Fitbod alternative: a multi-week program from your own lifts, for less

You like being handed a workout, but the monthly bill stings, or you want to see where the next six weeks are going. Or you have hit the renewal screen and are asking whether Fitbod is worth full price. If you only want a fast logger for a program you already run, our Strong app alternative guide is the closer match, and our workout tracker comparison puts more apps side by side.

Fitbod builds each workout from the settings in My Plan (your goal, experience, equipment, split and session length) and from what you have already logged. It gives every muscle group a recovery score from 0 to 100% and prefers the fresher ones. Its help centre says full recovery takes up to 7 days.

It adapts as you log. Fitbod recalculates an Estimated Strength for each lift from your sets, schedules Max Effort Days to re-test you, and eases weights back after a break. You can set up more than one gym, each with its own equipment and weight steps, and pick from seven goals that include powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting.

The library is large: its help centre says more than 1,600 HD exercises with demonstration videos. Fitbod runs on iPhone, Android, Apple Watch and Wear OS, and it connects to Apple Health, Health Connect, Strava and Fitbit. On the Australian App Store it has 4.7 stars from about 9,800 ratings, and Apple's Editors' Choice badge.

• It plans one workout at a time. Fitbod's help centre says it "doesn't have a built-in weekly planner yet". It describes its method as adjusting continuously rather than following a fixed program. If you want to see week 5 on the day you start week 1, there is nothing to open.
• A workout you edited can be replaced. Fitbod regenerates the recommended workout whenever you log or import a workout, or change a setting. Edits you made before you tapped Start are replaced with it.
• Some days are lighter on purpose. Fitbod varies intensity and volume between sessions, so it may ask for less weight than you lifted last time. Its help centre calls that deliberate. It is a fair design, but it means there is no single number to beat.
• Effort is rated once per exercise. Fitbod asks for reps in reserve per exercise, from your hardest or last set, not for every set.
• It costs more, and the trial is short. See the prices below.

Fitbod does have optional Focus Exercises, which repeat a main lift each week for four weeks with a structured progression. That is one lift per day, not a program.

Shojin logs the way you would expect, with weight, reps and RPE on every set. What changes is what sits on top of the log.

• A program written ahead. Shojin Coach reads your logged lifts and a short quiz on your goals and schedule, then writes a science-based program of 4, 6, 8 or 12 weeks. It sits on a calendar with a Weeks and a Month view.
• Loads that move after every session. When you finish a program session, Coach compares what you did with what it asked for and adjusts the sessions still ahead. On a barbell, a load steps by twice your smallest plate, so every weight it asks for is one your rack can make.
• Effort on every set, and a check mid-session. If a set lands far from its target RPE, the rest card offers a new load for the sets still to come. You can ignore it.
• Last time on every exercise. Each exercise shows what you lifted last time and suggests the next weight from your history. We explain the method in double progression.
• A private Training Circle. Up to 12 friends see each other's training days and send high-fives.

How Coach decides the next load

Coach reads your whole session, not one set. These are the main rules, in plain terms:

A deload week keeps its lighter load. Coach adjusts only while your subscription is active.

The winner in each row is our call, because we make Shojin. The facts behind each row are in the sections around it.

Fitbod. New users get a 7-day trial. After it, logging new workouts needs a paid subscription. Fitbod's Australian App Store listing shows a monthly plan at A$19.99 and at A$24.99, and a yearly plan at A$119.99 and at A$149.99. It does not say which a new user sees. Its help centre gives US$15.99 a month or US$95.99 a year, and its United States listing shows monthly plans at US$12.99 and US$15.99 and yearly plans at US$79.99 and US$95.99. The listing also carries older "Legacy Pricing" plans, so what an existing subscriber pays can differ from what a new one sees.

Shojin. One subscription, with Shojin Coach and every feature in it. New subscribers get one month free, then A$4.99 a month or A$34.99 a year at the founding price, billed by the App Store in your local currency. Shojin has no free tier after its trial either, so neither app is a free logger.

Over a year on the yearly plans, Shojin costs A$85.00 to A$115.00 less than Fitbod's Australian prices. On the monthly plans it is A$4.99 against A$19.99 or A$24.99, so about a quarter of the lower Fitbod price. Winner on price and trial length: Shojin.

It depends on what you use. If you wear an Apple Watch or Wear OS watch, train on Android, or want a different suggested session every time you open the app, Fitbod does that and Shojin does not. If you open Fitbod to see what to lift and then follow a plan you would rather see in full, or the price is the sticking point, Shojin Coach is the closer fit. You do not have to decide on renewal day: the trial is a month, so you can run both for a few sessions and keep the one you open.

Shojin has no Fitbod importer. Its CSV import reads Strong's export and Shojin's own, and tries a best-effort match on any other CSV that has an exercise, a date and weight, reps or time columns. We found no article on exporting workouts in Fitbod's help centre, so we cannot tell you where a Fitbod file would come from or what it holds.

If you cannot bring your history, you can still start. Coach puts the weight in the box for a lift you have logged. A lift you have never logged, or not for 90 days, starts empty with Coach's guide to a starting weight, so you choose the first load. Keep Fitbod through the month if you want a fallback.

• Apple Watch. Fitbod's watch app logs sets and shows your rest timer and heart rate. Starting a workout still needs your iPhone. Shojin has no Watch app yet.
• Android and Wear OS. Fitbod runs on both. Shojin is an iPhone app, though an existing account can also log in in a browser at shojin.fit.
• A bigger library with videos. Shojin has no exercise videos.
• Muscle recovery. Fitbod's 0 to 100% score for each muscle, and its heat map, have no equivalent in Shojin.
• More ways to connect. Strava, Fitbit and Health Connect work with Fitbod. Shojin has none of the three and only saves workouts to Apple Health.
• A person to ask. Fitbod's listing says trainers answer strength-training questions by email. Shojin Coach is software, and it does not offer human coaching.

Stay if any of these is true:

• You log from a watch and leave your phone in your bag.
• You train on Android.
• You like opening an app and being handed a new session, and you do not need to see the weeks ahead.
• You want muscle recovery scores to steer what you train.

If you want the plan written in advance and moving with you, you can keep Fitbod through your trial and run Shojin beside it.

Fitbod is a trademark of its owner. Shojin is not affiliated with it.

Shojin is one subscription with no cap on sets. Shojin Coach is part of it: it writes your program from your own lifts and adjusts it after every session you log.

New subscribers get one month free, then A$4.99 a month or A$34.99 a year, billed by the App Store in your local currency. The subscription renews until you cancel. Cancel any time in Settings. You subscribe in the iPhone app. If you stop, your history stays, and Coach stops adjusting your program.

Every number in this article traces to one of these. Where the evidence is contested or thin, the article says so rather than picking a side.