Comparison

Next Set vs Barley

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

Head to head
About

Next Set

Easily plan and log your fitness routines to achieve your goals. Create custom workout templates, organize them into programs, and visualize your progress with detailed stats. Enjoy a completely ad-free and purchase-free experience with local data storage.

Highlights
  • Create workout templates and programs
  • Log workouts on the fly
  • Visualize progress with graphs
  • Support for circuits and random exercises
  • Light and dark mode support
  • Local data storage and backups
Read full description

Next Set is a workout planning and tracking app that makes it easy for you to log and track your workouts and reach your fitness goals. No ads. No in-app purchases. Once you have Next Set you can use all it's features. Features: - Add exercises and create workout templates, or just log a workout on the fly. - Organize your templates into programs to follow and let the app keep track of which workout is up next. - Visualize your progress over time through graphs on the Stats page, including workout volumes, rep counts, distance, pace, and more. - Create templates with more complex setups than just a series of exercises. Add circuits for repeated sets of exercises. Add randomly selected exercises to give some variety to your workouts. - Both light mode and dark mode fully supported. Your data is your own. - All data is stored locally on your phone and automatically backed up with your iPhone backups. - I the developer do not have access to your data. Your data is never uploaded or sent anywhere. - You can also manually backup your data to a storage location of your choice.

About

Barley

Features
Read full description

Barley is no-frills workout tracking app for serious lifters. **Features** - Exercise library - Create custom exercises - Barbell plate convenience calculator - 4 different 1 rep max calculators to choose from - Personal Record (PR) tracking for weight, reps, and volume - RPE tracking - Timed exercises - Workout statistics - Workout history - Customer rest timers (including the ability to have RPE-specific rest timers)

Screenshots

Next Set4 screens
Barley4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Next Set at every 4 days against Barley's fortnightly. Next Set also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.4). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Next Set ships an update every 4 days, Barley fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Next Set versus Barley: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNext SetBarley
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.4
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKyle MeasnerNo Translation Layer LLC

In-app purchases

None

Next Set

No in-app purchases

None

Barley

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Next Set free?
Next Set is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Barley free?
Barley is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Next Set or Barley have ads?
Neither Next Set nor Barley shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Next Set or Barley?
Next Set ships an update every 4 days, and Barley fortnightly. Most recently, Next Set was updated on October 14, 2026 and Barley on October 9, 2026.

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