Recovery Apps for Apple Watch You Can Buy Once or Use Free (2026)
Your Apple Watch already records heart rate variability, resting heart rate and sleep. A recovery or readiness app turns those into a morning read on how you are doing against your own usual. Several good ones are free, and several sell a one-time or lifetime unlock. Here is what each costs and shows, from each company's own listing, including where our app is not the one to pick.
AI-assisted, human reviewed. How we use AI
MetricBridge makes one of the nine apps listed. Prices are the in-app purchase prices on each app's US App Store listing, and other facts come from each company's own pages, all read on 12 November 2026.
Quick answer. If you only want a free daily number: Apple's own Readiness on a Series 12 or Ultra 4, or the free tiers of Bevel, Metrya or Training Today. If you want to pay once: HRV4Training ($9.99), Metrya ($19.99 lifetime), MetricBridge ($24.99), Training Today ($59.99 lifetime) and Gentler Streak (lifetime from $59.99) all sell that. Pick MetricBridge from that list if you want every weight behind the number published, your own questions answered on your iPhone, and your data as a file your AI agent can read. None of these is a medical device.
How we checked. Each price is from the In-App Purchases list on the app's US App Store page; each method fact is from the company's own site or help pages, linked in the table. App Store lists sometimes show several prices for one item (regional or older tiers), and we say so where that happens. Prices change often: check the listing before you buy, and tell us at [email protected] if something here is out of date.
What each one costs, and what it shows
| App | Free | Pay once | Recurring plan | Daily read, and is the method published | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Readiness | Yes, built into watchOS 27 | Nothing to buy | None | Readiness 0 to 10, Series 12 and Ultra 4 only. Inputs and their direction published; weights not | support.apple.com |
| Bevel | Yes: Recovery, sleep, strain and stress tracking | Not offered | Pro $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, for its AI coach and extras | Recovery 1 to 100% from sleep, resting heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, blood oxygen and wrist temperature. Inputs published; weights not | help.bevel.health |
| Metrya | Yes: the Recovery score is in the free core | $19.99 lifetime | $1.99 a week, $4.99 a month or $14.99 a year | Recovery 0 to 100 from HRV, resting heart rate and sleep. Inputs published; weights not. No account | metrya.app, listing |
| Training Today | Yes: readiness and watch complications | $59.99 lifetime; "Additional charts" $5.99 | $2.95 a month or $29.99 a year | Readiness to Train, from HRV against your baseline. Method not published. "Data Not Collected" | listing |
| Athlytic | Free download | Not listed | Pro $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year | Recovery 0 to 100% from sleeping HRV and resting heart rate against a 60-day baseline; HRV "weighted slightly higher". "Data Not Collected" | athlyticapp.com, listing |
| Gentler Streak | Free download | Lifetime, listed at four prices from $59.99 to $179.99 | Premium $8.99 a month or $39.99 a year; family plans | No single recovery number: an Activity Path band from your recent against longer-term training load. Approach published | listing |
| HRV4Training | No | $9.99, paid upfront | None in the app listing | A one-minute morning measurement and daily advice against your normal range. iPhone only; needs an account with your email | listing |
| Welltory | Free download | $299.99 lifetime | From $12.99 a month; one-year plans from $79.99 to $119.99 | Stress and an energy level, not a named readiness score. Data stored in the cloud | listing |
| MetricBridge | 7-day free trial | $24.99, everything included | None. No subscription | A readiness estimate with its range (50 = your usual), not a recovery score. Every input, weight and window on /methods/. Computed on your iPhone, no account | /readiness/, changelog |
All read 12 November 2026. "Free" means a daily read is available without paying; for Athlytic, Gentler Streak and Welltory we list the free download and leave what stays free to their own pages. Prices are US App Store prices and vary by country.
If you want it free
- You have a Series 12 or Ultra 4. Apple's Readiness is already on your wrist. Start there.
- You want a 0 to 100 recovery number on any recent Apple Watch. Bevel and Metrya both include one in their free tiers. Bevel's paid plan is for its AI coach, not the number (Bevel Pro compared).
- You train and want a go or ease-off signal. Training Today's readiness and complications are free.
If you would rather pay once
- Lowest price: HRV4Training at $9.99, if you are happy to take a morning measurement on the phone and create an account. Its makers publish validation research on the measurement.
- A recovery score with a lifetime unlock: Metrya at $19.99.
- A training-readiness tool for life: Training Today at $59.99.
- A gentler, load-based guide instead of a score: Gentler Streak's lifetime option.
- A number you can check, plus answers and your data: MetricBridge at $24.99. That is the case for us, and the next section is the whole of it.
Where MetricBridge fits, and where it does not
MetricBridge shows a readiness estimate: last night against your own previous 60 days, with a range, and with every input, weight, window and limit published on /methods/. A 2025 review of 14 wearable scores found none disclosed its exact formula (Doherty et al.); publishing ours is the point. The same purchase includes Ask (questions about your own data, answered on the iPhone with the days and samples shown), the Weekly Brief, PDF reports, an export of 194 metrics and an open-source MCP server your own AI agent can read.
Where it is not the pick: it is not free, it has no energy gauge that drains through the day, it does not coach you or write a plan, and its estimate is deliberately not called a recovery score. If a free daily number is all you want, use one of the free options above.
Coming from a band with a membership?
If you are here because a Whoop membership is up for renewal, two pages go deeper: Whoop vs MetricBridge, including what Whoop does better, and how to cancel Whoop without losing your data.
The same caution applies to all of them
Every app here compares you with your own recent history. A low morning number is a prompt to notice, not a diagnosis, and the scores are not interchangeable: 60 in one app is not 60 in another. Use them to notice and ask, and a clinician to decide.
A number you can check. Paid for once.
A readiness estimate with the method published, on-device answers with provenance, 194 metrics as JSON and 22 MCP tools (20 read-only). Free trial, then $24.99 once.
7-day free trial, then $24.99 one time. Not a subscription. No account. Your health data never reaches us or a cloud AI; the export goes only where you point it. Works on any iPhone; a ~400 MB on-device model covers phones without Apple Intelligence. Where your data goes · How the numbers are computed
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free recovery app for Apple Watch?
Yes, several. Apple's own Readiness is built into watchOS 27 on Series 12 and Ultra 4. Bevel and Metrya each include a recovery score in their free tiers, and Training Today's readiness is free. Read on 12 November 2026 on each company's own pages.
Which Apple Watch recovery apps can I buy once?
On the US App Store on 12 November 2026: HRV4Training is $9.99 upfront, Metrya sells a $19.99 lifetime unlock, MetricBridge is $24.99 once, Training Today sells a $59.99 lifetime unlock, Gentler Streak lists lifetime prices from $59.99, and Welltory lists $299.99. Bevel and Athlytic list no one-time option.
Which recovery apps publish how the score is calculated?
Most name their inputs. Athlytic adds that HRV is weighted slightly higher, and Gentler Streak publishes its load-ratio approach. MetricBridge publishes every input, weight, window and limit of its readiness estimate on its methods page. A 2025 review of 14 wearable scores found none disclosed its exact formula.
Does MetricBridge have a recovery score?
No. It has a readiness estimate: last night compared with your own previous 60 days, shown with a range, where 50 means your usual. It is not on the same scale as another app's recovery percentage.
Do I need a new Apple Watch for these?
Only for Apple's own Readiness, which needs a Series 12 or Ultra 4. The third-party apps here work from the HRV, resting heart rate and sleep that earlier watches already record; check each listing for its requirements.