Five/Three/One vs Compound Fuel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Five/Three/One
This app helps weightlifters follow Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program by automating cycle calculations, plate suggestions, and progress tracking. It eliminates the need for paper logs or spreadsheets, focusing on strength gains. Features include rest timers, workout scheduling, and Apple Health integration.
- 5/3/1 cycle planning and scheduling
- Progress charting
- Rest timer with notifications
- Automatic plate calculation
- Next cycle calculation based on performance
- Home screen widget
- Apple Health integration
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The latest app for weightlifters doing Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program! Five/Three/One is a focused and intuitive app helping you achieve what really matters: Getting Stronger. No more bringing a crumbled workout sheet to the gym, no more messing around spreadsheets to update your weights. From calculating your cycles, to telling you what plates to put on the bar, Five/Three/One does it all. Features include: - Planning and scheduling your whole 5/3/1 cycle - Charting your progress - Rest timer with notifications - Automatic plating calculation - Calculating your next cycle based on your performance - Notes associated with each sets - Home screen widget showing your your current and upcoming workouts - Lbs/kg support Optional paid features: - Customize which plates you're using and change your barbell's weight - Customize templates assistance work and define your own exercises - Beyond 5/3/1 templates and options, from Joker Sets to FSL, Pyramid and much more! Integrates with Apple Health : The app saves the workouts you've performed as well as the calories you've burnt in Apple Health. As weightlifters doing 5/3/1 ourselves, we made the app we wanted after being dissatisfied with what was out there. More than just a glorified spreadsheet, we designed it to be focused on each task at hand. With even more great features in the pipeline, we're stoked to release the app for others to use and can't wait to hear your feedback! We use it, we love it, and we're sure you will too.
Compound Fuel
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Compound Fuel is a nutrition tracker built for lifters. It knows you squatted 315×5 today, because it reads your training from Apple Health — and it scales your protein and carb targets on the days you actually lifted. TRAINING-AWARE TARGETS Most nutrition apps treat every day the same. Compound Fuel doesn't. Heavy deadlift day? Protein bump, carb bump. Rest day? Targets shift accordingly. The app reads your workouts from Apple Health — whether you log them with Compound Theory, Apple Watch, or any other HealthKit-connected app — and adjusts accordingly. ALGORITHMIC TDEE No static "1.55 × BMR forever." Compound Fuel back-solves your true energy expenditure from your weight trend and actual intake, then updates weekly. Your targets converge on what your body is actually doing, not a textbook guess. FAST LOGGING Search, barcode scan, quick-add, recent foods, reusable meal templates, and a food library you build once and reuse. The log screen is the first tab for a reason — get in, log the meal, get out. AI MEAL PHOTO ESTIMATES — PRO Photograph a meal or choose an existing photo. Compound Fuel suggests likely foods, estimates portions and macros, and matches results against the food database when possible. Review every item, change food matches or grams, enter macros manually when nothing matches, and approve the final log yourself. AI estimates can be inaccurate and are never logged without your confirmation. HEALTHKIT-NATIVE Compound Fuel writes dietary protein, carbs, fat, and energy directly to Apple Health. Your intake lives in the system of record, not a proprietary vault you lose when you switch apps. Other apps can read your data. You own it. PROGRESS YOU CAN SEE Weight trend with smoothing. Macro history. A TDEE trace that shows you how your metabolism has drifted over weeks. Nothing hidden behind a paywall you can't even preview. NO CALORIE-SHAMING Targets are information, not a judgment. Over-budget days happen. The app tells you what happened — it doesn't guilt you. iCLOUD SYNC Your food log lives on every device signed into your iCloud account. iPhone, iPad, new phone — your history comes with you. SYNCS WITH COMPOUND THEORY Compound Fuel pairs natively with Compound Theory, our strength training app. Workouts you log in Compound Theory write to Apple Health as HKWorkout samples — Compound Fuel reads them and bumps your macros for the day automatically. Your dietary intake flows back through Apple Health, so Compound Theory can see your fueling without either app touching the other directly. Two apps, one Apple Health source of truth, no proprietary lock-in. BUILT BY A LIFTER, FOR LIFTERS Compound Fuel works great on its own — but it's at its best when paired with Compound Theory. If you lift and you want nutrition that reflects that, this is for you. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://compoundfuel.x90sky.sh/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Five/Three/One at 12.0 against Compound Fuel's 17.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Five/Three/One sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Compound Fuel sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Five/Three/One ships an update every 2 weeks, Compound Fuel weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Five/Three/One | Compound Fuel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (1.5K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 78.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Strong Pigeon LLC | Shane Young |
Bugs and requests
Five/Three/One
Reported bugs
4 issues- Workout data occasionally lost or not syncing properly
- Calendar and scheduling issues when trying to reschedule missed workouts
- Plate calculation bugs leading to incorrect weight displays
- Occasional app freezes and crashes
Requested features
5 requests- Allow more flexibility in scheduling and rescheduling workouts
- Provide customization options for assistance exercises
- Implement superset and out-of-order exercise completion
- Add support for Apple Watch integration
- Incorporate additional 5/3/1 program variations (e.g., Bodybuilder, Monolith)
Compound Fuel
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Five/Three/One
- Custom Weight Plates$2.99
- Tip$4.99
- Beyond 5/3/1 Pack$5.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Custom Assistance$8.99
- Large Tip$9.99
- Enormous Tip$24.99
Compound Fuel
- Compound Fuel Pro - Montly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Compound Fuel Pro - Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Compound Fuel Pro - Lifetime$99.99
Questions
Is Five/Three/One free?
Is Compound Fuel free?
Do Five/Three/One or Compound Fuel have ads?
Which is updated more often, Five/Three/One or Compound Fuel?
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