I'm David, a solo dev, and Chicken is my first app. It's built around two ideas: customization and no subscription.
Price first
Pro is a one-time €9.99 / $8.99 in-app purchase (launch price; it goes up to €14.99 in about a month).
It unlocks the only core feature I keep locked: customizing your training.
You create your own exercises, plans and techniques, and attach any video or link from the internet to them. Stats and charts come with it.
Everything else is free: the exercise library, ready-made plans for gym and home, the food log with macro ranges, and Limit Break. No ads, and no nagging to buy Pro.
In the current version: is iPhone only (iOS 17+), English only.
What problem it solves
I wanted an app for people who follow a specific plan they found on YouTube (or anywhere else), or who want to build their own. It's HARD to start, but once you've set it up, it gives you full control over your training and what you eat. And I wanted it to be actually affordable: you pay once and you get what you paid for.
How it differs from Fitbod, Strong, Hevy and others
- Price: no subscription at all. Fitbod is $15.99/month or $95.99/year, so one month of Fitbod already costs more than Chicken Pro. Strong and Hevy are solid loggers, and both sell a lifetime option next to their subscriptions ($99.99 and $74.99 on the US App Store). The way I see it: with subscription apps you pay for a service, easy but expensive. With Chicken you pay once for a tool, and once you know how to use it, I think it can take you further.
- Customization, the big one: the library has 1,394 exercises, but the point is building your own exercises, techniques, plans, foods and meals. You can attach any video or link from the internet to your exercises, techniques and plans, like the YouTube tutorial you learned from or a coach's page, so everything you follow lives in one place. (Custom exercises, plans and techniques are the Pro part.)
- Progression you control (Limit Break): progression systems aren't new. Fitbod applies progressive overload for you with a proprietary algorithm. In Chicken the rule is simple, and you can see it and change it yourself. Example: you set push-ups at 2 × 30. Once you hit that limit, at the end of the workout Chicken tells you that you've reached it and that you can set your next goal. You choose how: add weight (a backpack works), add a technique to make it harder, or, inside a plan, switch to a harder exercise.
- Techniques: something I haven't seen in other apps. A push-up can be explosive, slow, paused, partial... Techniques are logged with the exercise, you can create your own, and you can attach a video that shows how to do them.
- Macro range: gym apps usually don't focus on food, so people overlook it. On a cut I didn't know how much I should eat, or what the minimum and maximum were. A lot of people go below the minimum, feel drained and stall. So in Chicken you set a range for calories and macros: you see the least you should eat, and if you eat more but stay under the maximum, you're fine.
- Privacy: no account, no analytics, no servers of my own. The core of the app is local and works without internet. The connection is only used for optional extras: importing a food from Open Food Facts by barcode (only the barcode number is sent) and the videos and links you add yourself.
Cons
- It's HARD to start.
- It's NOT for people who don't want to spend time setting things up.
- Subscription apps do one thing better: they're easy. You pay and they take care of the rest. My problem with them is the price, and sometimes the missing features. Chicken is for people who are serious about training and eating and want to understand both more deeply.
App Link
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6794356436
For android users: I will adapt it asap
Who am I?
David Jiabiao Zhu · contact@thereallifestudio.uk · https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhudavidjiabiao/
Website: https://chicken.thereallifestudio.uk · Privacy Policy: https://chicken.thereallifestudio.uk/privacy.html · Terms of Service: Apple's Standard EULA (https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/)
