Strong app review: free vs PRO, and is it worth it

Strong against its closest alternatives

Strong is the calmer log with the most self-sufficient Watch app; Hevy gives more for less. If you want the weight decided, neither does it on free and RIRLift does.

What decides whether Strong, free or PRO, is right for you

• Logging: simple and fast

  Routines, supersets, warm-up, failure and drop sets, an automatic rest timer, notes and progress photos. Strong's own pitch is no distractions, and it delivers: no feed, no coaching layer.

• Free: unlimited workouts, 3 routines

  Three custom routines covers a 3-day plan and nothing more. Strong says you'll always be able to track workouts on free.

• PRO: routines, charts and calculators

  Unlimited routines, all charts, body part measurements, the plate and warm-up calculators, icons and themes. $4.99/month, $29.99/year, or a one-time Strong PRO Forever at $99.99 in the US.

• Who picks the weight

  Strong is optimized for a progressive barbell routine like StrongLifts 5x5, and you add the weight. RIRLift works out every set from the load, reps and reps in reserve you just logged, and it's free. How it decides.

  

• Platforms and your data

  Strong runs on iPhone, Android and Apple Watch and exports everything as CSV.

Strong, PRO or a switch, in two real situations

Moving from 3 days to 4, on Strong free

Eight months of a 3-day full-body plan in Strong, the three free routines used up. You want an upper/lower split on four days, and the bar has sat at the same weights since spring.

App	What it does here	For this lifter
Strong free	Keeps every workout, but a fourth routine needs PRO, and so do the charts that would show the stall.	Stops working the day you add a fourth day.
Strong PRO	$29.99 a year or $99.99 once: unlimited routines, all charts, plate and warm-up calculators.	Right if you like Strong and will plan the next weights yourself.
RIRLift	Free: four routines for the split, a suggested weight on every set, and your Strong history imported.	Fits if the stall is the real problem. iPhone and Watch only, no RPE.

PRO fixes the routine count. Only one of these fixes the weights that stopped moving.

Heavy day, first week after Strong

A barbell lifter who ran Strong for years. Trap bar deadlift for 4–6 and incline bench for 6–10, both with 2 reps left as the target. This is what RIRLift does with the sets.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Trap Bar Deadlift	275 lb, 6 / 6 / 6 reps, 2 left	280 lb × 4	Every set at the top of 4–6: one 5 lb step, reps back to 4.
Incline Barbell Bench Press	Set 1: 135 lb × 8, nothing left	Set 2: 135 lb × 8	You got the 8 reps but went closer to failure than planned. You did what was asked, so it holds.
Incline Barbell Bench Press	Set 2: 135 lb × 4, nothing left	Set 3: 130 lb × 8	Below the 6–10 range, so it comes down, by at most 7% a set: 4 reps to failure against a planned 10 gives 135 × 33 ÷ 39 ≈ 114 lb, held to 135 × 0.93 ≈ 126 lb, loaded as 130 lb.

In Strong you'd have added 5 lb to the deadlift by hand and guessed set 3. Here both came from your sets.

Plans for a lifter coming from Strong

• The best workout routine for men, for your week

  Stronger squat, bench press and deadlift

  Squat, bench and deadlift first, the way most Strong users already train.

  3× a week · 49 sets a week · ~55 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The best workout routine for the days you can train

  4 days a week: upper/lower

  The four-day split from the example, inside RIRLift's 4 free routines.

  4× a week · 68 sets a week · ~40 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

Make it fit you

• Export from Strong, import in RIRLift

  Strong exports all your data as CSV. Import that file in RIRLift and your weights are worked out from it, marked From history.

• RPE becomes RIR

  If you logged RPE in Strong: RPE 8 is 2 left, RPE 9 is 1. Set the targets once per exercise.

• Ask first, if you like deciding

  With Ask first, next session's weights wait on the recap until you confirm them, close to how you worked in Strong.

When a different app fits better

• You're on Android. Strong or Hevy. RIRLift is iPhone and Apple Watch only; Android is a waitlist.
• You'd rather pay once. Strong PRO Forever at $99.99, or Hevy's $74.99 lifetime.
• You log RPE and want to keep it. Strong. RIRLift logs reps in reserve.

Questions

Read next

• Hevy vs Strong: which workout log to pick

  The head-to-head most Strong users weigh.

• The best Strong app alternatives, ranked

  Ranked for lifters ready to switch.

• The Strong app on Apple Watch, and an option that sets the weight

  The Watch app in detail.

• How RIRLift picks your next weight

  Where the 280 and the 130 came from.

• Best workout log app

  More logs, side by side.

More ways lifters use RIRLift

• The Strong app on Apple Watch, and an option that sets the weight

  Strong logs on the Watch with or without your iPhone. RIRLift also sets the next weight on your wrist.

• Hevy vs Strong: which workout log to pick

  Hevy gives more free and costs less; Strong is the quieter log. Row by row, and where RIRLift fits.

• The best Strong app alternatives, ranked

  Six apps ranked for lifters leaving Strong: more free routines, weights set for you, Strong history kept.

• Hevy app review: free vs Pro, and who should pay

  What Hevy's free tier keeps, what Pro adds for $23.99 a year, and when another app fits better.

Every lifter and goal