Best and Worst Health and Fitness Apps For 2017: Nike, Map My Run, Under Armour Which is Better?

As 2017 begins, so do people’s resolutions on health and weight loss. There are many apps out there to help people with their goals, but some might not be so helpful, a recent report shows.

Researchers from ARC, the research division of digital experience testing company Applause, analyzed 4,500 health and fitness iOS and Android apps, along with more than 1.5 million written reviews over the past 13 month. The apps were divided in four sections: Stress Relief, Personal Health, Nutrition, and Fitness.

Stress relief and personal health apps had better scores than nutrition and fitness apps, the report found.

Fitness

Fitness apps, which was the largest section, had the lowest average score compared to stress relief, personal health and nutrition apps. Many popular brand apps like Nike+ Run Club (60.7 average), Samsung S Help (51.0 average), Lifelog by Sony (63.0 average) and Google Fit (38.0 average) were at the bottom of the list.

These are the top 10 fitness apps:

1. StrongLifts 5X5 Workout (88.0)

2. 30 Day Fit Challenge Workout (88.0)

3. 7 Minute Workout-Free Daily Fitness Routines (86.0)

4. Fabulous-Motivate Me!

5. Daily Yoga (84.7)

6. Map My Run (83.4)

7. Pedometer By Tayutau (83.0)

8. C25K-5K Running Trainer (82.7)

9. Pedometer & Weight Loss Coach (81.9)

10. Map My Walk (81.4)

Personal Health

Personal health apps section had the second highest scores among the four categories, with a high of 95 and low of 65.

These are the top 5 personal health apps:

1. Period Tracker, My Calendar (94.8)

2. Life-Period Tracker (94.0)

3. Period Tracker Lite (89.1)

4. Eve by Glow Period Tracker (85.1)

5. Glow Ovulation and Fertility (84.6)

Nutrition

Nutrition apps had the average score of 74.8. These are the top 5:

1. Water Drink Reminder (86.0)

2. Hydro Coach (81.0)

3. Plant nanny (78.0)

4. Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker (75.8)

5. Lose It! By FitNow (75.0)

Stress Relief

The stress relief category had the highest scores, with all apps scoring above 70. The top 3 apps in that section are:

1. Relax Melodies (90.2)

2. Calm- Meditation to relax, focus & sleep better (85.9)

3. Sleep Cycle by Northcube AB (81.2)

Top Performers

The top performing apps were women’s health apps like menstrual and pregnancy trackers. Those apps had more had 10,000 reviews in the last 13 months, the report say.

“Women’s health apps have broad appeal as they offer a simple and practical digital solution to a common health concern for half the human population,” the report stated.

The two aspects the top apps had in common were performance and usability.

“Plainly, people value apps that solve real problems and are reliable and intuitive with just the right blend of features,” the report said. “Less is certainly more, as the top performers prioritize a flawless experience over adding more features that could detract from the overall experience of the app.”

Top ten apps overall:

1. Period Tracker, My Calendar by Leap Fitness Group (94.8)

2. Life – Period Tracker by Lovetap LLC (94.0)

3. Relax Melodies by Ipnos Soft (90.2)

4. Period Tracker Lite by GP International (89.1)

5. StrongLifts 5×5 (88.0)

6. 30 Day Fit Challenge by NorthPark (88.0)

7. Period Tracker by Sevenlogics (87.0)

8. 7 Minute Workout by Leap Fitness Group (86.0)

9. Water Drink Reminder by Leap Fitness Group (86.0)

10. Calm Meditation by Calm.com (85.9)

Popular Brands Not Doing Well

Successful brands, such as Under Armour, Nike, Sony and Weight Watchers need to step up their game, the report says. Those brands were included in the list of 13 apps with the worst average scores. However, Under Armour-owned MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, Endomondo and Asics-owned Runkeeper, scored above the category average.

“Large brands are held to a higher standard, in part because they are a known entity, but also because users have made a financial investment, be it a smartphone, fitness band or apparel,” the report said. “It is important to consider the financial cost when comparing these apps against the category leaders.”

The 13 apps overall that scored below the category average were:

1. Record by Under Armour (65.7)

2. Runtastic (64.1)

3. Lifelog by Sony (63.0)

4. Strava (62.7)

5. UP Smart Coach by Jawbone (62.0)

6. Nike+ Training Club (60.7)

7. Fitbit (51.4)

8. S Health by Samsung (51.0)

9. Weight Watchers (39.4)

10. Nike+ Run Club (38.9)

11. Google Fit (38.0)

12. Garmin Connect Mobile (36.9)

13. Mi Fit by Xiaomi (29.1)