Comparison

Grin&Gain vs Exist

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

Head to head
About

Grin&Gain

This app helps you focus on your training by simplifying workout logging. It automatically adjusts your next session based on your performance, offering insights into your strength progress and allowing for custom routine creation. Stay motivated by connecting with friends and tracking your achievements.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free workout experience
  • Fast, intuitive Exercise Player for logging
  • Automatic adjustments for progressive overload
  • Strength progress insights (1RM, trends)
  • Custom routine and program creation
  • Muscle group visualization
  • Social accountability with friends
Features
Read full description

Get stronger without guessing. Spend less time logging than lifting. Grin&Gain is a workout tracker built for lifters who want to stay focused on training—not their phone. Most workout apps are just digital journals. They make you dig through menus, type endlessly, and constantly think about what weight to lift next. Grin&Gain is designed differently. Every feature is built to reduce distractions, simplify tracking, and help you make consistent strength progress. Stay Focused on Lifting Our unique Exercise Player keeps your attention on the set you're performing right now. Inspired by the simplicity of a music player, it lets you log sets, reps, and weights with minimal taps so you can spend less time managing your workout and more time training. Get Stronger Without Guessing Automatic Adjustments remove the guesswork from progressive overload. Simply rate each exercise as Too Easy, Okay, or Too Hard, and Grin&Gain automatically adjusts your next workout so you always know what to lift. Understand Your Strength Progress See whether your training is actually working with powerful strength insights, including: • Estimated 1RM tracking • Strength progression trends • Weekly improvements • Volume by muscle group • Performance history Know exactly how quickly you're getting stronger—not just how much you've lifted. Train Smarter Visualize every muscle group you're training, organize your routines, create custom programs, schedule workouts, and adapt your workout on the fly with Grin&Gain's focused Exercise Queue. Whether you're training for strength, hypertrophy, calisthenics, endurance, or general fitness, Grin&Gain adapts to the way you train. Stay Motivated Add friends, compare progress, celebrate milestones, and stay accountable together. Why Grin&Gain? • Stay focused on lifting with a distraction-free workout experience • Spend less time logging with a fast, intuitive Exercise Player • Get stronger without guessing using Automatic Adjustments • Clearly understand your strength progress over time • Create custom routines, programs, and exercises • Visualize muscle groups and training volume • Stay accountable with friends Whether you're building your first workout routine or chasing your next personal record, Grin&Gain helps you train smarter, stay focused, and make consistent progress. Download Grin&Gain today and spend less time logging while getting stronger without guessing. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Terms and Conditions: https://www.grinngain.com/terms_and_conditions.html Privacy Policy: https://www.grinngain.com/privacy_policy.html

About

Exist

This app helps you reduce smartphone usage by rewiring habit loops and providing escape hatches from endless scrolling. It blocks distracting apps during scheduled times and offers an 'Exist Mode' to temporarily disable smartphone functions.

Highlights
  • Blocks distracting apps
  • Rewires habit loops
  • Escape hatch from doomscrolling
  • Protects special time windows
  • Go analog with Exist Mode
  • Uses behavioral psychology
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The easy way to use your phone less. Exist blocks distracting apps when you want to focus, but it does more than that… It gradually removes your itch to use a smartphone, no willpower required. Based on behavioral psychology, Exist counteracts many of the psychological tricks that tech companies used to make their platforms so addictive in the first place. Specifically… EXIST WORKS BY: 1. Rewiring Habit Loops (AKA, no more compulsive app opening) Part of what makes certain apps and websites so irresistible is that they substitute for real human desires (excitement, belonging, love, etc.). The more you understand what's behind your cravings, the easier it becomes to resist them, and eventually, the less they appear at all. So, just before you open one of the apps that you'd like to use less, Exist will intercept you with a chance to think about why you're opening the app at all. Exist will then give you a chance to bail, plus an alternate idea for a healthier way to scratch your TRUE itch. (Outside your blocking schedules, you won't be hard-locked out of any app until you hit your self-imposed limit for the day.) 2. Providing an "Escape Hatch" from Doomscrolls (AKA, no more randomly losing two hours to the Feed) Ever opened your phone for just a second, then lost two hours to scrolling? This is possible thanks to "bottomless feeds." With Exist, when you open one of your chosen "problem apps," you'll choose a time allotment, and when it's up, you can abandon the doomscroll with one tap. Users have loved this feature so far. 3. Protecting Special Time Windows (AKA, get your nights and mornings back) If there's ONE hack for better health in today's world, it might be simply getting your phone away from your face right before bed and right after waking up. Inside of Exist, you can create schedules in which any combination of apps that you choose will automatically be blocked. Plenty of other apps do this, but Exist offers a feature designed specifically for the hours surrounding sleep. 4. Letting You Go Analog (AKA, pretending like it's 2010 again) Put your phone into "Exist Mode" to block all the phone functions that arrived with smartphones. EXIST IS ALWAYS EVOLVING: We are committed to helping people reclaim their brains from the internet. We are constantly working with our subscribers to make the product as useful as possible. We love talking to fans, and you can submit a request for any feature inside of Settings. MORE INFO: Exist uses Apple's Screen Time system to see and limit app use on your device. Subscriptions are 7 days free, then $59.99/year or $9.99/month. Cancel anytime in Settings. Terms of Use: https://useexist.com/exist-terms

Screenshots

Grin&Gain4 screens
Exist4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Exist at 10 against Grin&Gain's 2. Grin&Gain's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Grin&Gain sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Exist sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Grin&Gain against 5.0 for Exist. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Exist has 10 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Grin&Gain versus Exist: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGrin&GainExist
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (10 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings210 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size97 MB260 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAshton ValerosoJohn Stringfield

Customer experience

Grin&Gain

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Exist

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Grin&Gain

Subscriptions2
  • Grin&Gain Pro Monthly1 Month trial$4.991 Month
  • Grin&Gain Pro Yearly1 Month trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Grin&Gain Pro Lifetime$99.99
2 purchases

Exist

Subscriptions2
  • Exist Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Exist Yearly7 Days trial$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Grin&Gain free?
Grin&Gain is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Exist free?
Exist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Grin&Gain or Exist?
Grin&Gain and Exist are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 10 ratings respectively.
Do Grin&Gain or Exist have ads?
Neither Grin&Gain nor Exist shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Grin&Gain or Exist?
Grin&Gain ships an update every 2 weeks, and Exist every 2 weeks. Most recently, Grin&Gain was updated on November 4, 2026 and Exist on November 9, 2026.

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