for years can get by on four routines without trouble. Anyone building and comparing lots of programs notices the limit far sooner.

Which payment models and lifetime options the various apps currently offer is covered in detail here.

When Strong probably suits you better

Strong sits deliberately closer to the classic training logbook.

The app is fast, uncluttered, and lets you save unlimited workouts in the free version. What is limited there is mainly your own routines: free currently allows three.

If you have an existing plan and mainly want logging to stay out of the way during training, that simplicity is exactly the advantage.

Not everyone needs a progression engine, 20 ready-made programs or a detailed muscle analysis.

An app that decides less can be the better app when you already know precisely what you want to train.

When switching to hitPR can make sense

hitPR puts its emphasis elsewhere.

The app is offline-first, needs no hitPR account, and does not try to invent your training program for you. Instead, you set the rules by which your plan is meant to develop.

That suits you particularly if one of these situations sounds familiar.

You want to automate progression — but decide the rule yourself

There is an important difference between:

“The app decides which weight makes sense next.”

and

“I decide by which rule the load goes up, and the app executes that rule.”

hitPR takes the second approach.

You can use linear progression, double progression, AMRAP-based rules, effort-based progression or cyclical systems such as 5/3/1 and GZCLP, for example.

The parameters stay visible: increments, failed attempts, deload rules or scheme changes can all be inspected and adjusted.

That is not automatically better than an adaptive recommendation. It just suits a different way of training.

If you like understanding why 82.5 kg is on the plan today, a transparent rule is often more comfortable than a black box.

What progressive overload means in practice is a topic of its own. The only relevant part here: the app runs the logic you chose instead of hiding it.

You need more than a list of routines

A routine is a reusable training session.

A training program can be more:

• several training days
• weeks that differ from one another
• defined cycles
• different set and rep schemes
• rules for progression or deloads

If you train according to 5/3/1, GZCLP or another structured program, that difference matters.

In hitPR you can build such structures yourself or use the included programs as a starting point. Around 1,300 exercises are in the database; you can add your own.

How to structure a plan sensibly is covered in the article on creating training plans.

You want to see your training distribution more precisely

A muscle map can be useful — as long as it is clear what it actually measures.

It can show you where your logged sets land. It cannot directly measure how much a muscle has grown, or whether your individual volume is optimal.

hitPR analyses 19 muscle groups separately for this. Front, side and rear delts are treated separately, as are upper and lower back, and adductors and abductors.

The counting follows a transparent model:

• muscle involved as a primary mover: full set
• muscle involved as a secondary mover: fractional set

That is a simplification — as every automatic muscle assignment is.

Which is why you can adjust the assignment per exercise yourself. If your execution or exercise variation emphasises different muscles than the database default, the analysis can be changed accordingly.

The value is not that the body map tells you what you have to train.

It makes visible a question you would otherwise have to assemble from your training log yourself:

How are my working sets actually distributed across the week?

The most important step when switching: export first

Before you delete any training app, export your data.

That sounds obvious, but it usually only becomes important once the old app is no longer set up.

Both Hevy and Strong currently offer a CSV export.

With Hevy you can export training and measurement data separately. Strong likewise exports the training history in a spreadsheet-friendly CSV format.

That gives you a copy outside the app to begin with.

Which is worth doing regardless of whether you then move to hitPR, Excel or a different training app.

How the import into hitPR works

Importing training data is more complicated than copying a CSV file line by line.

The most common stumbling block is exercise names.

The same movement can be called, for instance:

• Bench Press
• Barbell Bench Press
• Flat Bench Press
• Bankdrücken Langhantel

So during the import, hitPR tries to map the exercises from the foreign file to its own. You go through the suggestions once and confirm or correct them.

Directly supported at the moment:

• Hevy
• Strong
• FitNotes

More simply structured exports from other apps can work too, when date, exercise and training values sit in a usable table structure. Depending on the export, that includes GymRun, Liftosaur or Fitbod, for example.

JEFIT and Boostcamp are not directly supported at the moment.

I would rather name that limit openly than advertise a “universal import” and tell you only after the switch that your file does not fit.

kg and lbs are not a detail

Not every export stores the unit as unambiguously as you would expect.

When a file does not make clear whether a weight is in kilograms or pounds, hitPR asks during the import.

That prevents a mistake that could otherwise happen silently:

100 lb becomes 100 kg.

The import works formally — but your entire history is wrong afterwards.

Plausibility checks like that matter more than the sheer number of supported file formats.

A switch should be reversible too

An app is only genuinely portable if you can get out of it as well as into it.

So you can export your training history back out of hitPR. There is also a complete backup containing plans and settings.

Two things need keeping apart here:

Portable training data export: contains the actual training entries in a form that can be processed outside hitPR.

Complete hitPR backup: additionally contains app-specific structures such as your plans and settings.

The programming logic of a complex plan cannot sensibly be squeezed into a universal CSV format. If you switch to another app later, you take your training history with you — the plan may have to be rebuilt there.

That is a technical limit, not a paywall.

Cloud backup: a central account or your own storage?

There is no single right answer for backups either.

A classic cloud account is convenient: you sign in on a new device and the provider restores your data.

The downside is that your training history sits on that provider’s infrastructure.

hitPR takes a different route.

The optional backup is stored in your own iCloud or Google Drive storage. Before the upload, the backup is encrypted on the device with AES-256-GCM.

You keep the recovery code yourself.

Which means hitPR runs no central store of accounts and training data that your backup would have to be restored from.

The flip side belongs in the picture too: if you lose the recovery code and have no other readable backup, I cannot bypass the encryption for you.

That is less convenient than a “forgot password” button — but it is exactly the consequence of a system in which the provider does not hold the key.

What hitPR deliberately does not have

An alternative is only helpful if the drawbacks are clear too.

No social network

There is no feed, no followers and no comments in the app.

Workouts and PRs can be shared as cards, but if the social exchange itself is part of your training motivation, that is where Hevy plays to its strength.

No coach that replans your training from your data on its own

hitPR executes progression rules that you select or configure.

With Pro, hitPR Adapt calculates a plan from your answers: goal, experience, days, time per session and equipment. That happens by fixed rules, and the same answers always give you the same plan. Weights then progress with double progression, and the plan itself only changes when you adjust it.

hitPR does not try to invent a new training program on its own from your training data.

If that automatic decision is precisely what you want, an adaptive trainer like Hevy Trainer is closer to your needs.

Cardio is not the focus

Running, rowing or cycling can be logged with basic values. Detailed pace, GPS or heart rate analysis is not the product goal, though.

Anyone analysing endurance training seriously still needs a specialised solution for that.

A new app always means relearning first

Even once all your data is imported, you already know your old app’s interface blind.

That switching cost is real.

A theoretically better feature does not help much if the new interface annoys you every session.

A simple decision aid

This is not an objective ranking.

It is a mapping by way of working.

In short

Hevy and Strong do not have to be “bad” for a switch to make sense.

The better question is:

Does the app’s model still fit the way I train today?

If you want a social training logger or adaptive program planning, Hevy has clear strengths. If you are after the fastest, most stripped-back logbook you can get, Strong remains attractive.

hitPR is mainly interesting if you want to train without an account and largely offline, to understand and set your progression rules yourself, and to keep your data in a system you can get it back out of.

And before you switch, whatever the app:

Export your history first.

If you are only just starting to record your training at all, start here instead — then the app question really is only the next step.

Details on Hevy and Strong: checked in September 2026. Features, free limits and prices can change. hitPR is my own app, so this article is not an independent product recommendation but an attempt to lay out the different approaches as transparently as possible.

Sources

• Hevy Help Center: Hevy Pro — free and Pro limits
• Hevy: Hevy Trainer
• Hevy Help Center: importing Strong and exporting your Hevy data
• Strong: App Store description and current free limits
• Strong Help Center: exporting workout data as CSV