Athlytic is a clean, focused Apple Watch HRV and recovery app. Fitiv does everything Athlytic does — daily readiness scores, HRV trend tracking, sleep quality analysis — and adds a full training platform on top: strength tracking with sets and reps, GPS cardio, training load management, power tracking, and community challenges. For athletes who want recovery data and training data in one place, Fitiv is the more complete alternative.
What Athlytic Does Well
Before explaining why athletes move from Athlytic to Fitiv, it is worth being direct about what Athlytic gets right.
Athlytic's interface is genuinely clean. The daily readiness score is prominently displayed, easy to interpret, and presented without noise. If you want to glance at an HRV readiness number without navigating through a full training dashboard, Athlytic's minimal design serves that purpose well.
The app has a clear, singular focus: tell you how ready your body is to train. That constraint produces a product that does its one job without making you think about anything else. Athletes who already use a separate workout tracker and only want the recovery layer will find Athlytic easy to add to an existing workflow.
For Apple Watch users who have never tracked HRV before, Athlytic's onboarding is approachable. It establishes your HRV baseline quickly and begins producing actionable readiness scores within a few days.
Where Athlytic Reaches Its Limits
Athlytic is an observation tool. It tells you how your body responded to training; it does not help you do the training itself. Once you know your readiness score, you leave Athlytic and open a different app to log your workout. After the workout, you might switch back to Athlytic to see how the session affected your biometrics. That friction — switching between apps, manually cross-referencing data, losing context between sessions — is the core limitation Athlytic's focused design creates.
Training load is absent. Athlytic reads workout summaries from Apple Health to inform its readiness score, but it does not calculate TRIMP or TSS. It knows you did a run; it does not know if it was a 20-minute easy jog or a 90-minute threshold effort. Fitiv makes that distinction and weights its recovery calculation accordingly. This is not a minor detail — knowing cumulative training load is fundamental to understanding why your HRV is trending down over two weeks.
Strength tracking does not exist. Athlytic has no mechanism to log sets, reps, or exercises. If you lift weights, that training stress is largely invisible to Athlytic's recovery model.
Hardware flexibility is limited. Athlytic is Apple Watch only. Athletes who use Garmin devices, train with a Polar H10 chest strap, or want to use a Wahoo TICKR or Scosche Rhythm+ for superior optical accuracy during hard efforts cannot use Athlytic with their preferred hardware. Fitiv supports all of these.
No community or challenge features exist. Athlytic is a solo tool. There are no challenges, leaderboards, or community elements if training accountability through social features matters to you.
What Fitiv Adds Over Athlytic
Full workout tracking — not just summaries
Fitiv has a workout builder with strength and cardio modes. You can design a training session, log every set and rep with target weights, track rest periods from your Apple Watch face, and review progressive overload trends over weeks and months. Your cardio sessions are tracked with GPS routes, pace zones, heart rate zones, and power data where available.
Everything logged in Fitiv feeds the same recovery model. After a hard tempo run, Fitiv knows exactly how hard it was — not just "a run happened." After a heavy squat session, Fitiv knows the volume and intensity. Your readiness score the next morning reflects that complete picture.
Training load management
Fitiv calculates TRIMP and TSS for every workout and tracks your acute training load (recent fatigue) versus chronic training load (baseline fitness). This is the same framework TrainingPeaks uses, and it is the metric that explains why your legs feel heavy after a big training block — and when you should expect to feel good again.
Athlytic's readiness score is based primarily on overnight HRV trends and sleep quality. Fitiv's readiness score is based on those same signals plus the full context of your recent training load history.
Bluetooth HR monitor support
Fitiv connects to external Bluetooth heart rate monitors: Polar H10, Wahoo TICKR, Scosche Rhythm+. For athletes who want the accuracy of a chest strap over the optical sensor on their wrist — especially during hard cycling intervals or strength training where wrist movement degrades optical HR accuracy — this is a meaningful hardware advantage.
Athlytic requires Apple Watch and only Apple Watch.
Garmin support
If you train with a Garmin watch for certain activities and an Apple Watch otherwise, Fitiv connects to both. Athlytic is Apple Watch exclusive.
Community and challenges
Fitiv includes training challenges and community features for athletes who want motivation and accountability beyond their own metrics. Athlytic does not have a social layer.
Feature Comparison: Fitiv vs Athlytic
| Feature | Fitiv | Athlytic | |---|---|---| | Apple Watch support | Yes | Yes | | Garmin support | Yes | No | | Polar H10 / Bluetooth HR | Yes | No | | HRV readiness score | Yes | Yes | | Recovery score | Yes | Yes | | Training load (TRIMP/TSS) | Yes | No | | Strength tracking | Yes — sets/reps | No | | GPS cardio tracking | Yes | No | | VO2 max | Yes | No | | Workout builder | Yes | No | | Community / challenges | Yes | No | | Sleep score | Yes | Yes |
Who Should Use Fitiv as an Athlytic Alternative
- Athletes who want HRV readiness and workout tracking in a single app
- Hybrid athletes who mix strength and cardio and need both factored into recovery
- Athletes using Garmin devices or Bluetooth HR monitors
- Runners and cyclists who want GPS route tracking alongside biometric data
- Athletes who want training load (TRIMP/TSS) to inform their readiness score
Who Might Still Prefer Athlytic
- Athletes already using a workout tracker they love and only want a lightweight recovery layer added
- Athletes who prefer minimal interfaces and want their recovery check to be as fast as possible
- Pure Apple Watch users who do not need Garmin or Bluetooth HR compatibility
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Fitiv have the same HRV readiness feature as Athlytic? Yes. Fitiv measures overnight HRV via Apple Watch and generates a daily readiness score. The key difference is that Fitiv's readiness score also incorporates training load history — accounting for what you did in your workouts, not just how you slept.
Can Athlytic track strength training? No. Athlytic reads workout summaries from Apple Health but does not have a built-in strength tracker. Fitiv includes a full workout builder with set-by-set logging.
Does Fitiv work with Polar H10? Yes. Fitiv connects to the Polar H10 and other Bluetooth HR monitors directly. This is one of Fitiv's significant hardware advantages over Athlytic, which requires Apple Watch.
Is Fitiv more expensive than Athlytic? Fitiv has a free tier that covers core workout tracking. Premium plans with HRV readiness and training load analytics are priced competitively. Both apps offer paid tiers — compare current pricing in each app's listing on the App Store, as subscription rates may change.
If I use Athlytic's readiness score every day, what would I gain by switching to Fitiv? The biggest gain is training context. Fitiv's readiness score knows your training history — your last three weeks of runs, rides, and lifting — and weights your overnight HRV trend accordingly. Athlytic's score reflects last night's sleep and recent HRV trend but without the detailed workout load context. You also gain the ability to log workouts, build training plans, and track progressive overload inside the same app.
Can I get community features with Athlytic? No. Athlytic is a solo tool without challenges, leaderboards, or social features. Fitiv includes community challenges for athletes who want an accountability and motivation layer alongside their biometric data.