What is the best alternative to the Strong app?

Hevy, for the same job with better charts and a more generous free tier. Alpha Progression, if you want progression suggestions and volume tracking per muscle group. Boostcamp, if you want a proven programme rather than a blank log. FitNotes, if you want less app.

Is Hevy better than Strong?

Hevy has better analytics, a social feed and a considerably more generous free tier. Strong is slightly faster and cleaner to log in. It is a genuine preference call between two mature loggers doing the same job well.

Is there a free alternative to Strong?

Hevy's free tier covers unlimited logging and is the obvious answer. FitNotes is free, offline and account-free if you want a notebook that adds up. Jefit is free with a large exercise library and a dated interface.

Does Strong track cardio?

Only as a manually entered duration, and nothing is done with it. Strong does not read runs from your health data, does not model endurance load, and none of your cardio affects anything it shows you about your lifting.

What should I use if I lift and run?

Very few apps hold both. Garmin Connect does, and logs lifting shallowly. Base does, and treats the two as separate capacities sharing one recovery and energy budget. Most people run two apps and reconcile the interaction themselves.

Strong App Alternatives, Ranked by What You Need

What Strong already does well

Logging speed, previous-set prefill, a clean interface, plate calculator, reliable offline behaviour. If none of those is your complaint, most alternatives are lateral moves.

Where it is thin:

Analytics are basic. History and simple charts. No volume tracking per muscle group worth the name.
The free tier is limited, which is the most common reason people look.
No programming. It is a blank log; you bring the plan.
No progression logic. It records; it suggests nothing.
Cardio does not exist in any functional sense.

If the problem is analytics or price: Hevy

The direct swap. Better charts, volume tracking, a social feed, and a free tier that covers unlimited logging. Slightly slower to log in than Strong, and the difference is small.

This is the answer for most people asking the question. The direct head-to-head.

If the problem is that nothing progresses: Alpha Progression

The clearest step up in kind rather than degree. It tracks volume per muscle group against target ranges, builds programmes, and proposes load and rep increases rather than waiting for you to decide.

Its volume modelling is the best of the pure lifting apps. It still has no idea you run, so the volume it recommends is computed as though lifting were your only fatigue source. What the volume evidence actually supports.

If the problem is "what should I run": Boostcamp

Runs established programmes as written — 5/3/1, GZCLP, nSuns — with the structure visible and editable. If your issue is that a blank log does not tell you what to do, this solves it and Strong never will. Where Boostcamp stops.

If the problem is that it does too much: FitNotes

Free, offline, no account, no subscription, minimal charts. A notebook that adds up. For a lot of experienced lifters this is genuinely the right tool.

If the problem is volume autoregulation: RP Hypertrophy

The most sophisticated volume model in consumer lifting software — it ramps weekly sets from a minimum effective volume toward your maximum recoverable volume using your own per-muscle feedback, then deloads.

Its assumption is that your recovery capacity for lifting can be estimated from your lifting, which endurance training invalidates. Why that matters if you also run.

If the problem is that Strong has never heard of your running

This is the one with no substitute inside lifting apps, and it is worth being precise about.

Strong records what you tell it. It does not read your runs, does not model endurance load, and nothing about your mileage affects anything it shows you.

Three decisions fall through as a result:

Your recoverable set volume is not a constant. It falls when your endurance load rises, and the concurrent-training research is clear that interference is dose-dependent rather than absolute. Strong's charts show your volume climbing and cannot show that your mileage climbed too. What that literature found. Count what you are carrying.

Deload timing needs both signals. A stalled lift plus a 40 percent ramp in endurance minutes is a different problem from a stalled lift in isolation, and reading the first as "needs more volume" is the standard mistake. When a deload is actually indicated.

Energy. Four lifting sessions plus 40 miles is a substantially larger demand than lifting alone, and being short of it turns a good programme into accumulated fatigue. How much difference.

The comparison

	Strong	Hevy	Alpha Progression	Boostcamp	Base
Logging speed	Best	Very good	Good	Good	Two taps
Free tier	Limited	Generous	Limited	Generous	Beta
Charts and analytics	Basic	Better	Good	Basic	Yes
Volume per muscle group	No	Basic	Best of loggers	No	Fractional
Progression suggestions	No	No	Yes	Programme-driven	Autoregulated on RIR
Programme library	No	No	Builder	Proven programmes	Builder
Cardio / endurance	Inert duration	Inert duration	No	No	Prescribed and graded
Endurance affects lifting advice	No	No	No	No	Yes
Nutrition	No	No	No	No	Measured, adaptive

The recommendation

Hevy if you want better charts and a real free tier. This covers most people.

Alpha Progression if you want the app to make progression decisions.

Boostcamp if you want a proven programme.

FitNotes if you want less.

Something that holds both halves if your running is serious enough to change what you can recover from. At that point the missing information is not a feature Strong lacks — it is a discipline it does not model. What one ledger looks like.