37 Health Apps & Devices You Should Know & Use

At Addapp, we use tons of activity trackers and health apps each day because we like keeping track of our health and well-being, staying in the know on what’s out there, and well, we if we don’t use them, how could we build Addapp?

As a team, we often discuss apps and wearables and how we like some and dislike others. So we decided to come clean and share our 12 favorite health and well-being apps and devices, as well as many honorable mentions. Here’s what we recommend:

1. Myfitnesspal

Keep track of your food — and calorie intake — and let Myfitnesspal help you lose weight along the way. You can easily browse their food database, which has 5 million entries. * Free app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone

Why we recommend it:

Daniel: It’s simply the best food-tracking product out there!

Kouris: Since I started using Myfitnesspal, I have become super aware of what I am eating and often find myself applying the knowledge I got while using it to make daily decisions. For example, since I started using Myfitnesspal, I have replaced every unhealthy side dish you can imagine with broccoli.

Laura: Myfitnesspal is a great personal training tool. Keeping tabs on people’s food diaries makes MFP something of a confessional box, but ultimately, I think it helps you take control over the figure on the scale.

Ash: I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this one. But it’s the best way to track calories at the moment. Tracking with Myfitnesspal makes me more aware of my intake, and I make more conscious decisions when I’m tracking.

Dave: I use this, along with a digital scale, to keep track of all my nutrition. It isn’t the most elegant interface, but it has the deepest food database, and it integrates with Apple Health and other major apps that I use.

Henrique: It’s the best food tracker ever!

Rens: It’s simple food tracking with a world-wide database. I also like the nice number of pro features to make using the app easier. You just have to figure them out.

2. Fitbit Products

Fitbit is known for its wide range of activity trackers: wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, quality of sleep, floors climbed, and other personal metrics. There are a few different options, like the Fitbit Charge HR, the Fitbit Flex, and the Fitbit Surge, which all have different sizes, functionalities, and price points. Fitbit also makes the Aria WIFI scale, a smart scale.*

All devices are accompanied by a mobile app and a web platform.

Why we recommend it:

Kouris: Fitbit is the most reliable wearable device ever! Decent battery life and it’s what it says it is: an activity tracker, probably the best one out there.

Amanda: The Fitbit app gives me a comprehensive look into my activity throughout the day and helps me to remember my H2O intake.

Laura: I love everything about Fitbit. I like the pretty dashboard, the accurate heart rate tracking and the fact that Fitbit made walking sexy. I own a Surge, the Charge HR and a Flex.

Henri: I like the reliability of this device and continuous heartrate. And as Kouris mentioned it is one of the best devices on the market right now.

Lance: I like the easy sleep tracking and the easy syncing (although sometimes the heart rate seems a bit low).

Dimitris: Very nice feeling while using the app. Tracking couldn’t be easier and nicer.

3. Withings Products

Withings is a French wearable company that makes activity trackers, scales, and sleeping devices. They are praised for their simple and elegant approach to wearables and apps.*

Why we recommend it:

Stephen: I just love the graphs in the Withings Health Mate app. It gives me an instant overview of how I am doing.

Lance: I love that the Withings Scale syncs itself via WIFI and makes it so easy to see a graph of my weight over time.

Henrique: I like the step tracker and the graphs that it creates in the app!

Andreas: I like Withings products. Their app is very well-designed and clean.

Rens: Withings Health Mate app has an easy interface to see my health information. Especially to see changes in my weight.

Kouris: From a design point of view, Withings is simply the best. I use the Withings Activite Pop, and it’s a non-intrusive device to my outfit — it just looks like a watch. A big kudos for the smartwatch being waterproof and tracking my swimming. It still needs some tweaks on swimming activity, but it works!

4. Human

Human helps you move 30 minutes or more, every day. It automatically picks up your walks, runs, bike rides and other exercise.*

Why we recommend it:

Daniel: I love getting info on how much I move on a given day. With Human, I love how I can compare my data with friends using the clubs feature.

Ash: Human is the only activity tracker I enjoy using. I like how it gives me a clear daily goal to work toward and the clubs, where I can battle my friends, are a great way to motivate myself to beat friends and colleagues.

Andreas: I am an active person by nature, and Human really motivates me to actually use that energy and walk around.

Rens: I love that it simply collects data without you worrying too much.

5. Spotify

Spotify is a commercial music streaming app for your desktop and mobile phone.*

Why we recommend it:

Judith: No music, no workout. I need my headphones and music to get me out the door. Spotify is perfect for that. I make dedicated playlists for activities and only use them for working out.

Stephen: No music, no party.

Henrique: There’s no better music app. Spotify has all the bands that I’m used to listening to.

Dimitris: Not a health app, but I use it while running.

6. Nike+ Running

The Nike+ Running app allows you to track runs, challenge friends and get motivated to keep running.*

Why we recommend it:

Judith: Nike+ Running is the best running app out there. The visualizations of your run in the app are stunning, and most importantly: it comes with very accurate tracking of your runs.

Amanda: This is my go-to running partner. It keeps me informed of my progress during a run and provides me a dashboard of all runs that I’ve logged. My favorite features are the ones that I fill in myself after a run, like the setting of my run (road/trail/track/beach), how the run made me feel, and any other notes, which are especially helpful to look back on and learn from when I’m training for a half marathon.

Henrique: I downloaded it when I bought my first pair of Nike shoes, so I am used to it and I like using it, even though it has nothing very “special.”

7. Apple Watch Activity App

The Apple Watch Activity app is an app on Apple Watch. It shows your daily activity through three rings: one to show many active calories you’ve burned, one to show how many minutes of brisk activity you’ve completed and a ring that shows how often you’ve stood up to take a break from sitting. The app stimulates people to complete each ring every day.*

Why we recommend it:

Kouris: The activity app gives me prompts to stand. It’s actually hard to get to the basic goals it sets on a daily basis. I find myself going to get a glass of water every time it prompts me to stand up.

Stephen: I love the random notifications about how I am doing during the day. And the “Stand Up” also is a good call to action to get moving for a few minutes.

Rens: The app keeps you motivated to fill those rings, which keeps me healthy. The stand up notifications are especially great. They are annoying at first but it reminds you how much you sit, which is bad for your back.

8. Jawbone UP

Jawbone makes activity trackers such as the Jawbone UP2, UP3 and UP4 wristbands, as well as portable audio devices.*

Why we recommend it:

Ash: I don’t use the UP band anymore (they’re too small and uncomfortable on my wrist), but I still like to log workouts and keep an eye on my food intake (integrated with Myfitnesspal) using the UP app.

Dave: The hardware is a bit flaky (I had to replace two before I got a third band to work reliably), but the software and user experience is the best of all of the fitness trackers out there — even though there’s so much they could do better! But I think that Jawbone has done the best job of all of the casual fitness trckers I’ve used to make a great experience available, every day.

Andreas: I love Jawbone’s products, especially for the smart alarms and the inactivity nudges during the day.

9. Runkeeper

Runkeeper is a mobile application that enables runners, cyclists, hikers, and other activity-seekers to track their outdoor fitness activities.*

Why we recommend it:

Henri: I love the ease of tracking all kinds of activities. Although they should make tracking HIIT workouts easier.

Henrique: Runkeeper lets me log exercises even if it’s not live. Fitbit does it too, but I like Runkeeper better.

Andreas: I really prefer Runkeeper when I do any type of workout. I love their training plans because they make you stick to it.

10. Strava

Strava is a website and mobile app used to track athletic activity via GPS.*

Why we recommend it:

Kouris: When I go cycling I think of nothing more than putting on my Strava.

Dave: Strava is my favorite social app, especially for my triathlon training. I follow friends and members of my club, but I also love Strava for the segment PRs as well as the little pro features like heart rate zone analysis.

11. Apple Watch Workout App

The Workout app from Apple Watch helps you track your workouts. It gives you reminders while working out and afterwards you get a detailed summary.*

Why we recommend it:

Stephen: I like the fact I can easily start a workout without a hassle.

Rens: Just easy and fast tracking of workouts. The tracking also seems to be accurate.

12. FitStar

FitStar describes themselves as a technology company developing health and fitness apps that help people streamline their workout sessions.*

Why we recommend it:

Laura: I love the FitStar trainers. They have that all-important, “Boom! Let’s do this.” presence and on the whole their workouts are do-able and effective.

Stephen: I love their workouts and how that they offer you new ones to try on a random basis.

* All these wearables and apps integrate with Addapp. We use the data to serve you personal tips to improve your health.

13. Moodprint

Amanda: My favorite tracker is Moodprint, which asks a simple question throughout the day via email: How are you feeling? The ease of use and visualization of my moods on its online dashboard keeps me responding every day.

14. Apple Health

Daniel: Apple Health is the best platform to collect all your data and keep it stored. I love how other apps use its data to improve their services.

15. Fitocracy

Daniel: Fitocracy is the best platform that I know of to track my weightlifting data.

16. Sleep Cycle

Daniel: Sleep Cycle is the best option on iOS to track my sleep patterns.

17. Basis Peak

Judith: With my Basis Peak Smartwatch, I can see my sleep pattern in a heartbeat and understand why I feel tired or refreshed. I spend a lot of time staring at and analyzing the sleep graphs in the app.

18. Skulpt

Judith: Quantifying your muscle quality and fat quantity of every single muscle? With my Skulpt I have never been more motivated to lift weights and work my arms.

19. Clue

Judith: My life became drastically easier when I started tracking my periods with Clue app — I know when to expect the next round.

20. Pillow

Amanda: The detail of my sleep that Pillow app captures, both in content and visualization, is astounding. I trust the accuracy of Pillow more than any other sleep-tracking device that I’ve tried. All you have to do is put it beside you on your mattress while you sleep, and it will do all the work.

21. Pacifica

Amanda: I’ve only recently started using Pacifica, but so far, it has helped me to relax whenever I am stressed. There are fun daily challenges, and just one look at the moving image of waves coming in at a beach during sunset is enough to instantly soothe me!

22. Yummly

Amanda: Yummly offers me smart recipe recommendations that keep me creative in the kitchen.

23. TomTom MySports

Laura: TomTom MySports does what it says on the box: “At-a-glance performance information”. Basic, easy to read and functional. The speedy GPS on the TomTom Runner means jigging around on the spot waiting for a satellite signal is a thing of the past.

24. Lark

Laura: Despite the fact that Lark can be like being with an overly chatty friend, I like its warmth. There’s an easy tone to Lark that doesn’t make me feel like I’m being picked on by my P.E. teacher. Those gentle nudges are far more likely to get me moving.

25. Headspace

Ash: Headspace is perfect to relax at the end of the day or to clear my mind before starting the day.

26. Freeletics

Ash: Freeletics is good for getting in a home workout on days I can’t make it to the gym.

27. Last.fm

Henri: I love searching for new music and listening to new music. Last.fm gives me recommendations based on the artists I like at the moment, but also based on my history of about three years. They are not that good at visualizing or pointing out trends in my music taste over the years, but I’m actually planning on doing that myself soon.

28. Swarm/Foursquare

Henri: I use social check-in app Swarm a lot within my friend group. We love challenging each other for mayorship, seeing where someone hangs out, and commenting on a check-in of one of our friends. I also love the fact that this is really accurate and cool data to have in the future; you can accurately revisit your life with this data, and that is mainly what keeps me going. I appreciate the recommendations from Foursquare, too.

29. TactioHealth

Henri: TactioHealth is a pretty crappy app when it comes to design and giving feedback, but I appreciate it because of its easy-to-read, clear dashboard. It gives me an overview of my health and activity for the week in an instant. It makes me aware of what I should be focusing on during the rest week (like cardio, sleep, blood pressure). It also reminds me a lot that I have risk for Type 2 Diabetes because of my cigarette addiction.

30. Training Peaks

Dave: Training Peaks is the main workhorse for my training. This helps me to gauge my fitness along with the coaching plan that I am using to achieve my best for my next race. Way too many bells and whistles that I don’t understand, but I love their fitness vs. fatigue graphs that give me an idea of how my training has helped me to get into better (or worse!) shape.

31. HRV4T

Dave: This little app is a hidden gem — I use it every morning to check my heart rate variability and to get advice on whether or not I should train intensely or easily that day — or even take a day off! It’s very nerdy, but I love that I don’t need any equipment, just my iPhone and my finger to do the daily measurement.

32. Atkins Carb Tracker

Lance: The Atkins Carb Tracker was very helpful when I started my low-carb diet. It explained the plan, let me look up info on a lot of foods and had some good recipes.

33. Seven

Andreas: Seven is a completely different kind of app, but this gives me that extra boost to do some exercise in the evening. It’s handy because it only takes seven minutes of my time.

34. Runtastic

Dimitris: Runtastic shows your running routes on a map. I like it because it tracks your runs with high precision.

35. Moves

George: Walking and activity diary Moves has a nice user interface, and I use it also to remind me where I was one week ago at certain times. Its a bit spooky but it does the trick.

36. Jazzradio

George: As a fan of jazz, I listen mostly to the jazzradio.com app. You have to check it out!

37. OfficeLens

George: In my opinion, OfficeLens is the only brilliant app by Microsoft for all mobile devices. You screen-shot a document or a whiteboard from any angle, and the algorithm makes it perfect ( autoSkew, brightness, noise reduction etc.). Gains me massive amount of time, every time. It’s very good for my productivity.

What are your favorite health and well-being apps and devices? Let us know, and we’ll try them out!