Every workout tracker on the app store says it is free. The download costs nothing, which is technically true and quietly misleading, because "free" in this category covers everything from a fully unrestricted app to a two-week tease with a routine cap. The useful question is never "is it free." It is "what do I get for free, and where does this particular app decide to put the wall."
So this is a roundup of free tiers, not of apps. Five trackers people actually use, what each one gives away, and the specific limit you will run into first. Prices and limits below are accurate as of June 2026; free tiers move around, so check the current terms before you commit a year of training to one.
A note on shape before the list: four of these five are barbell and named-exercise loggers, built around picking a movement from a database and logging sets. Fitness Vault sits in a different lane, built around video, which is our app and the reason this site exists. The comparison is fairer if you know that going in.
FitNotes: the genuinely free one, with an asterisk
Free tier: Full workout logging, exercise history, charts and progress graphs. No ads. No premium tier at all on Android. Works fully offline.
FitNotes is the closest thing in this list to free with no fine print. On Android it has no subscription, no ads, and no internet requirement, which makes it a quiet favourite among lifters who just want to record sets and never see an upsell. The interface is plain and fast, the history is yours, and nobody is trying to convert you to anything.
The asterisk is the platform. The original free app is Android only. On iPhone the separate FitNotes release caps how many workouts you can save until you pay a one-time unlock, so the "completely free forever" story really only holds on Android.
Verdict: On Android, the most honestly free tracker here. On iPhone, less so.
Strong: free to log, capped on routines
Free tier: Unlimited workout logging and full history, no ads. Capped at three custom routines.
Strong has been the minimalist's logger since 2014, and its free tier is generous in the way that matters most: you can log as many sessions as you like, forever, and keep the whole history. The limit it chose is the number of saved routines, which sits at three.
For a lot of people that cap never bites. If you run one programme with a push day, a pull day and a leg day, that is three routines, and you are inside the free tier indefinitely. You feel the wall only when you want to keep several programmes on the go at once, or save seasonal variations. The paid tier lifts the routine cap and adds extras like the plate calculator and deeper charts.
Verdict: Effectively free for anyone running a single fixed split.
Hevy: generous, until your history scrolls off
Free tier: Logging plus a social feed, with four routines, a handful of custom exercises, and three months of history.
Hevy is the sociable one, a fast logger with a feed where you follow other lifters and share workouts. The free tier feels roomy day to day, with four routines rather than three and the social layer fully included. For a deeper breakdown of how it stacks up against Strong, there is a dedicated comparison here.
Its wall is an unusual one: time. The free tier holds roughly three months of history, after which older sessions drop out of view unless you upgrade. If you train to beat last week, that is fine. If you like pulling up what you lifted last winter to see how far you have come, that horizon arrives faster than a routine cap would. Paid removes the history limit and the routine and exercise caps.
Verdict: Roomy for current training, short on long-term memory.
Jefit: free and deep, paid for quiet
Free tier: A large exercise library, unlimited logging, and community routines. Ad-supported.
Jefit gives away more raw feature surface than most. The free tier includes a database well past a thousand exercises, unlimited logging, and access to routines the community has built, which is a lot of app for nothing. If breadth of exercise library is what you want, Jefit's free tier is hard to beat.
The cost here is paid in attention rather than locked features: the free tier carries ads, and the paid Elite tier is what removes them while adding the analytics, AI progression suggestions, video demonstrations and smartwatch features. So the free version is fully functional and a little noisy.
Verdict: The deepest free tier in the list, if you can live with ads.
Fitness Vault: free for video-based training, capped on count
Free tier: Import up to 20 workout videos, build one programme, manual tagging, set and rep logging, and the full stats dashboard. No ads.
This is our app, so read the rest with that in mind. Fitness Vault is the only tracker here built around video: you import workouts from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook, label them, and train with your set and rep logger sitting beside the video instead of in a separate app. The free tier keeps the parts you use every session free, including manual tagging, programme building, logging and the full stats, with no ads and no time limit on your history.
The wall it chose is the number of saved videos, which is 20 on the free tier, alongside a single programme. That is enough to organise a real working library and run a week of training, and you hit the limit when you want a larger catalogue or several programmes. Premium lifts both limits and adds AI auto-tagging, which reads each video's title and description to label it for you, at £7.99 a month or £47.99 a year. The honest detail on that AI: it works from a clip's text, so it is strongest on YouTube and lighter on TikTok and Instagram, and manual tagging stays free either way.
Where it is the wrong tool: if you train off a written barbell programme and never touch video, you do not need a video library, and a dedicated logger like FitNotes or Strong will serve you better. Fitness Vault is also younger than the others here.
Verdict: The free tier to use if your training comes from saved videos.
The free tiers, side by side
| App | Genuinely free for | The wall it chose | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| FitNotes | Full logging, no ads, offline | iPhone version needs a one-time unlock | Android (free); iOS (paid unlock) |
| Strong | Unlimited logging, full history | 3 custom routines | iOS, Android |
| Hevy | Logging plus social feed | ~3 months of history | iOS, Android |
| Jefit | Large library, unlimited logging | Ads on the free tier | iOS, Android |
| Fitness Vault | Video import, tagging, logging, stats | 20 videos, 1 programme | iOS, Android (beta) |
Free-tier details accurate as of June 2026.
So which free tracker should you actually use?
Pick by the wall you are least likely to hit.
- You run one fixed barbell split and just want to log it. FitNotes on Android, free with no ads or limits. Strong's free tier if you are on iPhone and three routines is plenty.
- You want logging plus a bit of social pull. Hevy's free tier, as long as you do not mind your history thinning out past three months.
- You want the biggest exercise library for nothing and can ignore ads. Jefit.
- Your training lives in saved videos from YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. Fitness Vault's free tier, which keeps the logging and tagging free and caps the library size instead.
If you are still weighing up the broader picture rather than just the free tiers, the five fitness apps worth keeping in 2026 covers how a tracker fits alongside the running, nutrition and sleep apps on your phone.
The bottom line
There is no single best free workout tracker, because each one gives away a different thing and charges for a different thing. FitNotes is the purest free option on Android. Strong and Hevy hand you a strong free tier with a cap on routines or history. Jefit trades ads for depth. Fitness Vault keeps video-based training free up to a library size. Work out which wall fits how you train, and the free tier you should pick chooses itself, no subscription required to get started.