Workout trackers that back up your training history for free
Nobody thinks about backup until the phone goes in the toilet, and then they think about nothing else. A training log is one of the few things on a phone that genuinely cannot be recreated — you cannot re-lift 2023. This page covers which gym apps keep a free copy of your history off the device, what "backup" does and does not mean, and how to find out in two minutes whether yours is actually protected.
Updated August 2026
The short answer
- Superset — every workout, routine and custom exercise mirrors to the cloud automatically, on the free tier, from your first session.
- Hevy and JEFIT — account-based sync, and both have web access, so your log exists somewhere other than the phone by design.
- Strong — syncs to your account across devices; the free tier logs unlimited workouts.
- Any local-only tracker, or a Notes file — one lost phone from gone. If this is you, fix it today rather than at the weekend.
- The thing to check is not whether the app *has* backup. It is what identity the backup is attached to, because that is what you will be restoring with.
Superset logs your whole workout from one spoken sentence — free on iPhone, with 873 exercises built in.
Get Superset freeBackup, sync and export are three different promises
Sync keeps two devices showing the same data. Useful, but it is not protection on its own — a bad sync can propagate a deletion to every device you own.
Backup is a copy held somewhere you can restore from after the device is gone. This is the one that saves you.
Export is a file you own, usually CSV, that you can open without the app existing. This is the one that saves you when the *company* is gone, or when you want to leave.
Most gym apps do the first two. Export is the one that quietly disappears from feature lists, and it is worth knowing whether you have it before you have five years of data in one place. Superset does the first two and not the third — there is no CSV export today.
How Superset handles it
Everything the app stores — logged sessions, routines, custom exercises, your unit and training-style settings — is mirrored to the cloud as you use it, on the free tier, with nothing to turn on. The phone stays the copy the app reads from, which is why the whole app still works with no signal; the cloud copy is written alongside it in the background.
The important detail is what that copy is filed under. If you started as a guest, the backup is attached to an anonymous identity that lives with that install. It protects you from a broken app or a bad update, but not from a lost phone, because there is no email address to sign back in with. Attaching Google or Apple in Settings — once, at any point — links the same data to an account you can actually reach, and that is what makes a restore on a new phone possible.
So the honest version of the claim is: backup is free, automatic and immediate; restore across phones needs a real sign-in. It takes about fifteen seconds and it is the single highest-value thing to do in the app after your first workout.
What it does not do. There is no CSV or spreadsheet export, no import of another app's history, no Apple Health sync in the shipping build, and no web or Android version to read your log on. If you want your data portable in a file you control, that is a real gap and Hevy or JEFIT are better answers today.
How they compare
| Superset | Hevy | Strong | JEFIT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud backup on the free tier | Yes, automatic | Yes, with an account | Yes, with an account | Yes, with an account |
| Works fully offline | Yes — phone is the source of truth | Partly | Partly | Partly |
| Read your log on a computer | No | Yes — web app | No | Yes — web app |
| Start without signing up | Yes — guest mode | No | No | No |
| Free tier limits | None on logging | 3 months of graph history, 4 routines | 3 custom routines | Ad-supported with limits |
| App Store rating | No ratings yet | 4.92 (85,100) | 4.86 (108,489) | 4.76 (46,811) |
| Price | Free; voice from $39.99/yr | Free; Pro $2.99/mo | Free; PRO $4.99/mo | Free; Elite $12.99/mo |
Check your own tracker in two minutes
- Find out what identity your data is under. Open the app's settings and look for an email address or a linked Google/Apple account. If there isn't one, your history is on the phone and nowhere else.
- If the app offers a real sign-in and you skipped it, do it now. This is the whole job — the rest is checking.
- Look for an export option and use it once. A CSV in your email is a backup that survives the app being discontinued.
- Test a restore on a second device if you have one, or after your next phone upgrade, before you delete anything.
- Do not rely on the iPhone's own device backup for this. It restores app data when you migrate phones normally, but it will not help you if the app's own account is what you have lost access to.
How to pick
- You want protection with no setup — Superset backs up from the first session; attach Google or Apple once and you are done.
- You want your log readable on a computer — Hevy or JEFIT. Superset is iPhone-only with no web app.
- You want a file you own — look for CSV export. Superset does not have it.
- You have years of history somewhere already — keep it there. No tracker imports another app's past workouts, including this one.
- You are on Android — Superset is not an option.
Frequently asked questions
Do workout trackers back up your history for free?
Some do. Superset mirrors every workout, routine and custom exercise to the cloud on the free tier, automatically, from your first session. Hevy, Strong and JEFIT all sync to a free account as well. Local-only trackers and Notes files do not — one lost phone and the log is gone.
What happens to my workouts if I lose my phone?
It depends entirely on what your backup is attached to. If you signed in with Google or Apple, you sign in on the new phone and your history comes back. If you have only ever used a guest or anonymous mode, there is usually no way to identify you, and that data is gone — which is why attaching a real sign-in once is worth fifteen seconds.
Does Superset's cloud backup cost anything?
No. Cloud backup and restore are part of the free tier, along with unlimited logging, all 873 exercises, the AI coach and the progress dashboard. Voice logging is the only paid feature.
Can I export my workouts from Superset to a spreadsheet?
Not today — there is no CSV export. Your data is backed up and restorable inside the app, but it is not portable to a file you control. If that matters to you, Hevy and JEFIT are better choices, and it is a fair reason to pick one of them instead.
Does Superset work without an internet connection?
Yes, apart from voice logging. The phone holds the copy the app reads, so logging, your full history, the coach's targets and all 873 exercises with instructions and photos work with no signal. The cloud copy catches up when you are back online.
Stop typing between sets
Say what you lifted. Superset writes down every set, rep and weight, then tells you what to lift next time. Free on iPhone.
Download on the App Store
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