There are four routes to your own fitness app: a no-code builder you run yourself, a branded app from a coaching platform, a custom agency build, or a revenue-share partner that builds and runs it. Choose by cash, time and audience. Builders are cheapest, platforms suit 1:1 coaching, agencies need $50,000 or more, and partners need an engaged audience.
- $29+/moBuild it yourself on a no-code builder
- $99–499/moYour own listing on a coaching or course platform
- $50K+An agency MVP, paid before you earn
- $0Up front with a revenue-share partner
On this page · 10 sections
The 4 routes compared
The routes are ordered by how much of the app you run yourself, from everything to almost nothing.
Fitera is one of the revenue-share partners in route 4, and we earn from it. Every competitor fact on this page comes from that company's own website, linked in its section below.
The four routes to your own fitness appPrices in USD, before App Store, Google Play and card fees. Checked 14 Sep 2026.
| Route | Upfront cost | Ongoing cost | Time to launch | Who owns what | Who runs it | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Build it yourself | $124 in store fees (Apple $99 a year, Google $25 once) | $29.25 to $699 a month, by tool and plan | Weeks to months, depending on your time | You own brand, content and members. The app lives on the builder's platform. | You | Creators who enjoy building and have spare hours |
| 2. Coaching platform | $0 to $75 setup, plus Apple $99 a year and Google $25 once | $99 to $499+ a month for your own store listing | 4 to 8 weeks | You own brand and content. The app is the vendor's app in your colours. | Vendor runs the tech. You run content, support and sales. | Coaches managing 1:1 clients |
| 3. Agency build | $50,000 to $110,000 for a fitness MVP | About 25% of the build cost a year | 3 to 11 months | Usually you, including the code, if the contract says so. | You and your team, or the agency for a monthly fee | Funded brands that want to own the code |
| 4. Revenue-share partner (includes Fitera, the publisher) | $0 to the partner, plus $124 in store accounts | Partner keeps 15% to 50% of revenue, by company. Foundry adds a monthly fee. | 4 to 6 weeks at Fitera | Varies by partner. At Fitera: your accounts, members and content. Code stays with Fitera. | The partner | Creators with an engaged audience and no wish to fund or run an app |
Ranges use each vendor's published plans that include your own app. Agency figures come from Clutch, GoodFirms and published agency price guides, and full sources are in Sources and method. For fees and what you keep at your size, see how much a fitness app costs, and for real examples of each route, which influencers have their own apps.
5 questions to answer first
Answer these before you compare prices. They decide the route faster than any feature list.
- Who will pay, and how much? A thousand members at $14.99 a month is about $15,000 a month before fees. Start from a number you believe.
- Do you coach clients 1:1, or sell one program to many? Client management points to a coaching platform. A subscription program for your audience points to your own app.
- Can you pay up front? If $50,000 is out of reach or too risky, routes 1, 2 and 4 remain.
- How much will you run yourself? Someone has to answer member emails, fix bugs, ship updates and handle payments. That is either you, a vendor or a partner.
- What happens if you leave? Ask where your members, their subscriptions and your content go. The answers differ more than the prices do.
Route 1: build it yourself
A no-code builder lets you assemble an app from ready-made blocks and publish it to the App Store and Google Play. You do the building, the content and the support.
Prices checked on each vendor's site on 14 Sep 2026.
- Examples
- Passion.io, made for creators; Adalo, FlutterFlow and Bubble, general app builders
- Upfront
- Your own developer accounts: Apple charges $99 a year and Google Play $25 once
- Monthly
- Adalo Starter $36 (billed yearly), FlutterFlow Basic $29.25 (yearly), Bubble mobile Starter $42 (yearly). On Passion.io, your own store listing starts with the Expand plan at $599 a month billed yearly, or $699 monthly, plus a 2% payment fee.
- Time
- As fast as you build. Then Apple's review: Passion.io's help centre says "Apple reviews typically take 7 days or more."
- Ownership
- Brand, content and member data are yours. The app runs on the builder, so leaving means rebuilding. FlutterFlow is the exception: paid plans let you download the code.
Where it wins
- Lowest cost to start
- Full control over every screen
- You can launch this month
- Good for testing demand
Where it's weaker
- You become the developer and the support desk
- General builders need real product skills
- Custom features hit the builder's limits
Fits you if you like building, have evenings to spare, and want to test demand cheaply before spending more.
Route 2: a coaching platform
Coaching platforms such as Trainerize and Kahunas give you software to manage clients, programs and payments. On higher plans, they publish their app under your name and logo.
On Trainerize, the branded app is the vendor's own app. Trainerize describes it plainly: "we take the ABC Trainerize app (and all its cool features) and customize it to reflect your branding." You get their features and their roadmap, in your colours.
Prices checked on each vendor's site on 14 Sep 2026.
- Examples
- Your own App Store and Google Play listing costs $99 a month on Kahunas Ultimate and $149 a month plus $2 per client above 20 and $75 setup on FitBudd Super Pro. It costs $59 a month plus a $145-a-month white-label add-on on My PT Hub, and from $275 a month on Trainerize Studio plans. Everfit offers it on Enterprise, which needs at least 500 clients.
- Course platforms
- Kajabi includes a branded app on its $499 Pro plan, or adds it for $199 a month on lower plans. Uscreen's branded iOS and Android apps start with App Essentials at $449 a month billed yearly ($499 monthly), plus $0.99 per subscriber.
- Upfront
- $0 to $75 setup, plus your own Apple developer account. Several vendors also require a registered business and a D-U-N-S number.
- Time
- About 4 weeks at Trainerize, "99% of all apps live within 30 days" at Kahunas, 6 to 8 weeks at Kajabi
- Ownership
- Your brand and content. Trainerize and TrueCoach let you export your client list. If you cancel, Trainerize says a custom branded app "will be deactivated".
Where it wins
- Proven features on day one
- Predictable monthly price
- Built for managing clients 1:1
Where it's weaker
- Often the same app other coaches use, in your colours
- On most, price rises with your client count
- On Trainerize, a cancelled branded app is deactivated
- You still run support and sales yourself
“You get locked into an ecosystem and suddenly all your work is held hostage.”
Fits you if you coach clients one-to-one, you want software that works this week, and a branded version of a shared app is enough. Compare them in Trainerize alternatives with your own app, or see what the Kajabi branded app costs.
What each platform's own app gets you, in detail: Trainerize, Everfit, Kahunas, My PT Hub and TrueCoach. All five at your client count, next to a custom app: white label or a custom app.
Route 3: hire an agency
A development agency designs and builds an app to your specification, then hands it over or maintains it for a fee. You own the result and pay for all of it.
- Cost
- Across all app types, most projects reviewed on Clutch cost $10,000 to $49,999, with an average of $90,780. Agencies' own fitness price guides start higher: ScienceSoft puts an MVP "from $50,000", and Topflight quotes $70,000 to $110,000.
- Ongoing
- A GoodFirms survey of 167 companies (published around 2022) found maintenance averages 25% of the build cost a year. On a $60,000 app, that is about $1,250 a month.
- Time
- 12 to 16 weeks for an MVP (Topflight). Clutch reports about 11 months as the typical timeline across all apps.
- Ownership
- You own the code, the accounts and the data, if the contract says so. Read that clause.
Where it wins
- Anything you can specify, you can have
- No revenue share, ever
Where it's weaker
- All the risk is yours, before you earn a dollar
- Someone still has to run the app after launch
- The agency is paid to build it; growth is your job
Fits you if you have funding, want to own the code outright, and plan to hire people to run the product.
Route 4: a revenue-share partner
A revenue-share partner builds your app, runs it, and takes a share of what it earns, usually instead of a fee. You pay nothing up front. You pay with a share of revenue for as long as the partnership runs.
Fitera works this way, and we wrote this guide. Other companies use the model with different terms, listed here from their own pages.
Terms checked on each company's site on 14 Sep 2026.
- Playbook
- You keep 80% of net revenue and pay no monthly fee. Your content lives as a channel inside the shared Playbook app, not as your own app. If you leave, its creator agreement keeps your channel in "run-off mode" and deletes it after 12 months.
- Transformation Challenge
- Creators "keep 70% of their subscription revenue", minus a 3% card fee, and joining is free (transformationchallenge.app).
- Foundry
- Builds apps for creators in any niche. It charges a monthly platform fee plus a 15% to 30% revenue share, and the creator owns the code (builtbyfoundry.io).
- Plankk
- Builds custom branded fitness apps for influencers and handles "everything from app design to development and maintenance" (plankk.com). It doesn't publish its split.
- Fitera
- $0 upfront. You keep 50% to 70% of net revenue, fixed in the contract before work starts. Live in 4 to 6 weeks.
What Fitera's 30% to 50% pays for
Fitera's 30% to 50% is higher than Playbook's 20% and at least equal to Transformation Challenge's 30%. Here is what it covers, so you can judge whether it's worth it:
- An app built around your method. Dense Club was designed around Keegan Smith's Dense Method: daily EMOM workouts, automatic PRs, a Force Score, recovery tracking and skill trees.
- Your accounts, your members. The Stripe account and the App Store and Google Play accounts are in your name. We run them for you.
- We run all of it. Design, development, payments, hosting, updates and member support. You keep creating and promoting.
- No monthly fee. If the app earns nothing, you pay nothing.
- A clear exit. 12-month minimum term, then 60 days' notice. Your members, subscriptions and content stay with you, and our share stops.
- A path to owning more. By default the code stays with us, and you can buy it out by agreement. At the top partnership level, shared ownership of the intellectual property is on the table.
The trade-off is real. Over several years, a share of revenue can cost more than an agency invoice. And we are selective: we invest before the app earns, so we start with an in-person conversation and turn down projects without a clear audience.
How the split works on real numbers
Take 1,000 members paying $14.99 a month, which is $14,990 a month.
What 1,000 members at $14.99 a month leave youStripe at 2.9% + 30¢ per US card charge plus 0.7% for subscription billing (international cards and billing tools cost more); App Store and Google Play at 15%
| Members pay through | Fees | Net revenue | You keep (50–70%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web checkout (Stripe) | $840 | $14,150 | $7,075 to $9,905 a month |
| App Store or Google Play | $2,249 | $12,741 | $6,371 to $8,919 a month |
Fee rates: Stripe pricing; Apple's 15% Small Business Program for developers under $1M a year; Google Play's subscription fee in the US, UK and EEA (10% plus a 5% billing fee since 30 June 2026).
If you'd like to talk it through with your own numbers, apply for a partnership. It's a 2-minute form, and we reply personally.
Where it wins
- No upfront risk
- A team runs the app every day
- Most partners earn only if you do
Where it's weaker
- You share revenue for the life of the deal
- Partners choose who they work with, and terms vary widely
Fits you if you have an engaged audience and a method people want, and you'd rather keep creating than fund and run an app. See how a Fitera partnership works, step by step.
What if you do nothing?
Plenty of creators do well without an app. PDFs, DMs, a spreadsheet and a Stripe link can carry a coaching business a long way.
The costs show up as you grow. PDF programs get forwarded for free. One-to-one coaching fills your calendar and caps your income.
Brand deals pay once and end when the campaign does. An app is worth it when one of those limits is the thing holding you back.
Which route fits you?
- Under about 20,000 followers, or still testing demand? Start with a coaching platform or a no-code builder. Revisit the app question when people ask for more.
- You coach clients one-to-one? A coaching platform (route 2) fits the way you already work.
- You enjoy building and have time? A no-code builder (route 1) is the cheapest way to learn what your audience uses.
- You have $50,000 or more and want to own the code? Hire an agency (route 3), and budget for running the app afterwards.
- You have an engaged audience and want a real app without the upfront cost? A revenue-share partner (route 4). Compare what each one gives you, not only the percentage.
Questions creators ask
Can I create a fitness app without coding?
Yes. No-code builders like Adalo, FlutterFlow and Passion.io publish to the App Store and Google Play without code. Coaching platforms and revenue-share partners need no code from you at all.
Can AI build a fitness app?
Partly. AI app builders can turn a prompt into screens and a first prototype. The rest is still yours: store developer accounts ($99 a year for Apple, $25 once for Google Play), payments, your programs, updates and member support.
How much does it cost to make your own fitness app?
From about $30 a month on a builder to $50,000 or more for an agency MVP. A branded app on a coaching platform costs $99 to $499 or more a month, and a revenue-share partner costs $0 up front and takes a share of revenue instead. See what a fitness app costs on each route, with a calculator.
How long does it take to launch a fitness app?
4 to 8 weeks on a coaching platform, and 4 to 6 weeks with Fitera. Dense Club, which we built for Keegan Smith, went live from zero in 4 weeks. Custom agency builds take 3 to 11 months.
Do I need my own Apple developer account?
Usually yes. Apple charges $99 a year and Google Play $25 once. Builders, most coaching platforms and Kajabi ask you to open these accounts in your name, which also keeps the store listing yours.
Does it have to be in the App Store?
No. An installable web app (a PWA) goes on the home screen straight from the browser, on iPhone, Android and desktop. Dense Club started this way, with store versions coming next.
Members can pay by card on the web, which avoids app store fees.
Will my followers pay for an app?
Yes, some will, and that is enough. A small share of a large, engaged audience is a real income: 1,000 members at $14.99 a month is about $15,000 a month before fees. Programs people follow daily give them a reason to stay subscribed.
Do I keep my app if I leave?
Not always. A cancelled Trainerize branded app is deactivated, and a Playbook channel is deleted after 12 months of run-off. With an agency you usually own the code.
With Fitera, your members, subscriptions and content stay with you, and you can buy the code out by agreement.
Sources and method
We checked every price and quoted term on the vendor's own site on 14 September 2026, and linked it next to the claim. We did not use one vendor's comparison pages about another. Prices change, so check the linked page; we update this guide when we find a change.
Product names are trademarks of their owners. No vendor paid for or reviewed this page.
Agency figures come from Clutch's app development pricing guide, the GoodFirms app cost survey, ScienceSoft and Topflight. Fitera's own figures come from our contracts and the Dense Club build.
Thinking about route 4?
Tell us about your audience and the app you have in mind. We read every application and reply personally, including when we think another route suits you better.
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