Apple Fitness+ alternatives without a monthly fee

If you want guided workouts on your iPhone, Apple Watch or Apple TV without paying every month, you have good options: a one-time purchase app like ours, free apps such as Nike Training Club, YouTube, and the free workout tracking Apple already gives you. What you give up compared with Apple Fitness+ is mostly video classes with trainers and the sheer range of workout types. Whether that matters depends on how you like to train.

We make one of the alternatives, Streaks Workout, so we've tried to be fair: this guide also says who Fitness+ suits better.

What Apple Fitness+ gives you

Fitness+ is Apple's video workout service. It costs US$9.99 a month or US$79.99 a year, comes free for a month (three with an eligible new device), and is also part of the Apple One bundles. You can share it with up to five family members. According to Apple, you get:

• Video classes with trainers in twelve workout types: HIIT, strength, core, yoga, Pilates, dance, kickboxing, cycling, treadmill, rowing, mindful cooldown and meditation.
• New sessions every week, from 5 to 45 minutes.
• Workouts on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. Since iOS 16.1 you only need an iPhone, and an Apple Watch adds your heart rate and other metrics to the screen.

Some workouts need equipment: dumbbells for strength, and a bike, treadmill or rower for those classes. Most don't.

Who Fitness+ suits better

Fitness+ is the better choice if you:

• Want to follow a person on screen. Watching a trainer is motivating in a way voice coaching isn't, and it shows you the form for every move.
• Want variety. Yoga on Monday, a rowing class on Wednesday and Pilates at the weekend, all in one place.
• Train on a bike, treadmill or rower and want classes made for it.
• Already pay for Apple One, so it costs you nothing extra.
• Like fresh content. New workouts every week keep things from going stale.

If that sounds like you, the monthly fee buys a lot, and the free month is a good way to find out.

Alternatives without a monthly fee

Streaks Workout (one-time purchase)

Our app, for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. You pick a workout of about 6, 12, 18 or 30 minutes, built from 30 bodyweight exercises (or your own custom ones), and a voice coaches you through each exercise while an animated figure shows the move. There's no video and no trainer, and it's meant to be non-judgemental: there's no one on screen to keep up with, you set the length and the exercises, and the free Fresh Start pack has gentle, no-pressure workouts for getting started. Workouts are saved to Apple Health, with heart rate when you wear an Apple Watch, and your workouts and history sync between your devices.

It costs US$4.99 once, with no subscription. Workout Packs add ready-made workouts with their own coaching and music, such as Iron Core for core strength and Silent but Deadly for jump-free sessions. Fresh Start is free, the others are US$2.99 each, and all of them together are US$9.99, each bought once (US prices at the time of writing).

It goes further than a workout timer, too. You can add your own exercises with your own photo, build a set workout or a randomized one from the exercises you pick, start a workout with Siri or Shortcuts, keep your streak on a Home Screen widget, and play Apple Music while you train (with an Apple Music subscription). With an Apple Watch, each finished workout shows your heart-rate zones as well as your heart rate and energy.

Best for: short, equipment-free workouts at home or while travelling, done often, especially if you'd like the same app on your Apple TV and Apple Watch, or you'd rather work out at your own pace without a trainer on screen.

Nike Training Club (free)

Nike made all of Nike Training Club free in 2020. It has a large library of video and audio workouts and programs, including strength, yoga and mobility, many of them led by Nike trainers. Some use equipment such as dumbbells. You need a Nike account to use it, and it has an Apple Watch app.

Best for: people who want video workouts and programs and don't mind signing up for an account.

YouTube (free)

There are thousands of free workout videos on YouTube, from ten-minute HIIT sessions to full yoga classes, and you can watch them on your Apple TV. The quality and safety vary a lot, there are ads, and nothing tracks your workout unless you start one on your Apple Watch yourself.

Best for: variety on a zero budget, if you're happy to find your own favourites.

Apple's own free apps

Without Fitness+, the Workout app on Apple Watch and the Fitness app on iPhone still track your workouts, rings and trends for free. They record what you do rather than tell you what to do, so they pair well with any of the options above.

Side by side

What it costs over a year

At US prices, a year of Fitness+ is US$79.99 on the annual plan, or US$119.88 paid monthly, and it renews. Streaks Workout with every Workout Pack is US$14.98 (US$4.99 for the app and US$9.99 for all the packs), paid once, and it works on all of your Apple devices. Fitness+ can be shared with up to five family members, and Streaks Workout and its Workout Packs both work with Family Sharing.

The fair comparison isn't only price, though. Fitness+ gives you more: more workout types, more trainers and new content every week. A one-time purchase app gives you a smaller, focused set of workouts that you pay for once. If you'll use the variety, Fitness+ is worth it. If you keep coming back to a short bodyweight workout most days, you don't need to pay for the rest.

Prices are in US dollars and were checked on 20 October 2026. They vary by country and can change.

How to choose

• Try the Fitness+ free month first if you're curious. You'll know within a couple of weeks whether you use the variety.
• If you mostly want 10 to 20 minutes of bodyweight training at home, a one-time purchase app or free videos will cover it.
• If what you need is a reason to train every day, pick whichever you'll actually open. A streak, a short default workout and a coach in your ear all help with that.