FitNotes Supporter

My Experience with FitNotes Supporter

I stumbled onto FitNotes Supporter because my friend Dave kept bragging about his “perfectly organized” gym journal. I was stuck using the notes app on my iPhone 14, which meant scrolling through a mess of half-finished entries from three months ago. So I caved and bought the supporter version on a Wednesday afternoon, right after a frustrating leg day where I forgot what weight I used last week. Honest first impression? It’s not flashy. No big motivational quotes or shiny animations popping up. But that’s actually what I love. I open it, log my sets and reps, and get out. I’ve been using it for several months now, and it’s become my go-to. I’m a busy professional—I don’t have time to fiddle with complicated menus. The fact that it syncs across my devices is a lifesaver, because I’ll sometimes start a workout on my phone and glance at the stats later on my iPad while eating dinner. That said, I hit a snag when I tried exporting my data to a CSV for my trainer. The export worked, but the file format was slightly off, and support took three days to reply with a vague “try again.” Three days! I almost deleted the whole thing. But the core logging is so solid that I stuck with it.

Features Worth Noting

Let me tell you what actually gets used in my routine. The custom exercise creation is huge—I do a weird shoulder movement my PT calls “the torture press,” and I could name it, set the rep ranges, and track progress without any hassle. The statistics and charts are clean, not cluttered with useless fluff. I can see exactly how much my bench press has crawled up over the last two months in a simple line graph. No guessing. The ad-free thing is a no-brainer for me—I paid for this, so I better not see a single pop-up. And the backup to the cloud? I messed up my phone once (dropped it in a puddle, don’t ask), and restoring my data took maybe two minutes. That moment alone justified the purchase. There’s also a body measurement tracker, which I use maybe once a month, but it’s there if I get paranoid about my waistline. The biggest win for my personality is the speed. I log a full workout in under 90 seconds. That’s the kind of efficiency I crave.

What Needs Work

Okay, now for the stuff that drives me up a wall. First, the interface feels a bit dated. It’s not ugly, but it’s like using a tool from 2017. I tap something and sometimes there’s a slight delay before the next screen loads—maybe a half-second, but when you’re sweaty and trying to move fast, that half-second feels like an eternity. Second, the pre-built workout plans are almost nonexistent. If you want a structured program like 5×5 or PPL, you’re building it yourself. I get it, customization is the point, but for a guy who just wants to hit “start” and go, it’s annoying. Third—and this is the big one—the support experience sucked. I emailed them about the export issue (wrong delimiter in the CSV), and I got a canned response two days later saying “check our FAQ.” I checked. It wasn’t helpful. I replied again and waited another day for a real answer. For a paid app, I expect a faster bounce. It’s not a deal-breaker because the logging works, but it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Pricing

It’s a one-time purchase, which I respect. I think I paid like five or six bucks? Honestly, it’s been a few months, and I don’t remember the exact number, but it’s cheap compared to the monthly subscriptions of other fitness apps. There’s a free version of FitNotes that does the basics, but the supporter version unlocks the advanced charts, custom stuff, and no ads. For my workflow, the free version was too limited—I needed the data export and syncing. So I paid, and I don’t regret it. I’ve spent more on a sad sandwich from the airport. The only thing is, I wish there was a trial period for the supporter features. I had to take a gamble based on Dave’s word, and if he’d been wrong, I’d have been out that cash. But he wasn’t, so it’s fine. I’d rather pay once than get nickel-and-dimed by another subscription.

Developer Notes

The app is made by James Gay. From what I can tell, it’s a smaller operation—maybe a solo developer or a tiny team. The updates aren’t super frequent, but the app doesn’t feel broken or abandoned. I saw an update about six weeks ago that fixed a crash when scrolling through old workouts. So someone’s paying attention. But here’s the thing: the support response time tells me they’re stretched thin. I get it, I’m busy too, but if you’re charging money, you need to have a faster support turnaround. A simple auto-reply that says “we’ll get back to you in 48 hours” would set expectations better. Also, the app’s help section in the settings is basically a single page of FAQs. That’s fine for basic stuff, but my CSV issue wasn’t covered. So I’d love for the developer to expand that help area or add a video walkthrough. Otherwise, the app’s stability is solid—I’ve never had a crash during a workout, which is more than I can say for some bigger-name apps.

Security & Privacy

I’m not a security paranoiac, but I do pay attention. The app asks for access to iCloud for the backup sync, which makes sense. It uses your Apple account to authenticate, so no separate password to remember. That’s fine by me. I checked the privacy policy in the settings, and it says they don’t sell or share your data. It’s pretty boilerplate, but I trust it more than some sketchy freemium app that wants your location and contact list. There’s no social sharing built in, so your workouts stay yours. I store my body measurements and weight data here, and I don’t love the idea of that leaking, but it seems locked down. The data export to CSV or JSON is done locally, then you choose where to send it—like email or iCloud. So you keep control. My only nitpick is that I wish the app had a PIN lock or Face ID option to open it. If someone grabs my phone at the gym, they could see my progress. Not a huge deal, but an extra layer would be nice. For now, I rely on my phone’s default lock screen.