MacroFactor Workouts vs Hevy.

The short answer

Neither one tracks food inside the workout app. Hevy does not offer food logging, and MacroFactor’s is a separate app.

Side by side

Included Partly, or paid tier only Not offered, or none described

What each costs

Hevy’s free plan logs unlimited workouts. It allows four routines and seven custom exercises, and shows three months of graph history. Hevy Pro removes those limits and adds Hevy Trainer. It is listed at $2.99 billed monthly, $23.99 billed yearly, or $74.99 as a one-time lifetime purchase.

Four routines can be tighter than it sounds. A four-day split that alternates A and B versions of each day needs eight.

MacroFactor Workouts has a 7-day free trial and then requires a subscription: US$11.99 a month, US$47.99 a half year, or US$71.99 a year. The bundle with MacroFactor’s nutrition app is US$89.99 a year for both. Existing nutrition subscribers can have different terms, so check the offer in your account.

On the yearly plans, Hevy Pro costs about a third of MacroFactor Workouts. A trial is not a free tier: after seven days MacroFactor needs a paid plan.

Who picks the next weight

This is the largest difference between the two.

MacroFactor’s Smart Progression adjusts your weights and reps during a program from what you log, your RIR targets, and your rep ranges. It is part of the standard subscription, and it works on programs you generate, edit, or build from scratch. It does not change which exercises are in the program. MacroFactor describes it as rule-based logic, not generative AI, and notes that recommendations start only after you have logged some training.

Hevy Trainer is Hevy’s equivalent. Hevy describes it as an algorithm-based system that creates a personalized program with built-in progressive overload and automatically adjusts your working weights. It is a Pro feature. Hevy’s documentation describes those automatic adjustments as part of Trainer; we found no description of them for routines you build yourself, where the app shows your previous values and the next load is your call.

So if you write your own program and want the app to progress it, MacroFactor documents that directly. If you are happy to follow a program the app builds, both offer one, and Hevy’s costs less. If you prefer to choose your own loads, Hevy’s free tier already covers that.

Logging a session

Both apps record sets, reps, and weight, with rest timers, supersets, and a plate calculator. The differences are in effort tracking and the exercise library.

• Effort: Hevy can log RPE for each set, but RPE targets cannot be set when building a routine. MacroFactor programs carry RIR targets, which feed its progression.
• Exercises: Hevy lists 400+ exercises. MacroFactor lists 900+, with 600+ demo videos filmed from three angles.
• Devices: Hevy has Apple Watch and Wear OS apps and a web app for planning routines and reviewing progress. MacroFactor Workouts is on iOS and Android; watches and trackers do not connect to it directly, though their data can arrive through Apple Health or Health Connect.
• Community: Hevy has a feed where you follow other lifters, like and comment on workouts, and save their routines. MacroFactor’s pages describe no social feed.

Moving your history

Check this before you commit years of records to either app.

Hevy imports workout history from a Strong export file. Saved Strong routines do not come across. Hevy also exports your workout or measurement data in a form you can open in a spreadsheet.

MacroFactor’s FAQ says you cannot import past workout data from other apps. You can import workouts or whole programs from a supported spreadsheet file, which has strict formatting rules. It also says you can export your data at any time.

Moving from Hevy to MacroFactor Workouts therefore means starting a new training history. Moving from Strong to Hevy does not.

Food tracking

Hevy is a workout tracker, and its documentation describes no food logging. To track calories and protein you would pair it with a separate app.

MacroFactor sells a nutrition app alongside Workouts, and the bundle covers both. Its documentation is clear that they operate as separate apps: they do not adjust training from nutrition data, or nutrition targets from training data. Data you can log in both, such as body weight and measurements, is shared between them.

Brolic: an all-in-one alternative

Brolic is an iPhone app that keeps food logging, workout tracking, and progress in one place, which is the thing neither Hevy nor MacroFactor Workouts does. It is the product at brolic.app, developed by PSG Labs Inc.

Its AI drafts workout programs and food entries, checks them against Brolic’s own exercise and food catalogs, and shows you an editable draft before anything is saved. How Brolic’s AI works explains the steps.

Brolic is on the App Store for iPhone. It has no Android, watch, or web app, so if you need one of those, Hevy or MacroFactor Workouts is the better fit. Its current price and trial terms are on the App Store listing.

Try both for a week

Hevy’s free tier and MacroFactor’s trial let you run the same week through each. This is a suggested evaluation, not a test we claim to have performed.

• Enter your real split. Does it fit in four routines, or do you need Pro?
• Log one session with effort recorded, then start the next. What does each app show you, and what does it suggest?
• Find an exercise you do that is unusual. Is it in the library, or do you need a custom one?
• Export a week from each and open the file. Is everything you would want to keep in it?
• If you track food, decide now whether that will be a second app.