Kinoku vs Hevy

Quickstart

Hevy is a free lifting log with a social feed, apps on both phone platforms and both watch platforms, and a paid tier that lifts its free caps. It asks for an account before you can log a set. Kinoku asks for no account, keeps the basics free with no caps, and adds GPS runs, a muscle map, and training programs. So Hevy is the pick if you want friends and an iPhone, and Kinoku is the pick if you want your log to yourself on Android.

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What Hevy does well

Hevy earns its place, and its own homepage and its own app back these up.

• Free on both platforms. Hevy says it plainly: a free workout tracker for iOS and Android [1].
• Both watches. You can leave the phone in the locker and log from an Apple Watch or a Wear OS device [2].
• A desktop view. Hevy on the desktop gives a big screen for routines, progress, and friends’ workouts [3].
• Friends. Hevy is built around a feed [13]. You build routines and track progress with friends [4].
• A clean set log. In our test the workout screen was fast and clear, with weight, reps, and a tick in one row per set, and a rest timer above each exercise [12].
• CSV export. Your whole history exports to a CSV file from Settings, and Hevy says the file cannot be imported back into Hevy [9].

That last line matters for anyone who moves apps, in either direction, and we come back to it below.

What we tested

On September 6, 2026 we installed Hevy 3.1.12 from Google Play on an Android 16 emulator and walked it in this order:

1. Open the app fresh and look for a way in without an account.
2. Sign up, then step through the setup questions.
3. Create routines, one at a time, until the app stopped us.
4. Create custom exercises the same way.
5. Turn flight mode on, stop the app, open it again, and log one set.
6. Turn the network back on and watch what happens to that set.
7. Open the Pro screen and note the prices it showed.
8. Find the export path and read the file it produced.

The app opened on a sign-up wall with no skip [5], so everything after step one ran on a fresh account. The routine block came on the fifth routine [6], and the custom exercise block came on the eighth exercise [7]. With no network, Hevy let us start a routine, log a 175 pound set, and save it, and the Home tab then showed a “No internet connection” bar and a note that one workout had failed to upload [10]. The profile listed no workouts until the network came back, and the set survived a forced stop in between. The export produced a file named workout_data.csv, and we read its header, which is printed in the moving-over section.

We did not test the per-workout set cap, because reaching it would take more sets than one test session holds, so this page states nothing about it.

Kinoku 1.2.0 got a lighter check on the same emulator, also with flight mode on: the Today screen opened, the exercise list loaded, and a bench-press workout took a 175 pound set with no warning. Kinoku’s backup and export facts on this page come from its own documentation.

Side by side

Hevy’s own homepage and our test fill the left column, and Kinoku fills the right. Each bracketed number is a Hevy source, listed at the end of the page.

“Not stated on Hevy’s pages” means we did not find that fact on a Hevy page we could quote or in the parts of the app we walked, and it does not mean the app lacks it.

Two roundups set Hevy beside four other apps: logging offline without an account and free plans compared.

Where Kinoku differs

Each point below is free unless it says Pro, and the first three are the ones a Hevy user asks about.

1. No account, ever. You open the app and log a set. There is no sign-up wall and no username.
2. No caps on the basics. Routines, custom exercises, workouts, and history have no limit on the free plan. A build check blocks a free feature from moving behind Pro without a recorded sign-off.
3. Nothing is public. There is no feed, so a workout cannot be posted by default, because there is nowhere for it to go.
4. GPS runs. Kinoku records your route, pace, and splits, and reads cues out loud as you run. The map fetches its tiles only when you open it, and weather stays off until you turn it on.
5. A muscle map. Frequency and training-volume views show what your log hits. Pro adds recovery estimates and readiness context.
6. Training programs. Fifteen templates, a builder for your own, and the named plans 5/3/1, GZCLP, and nSuns, with no cap on how many you keep.
7. Readiness. Pro reads sleep, muscle recovery, lifting load, and heart rate variability (HRV) when it is there. Then it suggests how hard to go today.
8. Pro. One paid plan, at US $5.99 each month or US $39.99 for a year, which buys the analytics hub, run analytics, and the smart layer. The app works without it.

Where Hevy is the better pick

Some people should stay with Hevy, and we mean that.

• You use an iPhone or an Apple Watch. Hevy runs on both [1] [2]. Kinoku is Android and Wear OS only.
• You train with friends. Hevy’s feed and follows [13] are the point of the app for many people [4]. Kinoku has none of that.
• You want your log on more than one device. Your workouts upload to your Hevy account [10], and the desktop view reads them from there [3]. Kinoku moves between phones by a backup file you restore yourself.
• You want a one-time buy at Hevy’s price. Hevy showed us a Lifetime option at 79.99 euros next to its monthly and yearly plans [8]. Kinoku sells Pro Lifetime too, at US $99.99 list, and the pricing page has it under “Prefer to buy once?”.
• Your log already lives there. If you like Hevy and your history is in it, that is a good reason to stay. Nobody needs to switch apps for the sake of it.

Moving over

Hevy exports your whole history as one CSV file from Settings, then Export & Import Data, then Export Data, then Export Workouts [9]. Hevy 3.1.12 wrote this header in our test, on an account set to pounds:

"title","start_time","end_time","description","exercise_title","superset_id","exercise_notes","set_index","set_type","weight_lbs","reps","distance_miles","duration_seconds","rpe"

Hevy names the weight and distance columns after your unit setting, so an account set to kilograms writes weight_kg and distance_km instead, which we confirmed by switching the test account over. Hevy also writes the month and the exercise names in whatever language the app is set to, so set Hevy to English before you export if you can, because Kinoku matches exercise names against an English catalog. Kinoku’s importer reads the Hevy layout, and the review screen shows the exercise-name matches before anything is saved. The import is one batch that Import History can undo. The backup page walks through it, and the import format page shows the layouts the importer reads.

One honest note from the test. Kinoku 1.2.0 did not read this Hevy file well: it rejected the pounds version, and it put a kilograms version on the wrong date. We fixed both the same day, and the fix shipped in Kinoku 1.3.0, the version on Google Play now, so update Kinoku before you import. Hevy’s own page says its CSV cannot be imported back into Hevy [9], so keep that file in any case. And a Hevy CSV has no row ids, so importing the same file twice makes two copies that Import History in Kinoku can undo.

What Kinoku does not do

• Android only. There is no iPhone app and no Apple Watch app. Hevy has both [1] [2].
• No cloud sync between devices. Backup is a file you own, and eligible app data can also arrive through Android’s own new-phone restore.
• No social layer. There is no feed and no follower list.
• Some depth is paid. Pro holds the analytics hub, run analytics, and readiness, and the pricing page lists each part.
• “Offline” has edges. A map fetches its tiles over the network when you open it, weather is a call you opt into, and Google Play handles billing.

If those limits are fine, and you want a log with no account and no caps, Kinoku is worth a look, and if you want friends in the picture or an iPhone in your pocket, Hevy is a solid place to stay.