Merrimack Valley YMCA vs WorkoutSmith
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Merrimack Valley YMCA
Access your YMCA membership with a digital barcode, discover fitness classes, and track your attendance. This official app enhances your club experience with dynamic features.
- Digital membership barcode
- Fitness class schedules
- Attendance tracking
- Club access
- Dynamic mobile features
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This is the official member mobile application for Merrimack Valley YMCA. Members can access the club with their digital barcode, find fitness classes, track their attendance, & much more with our dynamic mobile app.
WorkoutSmith
Log workouts, track steps, and compete with friends in custom challenges. Features an extensive exercise library, RPG-style motivation, and Apple Watch integration. Offers optional AI coaching and real-time race building.
- Log every workout set
- Track steps and set goals
- Build custom workout plans
- Compete in step and workout challenges with friends
- Extensive exercise library with video links
- RPG-style progress incentives
- Apple Watch support
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I built this app for my family and me, but was advised to share it. I wanted an easy-to-use app on my phone and watch to log every set in structured workout programs built by me, AI, or a real trainer. Also, my mom missed our old step challenges after the app we used removed them; they were fun, and we all walked more. Finally, motivation for me is an issue, so I wanted some sort of progress incentives in an RPG like format. This App: - Syncs with Apple Health for steps and metrics. - Log every set, track steps, build custom plans, share workouts, invite friends and create custom challenges (for steps and workouts) for them. - Set your step goal, earn badges and passport stamps, and create a virtual walking journey to real destinations that turns your miles into a trip toward landmarks. - Expansive exercise library with over 350 exercises, including 30+ Yoga Poses. All have short descriptions and public video links to watch how to do them. Catalog searchable by name, muscle, and equipment. Build your multi-day exercise program with custom exercises, rests, sets and reps counts, leverage heart-rate zone targets, or time based as applicable. - Create your workout plan in the App or on a Google Spreadsheet (your account). Edit it there, and import your changes back. - Invite your friends to compete with them on workouts. Challenges are free and support eight metrics: workouts, tonnage, sets and points, plus steps, distance and running time from your watch. Everyone is scored against their own daily goal, so a beginner and a marathoner race honestly. Keep private groups of friends, cheer somebody mid-set, and climb eight weekly league divisions. - Race in real life by building a course of up to twelve stops anywhere. Races are private and invite-only: people you ask, or people who used your link and whom you approved. The board shows each racer's last checked-in stop and when they reached it. - RPG-style game underneath with points, levels, stats, achievement ladders, and a trophy case for a little extra motivation if you need it. - Apple Watch support to run the workout session: log sets, see live heart-rate zones, pause, resume and mark a segment. It can run a whole workout on its own with no phone nearby. - Coaching: A real coach can build and share an exercise plan with you. Adopt their program, train it, and share back how it went, one toggle per person, and off until you turn it on. Your coach can then see your shared progress and provide feedback. - Muscle map colored by what you trained this week, a lighter week offered when your lifts slip, an opt-in view of your overnight heart rate, HRV and sleep, and progress charts going back as far as you do. - AI: Bring your own or don't use it at all. The optional AI coach runs on a free Google Gemini key you fetch yourself and paste into Settings. We do not sell you AI and we never charge for tokens: the key stays on your device. Everything else here works with no key at all. - Private by Default: Your training history, health data, and home location stay on your phone. Your home is a coordinate, never an address, and it never leaves the device. No feed and no messaging, by design. Social features do nothing until you sign in, sharing is opt-in per metric, and adding a friend shares nothing. Export everything as JSON or delete it anytime. - Free, no subscription: steps, streaks, journeys and routes, friends, groups, challenges, history, progress and export. - Two Plans (renew monthly until cancelled): - WorkoutSmith Premium, $4.99 a month, adds your daily training session, plan building, races and leagues, and coaching up to two people. - WorkoutSmith Coach, $24.99 a month, is for trainers who coach more than two people: it adds their plans, their progress and their shared workouts in one place. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://mig1278.github.io/workoutsmith/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: WorkoutSmith at 100% against Merrimack Valley YMCA's 50%. WorkoutSmith also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.9) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 17 months). Merrimack Valley YMCA's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (8 vs 1). On price, 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
Both are free to download. WorkoutSmith sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Merrimack Valley YMCA asks for nothing beyond the download.
WorkoutSmith holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Merrimack Valley YMCA has 8 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Merrimack Valley YMCA's written reviews are positive against 100% of WorkoutSmith's.
Merrimack Valley YMCA ships an update every 17 months, WorkoutSmith every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Merrimack Valley YMCA | WorkoutSmith |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (8 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 17 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | MotionVibe Innovations LLC | Michael Lee |
Customer experience
Merrimack Valley YMCA
WorkoutSmith
In-app purchases
Merrimack Valley YMCA
No in-app purchases
WorkoutSmith
- WorkoutSmith Premium3 Months trial$4.991 Month
- WorkoutSmith Coach3 Months trial$24.991 Month
Questions
Is Merrimack Valley YMCA free?
Is WorkoutSmith free?
Which has better reviews, Merrimack Valley YMCA or WorkoutSmith?
Do Merrimack Valley YMCA or WorkoutSmith have ads?
Which is updated more often, Merrimack Valley YMCA or WorkoutSmith?
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