The best Strong, Hevy & Setgraph alternative, compared honestly

LastLift vs Strong

iPhone, Apple Watch · Free tier (3 custom exercises) · $29.99/yr

Strong is the app most lifters think of first, and for good reason: it is polished, reliable, has a genuinely great Apple Watch app, and shows your last session's numbers much like LastLift does. If you want a mature, full-featured tracker and you live on Apple Watch, Strong is a safe choice.

The catches are the account and the cost. Strong stores your data on its servers behind a sign-up, and its free tier caps you at three custom exercises — restrictive within a week for most serious lifters — which pushes you toward the $29.99/year subscription. LastLift needs no account (your data stays in your own iCloud), logs a set in about three seconds on a single screen, and offers a one-time lifetime unlock if you would rather not subscribe. Strong has the wider feature set and a shipping Watch app today; LastLift is the faster, more private, more minimal option.

Bottom line: choose Strong for breadth and its Watch app; choose LastLift for speed, privacy and no account.

LastLift vs Hevy

iPhone, Android, Watch, Web · Generous free tier · ~$29.99/yr

Hevy is the free favourite — over nine million lifters use it — and it earns that with an unusually generous free tier, true cross-platform support (iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, WearOS and web), and a social side where you follow friends, share workouts and copy routines. If you train across devices or you enjoy a community feed, Hevy is hard to beat.

That community is also the difference. Hevy is account-based and built around a social feed, and its free tier still caps routines and custom exercises before nudging you to Pro. LastLift goes the other way on purpose: no feed, no account, no servers — just your last numbers and the log button, kept private in your iCloud. It is iPhone-only, where Hevy is everywhere.

Bottom line: choose Hevy for free cross-platform tracking and community; choose LastLift for a private, single-screen logger with no feed.

LastLift vs JEFIT

iPhone, Android · Free with ads · $12.99/mo · $69.99/yr (Elite)

JEFIT is the database heavyweight: over 1,400 exercises with guided instructions, detailed analytics, training reports and a large community. If you are a bodybuilder who wants deep stats and a huge move library, JEFIT gives you the most to work with.

It is also the heaviest. The free tier carries ads, the Elite plan is the priciest here at $12.99/month, and the depth comes with complexity — a lot of screens and taps for what is, between sets, a simple job. LastLift has no ads ever, no account, and one screen: pick a lift, see last session, log. It is built for the lifter who wants to get the set down and get back to training, not to navigate dashboards.

Bottom line: choose JEFIT for database depth and analytics; choose LastLift to log fast with no ads and no clutter.

LastLift vs Stronglifts 5×5

iPhone, Android · Subscription to use · ~$30/yr (7-day trial)

Stronglifts is less a logger and more a coach. It is the best app for running the classic 5×5 and similar structured strength programs, with fully automatic weight progression and auto-deloads to push through plateaus. If you want to be told exactly what to lift each session, it is excellent.

But that structure is the point and the limit: it is built around its programs, and you subscribe to use it at all. LastLift makes no assumptions about your programming — log any lift, any rep scheme, any RPE, and it simply remembers what you did so you can beat it. If you program yourself (or your coach does), LastLift stays out of the way; if you want a program handed to you, Stronglifts is the better fit.

Bottom line: choose Stronglifts for a guided 5×5 program; choose LastLift if you run your own training and just want to log it fast.

LastLift vs Setgraph

iPhone, Apple Watch · Free + in-app purchases

Setgraph is LastLift's closest rival, and credit where it is due — it is genuinely good. Like LastLift it is an iPhone-first, minimalist logger built for fast set entry, rest timers and comparing against your last session. It has gone further on features, adding an Apple Watch app, Smart Plates and an AI workout planner, plus Apple Health integration.

So the honest difference is philosophy, not quality. Setgraph keeps adding capabilities; LastLift deliberately does not. LastLift is a single screen with nothing else to learn, needs no account, and stores your workouts only in your own private iCloud — your data never touches a server. If you want the extra tools (Watch, AI planning), Setgraph is the richer app today. If you want the most stripped-down, private, get-in-get-out logger, that is LastLift.

Bottom line: choose Setgraph for more features including Apple Watch; choose LastLift for the most minimal, private experience.

LastLift vs FitNotes

Android (iOS: FitNotes 2) · Free / freemium · No account

FitNotes is a beloved classic: free, no account, no ads, and refreshingly simple. On Android it is one of the best free gym logs there is, with templates, personal records and CSV export. Like LastLift, it respects your privacy by not requiring a sign-up.

The gap is platform and polish. FitNotes was built for Android; the iOS version (FitNotes 2) is a newer port with a 12-workout cap on the free tier and a more dated interface, and it does not sync across devices the way iCloud does. LastLift is a modern, native iPhone app with automatic private iCloud sync and a faster single-screen flow. If you are on Android or want something completely free and offline, FitNotes is great; on iPhone, LastLift is the faster, better-synced option.

Bottom line: choose FitNotes on Android or for fully free offline logging; choose LastLift for a modern iPhone app with private iCloud sync.

So which workout tracker should you choose?

If you train on iPhone and want to log a set as fast as humanly possible — without an account, a feed, or your data on someone else's server — LastLift is built for exactly that. If you need Android or a community, look at Hevy. If you want a guided program, Stronglifts. If you want the deepest exercise database, JEFIT. And if you want the closest minimalist rival with more extras, Setgraph. There's no single best app — only the best one for how you train.