Trackist vs Planfit: one week or a whole plan?

Which one should you pick?

Pick Planfit if you are new to the gym, want to watch each exercise before you try it, and want a weekly plan from a free app.

Pick Trackist if you want a plan with a start and an end, and a next plan written from how it went. It also works around a joint that hurts.

What Planfit does well

Planfit has a 4.8 rating from about 8,200 ratings on the US App Store. Its site pitches it at gym beginners, and it shows. Every exercise has a video, and a machine guide explains the equipment you have not touched yet. You can register your gym and its machines, so the plan uses what is there.

Planfit's free version is free for life, and it is generous. Tell Planfit how many days you can train and how long each session can be. It picks the split: full body for 3 days, upper/lower for 4, push-pull-legs for 5. Then it lays out the week with exercises, sets, reps, rest and weights. Miss a session and it reshuffles the rest of the week. Next week's weight, sets or reps come from what you logged. The machine you need is taken? Planfit suggests another exercise. The log and a community to share plans are free too.

Planfit Premium adds a real-time coach that counts your reps and runs the rest times, muscle recovery tracking, performance analysis and the Apple Watch app. Planfit Premium starts with 7 days free. The US App Store lists Planfit Premium at $11.99 to $14.99 a month or $79.99 to $89.99 a year, depending on the offer you see. Planfit runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android.

Where Trackist is different

Planfit plans a week at a time. Trackist writes the whole plan up front, 4 to 12 weeks, so you can see the last week before the first session.

It asks 14 questions first: goal, experience, equipment, joints, schedule, session length and age. The joints question changes the plan. A shoulder that hurts when pressing still gets rows and pulldowns. Age changes it too: for older lifters, Trackist leans towards joint-friendly exercises and keeps the weekly volume in check. Coming back after a break? It starts you conservatively, like a beginner, with movements you regain fast.

In a plan of 6 weeks or more, the last week is a deload: the same weights at 60% of the sets, so you recover before the next plan. You can skip it.

Then the plan responds to what you tell it:

• Too hard or too easy: the first report is noted. A second one in the same week leaves the plan as it is for now. If it comes back in a later week, Trackist rewrites the day or rebuilds the rest of the plan.
• Something hurts: name the exercise, the joint and how bad it is. The coach swaps in an exercise that trains the same muscle, or you pick one from the library. Either way, Trackist keeps the limitation on your profile for every later plan.
• The plan ends: the next plan is written from this one, using what you logged, what you skipped and what you reported.

Planfit's App Store page and site do not describe a planned lighter week, a question about your joints or a way to report pain.

During a session, one line above each exercise suggests today's weight from your last session. It moves in the step the equipment allows: 2.5 kg on a barbell, 2 kg on dumbbells, 5 kg on a machine or cable. Last session's numbers sit under every set, and the rest timer keeps running on the Lock Screen.

Compare them side by side

We checked prices and limits on the US App Store and on each app’s own site in September 2026. Both change, so the App Store has the final word.

What Trackist does not have

Planfit wins on these outright:

• No exercise videos. The library has 201 exercises, each with written form cues and a muscle map.
• No Android app yet, and no iPad or Apple Watch app.
• No community or feed. You can send a share card of your week, and that is all.
• No offline logging. Logging needs an internet connection.

Which one fits you

Planfit, if these are your first weeks in a gym, you learn a movement by watching it, and you want a weekly plan that costs nothing. It is also the answer on Android.

Trackist, if you want a plan with an end and a lighter week built in. It also suits you if a sore joint keeps cutting your week short, or you are back after a break. See how Trackist works for beginners, or start from the full-body plan for beginners.