Research
Why people quit fitness apps: what 6,500 App Store reviews say
By Coachh Editorial Team · Published · Data fetched October 5, 2026
In 6,500 recent US App Store reviews of 13 popular fitness and nutrition apps, the most common complaint in 1–3 star reviews was price: 39.2% were about paywalls, price or value, and another 13.7% about charges, trials or cancelling. Accuracy, ads and support followed. Five-star reviews most often praised ease of use, accountability and visible progress.
Disclosure: we make Coachh, a paid health coach app, so we have a stake in this topic. We publish the counts as we found them, including the finding that price is the top complaint, which applies to paid apps like ours too.
What do 1–3 star reviews complain about?
Of the 6,500 reviews, 2,665 were 1–3 stars. A review can touch several themes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
| Theme | Reviews | Share | Most mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price, paywalls or value | 1,045 | 39.2% | Cal AI 147, Lifesum 146, MyFitnessPal 134, Noom 115 |
| Being charged, refunds, trials or cancelling | 364 | 13.7% | Cal AI 63, Noom 59, Fitbod 42, Runna 42 |
| Bugs and crashes | — | 17.9% | Lifesum 102, Noom 65, Strong 59, MyFitnessPal 50 |
| Accuracy of calorie and nutrition numbers | 264 | 9.9% | Lifesum 87, Cal AI 54, Yazio 31, MacroFactor 28 |
| Ads, pop-ups or notifications | 219 | 8.2% | Yazio 46, MyFitnessPal 39, Lose It! 37, Noom 27 |
| Customer support | 205 | 7.7% | Noom 47, Runna 24, Cal AI 22 |
| Criticism of automated "smart" features (inaccurate, forced, slow, can't be turned off) | at least 141 | — | Lifesum (124 of its low-star reviews mention these features) |
| Logging friction (extra taps, quick-add removed) | 118 | — | Not broken out by app |
| Gamification noise | 103 | — | Noom 48, Yazio 32 |
| Losing data | 55 | — | Not broken out by app |
| A long setup quiz, then a surprise paywall | 27 | — | Cal AI 7, Noom 4, Yazio 4, Fitbod 3 |
| Apple Watch or Health sync failures | — | 23.6% of training-app low-star reviews | Strong 93, Runna 40, Future 17 |
Price complaints weren’t limited to nutrition apps: 38% of training apps’ low-star reviews were about price too. In MyFitnessPal’s 500 most recent reviews, 57 cited its app update, and 23 MyFitnessPal and 23 Lose It! reviews said a feature that used to be free had moved behind the paywall (most often barcode scanning).
What do 5-star reviews praise?
- Easy to use: the most common 5★ theme.
- Accountability and motivation: 703 mentions; Future 171 and Ladder 165, both coach-led.
- Seeing progress and results: 621 mentions; Hevy 106, Ladder 100.
People stay when an app is easy, keeps them accountable and shows them that it’s working.
What do people say on Reddit?
We also read 3,573 public Reddit posts from 49 feeds across 165 subreddits. Recurring themes: logging for about two weeks and quitting when a meal out breaks the habit; a “week three” drop-off in training plans when progress isn’t visible yet; and, in r/MyFitnessPal, at least 25 threads in 12 months asking for an alternative. Reddit posts are other people’s writing, so we report themes, not quotes.
How was the study done?
- Apps (13): MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, Noom, Cal AI, MacroFactor, Yazio, Lifesum, Fitbod, Future, Ladder, Strong, Hevy, Runna.
- Reviews: Apple’s public customer-review feed for the US App Store, sorted by most recent, 500 per app (6,500 total), fetched October 5, 2026. Date ranges vary with review volume (MyFitnessPal’s 500 span about seven weeks; Future’s go back to 2021).
- Coding: each review was matched to themes by keywords, and samples of each theme were read by hand to check the coding.
- Reddit: public feeds only, at about one request a minute; feeds don’t include votes or comment counts.
What are the limits?
- Most-recent reviews skew negative compared with lifetime ratings, so this measures complaints, not satisfaction.
- Keyword coding over- and under-counts somewhat; read the numbers as directional.
- 13 apps, one country, one snapshot in time.
Can I use the data?
Yes, please cite “Coachh, Why people quit fitness apps: what 6,500 App Store reviews say, October 5, 2026” with a link to this page. Download the theme counts as CSV. For questions or the full method, email hello@peopleintech.io.
What we did with it: Coachh publishes its price up front, logs a meal from one sentence, forgives a missed day, and shows estimates as ranges. See pricing and the app comparisons.
Common questions
What do people complain about most in fitness app reviews?
Price. In our October 2026 sample, 39.2% of 1–3 star reviews of 13 fitness and nutrition apps were about price, paywalls or value, and 13.7% more were about being charged, trials, refunds or cancelling.
Why do people stop using calorie counting apps?
In reviews and Reddit posts we read, the recurring story is logging fatigue: careful logging lasts a couple of weeks, then a meal out or a busy week breaks the habit. Reviews also cite friction (extra taps, removed quick-add) and distrust of the numbers.
What do people like most in fitness apps?
Ease of use, then accountability and motivation (703 mentions in 5-star reviews, led by coach-led apps) and seeing progress and results (621 mentions).
Can I use this data?
Yes. Cite it with a link to this page. The theme counts are available as a CSV; we don't republish review text.