Comparison

USMC Squad Bay vs Arrow

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

USMC Squad Bay

This app helps individuals prepare for the U.S. Marine Corps. It allows aspiring Marines to track fitness, connect with recruiters, and challenge themselves physically and mentally. Users can also compete with peers and monitor their progress throughout the demanding training process.

Highlights
  • Fitness progress tracking
  • Connect with recruiters
  • Physical and mental challenges
  • Peer competition
  • Real-time progress monitoring
Features
Read full description

The official U.S. Marine Corps Squad Bay training app challenges those who want to learn about the Marine Corps, including aspiring Marines to track fitness progress and prepare for the demanding and transformative process of Recruit Training or Officer Candidates School. Use Squad Bay to connect with Marine Corps Recruiters, challenge yourself physically and mentally, compete with your peers, and track your progress in real time.

About

Arrow

This app gamifies your fitness journey, transforming workouts into a fun, competitive experience with friends. Track progress with a detailed log, earn rewards, and connect with a global community for motivation and support.

Highlights
  • Gamified workout experience
  • Weightlifting routine planner
  • Progress tracking and logging
  • Social fitness network
  • Earn trophies and EXP
  • Workout social feed
Features
Read full description

Arrow is the #1 workout and nutrition tracker built for changing your body. Log your lifts, meals, and weight in one app, get calorie and macro targets that adapt to your real results, and see whether training and diet are actually adding up, whether you're cutting, bulking, or just looking to maintain. TRAINING AND NUTRITION IN ONE LOOP Changing your body is one problem, not two. Your lifts create the stimulus, your food decides what your body does with it, and your weight trend tells you whether the plan is working. Most apps track one piece. Arrow connects all three. • Adaptive TDEE: Arrow estimates your real daily energy expenditure from your weigh-ins and food log, not just a formula, and keeps your calorie and macro targets adjusted as your body responds • Scale Weight vs. Trend Weight: every weigh-in is plotted against a rolling trend, so you can tell a water swing from true gain or loss before you change your plan • Oil detection: if a scanned meal was likely cooked in oil, Arrow asks before you log, so hidden calories don't slip past your numbers • Arrow Score: one number built from Strength (PRs and volume), Nutrition (calories, macros, weigh-ins), and Consistency (workouts and meal logs), weighted for your goal. A cut and a bulk are scored differently. • Estimated daily deficit or surplus and a four-week projection • Arrow Coach flags when a sudden scale jump or drop is likely water, not fat NUTRITION TRACKING THAT'S FAST AND HONEST • Smart Scan: photograph your plate and get the foods, calories, and macros • Describe a meal in plain words or by voice, scan a barcode, or look it up in the database • Heads Up before you log a scanned meal, and a meal score when you do • Edit any target yourself. Arrow never locks you into its numbers. • Recent foods, saved meals, custom foods, and copy-a-previous-day for meals you eat on repeat • Optional meal and post-workout reminders WORKOUT TRACKER BUILT FOR THE GYM • Log sets, reps, and weight in a few taps, no clutter mid-set • Plan your own routines or generate one from your goal, equipment, days, and session length • Flip any exercise card to see your history and personal records • Rest timer, dropsets, cardio and activity tracking • Custom exercises, swap exercises mid-workout, reorder on the fly • Lock Screen Live Activity and Dynamic Island keep your workout in view • Close the app mid-session and resume where you left off ARROW COACH Coach reads training and nutrition together: a recap of your week after workouts and on your Stats screen, a Heads Up on meals before you log them, and a call-out when a weight swing is likely water. Every note ends with what to do next. PROGRESS YOU CAN SEE • Muscle diagram shows which muscles you hit this week and how hard • Volume, PR, and lift progress over time • Week Overview calendar for training and nutrition days • Apple Health steps on your Profile and in Performance • Arrow Wrapped: your year in review TRAIN WITH FRIENDS • See your friends' workouts (and their meals, if they share them) in your feed • Share workout cards to Instagram Stories OPTIONAL GAMIFICATION Want extra motivation? Turn on levels, streak multipliers, and trophies. SUBSCRIPTION Access to Arrow requires a subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple ID account settings. Powered by fatsecret nutrition API (www.fatsecret.com) Barcode data also from Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), licensed under ODbL. Terms of Use: https://arrowfitnessapp.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://arrowfitnessapp.com/privacy Questions? support@arrowfitnessapp.com

Screenshots

USMC Squad Bay4 screens
Arrow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Arrow at 4.8 against USMC Squad Bay's 3.6. Arrow also leads on review sentiment (78% vs 44%) and ratings volume (9.1K vs 99). USMC Squad Bay's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 17). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Arrow sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $4.39 per month. USMC Squad Bay asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Arrow holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Arrow has 9.1K ratings behind it against 99, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 44% of USMC Squad Bay's written reviews are positive against 78% of Arrow's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

USMC Squad Bay ships an update monthly, Arrow every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
USMC Squad Bay versus Arrow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUSMC Squad BayArrow
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.6 (99 ratings)4.8 (9.1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.4% of reviews78.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings999.1K — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size74 MB127 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMarine Corps Recruiting CommandLevelUp App Studios LLC

Customer experience

USMC Squad Bay

All ratings99 ratings
Positive63.6%
Neutral7.1%
Negative29.3%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive44.4%
Neutral13.9%
Negative41.7%

Arrow

All ratings9,116 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral2.4%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews744 reviews
Positive78.0%
Neutral7.1%
Negative14.9%

User reviews

USMC Squad Bay

From 99 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great app for preparation
  • 👍 Useful information for poolees
  • 👍 Helpful for recruiters
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Good for communication

Room to improve

  • 😞 App is useless
  • 😞 Waste of time
  • 😞 Not helpful
  • 😞 Difficult to find features
  • 😞 App crashes frequently

Arrow

From 9.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for tracking workouts
  • 🏆 Motivating with trophies and leveling system
  • 🙌 Great for competing with friends
  • 💪 Tracks muscle groups and progress
  • 📊 Provides detailed workout data and statistics

Room to improve

  • 🐛 App crashes when switching between tabs or accessing friends tab
  • 🔍 Missing some common exercises
  • 🔧 Can't edit previous workouts or change exercise order
  • 🕰️ Rest timer is a premium feature
  • 🤔 Trophies/achievements may be unrealistic for women

Bugs and requests

USMC Squad Bay

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • Security update broke the app
  • Login redirect to 403 error
  • Cannot set password
  • Request information form error
  • App crashes when selecting ship date
Show 5 more
  • Reporting to Recruit Training quiz won't open
  • Study cards for quiz won't open
  • App logs out frequently
  • Registration code/email mismatch
  • Quiz marks correct answers incorrectly

Requested features

7 requests
  • Option to switch gender/standards
  • More open chat features like Discord
  • Actual workout plans
  • Knowledge test sections in specific order
  • Ability to edit ship date
Show 2 more
  • Recruiters able to log in and manage poolees
  • Create group messages for recruiters

Arrow

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Assisted pull-ups incorrectly adding weight instead of subtracting
  • Muscle distribution not accurately tracking
  • Workout data not always logging correctly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to edit previous workouts
  • Allow reordering of exercises in a workout
  • Implement a rest timer
  • Add more workout options, especially for cardio
  • Provide different tiers/achievements for men and women

In-app purchases

None

USMC Squad Bay

No in-app purchases

17 purchases

Arrow

Subscriptions16
  • Gold Access7 Days trial$4.391 Month
  • Gold Access1 Month trial$4.391 Month
  • Gold Access$5.991 Month
Show 13 more
  • Gold Access7 Days trial$5.991 Month
  • Diamond Access$12.991 Month
  • Secret Discount (Gold Access)$17.491 Year
  • Gold Access7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Gold Access1 Month trial$29.991 Year
  • Diamond Access7 Days trial$34.991 Year
  • Gold Access1 Month trial$34.991 Year
  • Gold Access7 Days trial$34.991 Year
  • Gold Access1 Month trial$44.991 Year
  • Gold Access7 Days trial$44.991 Year
  • Diamond Access7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Diamond Access1 Month trial$79.991 Year
  • Diamond Access7 Days trial$79.991 Year
One-time1
  • Gold Access$74.99

Questions

Is USMC Squad Bay free?
USMC Squad Bay is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Arrow free?
Arrow is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, USMC Squad Bay or Arrow?
Arrow is rated higher. USMC Squad Bay averages 3.6 out of 5 from 99 ratings, while Arrow averages 4.8 from 9.1K ratings.
Do USMC Squad Bay or Arrow have ads?
Neither USMC Squad Bay nor Arrow shows ads.
Which is updated more often, USMC Squad Bay or Arrow?
USMC Squad Bay ships an update monthly, and Arrow every 2 weeks. Most recently, USMC Squad Bay was updated on October 24, 2026 and Arrow on October 26, 2026.

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