The Freeletics App is one of the most downloaded and used Calisthenics apps. They are known for various programs, including nutritional ones. For this Freeletics App review, we’ll focus on their bodyweight workout app, which now includes AI features and in-app selection of any (optional) Calisthenics equipment you have available. We did extensive testing of the Freeletics App, although we haven’t had the time to use the app for, say, years. We do, however, have plenty of experience with Calisthenics Programs and have tested many other apps like it. Time to subject the Freeletics App to a thorough, critical review.
You can also watch my Freeletics App Review on YouTube:
Key Takeways
- The Freeletics App is a comprehensive and highly customizable Calisthenics app.
- The library of exercises is over 700 long, organised into multiple programs and “journeys”.
- Each program is customised to your current capabilities, age and biological sex by an AI Coach.
- Progression is handled through feedback after workouts, which the AI Coach translates into more challenging or advanced exercises over time, making progression dependent on you rather than set timetables.
- The Freeletics App is easy to navigate and handles the information flow well, separating information-dense pages from minimalist, exercise-focused ones
- Gamification and a community tab with challenges and user reports keep the app motivating, including streaks, badges, levels and achievements.
What we’ll review for the Freeletics App
What makes an app belong to the best Calisthenics Apps? In our experience, it comes down to the following 5 things:
- A simple and easy-to-navigate user interface. No one wants to get lost in a complicated, unclear app interface.
- It should have relevant options and customisations. The more tailored you can make the workout, the better.
- It should be user-friendly, which means not only easy navigation but also clear onboarding, workout setup, and (if applicable) easy, safe, and quick in-app purchases.
- The app should feel motivating to get started and (most importantly) motivate you to keep going and stick to the plan.
- We want our apps to be updated regularly, even if the program(s) are already fleshed out.
These 5 key things are separate from what we call Calisthenics Programs. The app serves you the program. We will also review the program and its workouts.
Freeletics App Form & Function
You can download the Freeletics App for both Android and iOS. It has been downloaded over 10 million times on the Google Play Store alone, and has over 280,000 ratings on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, combined. The app is relatively lightweight, coming in at under 200mb despite having over 700 exercises on board.
User Interface & Design
The Freeletics App is pretty simple to navigate and understand. It has a lot going on under the hood, but the app does a good job keeping the navigation and information displayed on point and easy to access. The app starts with an onboarding sequence that includes simple questions such as your biological sex, age, weight, how many days you want to train per week, and so on.
When you’re done filling in these basic stats about yourself, the app gives you a few general workout plans based on your goals. After you select the one you want, it will take a few minutes for the AI to create a custom workout plan.
The style and layout of the Freeletics app are clean but informative. It is by no means minimalist, and you can get a lot of information and access a bunch of relevant options from a single glance or button tap. All the information is neatly organised, and the interface never feels crowded.
For instance, for your workouts, you can view the entire week and preview each day. Within each workout day, you can see an overview list of all the exercises and an indication of the number of repetitions or durations for which you will be doing those exercises. Click on any of the exercises to bring you to a page with a more detailed description and high-quality video tutorials.
You can view and preview a lot of information, but it is done in a nicely organised fashion that never overwhelms. The more detailed information is compartmentalised on dedicated pages, while the overview is often enough to get started with the workout.
The workouts themselves are just a reel of the planned exercises on a timer, advancing one by one. This part of the app feels minimalist, focusing on just doing the exercises and avoiding information overload. You can still access the more detailed information on the current exercise if you want to.
Options & Customisability
There are almost limitless ways the app can be adjusted to suit your needs. During onboarding, you already provide the app with relevant information to customise your workout. This includes the basics and estimates of your current physical fitness. The app will then present you with 4 different “journeys” (basically, overall goals you want to achieve), and 16 individual programs. Each of these, the programs and the journeys, is adjusted based on your initial physical fitness, age, and so on.
After the initial setup, you can change the workout settings at any point. This would include changing the number of days you want to train and how long you want to train for, as well as completely changing your goals.
Even before a workout, you can tell the AI-coach how you’re feeling that day, or if you are in a hurry or don’t have access to your regular equipment, and so on. The coach will change the routine accordingly.
During the workout, you can always indicate if an exercise is too hard for you or if there is some other problem, like a physical disability that prevents you from doing that exercise. The coach will adjust the workout again by giving you several alternative exercises to do instead.
After your workout, you are asked to give feedback. Based on the feedback, the coach may adjust future workouts in intensity and/or difficulty.
Last but not least, you can also create your own workouts from the library of over 700 exercises. If you have experience with Calisthenics, you can do this alongside all the other options the Freeletics App offers.
This all makes for a highly customisable Calisthenics app which you can tailor exactly to your needs, capabilities and goals.
User Friendliness
The Freeletics App is relatively simple to navigate but also contains a lot of information. Its user friendliness comes largely from how it manages this information feed. The app is broadly divided into three sections, accessed from the bottom bar: the Community tab, the Settings tab, and the Coach tab.
The community tab is a feed of blog posts you can react to, featuring interesting posts, highlights, and tutorials. Users can also post their results there. If you want to change anything about the app or your current workout program, you can do this in the Settings tab.
The tab you will spend most of your time on is the Coach tab, where you find your current program and workouts. This tab is the most information-dense part of the app. Things are kept relevant here, so you are not bombarded with information unless you are specifically looking for it. For instance, the program overview focuses on when your workouts are, the workout days focus on what the workouts are, and only if you click on an individual exercise are you presented with how to do it.
In this way, the Freeletics App gives you a lot of relevant information only when you need it, and everything is easily navigated out of with the back button. Even during a workout, a large button is present to adapt that exercise, and you don’t have to delve into settings and menus to find the right spot where you can customise a workout or exercise.
This sensibility in the information flow makes the Freeletics App a good fit for both beginners who just want to follow the program and more advanced Calisthenics practitioners who might seek more customisability.
Motivation
Motivation is key to succeeding in Calisthenics (and everything else in life). The Freeletics App solves this by gamifying your gains and progress. You can earn points for each exercise you complete, which increases your profile level. Levelling up becomes harder with every level you gain, but “unlocking” more advanced exercises earns you more points.
You can see your progress and on what times you earned your points, as well as collect badges and other achievement titles for passing certain milestones.
The Freeletics App also tracks streaks in days and weeks. For a day to count towards a streak, the total workout time needs to be at least 17 minutes. However, all exercises count, including cycling and running. For your weekly streaks, just stick to the workout plan and complete all workouts.
I’m particularly motivated to get the stats on my profile as high as I can and not break my streaks.
Other ways to stay motivated are through the Community tab. You can share your progress and hardships with others and read others’ reports as well. Misery loves company, after all, but so does success. Freeletics also offers several exercise challenges you can participate in and show off when you succeed.
Development & Updates
The Freeletics App is regularly updated with small patches to fix bugs and add or improve smaller features. You can find a complete changelog in the app itself. They also still build larger updates periodically, introducing new features or adding new equipment and/or programs.
Freeletics is obviously being actively developed and maintained.
Freeletics Program & Workouts
After you’ve done the questionnaire with the onboarding, you immediately get to choose from a bunch of different programs. You can also change up each program or switch programs entirely. You’ll get to train with the Freeletics App for a very long time to come.
Despite the wide variety of choices, each workout is structured the same way. A workout consists of a warm-up, the main exercises and a cooldown. Proper breaks are also present in the workout session itself.
Your progression is determined by the feedback you give at the end of the workout session. The AI-coach automatically adjusts the difficulty of upcoming workouts (typically for one week after the feedback) based on your feedback. Your progress depends entirely on how you perform and not on a set schedule with benchmarks you must meet.
The Freeletics App also includes deload weeks, a nifty extra that most apps and programs overlook.
Pricing of the Freeletics App
The Freeletics App is reasonably priced, especially considering its popularity, high quality and customisability. Here is a pricing overview for the Freeletics App subscription, including our CWW20 discount price:
| Quarterly | Yearly | Lifetime | |
| Regular Price | €3.85/w(~€50/q) | €1.92/w(~€100/y) | €299.99/once |
| CWW20 Discount Price (est.) | ~€40.- | ~€80.- | – |
Conclusions About the Freeletics App
The Freeletics App is a nicely organised and very complete Calisthenics App with a lot of customisability and extra options. The interface holds a very nice middle ground between minimalism when the focus needs to be on the exercise and in-depth information when you’re actually looking for it. The app also has gamification and community features to keep motivation high and, consequently, those gains coming.
The programs and workouts are also very complete. The Freeletics App has everything that both beginners and advanced practitioners need to keep progressing.
We are big fans of the Freeletic App, and we definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to start, continue or improve their Calisthenics. Don’t forget to use the code CWW20 for 20% off on the quarterly and yearly subscription plans.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Freeletics App
Here are a few more frequently asked questions about the Freeletics App we found online:
Does the Freeletics App have a free trial?
No, the Freeletics App is a paid subscription from day 1. However, there is a 14-day money-back guarantee. If you are not convinced by the Freeletics App, you can cancel your subscription and get your money back within that timeframe.
Can I get a discount on the Freeletics App subscription?
Yes, you can get a 20% discount on the quarterly and yearly plans with the code CWW20.
Is the Freeletics App worth it?
The Freeletics App is a paid subscription, but one of the cheapest ones. At the same time, it is also a very comprehensive and highly customisable Calisthenics App that is worth the price you pay for it. Both beginners and advanced practitioners of Calisthenics can use the Freeletics App to make progress.
