Free HRV and recovery apps for iPhone: what "free" actually means

The genuinely free recovery app on your iPhone is the one Apple already installed — the Health app, plus Vitals on the watch — and the ones worth adding on top are the ones whose daily score is not the thing behind the paywall.

Which brings us to the problem with this whole shelf, and the reason this page spends its first three hundred words on a definition instead of a list.

What "free" means on the App Store — and what it doesn't

Almost every recovery app you will find is labelled Free. That label describes the download and nothing else. It does not tell you whether the daily score is free, whether your history beyond a week is free, whether the trend line is free, or whether any of it stops working in a fortnight.

That is not an accusation about any app named below. It is how the storefront works: Apple publishes a download price, and what a subscription unlocks is not in that data. So this page will not tell you what any third-party subscription costs or contains — we did not verify it and we are not going to guess. Every entry links to its own App Store listing, which is where the In-App Purchases are listed and where the vendor's current terms live.

In practice "free" here means one of three things:

• Built in. It came with the phone or the watch. Nothing to install, nothing to pay, ever.
• Free to download, with a paid tier. Most of the category. The question that matters is which side of the line the daily number falls on — and only the listing and the app itself can tell you.
• Bought once. A single price, no membership. Rarer than it used to be.

How we checked

Every app named below was looked up in Apple's public iTunes lookup API on 6 August 2026. We record what that returns — the exact app name, the publisher and the download price — and we quote each app's own listing when we describe what it does. Anything the API does not know, this page does not claim. Apps that we could not verify this way were left out; a shorter list that is right is worth more than a longer one that is not.

Names, publishers, download prices and release dates as returned by Apple's public iTunes lookup API for the US storefront on 6 August 2026, except Project Summit's row, checked 7 August 2026 through the same API — that is our own app, held to the same sourcing standard as everything else here. A download price says nothing about in-app purchases; what is free in Summit specifically, and what Premium costs, is in entry 2 below and in full on the plans page.

1. Apple Health and Vitals — already installed, actually free

What it is: Apple Health (Apple Inc., free — checked 6 August 2026), plus the Vitals app that ships on Apple Watch.

This is the only entry on the page where "free" has no asterisk at all. Wear the watch to bed and Vitals estimates five overnight metrics — heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen, wrist temperature and sleep duration — learns your typical range over seven nights, and notifies you the next morning when several of them land outside it, with possible causes. It needs current iOS and watchOS, sleep tracking and Sleep Focus switched on (Apple, "Track your overnight vitals with Apple Watch", published 15 September 2025). Heart-rate variability is not one of those five, though Apple Watch does calculate HRV and Health charts it. What Apple does not do is turn any of it into a decision — Vitals flags that something is unusual, and stops there. For a lot of people that is genuinely enough.

Best for: anyone with an Apple Watch who wants an overnight read with nothing installed and nothing paid.

2. Project Summit — the free tier is the recovery layer

What it is: our app, so read this entry with that in mind. An iPhone app for cyclists that reads heart-rate variability, resting heart rate and sleep from Apple Health and turns them into a daily recovery score.

What is free, permanently, with no counter and no card:

• the daily recovery score and its 30-day trend;
• the sleep score with its full breakdown;
• the Home and Lock Screen widgets;
• automatic ride import from Strava, Hammerhead Karoo and Apple Health;
• every ride's route map, stats and elevation profile;
• share cards;
• a calendar you can put races, training camps and holidays on;
• the shape of the day's session — its type, its duration, and the training phase you are in.

That is a free tier, not a trial. Premium is a separate product — training load (CTL/ATL/TSB), power analysis, the prescribed session itself with its intervals, workout export, race-day fuelling — and its 14-day trial is an introductory offer for new subscribers, not a countdown the free tier runs out into. None of this is AI and there is no chatbot: the engine is deterministic, and every call traces back to a codified sports-science rule applied to your own data.

Now the part that decides it for most readers. Summit is cycling-only, iPhone-only and needs iOS 26 or later. If you are a runner, a triathlete, a lifter or an Android user, it is the wrong app and we would rather you found that out here than after installing it. There is also no Summit watch app — no complication, nothing on your wrist. The watch is the sensor, the iPhone reads it, and an Apple Watch is not required: any wearable that writes those metrics to Apple Health works, Garmin and Oura included — though only the Apple Watch writes the complete set Summit reads, so anything else gives you a score from a partial picture.

Best for: cyclists on an iPhone who already wear something to bed.

3. Bevel — the broadest one here, and the category's reference point

What it is: Bevel: AI Health Coach (Starlight Tech LLC, free to download — checked 6 August 2026).

The app everything else in this category ends up measured against, and by a distance the widest one on this page. Its own listing sells it as "the #1 app for improving your health, performance, and longevity", and it does not stop at recovery: a Recovery Score for daily readiness, a Sleep Score covering stages, duration and interruptions with a smart alarm on top, a Strain Score personalised to your sleep and recovery, a Stress Score, a Nutrition Score with barcode and photo logging, a strength trainer with 700+ exercises, an Energy Bank that combines the lot into one figure, a biological-age estimate, and importing of lab results and clinical records. It positions itself explicitly as an AI health coach — "Bevel Intelligence: Your smart health engine" — which is worth naming plainly: it is the opposite of how Summit is built, and both descriptions are accurate about their own product. What the paid tier ("Bevel Pro") contains is not in Apple's public data, so the listing is the authority.

Best for: anyone who wants one app across sleep, recovery, strain, stress, nutrition and strength rather than a narrow one — and who is comfortable with an AI-framed product.

4. Athlytic — Apple Watch data, read as recovery and exertion

What it is: Athlytic: Fitness & Recovery (MyndArc, LLC, free to download — checked 6 August 2026).

Its own listing describes it plainly: "Athlytic takes all the data that your Apple Watch collects and translates it into actionable insights", analysing heart-rate variability and resting heart rate for a recovery figure, then adding a target exertion range for the day and a target sleep for the night. It is sport-agnostic, which is exactly why it belongs above the cycling-specific entry for anyone whose week is not all riding. What sits behind a subscription is not in Apple's public data, so the listing is the authority.

Best for: Apple Watch owners whose training is not one sport.

5. Training Today — one readiness number, glanceable

What it is: Training Today (Betoli Ltd, free to download — checked 6 August 2026).

The narrowest app here, deliberately. Its listing says it "constantly monitors your Health Data from Apple Watch to determine your readiness to train (RTT) each day and throughout the day", that it was "developed with British Triathlon Coaches", that it runs independently on the watch without the iPhone present, and that it supports complications. One number, a multi-day chart, and nothing else asking for your attention. Check the listing for its current terms.

Best for: someone who wants a single readiness figure on the watch face and no second dashboard.

6. Gentler Streak — readiness without the performance framing

What it is: Gentler Streak Workout Tracker (Gentler Stories d.o.o., free to download — checked 6 August 2026).

Different premise from everything else on this page: its listing pitches it "for those of us who want to move consistently, not constantly", with a daily summary of key vitals and sleep, full sleep analysis with trends over 14 nights, and workout suggestions that respond to your readiness. It also makes a claim about data handling that none of the others make in their listing text: "Your health and fitness data stays on-device via Apple HealthKit, with no external processing." If that matters to you, it is worth the install on its own.

Best for: people who want to keep moving sustainably rather than peak for something — and anyone who wants their health data staying on the phone.

7. Kubios HRV — a deliberate morning measurement

What it is: Kubios HRV - Daily Readiness (Kubios Oy, free to download — checked 6 August 2026).

The one here that comes from the research side. Its listing says it "uses scientifically validated heart rate variability (HRV) algorithms (used by scientists all over the world)", and it is upfront about what it needs: "To make HRV measurements with the app, you need a Bluetooth heart rate (HR) sensor, such as Polar H10." The method is a short controlled measurement — the listing says 1 to 5 minutes at rest — rather than a passive overnight read, which is a genuinely different thing and, for some people, a more repeatable one.

Best for: someone who already owns a chest strap and would rather take a measurement than be measured.

8. Elite HRV — free for personal use, and quietly old

What it is: Elite HRV: Wellness & Fitness (Elite HRV Inc, free to download — checked 6 August 2026).

Its listing is unusually direct for this category — "The Elite HRV Wellness app is free for personal use" — and equally direct about the requirement: "HRV-capable sensor required". It has been a fixture of HRV-guided training for years. One fact from Apple's own data belongs here before you build a daily habit on it: the current version was released on 2 November 2023, which makes it by a wide margin the least recently updated app on this page. That is not a judgement about the app; it is a date, and it is the kind of thing worth knowing before you commit a season to a tool.

Best for: someone who already owns an HRV-capable strap and wants a free personal log, with that date in mind.

Four things to check before you install any of them

• Read the In-App Purchases list on the listing. It is on every App Store page and it is the fastest way to see whether "free" means what you hope.
• Find out which side of the line the score is on. Free history with a paid score is a very different product from a free score with paid history.
• Check what hardware it assumes. Several of these need an Apple Watch; two need a Bluetooth chest strap. Their own listings say so.
• Check it reads Apple Health, not just its own sensor. That is what lets you change your mind about the app without losing the data.

And if the reason you are reading this is that you are trying to get off a recurring payment altogether, the hardware side of the same question is here: Whoop alternatives with no subscription.

Questions people actually ask

Which free HRV app for iPhone is actually free?

Apple's own is: the Health app is installed with the phone and the Vitals app ships on Apple Watch, and neither costs anything at any point. Beyond that, most apps in this category are free to download with a paid tier, and Apple's public data does not say what that tier contains — so read the In-App Purchases section of each listing. Summit's recovery and sleep layer is permanently free, but Summit is only useful if you cycle.

Does "Free" on the App Store mean the app is free to use?

No. It describes the download. An app can be free to install and still put its daily score, its history or its trends behind a subscription, and the storefront label does not distinguish between those. The In-App Purchases list on the app's own listing is the closest thing to an answer before you install it.

Do I need an Apple Watch for these apps?

It depends on the app, and their own listings are explicit about it: Athlytic reads what your Apple Watch collects, Training Today monitors Health data from Apple Watch, and Kubios HRV and Elite HRV both state that they need a Bluetooth or HRV-capable sensor. Summit needs no specific device — any wearable that writes heart-rate variability, resting heart rate and sleep to Apple Health works, though only the Apple Watch writes the complete set Summit reads, which also takes in respiratory rate, blood oxygen and overnight wrist temperature. There is no Summit watch app either way, because the watch is only the sensor.

Is Summit's free tier a trial?

No. The daily recovery score and its 30-day trend, the sleep score with its full breakdown, the widgets, automatic ride import, every ride's route map, stats and elevation profile, share cards, the calendar and the shape of the day's session are free and stay free. Premium is a separate product, and its 14-day trial is an introductory offer for new subscribers — not something the free tier expires into.

What is the best free recovery app if I don't cycle?

Not Summit — it is cycling-only, iPhone-only and needs iOS 26 or later. Start with Apple's own Vitals app if you wear an Apple Watch, since it costs nothing and is already installed. Bevel is the widest of the third-party apps here, Athlytic and Training Today both read Apple Watch data across any sport, Gentler Streak is built around consistency rather than performance, and Kubios HRV suits anyone who prefers a controlled measurement with a chest strap.