Fitbod Alternatives: 9 Apps, and Do Your Moves Need to Change?

Fitbod builds every workout for you, from your settings (goal, experience, equipment, split, workout length and how much you want exercises to vary) and what you've logged. It picks sets, reps and weight from your recent sessions, works around muscles it thinks haven't recovered, and varies intensity and volume on purpose.

A Solin challenge works another way. A creator writes the plan in advance, and you follow it. So you might wonder if you'll lose gains when the app stops changing things for you.

The closest answer for women is a 2024 trial of 70 young women. For 10 weeks, at three sessions a week, one group did leg press and stiff-leg deadlift every time. The other rotated three pairs of leg moves across the week. Thigh muscle and strength grew about the same in both. These were women of about 22, training legs for two sets of 10 to 15 reps.

A 2019 trial in 21 men who already lifted came closer to how an app works. For 8 weeks, an app picked new exercises and rep ranges at every session for one group, and the other group kept theirs fixed. Strength and thigh muscle grew about the same. The varied group's motivation to train went up, and the fixed group's didn't.

A 2022 review of 8 studies, all in young men, found some planned variety seemed to help strength and growth in certain muscles. It warned against changing exercises too often, which it says "may actually hinder" gains.

We found no trial that tests an app like Fitbod against a plan written in advance. Across the ones above, gains came out about the same either way. So the real question is what keeps you training.

Our winners say it's the people. Of 93 we interviewed, 90% credited the challenge community for motivation and support, and 59% said it was a major key to staying accountable. We call that community over willpower.

These nine apps split three ways, by who picks your next workout.

A creator picks it, and you start together

Pick this if you've trained alone before and want people around you this time.

• Solin challenges. Ours. If Fitbod is a smart playlist, a challenge is a concert. A creator writes the plan, typically 6 weeks long, and everyone who joins starts on the date its page shows. Every challenge has a community feed and a 30-day money-back guarantee. In November 2026, Explore listed 687 challenges, so you can pick a creator whose style you like. You pay once for each, at the price its creator sets, in a free app for iPhone and Android.

An app picks it, like Fitbod

Pick this if you liked having each session built for you and want to try another take on it.

• SHRED. Paid plans use AI to personalize your program and progression, with a 7-day trial. The free plan has a smaller workout library and basic tracking, without a personalized program.
• Alpha Progression. Tracking and building your own plans are free. Pro writes a plan for you and suggests weights and reps from how you did, with 14 days free.
• Jefit. Free to try, on iOS, Android and the web. With Elite, its Adaptive Plan rewrites itself once a week, not every session.
• Gravl. Another AI planner that builds your workouts for you.

You pick the program, the app tracks it

Pick this if you know what you want to run, or want a free program, and need a good place to log it.

• Hevy. A free workout tracker for iOS and Android, with Apple Watch and Wear OS apps.
• Strong. Free accounts on iPhone, Android and Apple Watch. Strong PRO is the paid upgrade.
• Boostcamp. Free on iOS and Android, with 14,000+ programs and no paywall on them, including lifting classics like 5/3/1 and GZCLP. Pro adds automatic progression and 20+ exclusive coach programs.
• Liftosaur. Free built-in programs.

Weighing Sweat or Ladder as well? See apps like Sweat and our Ladder alternative guide.

Fitbod chose your weights. On a plan written in advance, you choose them, and the rule fits on a sticky note.

For beginners, the American College of Sports Medicine says to use a weight you can lift 8 to 12 times, 2 to 3 days a week. Once you can do one or two reps more than your target, it says to add 2 to 10%.

Dumbbells don't come in 2% steps, though. Going from 20 to 25 lb is a 25% jump. So here's how we do it with dumbbells: keep the same weight and add reps until you reach the top of your range. Then move up to the next dumbbell and start back at the bottom.

Say you goblet squat a 20 lb dumbbell for 8 reps. Build to 12 over three weeks, then pick up the 25 and start back at 8. It takes one dumbbell, so it works at home too.

Some weeks the extra reps won't come. Stay where you are and try again next session.

Not sure where to start? The one-rep max calculator gives you a weight for 8, 10 or 12 reps, rounded to real dumbbell sizes. Our 6-week workout plan for women lays out three workouts a week, with its own rules for adding weight.