How Fitness Apps Can Grow Your Wellness Brand

Working out doesn’t have to feel like work. When your clients find the exercises and routines they enjoy, sticking to a fitness routine becomes manageable.

The right fitness app, for example, can serve as your clients’ personal trainerby offering a variety of on-demand videos and access to gyms and classes. It can also serve as an accountability tool by allowing them to track their progress during at-home workouts.

Given their flexibility, apps are a great resource to help your customers reach their wellness goals — whether they want to slim down, bulk up, or feel healthier. And they’re a great resource to help youbuild out your fitness business.

What Are Fitness Apps?

Fitness apps are mobile software applications designed to help users track their fitness journey and activity data, like steps taken, heart rate, and caloric intake. Many also provide various wellness resources, like on-demand exercise routines and studio access, or built-in reminders that motivate members to exercise or log their meals.

How Many Fitness Apps Are There?

Before the pandemic, the market for fitness apps was nearly stagnating — but in 2020 saw a 45% increasein users. That year, developers released more than 71,000 new wellness apps, and there were an estimated 385 million unique fitness app users in 2021.

The fitness app market was worth $680 millionin 2016. It grew to$5.35 billionby 2021 and by 2026, researchers expect the market share to reach a $41.09 billionvalue.

Who Uses Fitness Apps?

If you want to market your app wisely and position your message to reach the right audience, it’s helpful to know basic fitness apps demographics.

The generation that uses fitness apps most frequently is Millennials, or people born between 1981 and 1996. Here are some other vital stats you should know about the fitness app users:

• North America is the largest geographical fitness app market.
• Men outnumber womenin fitness app usage, but women own more fitness appsthan men. There’s no available data for non-binary users.
• Over half of iOS users use fitness appswhich is a higher rate than Android or other mobile platform users.
• Adults aged 50 to 80 who are in “excellent,” “very good,” or “good” healthare slightly more likely (29%) to use wellness apps than 50- to 80-year-olds who report “fair” or “poor” health conditions (21%).
• People who report an annual household income of $100,000+are more likely (43%) to use wellness apps than people who report a household income of under $30,000 (15%).
• People with bachelor’s degreesare more likely (40%) to use wellness apps than those with high school diplomas (17%).
• Fitness app usage varies across ethnicities: African Americans use fitness apps most frequently (23%), followed by Caucasians (20%), Hispanic Americans (19%), and Asians (16%). 

Fitness app usage is only growing, so make sure you’re establishing your position in the market as soon as you’re ready.

Why Are Fitness Apps Important?

Fitness apps are important because they help people improve their wellbeing. The apps available today have a variety of features — like fitness trackers — that let users monitor their health and wellness goals.

How Much Does a Fitness App Cost?

With thousands of fitness apps on the market, they are offered at a variety of price points. Here are some of the most used fitness apps and their subscription coststo give you an idea of how much the most popular products cost:

• Apple Fitness+: $10 per month (with one- or three-month free trial)
• Daily Burn: $20 per month (with 30-day free trial)
• Peloton: $13 per month without discounts (with 30-day free trial)
• Barre 3: $29 per month (with 14-day free trial)

What Fitness Apps Are Free?

When somebody is new to exercise or on a budget, free fitness apps can provide a great alternative to a subscription. Allowing people to engage with your brand at no cost is also a way to gain brand awareness and start building customer relationships, which is why some subscription-based apps have free versions with in-app upgrades to live classes, bootcamps, or on-demand workouts. Here are a few free workout apps for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Android devices that can inspire your brand’s app:  

• Overall fitness app: Nike Training Club
• Workout tracker: Strong
• App for all fitness levels: Johnson & Johnson 7 Minute Workout

What Should I Look for in Fitness Apps?

When your customers are selecting a fitness app, it’s essential for them to consider their specific goals. And when you’re developing a fitness app, it’s essential for you to consider how you can help them reach those goals. 

If your ideal user is a fitness enthusiast inspired by competition, consider gamifying your digital fitness programs and building challengeswithin your app. If your clients are trying to change their eating habits, you can consider including a feature that produces personalized meal plans. 

It’s vital that you research your target audience thoroughly so you can add the most sought-out fitness app features that make sense to yourapp. It may help to think about fitness app creation like this: Imagine your customers made a list of their ideal app qualities — functionalities that help them achieve their fitness goals. When you develop your company’s fitness app, call on this list to help you create features that solve your clients’ pain points.

How to Choose the Best Fitness Apps?

Ultimately, your customers will want to choose the fitness apps that help them reach their milestones most efficiently. Here are some of the ways they evaluate which app to choose:

• Your clients will likely look for fitness apps with detailed reviews and ratings. Reviews can help them gain insight into the app’s performance, customer service, and ease of use. It’s a good idea to ask satisfied customers to rate and review the app to help you reach new users.
• Most customers will ensure the fitness app is compatible with their device before paying for a subscription, so make sure your product is compatible with the devices your target market uses
• Fitness program users often check to see if their desired app has a free trial period. Think about letting people try before they buy to prove how great your app is

What Are the Best Fitness Apps for 2023?

The term “best” is subjective, right? What is “best” for one customer and for their personal wellness goals  may not be the “best” for someone else on a different wellness journey. 

Given that it’s such a squishy term, let’s look at the “best” fitness apps based on their popularity.

These are the three most commonly used apps— and their share of fitness app users — leading the pack:

• MyFitnessPal: 73.48% of users
• Strava: 16.58% of users
• Peloton: 8.63% of users

MyFitnessPal was the top earner in the fitness app categoryin both 2020 and 2021. Before you begin designing and developing workout plans for your fitness application, learn from the brands that are currently top of mind for customers. These leaders can inspire how you want to approach  your fitness app. 

Fitness Apps Can Offer More Than Exercise Help

Fitness apps are a great way to introduce new users to a more health-focused lifestyle and get them intimately familiar with your fitness brand’s offerings. Creating a monthly subscription and fitness app for iOsand Android devicesallows you to reach new users through the app stores’ search options. And when you partner with Wellhub, ourfitness app can help drive more customers to your business and increase your active users by 30%.

Ready to see for yourself how we can help you reach new customers? Contact a Wellhub wellbeing specialisttoday!

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