Looking for a Strong or Hevy alternative that picks the workout too?
Updated June 21, 2026
Strong and Hevy are very good apps. Clean, fast, and built around one job: recording what you lifted so you can beat it next time. If you love the logbook, the rest of this page is not for you. Keep the one you have.
The people who go looking for an alternative usually have the opposite problem. The logging is fine. It is the deciding that wears them down: opening the app to a blank session and having to program the day before they can even start.
What a logbook is built to do
Strong and Hevy are trackers, and good ones. You decide the workout, enter the exercises, and log each set as you go. The history is the product: last week’s numbers, your PRs, the chart that ticks up. For a lifter who already knows what they are doing on a given day, that loop is hard to beat.
The catch is the flip side of the strength: the app does not decide anything for you. It is a beautiful empty page. On the day you are tired, short on time, or just out of ideas, an empty page is exactly the thing that gets you to skip.
The question that actually decides it
It is narrow: do you always know what you are going to do when you walk in, or do you sometimes need the workout handed to you?
If you always have a plan, a logbook is the right tool and you should keep one. If the deciding is the part you keep avoiding, you do not need a better spreadsheet. You need something that picks a sensible session for the time and equipment you have today, and still keeps a record of the lifts you care about.
What changed: Kronos logs now, without becoming a spreadsheet
Kronos started on the other side of this. It picks the workout: tell it your time, equipment, and mood, and it builds today’s session, strength and conditioning both, then counts you through it.
Now it logs too, and the design is deliberately light:
- Star your main lifts. Those are the ones it tracks and brings back, so the numbers actually mean something over time. Everything else keeps rotating for variety.
- Logging that pre-fills itself. Kronos remembers what you lifted last time and drops the number in. You confirm with one tap or nudge it if today was heavier. No keyboard mid-set.
- Off is a real setting. Don’t want to log? Turn it off and you will never see a weight field. A swipe is still enough feedback to shape the next workout.
The point is not to out-log a logbook. It is to give the people who liked tracking just enough of it, without the homework of programming and recording every session by hand.
Strong, Hevy, and Kronos at a glance
| App | Best for | Picks the workout | Logging |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strong | A clean, fast lifting logbook | No, you program it | Full, manual |
| Hevy | Logging plus a social, community feel | No, you program it | Full, manual |
| Kronos | Picking today's session and tracking your main lifts | Yes | Optional, pre-filled |
Different jobs. Strong and Hevy are for people who want to own the programming and live in the numbers. Kronos is for people who want the session decided and their main lifts tracked, without running both jobs themselves.
Who should stick with Strong or Hevy
Plenty of people, honestly:
- You run your own program and just need somewhere to record it.
- You want every set of every accessory logged and charted, forever.
- You are chasing specific powerlifting or bodybuilding numbers, and the detailed history is the whole point.
That is real, and a dedicated tracker does it better than anything trying to also pick your workout.
Where Kronos fits
Kronos is for the lifter who wants to get stronger but is tired of being their own programmer. It decides the workout, runs a proper strength day when you ask for one, straight sets and proper rest included, and quietly keeps a record of the lifts you starred. Log when you want the numbers, skip when you don’t. The interval timer is free; the adaptive workouts are the paid app.