Bevel and Athlytic are the two Apple Watch apps people usually compare when they want a morning Recovery score without buying a strap. Both read the Watch you already wear. Both print a Recovery percentage. Both want a subscription if you live in the app. People still install both, screenshot both, then argue on Reddit that one is fake because the integers disagree. They disagree because the recipes disagree.
If you want a wider list of Watch recovery apps, see apps like Bevel. If you want Bevel’s score dictionary, see Bevel scores explained. If you want Athlytic on its own, start with the Athlytic review.
Short verdict: Pick Athlytic if the job is how hard today on the wrist, with a privacy pitch and a cheaper Pro bill. Pick Bevel if you want a health OS: Sleep, Strain, Stress, Energy Bank, optional food and lifts. Give whichever you choose two weeks of overnight Watch wear before you decide. The percentages will not match, because the recipes do not match.
Disclosure: Fitcoin is our product. We are not affiliated with Apple, Garmin, Whoop, Bevel, Athlytic, HRV4Training or the other apps named here. Where Fitcoin appears, it is as a Sleep, Recovery and Energy companion that also scores workouts for partner rewards, not a PayPal cash-out app. Scores described below are wellness estimates for general fitness. They are not medical devices and they do not diagnose illness.
What they actually share
Both sit on the same hardware: an Apple Watch writing into Apple Health, with overnight heart samples. Both give you a 0–100 (or 1–100%) Recovery. Those numbers use different recipes from Whoop Recovery or Apple’s Sleep Score. Both add a daily effort number: Bevel calls it Strain, Athlytic calls it Exertion. Both have widgets. Calibration needs more than a weekend.
What they do not share is the ingredient list, how the baseline window is presented, whether yesterday still sits in a bank, whether nutrition and biological age are in the product, and whether the developer ever sees your Health archive. Treat them as two interpretations of one Watch, not as two lab instruments.
Recovery maths, without the keynote
Bevel documents Recovery as 1–100% from resting heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, SpO2 and wrist temperature. HRV defaults to RMSSD; you can switch toward Apple Health SDNN in settings. Biology baselines sit on a rolling 60-day average. Missing Recovery is usually missing sleep HRV or resting heart rate: the Watch was off, or Health permissions are incomplete.
Athlytic’s public line is simpler on purpose: sleeping HRV and sleeping resting heart rate versus a personal 60-day baseline, rolled into 0–100%. Exertion is a separate 0–10. The troubleshooting docs are clear about a real Apple quirk: Apple’s daily resting heart rate sample can update through the day, which can make Recovery drift after breakfast. Athlytic can optionally write its own sleeping RHR into Health so the morning number stays the morning number. That is not a bug in your fitness. That is Apple filing one resting-heart-rate sample.
Neither recipe is more true. Bevel uses more sensors. Athlytic stays tighter: two overnight heart numbers plus a baseline. If wrist temperature is why you bought a Series 8, Bevel will use it. Athlytic still watches it in the 24/7 monitor; Recovery itself is still led by HRV and resting heart rate.
Strain versus Exertion
Bevel Strain is daily effort from active strain (workouts) plus passive strain (the rest of the day). 100% is framed as a high-intensity session. High Strain with no workout is, in Bevel’s own copy, a prompt to look at stress, poor recovery or how you feel, not a diagnosis. Target Strain is the suggested window from recent Recovery.
Athlytic Exertion is 0–10, built from time spent above a heart-rate threshold personalised from your 30-day average max HR and 60-day average RHR. Target Exertion Zone is today’s ask, matched to Recovery. Athlytic’s own troubleshooting says this is not Apple’s Move ring: you do not need to hit it every day. Going over is the warning. Sitting under on a rest day is allowed.
If you wanted a Whoop-like sense of how hard you are working on the wrist right now, Athlytic is the closer fit. If you wanted a named Strain score that also notices a stressful desk day with no session logged, Bevel is the closer fit.
Sleep, Energy Bank, and the extra Bevel rooms
Bevel Sleep Score uses time asleep, REM, deep, heart-rate dip, efficiency and continuity. That is a stage-and-dip recipe. Apple’s native Sleep Score is duration, bedtime consistency and interruptions. The two will disagree. Pick one headline for the night; see what Apple leaves out.
Energy Bank is Bevel’s rolling account: recovery, sleep, strain and stress, able to carry debt into tomorrow. It is not Garmin Body Battery’s same-day charge-and-drain graph. People who wanted the Garmin shape often feel Energy Bank is wrong. People who wanted yesterday to still count feel it is the point.
Athlytic has sleep visualisation (performance, stages, debt, consistency, latency, efficiency, overnight HRV and HR charts) and a Target Sleep suggestion from Recovery, Exertion and debt. It does not sell you an Energy Bank, a Nutrition Score or a Biological Age. If those rooms are why you opened Bevel, Athlytic will feel empty. If those rooms are why you wanted to leave Bevel, Athlytic will feel like someone tidied the house.
Privacy and price
Athlytic’s public privacy story is the loudest in this pair: processed on-device through Apple Health, App Store label Data Not Collected, no account required for the core loop. It is a two-person independent team. Confirm the live privacy label; labels can move, though the pitch has been consistent.
Bevel is still an interpretation layer on Health. It is a fuller product with coaching and, on Pro, extra depth. Read the live privacy nutrition labels before you decide that on-device is your only criterion. Plenty of people pick Bevel anyway because the dashboard is the product they wanted.
Price, as listed in August 2026 and certain to move: Athlytic Pro is $4.99/month or $29.99/year, with a 7-day trial and family sharing called out in their docs. The free tier is usable but historically stingy on long history, about a week of trends before the paywall is a common complaint. Bevel keeps core scores on a free tier and charges Pro for AI coaching and extras; public figures have sat around $14.99/month or $99.99/year depending on when you look. Confirm the store. Do not budget from a YouTube video filmed in 2024.
Who should pick which
| You want… | Pick | Skip if… |
|---|---|---|
| A Watch complication that says how hard today | Athlytic | You wanted Energy Bank and nutrition |
| A health OS with five named scores | Bevel | You hated calibration and extra rooms |
| Wrist temperature inside Recovery | Bevel | You only have an older Watch without the sensor |
| On-device, no account | Athlytic | You wanted a web dashboard |
| Android or gym rewards | Neither. That is a different category. | You expected this pair to pay cash |
Android, mixed-sport scoring and partner rewards are not a Bevel-versus-Athlytic feature. That is Fitcoin, disclosed, or a strap. A Play Store ‘Bevel for Samsung’ with 180 reviews is usually not the real thing.
The two-week test
- Wear the Watch overnight. Charge before bed. Snug enough for optical HR.
- Pick one app as headline. Keep the other for curiosity if you like, but train on one number.
- Write down one session you changed because Recovery or Target said so.
- If nothing changed a session, the dashboard may be nicer than it is useful. Cancel if that is the case.
If Recovery is blank, fix Health permissions before you buy Pro. If Recovery is populated and you still smash Tuesday because the calendar said so, Pro will not invent the extra rest day for you.
Why the percentages disagree
A 12-point gap is not fraud. Bevel put respiratory rate and wrist temperature in the mix. Athlytic did not, not in the same weights. Whoop would print a third number. Fitcoin would print a fourth. The useful comment is that you skipped intervals. The useless comment is that Athlytic is 12 points higher so Bevel is fake.
If you came here because Whoop felt expensive, read Whoop Recovery explained before you spend another month comparing Watch apps. You might still want the strap.
Frequently asked questions
Is Athlytic better than Bevel?
Athlytic is the better pick if you want a tight Recovery to Target Exertion loop on the Watch, on-device processing and a cheaper Pro plan. Bevel is the better pick if you want a wider health OS: Sleep Score with stages and heart-rate dip, Strain plus Target Strain, Stress, Energy Bank, optional nutrition and strength load. They will not print the same percentage.
Can I use Bevel and Athlytic together?
You can install both, but you should not train on both numbers. Baselines are private, so Tuesday can be 71% in Bevel and 54% in Athlytic. Pick one headline for whether to push or go easy.
Does Bevel or Athlytic work on Android?
No. Both are iPhone and Apple Watch products. If you need Health Connect, that is a different category: Fitcoin, and some wearable reward apps. There is no Bevel clone on the Play Store.
Which is closer to Whoop?
Athlytic’s live Exertion 0–10 plus Target Zone is the closer daily training loop. Bevel’s Recovery, Strain, Sleep and Energy Bank is the closer dashboard of named scores. Neither is Whoop’s strap sampling or sleep-need model.
Do they pay you to train?
No. They interpret Apple Health. Partner rewards for the gym session sit in a different product category.
Method and sources: Written 14 August 2026 from Athlytic's public site, App Store listing and troubleshooting docs (sleeping HRV and RHR versus a 60-day baseline; Exertion 0-10; Target Exertion Zone; on-device processing; Pro listed at $4.99/month or $29.99/year), Bevel help on Recovery, Strain, Sleep and Energy Bank, Whoop membership pages (US One / Peak / Life annual tiers), Oura membership support (US $5.99/month or $69.99/year), Apple's Sleep Score user guide for watchOS 26, Samsung Health Energy Score documentation (sleep, activity, sleeping heart rate and HRV), Vitality UK Active Rewards and Apple Watch benefit pages (activity-point tables published as of May 2026), Strava subscription and adiClub partnership notes, Charity Miles / Paceline / Evidation public activity rules, and Fitcoin's on-device SleepScore, Recovery, Energy, Immune Shield and FitScore mappings. Prices, point tables and Watch compatibility change. Confirm the live app, insurer or store listing. Fitcoin inclusion is ownership-disclosed. Wellness estimates only; not medical, insurance or tax advice.
Related reading: Athlytic review, Bevel scores explained, apps like Bevel, Bevel vs Livity, Bevel vs Gentler Streak, Bevel vs Whoop.
About the author: Harris Khan is the co-founder of Fitcoin. He studied at Loughborough University and has more than 15 years of personal experience across strength training, bodybuilding, Muay Thai and general fitness.