Best Calisthenics Apps – 12 Mobile Apps That Take Your Calisthenics Anywhere

You’re looking for the best Calisthenics apps that take your workouts anywhere you like. The world has moved into the digital age, so why should Calisthenics stay behind? The best Calisthenics apps liberate you from the confines of a computer or laptop screen. Why wait until you go to the gym for instructions? Why haul books or printed sheets around to keep track of your workout schedule? With our top pick of best Calisthenics apps, you’ll have everything mobile, with you wherever you are and whenever you choose to exercise. But which one to choose? Our team of Calisthenics experts have tested the 12 best Calisthenics apps and here are their conclusions.

[Original DECEMBER 1, 2021. Updated on SEPTEMBER 26, 2023: added additional information and updated the best Calisthenics apps]

What are Calisthenics Apps?

A Calisthenics App allows you to follow a professional Calisthenics Program on your mobile device. The UI (User Interface) makes it easy to garner all the necessary information from a small screen size. A WiFi connection isn’t strictly necessary for the app to function. Some browser-based Calisthenics Programs can also be used on your mobile phone or tablet and function identically to a true app, due to their lightweight nature. The best Calisthenics Apps feature sleek designs, lightweight programming, and HD video quality.

The 12 Best Calisthenics Apps

We’ve taken the 12 best Calisthenics apps available and put them to the test. Nothing too fancy, just us following these apps’ guides and guidelines and seeing how we did. We tested them for accuracy and how well they explained exercises. This is very important because mistakes are easily made and once engrained become very difficult to unlearn. Since beginners will also use these apps, our top priority was clarity and accuracy. Of course, we want to see an easy-to-navigate UI (User Interface) in our Calisthenics App. There’s nothing more annoying than stopping your workout and starting to cool down because you’re fidgeting around with your phone. We’ve settled on the following 6 criteria, along with a general fit and feel:

• Clarity & Accuracy: how well and easy to understand are the exercises? Can a beginner easily learn how to do the exercise correctly?
• User Interface: look and feel of the User Interface. Especially while doing your exercise.
• Training Quality: the quality of the actual workout sets and reps, looking at safety and of course effectiveness.
• Performance Tracking: does the App show your performance over time and by what metrics?
• Operating system: has to work on both iOS and Android
• Price: the best Calisthenics Apps shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, but Freemium and Paid options are allowed

#1 Best Calisthenics App: Calisthenics Movement Complete Calisthenics

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Excellent
• Training Quality: Excellent
• Performance Tracking: None (timetable only)
• Operating Systems: Not REALLY a Calisthenics App
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Parallel Dip Bars
• Price: from $47.99 per level (one-time fee)
• Read the Full Cali Move Complete Calisthenics Review

Cali Move Complete Calisthenics Overview

Calisthenics Movement is hands down one of the best Calisthenics Apps for an all-around experience from beginner to advanced practitioner. Although it is not strictly speaking a Calisthenics App, we have given it its due first place here as well. And, deservedly so. The interface is clean and scales seamlessly with mobile devices. You will need an internet connection for that HD video feed but that’s about the only drawback. What you get with Calisthenics Movement Complete Calisthenics is a lifetime subscription for a one-time fee, to a lifetime workout program. Realistically, you don’t need anything else ever again except this program.

Sure, you could start a more extreme body transformation program that gets you superbly chiseled or which puts a strong emphasis on professional athleticism. But for 90 to 99% of Calisthenics practitioners who just want a healthy body that looks good, Calisthenics Movement’s Complete Calisthenics course is the only thing they’ll ever need.

The Complete Calisthenics program comes in 5 courses, each course taking 19 weeks to complete. Each consecutive course is harder than the previous one, but it is a marathon and not a sprint. Progression is gradual and the complete program takes around 2 years from start to finish. That doesn’t mean you have to wait 2 years to see results. By course end, you are a true Calisthenics master capable of incredible physical feats. In between, these new techniques are taught gradually and at an appropriate time during your physical development. You’ll start seeing improvement very soon and again, for the vast majority the completion of the Complete Calisthenics course is more than they could ever wish for become a reality.

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That is why we always recommend trying the Calisthenics Movement Complete Calisthenics Program first and see if it suits your needs. Nine times out of ten, it will.

Update from 23 September 2023: Cali Move is working on dedicated Apps too, which should be free if you’ve already bought the program!

Pros to Cali Move Complete Calisthenics

• Best beginner choice
• Best workouts for both men and women
• Great selection of full-body workout programs
• Excellent UI design
• Very clear and intuitive workflow
• Fastest beginner to master trajectory

Cons to Cali Move Complete Calisthenics

• Not an app (yet) / None

#2 Sondre Berg Movement Trybe App

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Excellent
• Training Quality: Excellent
• Performance Tracking: Excellent (perhaps best-in-class)
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: from $19.99 a month
• Full Sondre Berg Movement Trybe App Review

Sondre Berg is someone who came to our attention early in 2022 and he came sort of out of nowhere. We were one of the first to notice what he was doing with the Movement Trybe App and without any prior knowledge, we decided to give it a try. Are we glad we did because the Sondre Berg Movement Trybe App is a real diamond in the rough! Sondre Berg’s enthusiastic and personalized take on Calisthenics is a real breath of fresh air.

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With a typically Scandinavian clean and sleek design, the app is easy to navigate and clutter-free. The HD videos are train-along and feature Sondre Berg himself eagerly participating with you. Progression is solid and adjustable and that’s where the magic of this particular Calisthenics app is hidden. It’s like your personal coach just short of having a physical, professional physiotherapist monitoring you.

The Movement Trybe app is infinitely customizable but does so in an intuitive way with building blocks. You’re not left out of a clue about what to choose and what not. Instead, exercises are presented as “blocks” each with a description of what it’s good for. You can add and remove these blocks to preexisting Calisthenics courses. That way, you can modify the already very good courses (ranging from beginner to advanced) this Calisthenics App has to offer to suit your specific needs. If you want to get even more nitty gritty, the blocks themselves can also be modified.

Pros of The Movement Trybe App

• A huge database of exercises to choose from
• Great selection of full-body workout programs
• Excellent UI design
• Very clear and intuitive workflow
• Easy to customize workouts

Cons of The Movement Trybe App

• None

#3 The Movement Athlete

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Excellent
• Training Quality: Excellent
• Performance Tracking: Excellent
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: $157 (Annual subscription)
• Full The Movement Athlete Review

The Movement Athlete is one of the best Calisthenics Apps if you’re getting serious about Calisthenics. When you first start the App, you’ll be prompted with a fitness assessment. This personalized assessment will go over practically all your muscle groups and specify which exercise you passed and which you failed. This sets you up for a highly personalized training schedule, something you’d sooner expect from a personal trainer than a Calisthenics app.

From this baseline, you choose 5 core skills you want to master. All the other foundation work is done as well but just like in any other sport, you can’t do everything in Calisthenics and expect top-performance everywhere. You have to choose to focus on some things. The Movement Athlete got that part right. All the other workouts are still part of your repertoire too, they’re not neglected. 

All exercises are explained using video clips that show you exactly what to do and how. Beyond following their recommended training program, you can completely customize it to your liking.

As you progress and the App keeps track of your performance, the difficulty will be steadily increased until you’ve laid a strong, core foundation for every other workout and have truly mastered your 5 focus areas.

The Movement Athlete App provides easy-to-understand information, excellent and highly individualized performance tracking, and great workouts that increase in intensity. The only thing that beats this all is its absolutely gorgeous UI design.

Pros of The Movement Athlete

• A huge database of exercises to choose from
• Great selection of full-body workout programs
• Excellent UI design
• Very clear and intuitive workflow

Cons of The Movement Athlete

• Free trial is too short to really test it out

#4 Caliverse

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Excellent
• Training Quality: Bad – Good
• Performance Tracking: Average
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: Free or Paid (£4.49 a month or £43.99 a year)
• Read the Full Caliverse App Review

With a sleek and accessible design, the Caliverse Calisthenics App was designed to be community-driven and loaded with lots of free content. The navigation of the UI is probably the easiest of all the apps we tried. The App is a collaboration between Pitkevics and the United Calisthenics Group, which together create workout plans and instructional videos for each exercise. The result is an easy-to-use App that will appeal to the beginner Calisthenics practitioner in particular. 

Workout plans are divided into 4 difficulty categories to cater to the advanced practitioners as well. With the premium subscription, you get access to their extreme workout plans as well as numerous other plans. New workout plans are added on a monthly basis under the heavy influence of community feedback.

Many Calisthenics Apps take a male-oriented approach to Calisthenics when it comes to building muscle mass. The Caliverse App has a special program designed for the female Calisthenics athlete with their “Be Fit Female Plan”. There is simply no denying our biology and that the female body is different from the male body. As a woman, you have different muscle toning; roughly the same as the male lower body, and around 30% less muscle mass in the upper body. Calisthenics for Women means that many of the male-oriented plans will not give you optimal results or may even be detrimental. With that, Caliverse is one of the best Calisthenics Apps for women.

Pros of Caliverse

• A huge database of exercises to choose from
• Great selection of full-body workout programs
• Excellent UI design

Cons of Caliverse

• The occasional bug still occurs
• Not lightweight enough to function without Wi-Fi

#5 Thenics

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Excellent
• Training Quality: Very Good
• Performance Tracking: Good
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: Free or Paid ($1 a month or $10 a year)
• Read the Full Thenics App Review

Thenics is in the same ballpark (or rather, Calisthenics Park) as The Movement Athlete in many regards. It has a similar UI and has you follow similar workout routines and exercises. It is an easy-to-use App with clear and accurate instructions on what you need to do. We did a Thenics review before and were happy with it then as we still are now.

Thenics is a comprehensive Calisthenics App that lets your focus on building up Calisthenics skills as well as strength and endurance. Following the program will make an all-round athlete of you, without focusing too much on any one aspect in particular. If you’re just looking for strength training or only cardio, Thenics is not for you. If you want to build up that rock-solid foundational body from beginner to expert, Thenics is definitely for you.

Pros of Thenics

• A huge database of exercises to choose from
• Great selection of full-body workout programs
• Excellent UI design
• Affordable Premium features

Cons of Thenics

• Exercises aren’t explained too well

#6 Madbarz App

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Good
• Training Quality: Bad – Excellent
• Performance Tracking: None
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, elevated platform, Gymnastic Rings, and Parallettes.
• Price: Free or Paid ($9,99 a month or $59,99 a year)
• Read the Full Madbarz Workout App Review

The Madbarz App is a powerful tool for beginner Calisthenics practitioners to transform themselves into advanced practitioners. Madbarz is a full-spectrum program that includes exercises, workout plans, and nutrition. All the exercises are shown with video clips so in that regard a beginner can step right in. But what you’re really shown is a mindset, to become more holistic and more professional in your approach. You can pick from multiple workout plans with certain goals in mind or customize a workout plan entirely to your needs.

This makes the training quality of Madbarz entirely ambiguous. If you know what you’re doing you can create the perfect workout plan for you, finely tuned to your needs. If you don’t know what you’re doing though, you could be doing it wrong very easily. Because Madbarz has a very big catalog, it can be overwhelming. The free version of this Calisthenics App alone offers you 60+ exercises to choose from.

When you’re determined to apply a professional approach to your Calisthenics, you should opt for the paid version. Not only does this unlock all workout plans, but you also get access to 12-week courses and nutritional plans.

Pros of Madbarz App

• A huge database of exercises to choose from
• Great selection of full-body workout programs
• Excellent UI design

Cons of Madbarz App

• Expensive Premium features

#7 Calistheniapp

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Good
• Training Quality: Bad – Excellent
• Performance Tracking: Average
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: Free or Paid ($4,99 a month or $29,99 a year)
• Read the Full Calistheniapp Review

With hundreds upon hundreds of exercises all packaged into a neat little App, Calistheniapp is a strong competitor to Madbarz. Their easy-to-use layout along with the myriad of different workouts was made with both beginner and expert in mind. The exercises are color-coded, blue for beginner, orange for intermediate, and red for expert. Each exercise has different variations in these three categories, allowing you to work your way up from easy to very, very hard gradually. 

The clean and easy-to-navigate UI lets you pick and choose different exercises and the program tracks your basic progress for each exercise. You can set up and customize your own workout and even determine how long your breaks in between sets should be. 

And that was just the free version! The paid version gives you access to full-body transformation courses and muscle-building courses designed to induce hypertrophy. Advanced Calisthenics equipment and exercises like the Gymnastic Rings are used here as well.

Pros of Calistheniapp

• A huge database of exercises to choose from
• Excellent UI design

Cons of Calistheniapp

• No pre-made full-body workout schedules in the free version

#8 Thenx

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Excellent
• Training Quality: Bad – Good
• Performance Tracking: Average
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: Free or Paid (£9.99 a month or £89.99 a year)

Thenx is touted as one of the best Calisthenics apps for the professional athlete. Thenx comes with a barebones UI, favoring minimalist design and maximum content. The App and all its content are designed by professional trainer Chris Heria and professional athletes and are meant for anyone, of any age and at any level.

When starting the App you can specify your height and weight and what your goals are. If you already have some knowledge about your level, you can fill in how many reps you can do for each exercise or fill these in later after you’ve done them as part of a workout plan. 

Workout plans come in the form of lists of exercises with a number of sets and reps given. Each workout plan comes in a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level. Each exercise is taught to you by high-quality video clips. Once you’re done (or before that), you can visit the in-app community to see how others are faring.

The free plan comes with all daily routines. If you opt-in for their paid plan you get access to 8 technique guides and 9 additional, professional workout plans fit for the advanced Calisthenics practitioner.

Pros of Thenx

• Excellent UI design
• Very complete free version
• In-app community

Cons of Thenx

• Expensive Premium features

#9 Calisthenics Mastery App

• Clarity & Accuracy: Average
• User Interface: Good
• Training Quality: Bad – Good
• Performance Tracking: Minimal
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: Free or Paid (£14.99 a month)

Simple to use and easy to get into is what we’d call the Calisthenics Mastery App. The App doesn’t have any workout plans in particular, instead, you have access to a truly vast quantity of different exercises. All exercises come with written descriptions and animated icons showing you what to do. You can pick and choose from this list of 150+ exercises, which are categorized by difficulty and muscle group to set up your own workout plan.

The App comes with a Workout Streak tracker, which keeps track of how many days you’ve done your workout and provides a sort of incentive to keep going. With the paid plan you also get an auto-rep feature which automatically increases the number of reps you need to do per exercise over time.

Pros of Calisthenics Mastery App

• A huge database of exercises to choose from

Cons of Calisthenics Mastery App

• No ready-made programs or progress, you need to set up everything yourself.

#10 Al Kavadlo We’re Workout Out

• Clarity & Accuracy: Average
• User Interface: Good
• Training Quality: Bad – Good
• Performance Tracking: Minimal
• Operating Systems: iOS and Android
• Needs Equipment: Pull-up bar, Straight Parallel Dip Bar, Bench, and Parallettes.
• Price: Free or £6.99 once

Focusing more on lifting and building arm and shoulder muscle, the Al Kavadlo app is a great and no-bar (pun not intended) entry into weightlifting. With a complete library of lifting and strength training, Al Kavadlo provides you with pretty much everything you need. Exercises are categorized by movement type, allowing you to pick and choose different parts of your body to exercise. If you have a plan of your own in mind, Al Kavadlo is all you need. The free version does not come with a progress tracker, however.

With the paid plan (which is ridiculously cheap by the way) you gain access to an activity section, progress tracking, and complete strength training workout plans. This makes Al Kavadlo an excellent budget option if you’re just looking for a strength training app. 

Pros of Al Kavadlo We’re Workout Out

• Cheap Premium version
• Great to build massive arms

Cons of Al Kavadlo We’re Workout Out

• Weightlifting focused
• Arms and shoulders focused

#11 FitnessFaq’s Body by Rings

• Clarity & Accuracy: Excellent
• User Interface: Very good
• Training Quality: Excellent
• Performance Tracking: none
• Operating Systems: Not REALLY a Calisthenics App
• Needs Equipment: Gymnastic Rings
• Price: $95 (lifetime access)
• Full FitnessFaq’s Body by Rings Review

This one isn’t an App but a subscription to a website. The mobile version of their website is good enough to pass for an App and you’ll have no trouble accessing what you need. The caveat here is that you need either Wi-Fi or roaming enabled, of course. 

Body by Rings is a carefully crafted fitness regime that makes use of the full potential of Gymnastic Rings. It is entirely focused on getting upper-body results as fast as humanly possible while still remaining safe and healthy. If you’re looking to match your gymnastic rings with an “App” then the Body by Rings program is what you’re looking for.

Aside from lifetime access to the web portal, you’ll also receive PDFs that explain the science and excellent video instructions on how to perform every exercise. The exercises themselves are repetitive interval training in nature and come in an 18-week course. The course can be repeated to gain greater results by adding more repetitions.

Pros of FitnessFaq’s Body by Rings

• Make the most of your Gymnastic Rings

Cons of FitnessFaq’s Body by Rings

• Not an app
• Not beginner friendly

#12 (Bonus) Calisthenics Parks

• Price: Free
• Shows you where Calisthenics Parks are

We just couldn’t help ourselves and had to include the Calisthenics Parks website. If you don’t know about this website yet, then you need to know right now. Calisthenics Parks takes your location and shows you nearby, you guessed it, Calisthenics Parks. With over 16,000 spots to date in over 100 countries globally, you’ll never miss out on a workout again. Calisthenics Parks is a community effort, meaning you can add and recommend parks you’ve visited. We always keep the website bookmarked.

Pros of Calisthenics Parks

• Free, most or all equipment available
• Exercise in the outdoor

Cons of Calisthenics Parks

• The park doesn’t come to you, you come to the park
• The park isn’t yours alone

Equipment You Need with the Best Calisthenics Apps

You’ll have noticed many Calisthenics Apps list some Calisthenics Equipment you’ll need to participate in them fully. Any Calisthenics App worth its salt will, at some point, progress you to a point where you’ll have to make use of dedicated Calisthenics equipment to grow further. There’s a limit to where you can get without them efficiently. We’ve given our best standard options with each Calisthenics app already. However, like you (probably), we don’t like to spend too much money (for sure), especially not on stuff we don’t need. 

Many Calisthenics Apps will list a Pull-Up Bar, Dip Bars, and Parallettes as their recommended or required equipment. These can be combined into one Power Tower. In fact, that is what a Power Tower is; a Pull-Up Bar, Dip Bar, and Parallettes (and Leg Raise station) combined in one. A single Power Tower costs a fraction of the price of all three aforementioned products, at least if you’re going for some quality. Of course, a Power Tower will not give you the absolute best quality, comfort, and customizability possible as each dedicated product can but it is an option to consider. You compromise a little on each of these qualities to get 1 product that saves you some money and space.

If you’re going for dedicated products because you want that edge, the biggest decision you’ll have to make is the type of Pull-Up Bar you want. There are three main classes of Pull-Up Bar and for each of these we have the best ones reviewed:

• Best Wall-Mounted Pull-Up Bars
• Best Free-Standing Pull-Up Bars
• Best Door Frame Pull-Up Bars

Conclusions: The Best Calisthenics Apps According to Us

The best Calisthenics App overall for us is still the Calisthenics Movement Complete Calisthenics program. Although not technically a Calisthenics App, it functions like one all the same on your phone’s browser. It has a sleek design, solid and gradual progression, and most importantly; it gives you the results you want. From our experience, the vast, vast majority of Calisthenics practitioners are absolutely happy with where Calisthenics Movement Complete Calisthenics brings them. It is also quite light on the Calisthenics Equipment and doesn’t cost the world either.

Close runner-up with some more “gamified” features like progression metrics, is The Movement Athlete. If you’re looking for something more focused on bodybuilding or extreme athleticism, we believe you’re better off with a dedicated Calisthenics Program like VAHVA Fitness’ 20XX (which is admittedly on a whole different level).

If you’re looking for the best free Calisthenics Apps to try your hand at Calisthenics, we suggest you try out Thenics. It has great features and also includes an optional paid subscription should you like what it has to offer.