Best Free Workout Apps (UK 2026)

Free is a slippery word once you open an app store. Some fitness apps are free to download, then lock the parts you actually need behind a subscription. Others are genuinely free and stay that way. This guide picks the strongest free and strong free tier apps for running, strength and home workouts in the UK for 2026, and it is honest about where each one draws its line. We checked what is actually free against each app at the time of writing, so you can pick one without a nasty surprise a fortnight in.

What does 'genuinely free' actually mean?

There is a real difference between free to download and free to use. A genuinely free app lets you do the core job, whether that is tracking a workout, following a session, or logging your lifts, without paying a penny. A freemium app gives you a taster and charges for the parts that make it worth keeping. Neither approach is wrong, and a good free tier can be all you ever need. You just deserve to know which is which before you build a training habit around it, so for every app below we flag what you get for free and where the paywall starts.

What are the best free apps for running?

If you are starting from scratch, the NHS Couch to 5K app is hard to beat. It is completely free, with no ads and no in-app purchases, because it is a public health tool rather than a business. It takes a complete beginner to a 5K over nine weeks, with a choice of coaching voices to keep you company on each run. The catch is simply that it does that one job. Once you can run 5K you have finished the programme, and you will want something new to aim at.

Nike Run Club is the natural next step for a lot of members. It is free and packs in hundreds of audio guided runs, plus training plans that range from a beginner get started plan to half and full marathon builds, with GPS tracking through your phone or watch. The line here is that it is running only, so it will not help with your strength or your HIIT.

Strava sits in a different spot. Its free tier tracks your runs and rides by GPS, shows pace and distance, and gives you a genuinely social feed with kudos, segments and challenges. Most of the deeper performance analysis, segment leaderboards, the full route builder and training goals now sit behind a subscription, which is around £8.99 a month at the time of writing. As a free tracker and a community it is excellent, so long as you know the analytics are the paid layer.

What are the best free apps for strength?

For logging your lifts in the gym, Hevy is a clean and popular choice. The free tier gives you unlimited workout logging, which is the important bit, but it caps you at four saved routines, a small number of custom exercises and roughly three months of graph history. Hevy Pro lifts those caps for around £2.99 a month at the time of writing. If you rotate through a handful of routines and do not need long term charts, the free tier goes a long way.

Nike Training Club is worth a look for strength as well. Alongside its home and HIIT content it has plenty of dumbbell and bodyweight strength sessions, all free, though they are follow along workouts rather than a progressive plan that adds weight or volume for you over time. That is fine when you want a session to press play on, less so when you want structured progression week to week.

What are the best free apps for home workouts?

Nike Training Club is the standout for training at home. Nike dropped its subscription a few years ago, so the whole library is free, with hundreds of trainer led sessions across strength, HIIT, yoga and mobility. You can filter by how long you have, the kit you own and your level, and there are no ads or locked sessions once you are in. The line is that these are guided, follow along sessions rather than a plan built around your goal, your equipment and your week, so you are the one deciding what to do and when.

That is a fair trade for a free app, and for many members it is plenty. It does mean you supply the structure, deciding how hard to push, when to rest and how one week should build on the last. If you like choosing your own session each day, a free follow along library is a gift. If you would rather be told what to do next, that is the gap the paid apps try to fill.

Where does Edge fit, and what is free?

Edge is a free fitness app. You can track your running, strength and HIIT, build your own workouts, and sync your watch with Strava, Garmin, Apple Health and Coros, all without paying. What sets it apart from the single discipline apps above is that it treats running, strength and HIIT as one plan, so your training lives in one place instead of being split across a running app, a lifting log and a separate home workout library.

The free line for Edge is clear. Edge Pro, from £19.99 a month with a free 7-day trial, is where the fully personalised plan across running, strength, HIIT and mobility lives, along with a real coach you can message anytime. So the tracking, logging and workout building are free, and the personalised plan and coaching are the paid layer you choose to add. 18,000+ members already train with Edge.

What are the trade-offs of a free app?

Free apps are brilliant for getting moving, and for a lot of members they are all you will ever need. The trade-offs are still worth knowing. A fully free app usually does one thing well, like guided sessions or a beginner running plan, rather than tying your whole week together. A free tier can quietly cap the parts that matter as you progress, such as saved routines or how much history you can see. And a library of sessions will not tell you what to do next week, or steer you when work and life get busy.

When you are choosing, ask a few simple questions. Is the core job free, or just the download? Does it cover the training you actually do, or only one discipline? Will it sync with the watch and apps you already use? And can it grow with you, or will you hit a wall in a month? Pick the app that matches how you train today, and be honest with yourself about where you want to be in six months.

Prices and features change, so check each app for current details. Accurate at the time of writing.

This article is general guidance, not medical advice. If you are new to exercise, returning from injury, pregnant, or managing a health condition, speak to your GP before starting, and see a physio for any niggle that does not settle.