Most workout apps are built like social networks: create an account, sync everything to a server, see ads or pay a subscription, and hope the company treats years of your health data well. Herculog is built like a notebook. Here's the honest comparison — including what you give up.
Herculog vs. a typical cloud workout tracker
| Herculog | Typical cloud tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| Account required | Never — open the app and lift | Email or social sign-in before your first set |
| Price | Free, no upsell | Free tier + subscription for charts, history, or plans |
| Ads | None | Common on free tiers |
| Where your data lives | On your iPhone or iPad, nowhere else | On the company's servers |
| Works offline / in a basement gym | Always — there's nothing to sync | Varies; some features need a connection |
| Analytics & tracking | No data collected at all | Usage analytics typical; policies vary |
| Data export | Full history as CSV, anytime | Varies — sometimes partial, gated, or absent |
| If the company disappears | App keeps working; your log is on your device | History depends on the server staying up |
None of this makes cloud trackers evil — sync and social feeds are real features some lifters want. It's a trade. The point is that it should be a visible trade, and for a personal training log, we think the private side wins.
Why privacy matters for a training log
- It's health data. Body weight, injuries recovered from, how often you actually train — a workout log says more about you than most apps you'd think twice about. Data that never leaves the device can't be breached, sold, subpoenaed from a server, or repurposed by a new owner after an acquisition.
- Subscriptions outlive enthusiasm. The average tracker subscription costs more per year than a barbell. A free, local app removes the quiet pressure to "get your money's worth" — and the annual decision about whether your own history is worth renting back.
- Longevity. Lifters keep logs for decades. Companies pivot, sunset apps, and delete inactive accounts. A local log with an open CSV export is the only format you can be confident of reading in 2036.
The honest trade-offs
Private-by-design costs two things, and you should know them before choosing any tracker:
- No automatic cross-device sync. Your log lives on one device. If you lift with both an iPhone and an iPad, the histories don't merge. Mitigation: log on one device; CSV export/import moves data when you need it to.
- Backups are your responsibility. There's no company server keeping a copy — which is the feature. Your standard iPhone backup covers it automatically, and a periodic CSV export gives you a plain-text copy that will outlive any app, ours included.
That's the whole cost. The features people actually train with — fast logging, guided plans, estimated 1RM, volume and PR charts — don't need a server. They need arithmetic, and your phone has plenty.
How Herculog does it
- No account, ever. There is no sign-up screen because there is no server to sign into.
- Everything computed on-device. Estimated 1RM, volume, efficiency, and PR charts are calculated locally from your log.
- Open-format export. Your complete history exports as CSV — and workout plans import the same way, which is how the free plan builder feeds the app without either one uploading anything.
- Nothing collected. The App Store privacy label says "Data Not Collected" because there's nothing to collect it with — no analytics SDK, no ad SDK, no crash-reporting harvest.
Try the private way
Free on the App Store. Formerly MyLiftLog — same app, same principles, new name. ★ 5.0 from its first 6 ratings.