Joe Wicks is probably the most trusted name in British home fitness, and The Body Coach app is that trust turned into a subscription. It bundles guided workouts, progressive plans and matching meal plans into one product, fronted by the man who got the nation doing lunges in their living rooms during lockdown. The question this review answers is narrower than the brand: is the app itself worth a recurring subscription in 2026, who is it genuinely right for, and what should the rest of us use instead?
If you just want the wider field, our round-ups of the best home workout apps and best daily workout apps cover the category. This page is the deep dive on one app.
Short verdict: Excellent for beginners and lapsed exercisers who want home workouts, food decisions made for them, and a coach's energy on tap. Poor value if you train in a gym, follow your own programme, or know you will not use the meal plans. Take the free trial, do the first full week, and only pay if you finished it.
Disclosure: Fitcoin is our product. We are not affiliated with The Body Coach, Joe Wicks, Nike, FIIT, Gymshark or the other apps named here. Where Fitcoin appears in the alternatives, it is as a free app that rewards verified workouts through partner rewards, not a PayPal cash-out app, and we say so plainly. We have no commercial relationship with any app reviewed on this page.
What The Body Coach app actually is
The Body Coach app is a subscription coaching product for iPhone and Android built around two pillars: workouts and food. On the workout side you get guided video sessions: predominantly HIIT and bodyweight-led home training in Joe's signature style, with progressive weekly plans, options for different levels, and sessions short enough to fit before work. On the food side you get meal plans and recipes matched to your goal, in the quick, unfussy style familiar from the Lean in 15 books, plus shopping-list convenience.
The glue is Joe himself. Sessions are fronted with the same relentless positivity that made PE With Joe a national institution, and for a lot of people that energy is the product. This is coaching-as-content: you press play, he tells you what to do and how long is left, and you do not have to think. That is not a criticism. Not having to think is exactly what many people need to stay consistent.
The workouts
Expect interval-style home sessions (squats, lunges, burpees, mountain climbers, press-ups) arranged into plans that progress week on week, mostly needing no kit or a pair of dumbbells at most. Sessions are typically in the 15 to 30 minute range, which is honest programming for home training: short, hard, repeatable. There are lower-impact options and modifications, and the cueing is beginner-safe.
What you will not get is serious progressive resistance training. There is no barbell programming, no per-set logging with weight and reps, no strength-progression engine. If your goal is getting stronger in a gym, this is the wrong tool. That job belongs to a dedicated tracker, which we cover in our Hevy review and the best weight lifting apps round-up.
The meal plans
The food side is arguably the differentiator. Most workout apps bolt on a recipe tab as an afterthought; The Body Coach treats food as half the product, with plans matched to your goal and recipes designed to be cooked quickly by normal people on a weeknight. The philosophy is sensible: real food, protein-forward, no crash-diet theatrics. The honest caveats: you have to actually cook, the plans suit people happy to eat from a set menu, and anyone with strong dietary requirements or a family menu to negotiate will end up adapting rather than following. If you would ignore the meal plans entirely, you are paying for half an app.
Pricing (kept generic on purpose)
The Body Coach app is a paid subscription, billed monthly or annually, with a free trial for new users. We are deliberately not printing figures because subscription prices change, vary by platform and promotion, and an out-of-date number is worse than none. Check the App Store, Google Play or thebodycoach.com for today's price. Two practical notes: the annual plan is the meaningfully cheaper route if you already know you will stick with it, and, as with every trial in this industry, set a calendar reminder before the trial converts, because it will.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Workouts and meal plans genuinely integrated in one place | Subscription-only; no meaningful free tier beyond the trial |
| Beginner-safe coaching with real motivational pull | No serious strength/barbell programming or set-by-set logging |
| Minimal equipment; built for living-room training | HIIT-heavy style; if you dislike burpees you will dislike the app |
| UK-made, UK food, UK sensibility | Meal plans need commitment to cooking from a set menu |
| Plans remove all decision-making: press play and go | Costs money to work out; free libraries (YouTube, NTC) cover similar ground |
Who it suits, and who should skip it
- Get it if: you are starting (or restarting) from little, you train at home, you want food decided for you, and you respond to being coached out loud. This is the app's home turf and it is genuinely good on it.
- Get it if: you loved Joe's YouTube sessions and want them organised into a progressive plan with the food half attached.
- Skip it if: you train in a gym with weights. You need a logger and a programme, not a video coach.
- Skip it if: you already handle your own nutrition. Half the subscription's value evaporates.
- Skip it if: your problem is motivation to do any exercise rather than not knowing what to do. A reward loop may move you further than a video library. See apps that reward you for working out.
Alternatives, including free ones
Four apps cover the realistic alternatives, two of them free:
- Fitcoin (ours, free). The opposite philosophy: instead of selling you workouts, it rewards the exercise you already do. It reads verified workouts (heart rate, active energy, gym sessions, runs, walks) from Apple Health or Health Connect, builds a daily FitScore, and converts consistency into partner rewards, with Sleep, Recovery and Energy scores included. It will not coach you through a burpee; it will make doing them pay. Disclosed bias: we built it.
- Nike Training Club (free). The best free workout library in the business (strength, HIIT, yoga, mobility), with structured programmes and no subscription since Nike dropped the paywall. The obvious first stop before paying anyone.
- FIIT (paid). The closest UK rival: live and on-demand classes, optional heart-rate stats on screen, leaderboards and a gamified feel. More production, more competitive energy, similar subscription model.
- Gymshark Training (free). Free structured plans with a lifting lean, from bodyweight at home to gym splits. Less hand-holding than Joe, no meal plans, no cost.
| App | Cost model | Best for | Meal plans? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Body Coach | Subscription (free trial) | Beginners wanting workouts + food coached together | Yes (core feature) |
| Fitcoin (ours) | Free | Getting rewarded for verified workouts you already do | No |
| Nike Training Club | Free | Biggest free guided-workout library | No |
| FIIT | Subscription | Live classes, stats and leaderboards | No |
| Gymshark Training | Free | Free plans with a strength lean | No |
These combine, too. A sensible free stack is Nike Training Club or YouTube for the sessions and Fitcoin running in the background turning each one into FitScore and rewards. The Body Coach earns its money when you specifically want the food half and Joe's voice; nothing free replicates that combination.
Verdict
The Body Coach app is a good product being sold to a wider audience than it fits. For its actual audience (home exercisers who want the whole thing decided for them, food included, by a coach whose enthusiasm survives a 6am start), it is one of the best-executed options in the UK, and the subscription buys real structure. For everyone else, the free trial is the review: do week one in full, including the cooking. If you finished it, subscribe with confidence. If you cherry-picked two workouts and ordered a takeaway, save the money and build your stack from the free options above.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Body Coach app worth it?
Worth it if you want structure handed to you: guided home workouts, matching meal plans, and Joe Wicks' relentless encouragement in one subscription, with minimal equipment needed. Less worth it if you already know how to train, follow your own nutrition, or mainly train in a gym with weights: you would be paying for coaching you will not use. Use the free trial and see whether you actually complete the first week's plan.
How much does the Joe Wicks app cost?
The Body Coach app is a paid subscription, billed monthly or annually, and typically offers a free trial for new users. Exact prices change and vary by region and promotion, so check the App Store, Google Play or thebodycoach.com for the current figure before subscribing, and set a reminder before any trial converts.
Can you use the Body Coach app for free?
Only during the introductory trial; the ongoing product is subscription-only. Joe Wicks does keep a large library of free workouts on his YouTube channel (The Body Coach TV), including the famous PE With Joe sessions, which is a reasonable way to sample his style before paying for the app's structured plans and meal planning.
Do you need equipment for the Body Coach app?
Most plans are built around home training with little or no kit: bodyweight HIIT is the signature style, with dumbbells appearing in some sessions. That is a strength if you train in your living room and a limitation if you want progressive barbell or machine work, which is not what this app is for.
What are the best alternatives to the Body Coach app?
Nike Training Club is the strongest free workout library. FIIT is the closest UK-made paid rival with live classes and leaderboards. The Gymshark app offers free structured plans with a lifting lean. And Fitcoin, our own free app, takes the opposite approach: instead of selling you workouts, it rewards the verified exercise you already do, on iPhone, Apple Watch and Android.
How we researched this: Written 16 August 2026 from The Body Coach app's public App Store and Google Play listings and thebodycoach.com feature descriptions, Joe Wicks' free content on The Body Coach TV YouTube channel, Nike Training Club's, FIIT's and Gymshark's public app listings, and Fitcoin's own product documentation. We deliberately avoided quoting subscription prices because they change; confirm on the live stores. Fitcoin inclusion is ownership-disclosed. Nothing here is medical or dietary advice.
Related reading: best home workout apps 2026, best daily workout apps 2026, apps that reward you for working out.
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.