alt Hacker NewsI got tired of all the worthwhile iPhone weightlifting apps wanting a monthly payment for a full feature set, while delivering an uninspiring, cross-platform experience.
I noticed none of the apps felt native to the iPhone, and I wanted something that felt on-part with the likes of Flighty, Things 3, and such.
Out of my love for weightlifting I then shipped Plates and have been working on it ever since. It's a completely native iPhone lifting app (SwiftUI/UIKit) and I've gone quite hard on native UI elements such as custom keyboards for plate-loaded exercises and RPE/RIR inputs, native animations, and nice haptic feel. It has no backend servers and no tracking SDKs, yet it still supports things like cross-device sync thanks to Apple's CloudKit. The best part is that it's just a one-time payment.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/dk/app/plates-weightlifting-log/id675...
Website: https://useplates.com
Replies
I just tried to install this and got the message: "This application requires iOS 26.0 or later."
I'm an iOS 18 holdout, any chance of a backwards compatible app?
Hi Tom, I downloaded your app and love your attention to detail, and how it works. I think it's exactly what I've been looking for. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to change the units. I live in Canada and we use both pounds and kilograms here. By default, the app uses Kilograms in Canada, but most weightlifting gyms use pounds. Do you have a plan to add unit settings in the future?