KOVA
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Strong alternatives, compared honestly

Three custom routines. That is the free tier, and it is the narrowest cap in the whole category — you will hit it the first time you rotate a programme or try to keep an old block. Several apps remove it. One of them, Strong, is genuinely the best app on this page if you have an Apple Watch, and the rest of this write-up will not pretend otherwise.

Updated 29 September 2026 · 9 apps compared · Written by ravvdevv, who makes KOVA

What Strong’s free tier actually costs you

Strong is a well-built app with a genuinely free tier that logs unlimited workouts. The ceiling is on how much of it you can keep organised, and it arrives faster than most people expect:

  • Three custom routines. Comfortable for a single upper/lower split. Not enough for push/pull/legs with variations, and not enough to keep last mesocycle alongside this one.
  • Limited graph history on free. Same objection as Hevy: progress is the thing that takes longer than a few months to become visible.
  • $4.99/month, $29.99/year, or $99.99 once. The $99.99 lifetime option is the highest one-time price of anything in this comparison. It is still one-time, and for a lot of people that ends the question.
  • An account. So your training history is on a server and leaving means an export first.

That last point is the one most comparison tables skip, and it is the one that decides this page. So it leads here too.

The comparison

Figures from each developer’s own website or store listing, September 2026. These change without notice. Where a developer does not publish something, the cell says so rather than guessing.
App Free tier Account iPhone Offline Network permission Exercises
KOVA this page’s bias Everything, forever. No paid tier, no routine cap. None Not yet — in development Yes. The INTERNET permission is never declared. Never requested shown in the app’s own manifest 500+ animated
Strong Unlimited workouts, 3 custom routines. Pro $4.99/mo–$99.99 once. Required Yes Not published Not published ~300
Hevy 4 routines, 7 custom exercises, 3 months of graphs. Pro $2.99/mo–$74.99 once. Required Yes Not published Not published ~400
FitNotes Everything free. No ads, no paid tier, no caps. None No Yes — local storage only Not published ~250
openGym Free, no subscription, no telemetry. Self-hosting is optional. None profiles only if you self-host Yes Yes — local by default No telemetry SDK sync is opt-in and self-hosted 1,324
Kilo Free forever, no backend to pay for. None No Yes — local-first SQLite Not published ~870
GYMPLY Free, open source, no ads. None No Yes — local only Not published 4,000+
Iron Log Free forever, no ads, no caps. None No Yes — the developer states zero network permissions None claimed developer’s own statement 200+
JEFIT Ad-supported, loose caps. Elite around $7/mo. Required Yes Not published Not published 1,300+
Fitbod 3-workout trial, then paid. Elite around $13/mo. Required Yes Not published Not published Not published

Sources: each developer’s own site or store listing, read 29 September 2026 — gymnoteplus, Ellim, openGym, Iron Log, GYMPLY, Kilo, F-Droid. The Strong and Hevy free-tier numbers come from third-party comparisons citing store listings rather than from the vendors directly, and both have changed their tiers before. Comparing against Hevy specifically? See the Hevy comparison, which uses the same table and the same sources.

Where Strong is better than everything here

This section is first because it is the most important one, and it is the part a vendor page about their own product would leave out.

  • The Apple Watch app. Nothing in this comparison comes close. If you log from your wrist, Strong is the answer and this page does not apply to you.
  • The interface. Consistently described as the cleanest logging UI in the category. KOVA is deliberately plain, and plain is not the same as polished.
  • iPhone, today. Strong ships on both platforms now. KOVA is Android-only, which is the single biggest reason to stay on Strong.
  • No ads and no account gymnastics. The free tier is a real free tier, not a trial. KOVA matches that but goes further; it is not a differentiator on its own.

Where KOVA wins

  • No caps at all. Not three routines, not four. No routine limit, no custom-exercise limit, no history limit, and no paid tier that would introduce one.
  • No account, so no export panic. Nothing sits on a server, so there is nothing to migrate and nothing to lose if the app stops existing.
  • No INTERNET permission. The app has no code path that could open a network connection.
  • GPL-3.0. You can read the source that makes the claim on the previous line instead of taking it on trust.
  • Build the session from a body map. Tap a muscle, get the exercises, edit set by set. Nothing else in this table does this, and it is the reason the app exists.
  • 500+ exercises with animation and step-by-step instructions, plus your own photo, GIF or video on any of them.
  • The rest of the toolkit. Training journal on a calendar, six calculators, five home-screen widgets, 16 languages.
On the “no internet permission” claim

KOVA never declares Android’s INTERNET permission, so there is no code path that could open a connection at all. Iron Log makes a similar claim about zero network permissions, and several apps in this space make a weaker works offline claim that still leaves a server round-trip in the middle.

None of these claims mean much on their own, including ours. A manifest line is evidence, not proof, and it costs nothing to write. What makes it checkable is the licence: KOVA is GPL-3.0 and Iron Log publishes its source, so the claim is one search away from being verified. If privacy is why you are choosing, pick the one where you can read the code that would have to lie.

Pick by what you actually need

You have an Apple Watch
Strong. Do not leave.
You have an iPhone
Strong, Hevy, openGym or Let’s Workout. The rest of this list is Android-only.
No account, no subscription, ever
FitNotes, KOVA, Kilo, GYMPLY, Iron Log, openGym.
Verify the privacy claim yourself
KOVA (GPL-3.0) or Iron Log. Read the manifest, then read the code.
Barbell maths and analytics
Kilo — plate calculator, per-exercise progression, anatomical heatmap.
Deepest exercise library
GYMPLY (4,000+), JEFIT (1,300+), openGym (1,324).
Self-host it, keep the source open
openGym. It also reads your history over MCP.
Bring your Strong history with you
Almost all of them. KOVA imports Strong, Hevy, Lyfta, FitNotes and openGym, plus any CSV.
Nutrition in the same app
Fitbod, or wger. Not KOVA.
Never think about this again
Strong Pro, once, at $99.99, and move on. Also a legitimate answer.

Questions people actually ask

Is KOVA a good alternative to Strong?

On Android, yes, if the reason you are leaving is the three-routine cap, the subscription, or the account. KOVA has no routine cap, no paid tier, no sign-up step, and never declares the Android INTERNET permission. It imports your Strong history from a CSV, so you are not starting from an empty log. It is not a good alternative if you use an iPhone or an Apple Watch.

What is the best free alternative to the Strong app?

On Android, the two that are genuinely free with no caps are FitNotes and KOVA. FitNotes is deliberately minimal — a log and nothing else. KOVA has no caps, no account and a 500-plus exercise library with animation. Kilo and GYMPLY are also free with no account. On iPhone, the realistic free options today are Hevy’s capped tier or Strong’s own three-routine tier, because most alternatives in this comparison are Android-only.

Why would someone leave Strong?

Three custom routines on the free tier is the narrowest cap in the category, and it is reached quickly by anyone rotating programmes or keeping an old block. Graph history is limited on free too. Strong Pro costs $4.99 a month, $29.99 a year, or $99.99 once — the highest one-time price of the apps compared here.

Is Strong still worth paying for?

Frequently, yes, and it is worth saying plainly. Strong has the most mature Apple Watch logging of any app in this comparison, the cleanest interface of the group, and it ships on both iPhone and Android today. If you have an Apple Watch, Strong is the answer and the rest of this page does not apply to you. The $99.99 lifetime option is also the most expensive one-time purchase here, but it is a one-time purchase.

Can I import my Strong workouts into KOVA?

Yes. KOVA imports workouts and bodyweight from Strong, Hevy, Lyfta, FitNotes and openGym, and reads any CSV you can get out of Strong. It also re-imports its own ZIP backups unchanged, media included.

Which of these has the better Apple Watch app?

Strong, and not close. Strong has the most mature Apple Watch logging of the apps compared here. KOVA has no watch app at all; Wear OS 3 and later is in progress.

Does KOVA have an iPhone app?

Not yet. KOVA is Android-only today, with iOS 15 and later in development. If you need an iPhone app now, Strong, Hevy, openGym or Let’s Workout are the options in this comparison that ship one today.

Is KOVA really free, or is there a paid tier?

There is no paid tier. No subscription, no ads, no analytics SDK and no account. KOVA is funded by donations and released under GPL-3.0, so the source that ships is the source you can read. It is also a one-person project, which cuts both ways: it can change direction quickly, and if it stops being maintained there is no company behind it.

Three routines, and no account to lose

KOVA has no subscription, no paid tier, no ads and no sign-up step. It ships without the Android INTERNET permission, reads your history from a Strong CSV, and gives the whole thing back in a ZIP you can re-import on any device.

Get KOVA

Android 7.0+ · GPL-3.0 · com.kova.app · how the offline claim works