Koar vs Heroic
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Koar
Read full descriptionHide full description
KOAR is a strength coach that adapts to your body, not just your preferences. It reads your recovery and fatigue, detects stalls before you do, adjusts volume and intensity to how you're actually recovering, and for women, tunes intensity to your cycle phase. This isn't a workout logger. It's a training system. Free to start. Works on iPhone alone, better with Apple Watch and AirPods. Full gym to just bodyweight, KOAR builds around what you have. HANDS-FREE COACHING Put your AirPods in, put your phone down, lift. A warm studio-quality coach (Kira or Wes) narrates every set: exercise intros, rest countdowns, brace cues before heavy lifts, form reminders, a halfway checkpoint. Works offline, no setup. INTELLIGENT PROGRESSION Every set feeds a progression engine built on exercise science. KOAR estimates your 1RM with an Epley-Brzycki ensemble, detects stalls before you notice, and auto-adjusts volume and intensity. It adds weight when you're ready and calls a deload when you need one, using severity-weighted analysis of your last 4 sessions instead of waiting for you to fail twice. ADAPTS TO YOUR BODY A 5-second wellness check-in (energy, sleep, mood) calibrates every workout. KOAR reads HRV and nutrition from Apple Health to adjust volume and recovery, and uses menstrual cycle data to tune intensity by phase. APPLE WATCH COMPANION Live heart rate with zone coloring, rest timers based on heart-rate recovery (not just the clock), and rep detection tuned per exercise. If your Watch drops mid-workout, your iPhone is the source of truth, no data lost. TEMPO COACHING KOAR prescribes lifting tempo (eccentric, pause, concentric, pause) and guides each phase with haptic pulses on your wrist. COACHING INSIGHTS A Coach tab surfaces patterns you'd miss on your own: masked fatigue, volume response profiles, and wellness-performance correlations unique to you. PERIODIZATION THAT RUNS ITSELF Mesocycles with automatic phase progression, volume landmark tracking per muscle group (MEV/MAV/MRV), and goal-aware deloads. Hypertrophy deloads cut volume with lighter weights; strength deloads cut volume but keep full working weight for CNS readiness. BUILT FOR EVERY LEVEL Beginners get guided weight discovery with live cues. Intermediate lifters get periodized mesocycles with automatic deloads. Advanced lifters get RPE/RIR autoregulation and sex-based programming. EARN YOUR PROGRESS XP tied to training quality, not just showing up. 20 rank tiers, 18 badges for real milestones like 12-week streaks and pressing your body weight, and streak flames that evolve from Bronze to Obsidian over a year. AI PROGRAM BUILDER Describe your ideal training in plain English and KOAR builds a complete periodized weekly plan that respects evidence-based volume landmarks. STRAVA SYNC Completed workouts post to your Strava feed automatically as Weight Training activities. WIDGETS & LIVE ACTIVITIES Today's workout, weekly volume by muscle group, and your streak flame on the Home and Lock Screen. Live Activities keep your current set on Dynamic Island. PRIVACY FIRST No account required. Fully functional offline. No ads. Anonymous usage analytics only, opt-out in Settings. Voice coaching runs entirely on your device. Your data stays on device unless you turn on iCloud sync. SUBSCRIPTION KOAR's core is free: workout logging, RPE/RIR autoregulation, the progression engine, periodization, wellness check-ins, Apple Watch, Strava, and widgets. KOAR Pro unlocks the coaching layer: voice coaching, the AI program builder, Coaching Insights, heart-rate-based rest, body tracking, advanced set techniques, and unlimited routines. New users get a 2-week free Pro trial. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel anytime in App Store settings. Localized in 13 languages. Voice coaching in English only for now. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Heroic
Read full descriptionHide full description
You picked your exercises. You walked into the gym. Now what weight goes on the bar? Heroic is a strength-training coach that handles the calculations for you. Log your reps and Heroic figures out the rest ā next week's working weights, warmup loads rounded to real plate increments, deloads when a lift stalls, and a clear progression for every exercise in your program. Spend your time training, not doing math between sets. WHAT HEROIC DOES FOR YOU ⢠Calculates next week's weights based on this week's reps ⢠Generates warmup sets rounded to plate increments ⢠Applies deloads when a lift stops progressing ⢠Estimates your 1-rep max for every main lift ⢠Tracks bodyweight and strength trends with charts TWO COMPLETE PROGRAMS Men's Program : a progressive-overload plan built around the major compound lifts: squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, and row, with carefully chosen accessory work. Women's Program :built around lower-body strength,glute and hip development, and a pressing progression that moves week over week. BUILT FOR THE WAY YOU TRAIN ⢠Native iOS app designed for one-handed logging between sets ⢠Syncs across your iPhone and iPad through iCloud ⢠Works offline at the gym and syncs when you reconnect Heroic works with the Apple Health app on iPhone. Bodyweight measurements are read from the Health app to seed your starting weight, and your completed strength workouts are written back to Health so your training history stays in one place. You can change this anytime in Settings > Apple Health. PRIVACY Heroic stores your training data in your private iCloud. No account sign-up is require
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Heroic at daily against Koar's every 5 days. Koar's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Koar sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Heroic sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Koar ships an update every 5 days, Heroic daily. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Koar | Heroic |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days | Daily ā better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch ā better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18 | 18.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 150 MB | 108 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Aric Malka | Ahmet Adem |
In-app purchases
Koar
- Monthly14 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Yearly14 Days trial$69.991 Year
- Lifetime Access$179.00
Heroic
- Get in shape: Heroic PRO$19.99









