One all-in-one fitness app vs six separate apps: the real cost

Coachh, the app we make, is one side of this comparison, so we’ve tried to make it fair and to show every number. Prices were checked on each app’s own App Store listing or site on October 5, 2026. They’re US prices and can change.

What are the six jobs, and which app is known for each?

There’s a well-known app for each part of getting fit. We picked one well-known example for each of the six jobs Coachh is built to cover:

Two notes on the table. Cal AI’s listing shows prices from $2.99 to $29.99 without saying which is yearly, so we counted its top price, $29.99, as a year. The Streaks app is a one-time purchase, so it only counts in year one.

What does the full six-app stack cost?

All six together cost $528.95 in the first year. Here’s the math:

Coachh Pro is $119.99 a year, so the full stack costs $408.96 more, and Coachh costs less than a quarter of it. Paid monthly, Coachh is $19.99, or $239.88 over 12 months. The yearly plan is the cheaper way to pay, and it starts with a 7-day free trial.

Price matters here. In our October 2026 read of recent App Store reviews across 13 fitness apps, 39% of the 2,665 low-star reviews were about price or paywalls, and another 14% were about trials, billing or cancelling.

Would anyone really pay for all six?

Honestly, no. The apps overlap more than their categories suggest:

• MyFitnessPal Premium already includes meal scan, so most people wouldn’t pay for Cal AI too.
• Ladder’s site says it now logs food by photo, typed description or barcode, plus water, weight and steps.
• Hevy Pro now includes Hevy Trainer, which builds a program and raises your weights.
• If you own an Apple Watch, its Activity rings are a free streak you can pause for up to 90 days without breaking it.

So here are some more realistic stacks, priced the same way:

To put it plainly: if you only need a food diary, a gym log and a habit tracker, the lean stack (MyFitnessPal Premium, Hevy Pro and the Streaks app) costs $109.97 in year one, which is $10.02 less than Coachh’s $119.99 a year, and the free stack costs nothing. If you want the lowest price, separate apps win. One app only saves money if you’d otherwise pay for a coach-led program or a weight-loss program as well as the basics.

What do you gain from one app?

The bigger gain isn’t price. It’s that your data talks to itself. When six apps each hold one piece of the picture, none of them can act on the others. In Coachh, the app we make:

• Sleep changes today’s workout. After a rough night or soreness, today’s plan is lighter and says why.
• A new best moves the plan. When you beat your rep range, the weight goes up next time, and new personal records are called out automatically.
• Food meets the scale. Every Sunday, a weekly review links what you ate to how your 7-day weight trend moved.
• Runs sit next to lifts. With a 5K or 10K goal, runs are placed around your lifting, with nothing hard right before leg day. Runs recorded on Apple Watch or in Strava count toward the planned run.
• Walking counts. Walks recorded on Apple Watch post to the chat and count as recovery.
• One streak system. Each area keeps its own streak, and saves earned every 7 days cover a missed day.

Juggling apps is a real complaint, especially for people who lift and run. In r/HybridAthlete, one user running with one app and lifting with another asked for a single app to plan and track both. Our hybrid training guide shows what a combined week looks like.

What do you lose with one app?

Plenty, and it’s worth being clear about it:

• Depth in each job. MyFitnessPal’s 20.5M+ food database and Ladder’s named coaches are hard to match. Coachh has no micronutrient tables or spreadsheet-style diary grid.
• Free tiers. MyFitnessPal and Hevy have free versions. Coachh has no free tier; its yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial.
• People. Ladder has teams and team chat; Hevy has a social feed; MyFitnessPal has a community. Coachh has no community or group features, and it isn’t a person.
• Your history. Coachh can’t import a MyFitnessPal food history. It can read past weigh-ins and workouts from Apple Health.
• Android today. Hevy runs on Android now. Coachh’s Android app arrives in November 2026.
• Medication programs. Noom’s listing shows Noom Med plans from $69 a month. Coachh never doses or prescribes medication and has no dose tracker.

Simplicity cuts both ways, too. In our review read, a Lose It reviewer said these apps had all become too complicated and they only wanted to count calories. Some people want less, not more.

Who should keep separate apps?

Keep separate apps if:

• You only do one or two of the six jobs. A food diary plus a free log may be all you need; our MyFitnessPal alternatives page compares food apps.
• You want a human coach or a team. Ladder, or a personal trainer, gives you something an app can’t.
• You track micronutrients or need a detailed food diary grid.
• You’re on Android and want to start before November.
• You’re on a GLP-1 medication and want a program tied to it. Talk to your prescriber about the medication itself.

How does Coachh handle all six jobs?

Coachh, the app we make, is one chat that does the six jobs above. You tell it what you ate in plain words or snap a photo, and photo estimates are shown as a range that’s wider when it’s less sure. A barcode scan logs the package’s exact numbers. From your goals it builds a phased program, posts today’s plan after a morning check-in, logs your sets and calls out new records. It also keeps your weigh-ins on a 7-day trend and runs forgiving habit streaks.

It’s $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial on yearly. It launches on iPhone and Apple Watch on October 27, 2026, with Android in November. It’s a coach, not a medical service.

The bottom line

If you’d pay for a coach-led program or weight-loss coaching anyway, one app that covers everything usually costs less, and it connects your sleep, training, food and weight in ways separate apps can’t. If you only need a food diary and a gym log, a lean or free stack is cheaper, and that’s a perfectly good choice.