BULQ vs Strong: Which Workout Tracker for Android?

Strong has been the "just log your lifts" app since 2014 - 5 million+ users, a spotless 4.9-star iOS rating, and a philosophy of speed over bloat that we frankly respect. We build a competing tracker, so treat this as a comparison written by the other team. Every Strong claim below was checked against Strong's own site, help center and store listings in July 2026 - and where Strong is the right choice, we say so plainly.

The short version

The Android story, told honestly

Strong is a great app that has always been an iOS app first. For years the Android build ran on a separate, older codebase - it even lost Google Fit sync entirely when Google retired that API, and a replacement (Health Connect) only arrived with the unified 6.0 rewrite in late 2024. Things are better now: development is active again and the versions have converged. But iOS still gets releases first, the rebuilt flagship watch app is Apple Watch only, and the ratings tell the story - around 4.3 stars on Google Play vs 4.9 on the App Store.

None of that is a scandal; it's just prioritization. But if Android is your platform, you're the second audience. BULQ exists because we wanted a tracker where Android - phone and watch - is the only audience.

Free tier vs free tier

Credit first: Strong's free tier is fair where it counts. Unlimited logging forever, and supersets, custom exercises, RPE and CSV export are all free - several competitors gate those. Strong also made a public commitment that you'll always be able to track workouts free, and it honored old one-time purchases when it moved to subscriptions. That's good behavior worth naming.

The gates are elsewhere: 3 routines, and essentially the entire analysis layer - all charts, the plate calculator, the warm-up calculator and body measurements - is PRO.

Strong details verified against strong.app, its help center and store listings, July 6, 2026. Corrections welcome.

The watch gap

This is the cleanest difference between the two apps. Strong's Apple Watch app is first-class - rebuilt in early 2026, standalone-capable, genuinely good. Its Wear OS app doesn't exist: Strong's own site and help center list Apple Watch only.

BULQ ships with a Wear OS app at launch: log sets from your wrist, and the rest timer stays synchronized in both directions - start it on the phone, adjust or skip it from the watch, everything agrees. If you own a Pixel Watch or Galaxy Watch and lift, this single row of the table probably decides the comparison.

Where else BULQ pulls ahead

The analysis layer is free. 30-day charts, snapshot stats, an activity grid, a muscle-balance view, automatic insight cards (latest PR, stale PR, neglected muscles, volume anomalies) and a muscle-map summary after every workout - all on BULQ's free tier, where Strong asks for PRO before showing a single chart.

More structure free. 5 routines to Strong's 3, plus unlimited custom training plans with sequencing - a concept Strong doesn't really have; it's a routine logger, not a program planner.

Local-first. Your log lives in a database on your device; no account is required to train. Sign-in exists only for optional cloud backup.

Where Strong stays ahead

iOS and Apple Watch. Strong is superb there, and BULQ's iOS app is still on the way. Twelve years of stability - Strong's reputation for never losing a set was earned over a decade; BULQ is the new app and has to earn that trust rep by rep. A warm-up calculator - Strong has one (PRO); BULQ currently doesn't have an automatic one in-app (there's a free one on our tools page). And Strong's simplicity is a feature: if you want zero analytics, zero prompts, just a fast list of sets, Strong's minimalism is hard to beat.

Pricing, side by side

USD, July 2026. Regional prices vary. Strong also offers a $19.99 six-month plan on iOS.

BULQ Pro costs roughly 60% of Strong PRO year-to-year, and exactly half for lifetime. What you get also differs: Strong PRO primarily unlocks what BULQ already gives away free (charts, plate calculator, body measurements), while BULQ Pro adds unlimited routines, unlimited saved charts, all-time analytics ranges and automatic cloud backup on top of a free tier that already includes the analysis layer.

Switching takes one CSV file

Verdict

Strong remains one of the best lifting apps ever made - on iPhone. If you're in the Apple ecosystem, it's the pick today.

On Android, you're choosing between a good port and a native. BULQ gives Android lifters the things Strong reserves for PRO - charts, plate calculator, body measurements - for free, adds a Wear OS app Strong simply doesn't have, and charges half as much to own it outright. Since your entire Strong history imports from one CSV, the cost of finding out is zero.

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