Looking For An Alternative to PTDistinction?

Hevy Coach vs. PTDistinction: An Overview

The folks at PTDistinction claim that you can train more clients in less time and get them better results, but is that the case? Does the platform have what it takes to streamline your coaching practice and provide an excellent experience for your clients?

More importantly, does it do these things better than Hevy Coach?

PTDistinction has a few cool features. It has an informative and functional dashboard, somewhat detailed client lists and profiles, options to group clients, and a library with 1,200+ exercises. 

However, as you look through the library, try to build a workout plan, or simply want to see how your client is performing on a particular movement, you notice that PTDistinction is not as flexible and functional as you’d like. 

You can’t add sets to exercises one at a time, mark them by type, set a rest timer that starts automatically for your client during a workout, track a client’s progress on a particular lift (for example, if you work with powerlifters), or log workouts for clients while doing a 1:1 session.

In essence, PTDistinction appears more comprehensive, but many of its features are useful for nutrition and health coaches. In contrast, Hevy Coach focuses on strength training, progress tracking, and keeping clients accountable. 

Hevy Coach is better than PTDistinction for trainers and coaches. It has a more flexible workout builder, better options for storing and organizing training plans, a curated and high-quality exercise library, more informative client profiles (with options to track performance, unlike PTDistinction), and superior coach and client apps.

Features Comparison
Feature	Hevy Coach	PTDistinction
Client Activity Feed	✅	✅
Individual Exercise Performance	✅	❌
Body Measurements	✅	❌
Progress Photos	✅	✅
Program Folders	✅	❌
Drag and Drop	✅	✅
RPE	✅	✅
Automatic Rest Timers	✅	❌
Manage Coaching Teams	✅	❌
Lead Generation	✅	❌

User Interface and Navigation

Despite its numerous features, PTDistinction is relatively easy to understand and navigate, thanks to the practical use of subcategories. 

The main menu sections allow you to navigate to your dashboard, client list, client groups, and library. These sections let you track clients at a glance, access your client list and profiles, and see your programs, exercises, assessment forms, and questionnaires.

The dashboard has a good outline, displaying your clients’ latest activities on a feed. You can click on any update and open it for more information, like on Hevy Coach. On the right, you get an overview of client status with three options: 

• Running okay – it shows clients who are adhering to their training plan
• Keep watch – for example, the client is running low on scheduled workouts
• Action required – the client needs a new training plan

You also see the percentage of completed tasks by your clients and combined workout activity.

Hevy Coach has a similarly functional dashboard that shows your clients’ latest activities (with an option to click on each for more information), as well as your weekly active clients, inactive clients, and all clients.

Also, like PTDistinction, Hevy Coach has a streamlined interface with a main menu to navigate you to your dashboard, access your client list and visit individual profiles, edit and build training plans, create custom exercises, chat with clients, create a lead generation form, and even build or join a coaching team.

However, since Hevy Coach primarily targets personal trainers and strength coaches, the experience feels more intuitive. Everything – from tracking a particular client’s progress to building a new training program – takes less time and allows more flexibility to help you stay on top of things.

“It’s a simple and easy dashboard that has a very clean app with UI. It has all the tools required to track progressive overload and ensure clients enjoy their workouts. Compared to other apps, they’re either too confusing or have too many bells and whistles that confuse clients. Hevy does a very good job at keeping things simple but extremely effective and easy to use. My clients love it.”

-Rashid K. (Source: Capterra)

Program Library

PTDistinction comes with 22 pre-built circuit, density training, and metabolic conditioning workout plan templates you can assign to clients or edit and import to your library. 

Unfortunately, you don’t have tags or folders to organize your plans, which can become problematic as your roster grows and you have dozens of programs in your library.

Once you create a new program, you’re prompted to give it a name. You can then add custom notes for the plan, attach helpful coaching items, and add as many workouts as you want. 

There’s also a new AI program generation feature that creates a plan for your client based on variables like their goals, gender, weight, age, preferred number of weekly workouts, and experience. You can also include details regarding your client’s injury history, preferences, and available equipment.

The plan takes a few minutes to generate, and it’s nothing earth-shattering. It’s prone to making errors and often doesn’t really consider some of the variables or notes you add. For instance, I asked it to generate two identical plans. One didn’t have any notes; the other had one note: The client previously injured their right knee.

Interestingly, despite this additional information, both plans were identical, and the AI generator had made no adjustments to account for the client’s injury history.

The generator also often bundles exercises into circuits, which is strange considering that many of the prescribed exercises are complex compound lifts, and I haven’t stated that time is a constraint in any of my prompts.

Hevy Coach doesn’t have an AI generator, but the program library is superior in several ways:

• Organize all the training programs in folders––for example, based on goals (e.g., muscle gain), available equipment (e.g., dumbbell-only), or experience (e.g., beginner).
  
• The drag-and-drop functions allow you to move programs around, including between the different folders.
  
• See what workouts are part of each plan without opening them.
  
• Duplicate training plans and entire folders for streamlined program building.

• When you open a program, you can rearrange, duplicate, and add or remove workouts, add notes, set a program duration, see a summary, and even copy workouts to other programs.

• Like on PTDistinction, there are pre-built programs. However, the ones in the HevyCoach Library are more thorough and based on resistance training. You can sort options based on the client’s fitness levels, goals, and available equipment.

The best part? Hevy Coach allows you to build programs more quickly. Click + Create Workout Program inside the program library, write a title and brief program note, set a duration, and import individual workouts or build them from scratch.

Workout Builder

PTDistinction has a great workout builder with plenty of functions. To access it, navigate to the Programs subcategory under Library and select to edit an existing program or create a new one. 

Once inside, you can add multiple workouts one after the other, and build them from scratch. You can add sections to each workout, such as warm-up, main work, and cooldown. 

Once you’ve added a movement, you can write the number of sets, reps, duration, tempo, rest period, and intensity percentage in the corresponding fields. You can use the drag and drop functions to move movements up and down (even between sections) and add two or more exercises into a circuit.

There are also options to swap an exercise, add it to multiple sections of the same workout, include custom notes, duplicate a section, and set the same training variables for all movements within a section.

That said, while PTDistinction’s workout builder has decent features and offers good flexibility, Hevy Coach does some things better.

Like PTDistinction, you can use a search field to find movements from the library. You can also use the filters for target muscle and equipment needed to narrow the search results. This allows you to quickly and efficiently add the correct exercises to any workout you’re building.

Once you’ve added a movement to a workout, you can write a custom note (like a tip or directions for tempo), select a rest timer (it automatically starts when your client marks a set as complete; more on their point of view below) and add load, repetition, and RPE targets for each set individually.

This is a fantastic way to prescribe more complex workouts with varying load, rep, and effort targets––for example, pyramid or reverse-pyramid sets. It also ties in perfectly with the ability to easily add and remove sets and mark each set based on type: normal, drop set, to failure, or warm-up.

Click the three dots icon on any exercise for additional options: add the exercise to a superset, replace the movement, remove it, or edit some details, such as the how-to instructions.

Another practical option is to add a warm-up activity with a custom note like “Do a 3-minute dynamic warm-up consisting of leg swings, arm circles, jumping jacks, and high knees.” You can also attach a YouTube video to a specific warm-up sequence for your clients to follow.

The bottom line is that Hevy Coach’s workout builder feels more like a builder, thanks to the intuitive way you can add exercises, rearrange them, add or remove sets, and fill in the boxes for the load, reps or rep ranges, and RPE.

“The best coaching app I’ve used (and I’ve used a few!). The ability to write up client workouts so that all they have to do is hit “start routine” is such a time saver on their side! It’s just super easy to use and intuitive.”

-Dan I. (Source: Capterra)

Exercise Library

PTDistinction has an extensive library with 1,200+ exercises. You can access it through the Library section on the top menu and while using the workout builder. 

To find movements, you can scroll through the library (the results are sorted alphabetically) as well as use the filters (muscle target or type of movement) and search field. 

Each exercise includes a brief video demonstration, a couple of images, and information on target muscles. Most entries also include basic how-to instructions. The cool thing is that you can edit the information on each movement, including changing its name, adding a different video, replacing the images, and rewriting the instructions.

You can also add custom exercises with a video, images, how-to instructions, and other helpful information.

Hevy Coach has a smaller exercise library, but the 400+ entries are high-quality, curated, and highly relevant to personal trainers and strength coaches. So, while there are fewer options, finding the right ones is also easier.

Each search, even a one-worder like bench or row, brings up relevant results, and you’re always a short scroll away from finding the proper movement or variation. You can also use the filters for muscle groups and equipment needed to narrow the results.

Each exercise includes step-by-step instructions on setup and execution and information on target muscles, equipment needed, and type (e.g., Weight/Reps). Most movements also come with a demonstrational animation.

But let’s say you want to use some movements that are not found in the exercise library. That’s not a problem because you can use the custom exercise option to add movements to your library. You can add new activities with information like:

• Name
• Type
• Equipment needed
• How-to instructions
• Primary and secondary muscle targets

You can also attach images and a video (a link to a YouTube video or a file from your computer).

To further customize the library to your liking, you can attach videos to the existing exercises and edit the how-to instructions to reflect how you prefer to instruct each movement.

Client List and Client Profile

PTDistinction displays your clients in a list or grid. You can sort them by active and inactive or look at the whole list. The list shows clients with the date you’ve added them, the last time they were online, and their training program status––for example, running scheduled workouts or not having a program.

Click on any client to open their profile, where you can navigate through several subcategories: 

• Activity – see the client’s latest logged activities with an option to click on each for more information, see their program status, and examine their task completion rate
  
• Schedule – open the client’s calendar, see all their scheduled activities for each day, and add new ones
  
• Items – browse through your client’s programs, assessments, coaching files (like a spreadsheet or PDF), forms, questionnaires, habits, and tracking (you can create custom tracking tasks with a name, one or more items, and a unit for each––for instance, percentage, reps, or time)
  
• Communications – access your client chat; you can schedule messages to be sent at a specific date and time

Hevy Coach may lack some client profile features offered by PTDistinction (such as habit tracking) but excels in other areas and makes monitoring your clients and their gym performance easier.

First, the client list displays each person’s name, currently assigned program (and progress on it), activity in the last seven days, and coach (in case it’s a person from your team).

Second, the client profile has multiple subcategories, such as PTDistinction. In Hevy Coach, you get:

• Overview – it displays your client’s logged activities (e.g., a completed workout) on a feed, their training plan, notes you’ve saved for that person, and some workout statistics: training volume, sets completed, activity level, time spent training, and weight
  
• Workout Program – see and edit your client’s current training plan. A feed displays your client’s completed workouts. You can scroll through to examine the performance in each session and leave a comment on any workout.
  
• Exercise Statistics – use the search field and filters to see how your client does on specific movements. This can be handy when working with performance-oriented athletes, such as powerlifters or Olympic weightlifters.

• Advanced Statistics – see the number of sets your client does per muscle group, their time spent working out, the volume load, and the total sets completed over a specific period.
  
• Body Measurements – monitor the client’s weight, body fat, and circumference measurements, each displayed on a graph.
  
• Progress Pictures – access your client’s progress photos and use the compare feature to see the ones you want side by side.

While PTDistinction offers a few extra features – such as scheduling habits and sending forms and questionnaires – Hevy Coach is geared more toward personal trainers and strength coaches. 

This is seen as soon as you access your client list because you get the most relevant information: how active your client has been in the last seven days, what program they are currently running, and how far along they are on it (e.g., Week 6 out of 8).

Then, inside the client’s profile, everything is outlined to help you determine how consistent your client is, how they perform in each workout, what activities they do, and how their performance changes over time. 

Additionally, you can access more advanced workout stats, inspect performance on individual lifts, and track body composition through weight, body fat, circumference measurements, and visuals (progress photos).

Client App

The PTDistinction client app is quite thorough. Clients can access their assigned workouts, schedules, programs, guides (for instance, lessons you’ve assigned), and logbooks, where they can upload progress photos and circumference measurements.

Clients can also use the logbook inside the app to add to their food diary, sign forms, and fill out assessments.

The neat thing about the app is that clients can log workouts one set at a time and see them as you prescribe. Clients can also record a video of each movement so you can review their technique. These show up as separate activities when you navigate to the Activity tab within the person’s profile.

While PTDistinction’s client app works well and offers some cool features, the Hevy app for clients does many things better and provides additional options.

First is workout logging. Your client must navigate to the Coach tab and select the workout for that day. A new window will open with a stopwatch at the top left and the workout outlined as you’ve built it through Hevy Coach. 

An automatic rest timer begins once your client marks a set as complete. They can adjust the rest periods based on how they feel that day and easily add or remove sets. These options are not available inside the PTDistinction app.

While logging the workout, your client can input each set’s weight, number of reps, and RPE (if you’ve enabled it). They can also add a note to any exercise and mark any set by type: normal (default), to failure, drop set, or warm-up. RPE and set types are not available on PTDistinction.

Before marking a workout as complete, your client can upload photos and videos, add a note, and mark it as private so it’s only visible to the two of you.

Clicking on the stopwatch at the top left of the workout screen opens a menu with options to:

• Pause and restart the workout timer. This is particularly valuable if the client needs to stop the session and finish it later.
  
• You can manually change the duration of the workout and the start date and time of the session. This is useful if your client wants to log a previously completed workout.

The icon on the top right of the Coach tab opens the client’s chat with you.

Overall, the Hevy app is more flexible and intuitive for your clients. The workout logging feels clunky and rigid in the PTDistinction app because your client must go through individual slides for each set (each takes a couple of seconds to load), and they can’t change any of the training variables.

So, if the client has to cut a workout short, add or remove sets to a workout, or swap an exercise because of an ache or unavailability of equipment, they can’t.

Beyond workout logging, the Hevy app allows your clients to:

• Create workouts and start improvised workouts (for instance, an impromptu run or bike session)
  
• Examine their performance on any exercise they’ve logged through the app
  
• Upload circumference measurements, weight, body fat percentage, and progress photos

• See detailed workout statistics, such as set count per muscle group, muscle distribution, and main exercises (those the client does most often); clients can also see their monthly activity and active streak, both of which can be highly motivating

Your clients can also engage with other users in the vast Hevy community by following them, liking their workouts, and leaving encouraging comments. However, clients can set their profiles to private if they aren’t interested in the app’s social aspect.

“My clients love using the app, from simple tracking and social sharing to more advanced features like 1rm predictions and workout muscle usage charts.”

-Pete S. (Source: G2)

Coach App

The PTDistinction coach app is limited to just three sections:

• View as a client – select a client to see things from their point of view: their assigned training plan, assessments, meal plan, and much more.
  
• My messages—This section displays all the messages from individual clients and client groups. You can read everything and respond from your phone.

My trainer admin – this section allows you to access your coaching dashboard with all its features. The catch is that these functionalities are not part of the app. Instead, you’re redirected to a browser window on your phone where you get the same view of the features as you do on a desktop.

The app’s big drawback is that you cannot log workouts for clients while working with them in person. This is also the case if you navigate to the my trainer admin section and open the mobile browser version of PTDistinction. 

So, if you’re coaching clients in person, they would still need to log their workouts independently or hand you their phone to do it for them.

The Hevy Coach app is also simple, with just a few features. However, unlike PTDistinction, you can log workouts for clients and enjoy the same flexibility and options as your clients would in the Hevy app. 

To log a session for a client, open the app, navigate to the Client tab, select the right person, and choose the workout for that day. This opens a new window where you can log the workout for the client set by set, as well as adjust training variables on the go.

You can also invite new clients through the Client tab and chat with every person on your roster through the Chats section.

Coaching Team

Hevy Coach’s Team feature allows you to create or join a team of trainers. You can access this feature with your free trial and the most basic subscription plan.

As a team owner or admin, you can invite other coaches, visit their profiles, and see their complete lists of clients, along with an overview of their training plan, recent activities, individual workouts completed, exercise statistics, advanced workout stats, body measurements, and progress photos. 

You can also leave notes on clients’ profiles. These are only visible to you and can be useful reminders or information, such as ‘Client has chronic knee pain.’

An owner or admin role also allows you to reassign clients between coaches.

Another cool thing about coach teams is that all resources (workouts, training plans, and custom exercises) are shared among all members. This saves time, provides access to more movements in your library, and shows what training plans other coaches build.

PTDistinction doesn’t have a coaching team feature.

Grow: Generating New Leads

Grow is a Hevy Coach feature that allows you to build a lead generation form with a cover image, a message for prospects, and a unique invite link. You can customize it in a couple of minutes and share the link across social media, your website, email newsletter, and elsewhere.

When someone clicks on the invite link, they are taken to the form to request your coaching services by writing their name, email address, and a brief message. 

Each candidate shows under the Leads section within the Grow tab on the main menu. 

PTDistinciton doesn’t offer a lead generation feature.

Pricing

PTDistinction offers a 14-day free trial, but you must have a credit card on file to activate it. 

Their basic plan costs $19.90 monthly for up to three clients and $6 monthly for each additional client. The platform’s most popular plan, Pro, costs $59.90 per month for up to 25 clients, with each additional client costing an extra $2.40 monthly.

Hevy Coach offers a 30-day free trial (no credit card required). Beyond that, the basic plan is $25 per month for up to ten clients. The plan for up to 25 clients costs $50 monthly, but there are several more tiers beyond that, supporting up to 500 clients. 

As a bonus, your clients get a free Hevy app Pro subscription. Visit our pricing page for all the details.

Quick Table Comparison
	Hevy Coach	PTDistinction
UI and Navigation	The interface is clean and easy to navigate, with many features for coaches and PTs.	It’s easy to understand and navigate, and there are plenty of useful features.
Dashboard	It displays clients, their activity status, and their latest logged activities on a feed.	It displays plenty of helpful information without feeling cluttered.
Program Library	Store and organize programs in folders, duplicate them, import from the Hevy Coach Library, and assign plans to clients with a few clicks.	Store plenty of programs and use the 22 templates. Your programs are not organized by tags or folders.
Workout Builder	Add exercises from the library, write custom notes, add/remove sets, adjust the variables (sets, reps, load, etc.), create supersets, and rearrange movements using drag-and-drop.	Access the exercise library and add multiple sections to each workout. Add individual sets to exercises and assign reps, time, tempo, intensity, and weight targets.
Exercise Library	It’s curated, with each entry having how-to instructions and other important info. Edit the how-to instructions, attach a video, and add custom exercises.	It has many entries, each with a demonstrational video and how-to instructions. You can edit the details of existing movements and add new ones.
Client Profile	Multiple tabs provide an overview of your client, their training plan and recent workouts, advanced workout stats, body measurements, and progress photos.	Profiles have multiple subsections for logged activities, schedules, items (like training programs and habits), and communication.
Client App	Clients use the 5-star Hevy app to log workouts, upload body metrics and progress photos, track performance, and engage with the active community.	Clients can log workouts, record training videos, access coaching materials, fill out forms, and log prescribed habits and other activities.
Coach App	You can view your client list and current training plans, invite new people, log workouts for them, and chat.	See prescribed workouts, habits, and other things, chat, and access the mobile browser version of PTD.
Teams	Build or join a coaching team. As an admin, you can view all coaches, promote or demote them, and reassign clients. All team members share custom exercises and workout programs.	No
Lead Generation	Create a lead generation form with a cover image, custom message, and an invite link. Prospects can apply for coaching.	No
Pricing	It starts from $25 monthly for up to ten clients.	It starts from $19.90 monthly for three clients; each additional client costs $6.
Free Trial	30-day free trial (no credit card required)	14-day free trial (credit card required)

To Conclude

So, is PTDistinction the platform that saves you time and allows you to provide a better experience for your clients? In some ways, yes. 

It has a streamlined interface and uses subcategories to make navigation easy. The program and workout builders work well and are flexible enough, the dashboard is informative without feeling cluttered, and client profiles provide in-depth insight to guide your coaching decisions. 

Clients also enjoy a decent app for logging their workouts, getting coaching materials from you, signing forms, and completing questionnaires.

In other words, you get decent features at a reasonable price. 

However, as discussed earlier, Hevy Coach is geared more toward personal trainers and strength coaches, with all its features reflecting that.

The workout builder has more functions, including the ability to mark sets by type, add RPE, and set a rest timer that starts when the client marks a set as complete. Speaking of that, the client app is more flexible and allows your clients to change some training variables on the go, start impromptu workouts, and log previously completed sessions. 

Hevy Coach’s program builder is also more functional because you can organize plans in folders, import high-quality resistance training programs from the library, see the workouts in each plan at a glance, duplicate workouts, plans, and entire folders, and import routines between different training plans.

So, sign up for a free 30-day trial and see what Hevy Coach is all about.