StrongFirst vs Apex Stacked
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
StrongFirst
This fitness app offers personalized strength training programs using kettlebells, barbells, and bodyweight. It provides expert guidance with video demonstrations, progress tracking, and a supportive community. Access educational content to deepen your understanding of strength and conditioning.
- Personalized training programs
- Expert guidance with video demonstrations
- Progress tracking
- Variety of exercises (kettlebell, barbell, bodyweight)
- Flexible scheduling
- Community support
- Educational articles and tips
Read full descriptionHide full description
The StrongFirst Training App is a dynamic and comprehensive fitness application designed to promote strength, resilience, and overall physical well-being using kettlebells, barbells, or bodyweight movement standards. It brings the world-renowned StrongFirst methods and principles to your fingertips, providing you with a variety of tailored programs to suit your individual fitness goals. KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS PERSONALIZED PROGRAMS The App offers customizable training programs, ensuring that every workout is tailored to your specific needs and fitness goals. EXPERT GUIDANCE: StrongFirst is a globally recognized authority in strength training, and the app brings this expertise directly to your mobile device. Each exercise is demonstrated with clear, easy-to-follow videos and detailed instructions, ensuring proper form and technique. PROGRESS TRACKING The App allows you to track your progress over time, providing a comprehensive overview of your improvement and achievements. This makes it easy to stay motivated and committed to your fitness journey. VARIETY OF PRACTICES AND PROGRAMS The App covers a wide range of strength-building, hypertrophy-building, fat-burning, and conditioning exercises using kettlebells, bodyweight, and barbells, ensuring a diverse and balanced training regime. FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING The App allows you to adjust your training schedule according to your availability, making it a practical solution for busy individuals. COMMUNITY SUPPORT By using the StrongFirst Training App, you become a part of a supportive and motivated community of individuals who share similar fitness goals. EDUCATION In addition to practical training sessions, the app provides informative articles and tips on strength and conditioning training, helping you understand the science behind the exercises and improve your overall approach to fitness. The StrongFirst Training App is not just a training tool; it’s an educational platform that promotes a better understanding of strength and conditioning principles. By integrating the StrongFirst methodology into your regular training routine, or using it as your only training routine, you’re not only working towards better physical fitness, but also developing a resilient mindset that values strength, discipline, and perseverance. StrongFirst Privacy Policy: https://www.strongfirst.com/privacy-policy/ GymCloud End User Agreement: https://www.gymcloud.com/legal/
Apex Stacked
This app helps serious adult trainees meticulously log workouts, nutrition, and body metrics. It offers AI-powered insights and personalized training plans, with data stored privately on your device. An optional subscription unlocks advanced features and AI guidance.
- Detailed workout logging (sets, reps, load)
- Nutrition and body metric tracking
- Private on-device data storage
- AI-generated training plans
- Bloodwork and health marker analysis
- Apple Health synchronization
Read full descriptionHide full description
Apex Stacked is strength training, tracked properly — a private fitness and health app for adults who take their training seriously. Log every set, rep, and load with a fast, no-friction tracker built for real workouts. Track your nutrition, sleep, body metrics, and bloodwork in one place, and watch your trends come together over time. Your training log lives in a private database on your device. FREE — NO SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED • Log workouts live — start an empty workout and add exercises as you go, with every set type and focus mode • Exercise library and instructions (7 custom exercises) • Workout history and personal records • Next weights set for you with progressive overload on your saved workouts, plus deload alerts • Barcode scanning, food and water logging, calorie and macro tracking with one daily target, 10 favorites • Body metrics, sleep, daily health logging, manual bloodwork entry, reminders, Apple Health sync • Protocol and dose logging — 1 active protocol at a time, any type • 4 saved workouts • Friends and Competitions, and badges • Viewing insights reports you have already generated, data export and backup APEX PRO — YOUR TRAINING, PLANNED • A full training week built for you every week, around your split, schedule, and equipment — no AI involved • Progressive overload planned across your whole week, deload weeks built for you, and saved weeks • Nutrition label scanning and macro targets by weekday • Side-by-side progress photo compare, report PDFs, and 60- and 90-day body charts • Unlimited saved workouts, custom exercises, favorites, and protocol tracking APEX PRO + AI — EVERYTHING IN PRO, PLUS YOUR AI COACH • Ask the AI training coach for guidance, form cues, and swaps, and get a debrief after every workout • Weekly and monthly insights reports that read your logged data and surface what is working • One-off workouts generated on demand • Describe or speak a meal to get the macros, and AI cleanup of scanned labels • Bloodwork scanning and plain-language explanations of your bloodwork markers • AI fill for your custom exercises BUILT PRIVATE Apex Stacked keeps your data on your device by default. Sign in with Apple is the only login. Apple Health data is read with your permission, stays on your device, and is excluded from your iCloud backup. The AI features send data to our AI provider, Anthropic, only after you allow it in the app and only when you use them; you can turn this off any time in Settings. Delete your account and all data anytime from Settings. FOR ADULTS (18+) Apex Stacked is an educational tracking tool for adults. It provides general fitness and health information only — not medical advice — and repeatedly directs you to consult a licensed physician. It does not sell, source, prescribe, or recommend any substance. — SUBSCRIPTIONS Apex Pro is an auto-renewable subscription at $2.99/month or $24.99/year. Apex Pro + AI is $8.99/month with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. Already on Apex Pro? The Apex AI add-on adds the AI features for $5.99/month, also with a 7-day free trial; it works only while Apex Pro is active and is billed and cancelled separately. Prices are US pricing and vary by region. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, or at the end of a free trial. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscriptions in your Apple Account settings after purchase; any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://apexstacked.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Apex Stacked at 5.0 against StrongFirst's 3.6. Apex Stacked also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 84%) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). StrongFirst's advantage is ratings volume (28 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. StrongFirst sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month and Apex Stacked sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $14.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Apex Stacked holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: StrongFirst has 28 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of StrongFirst's written reviews are positive against 100% of Apex Stacked's.
StrongFirst ships an update every 3 weeks, Apex Stacked every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | StrongFirst | Apex Stacked |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (28 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 28 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 90 MB | 201 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | StrongFirst | Apex Stacked LLC |
Customer experience
StrongFirst
Apex Stacked
In-app purchases
StrongFirst
- StrongFirst App Premium7 Days trial$19.991 Month
- StrongFirst App Premium7 Days trial$156.991 Year
Apex Stacked
- Apex Pro7 Days trial$14.991 Month
Questions
Is StrongFirst free?
Is Apex Stacked free?
Which has better reviews, StrongFirst or Apex Stacked?
Do StrongFirst or Apex Stacked have ads?
Which is updated more often, StrongFirst or Apex Stacked?
Other comparisons















