Here’s My Take on Athlytic vs Oura App

Health and tech have taken the center stage in helping us transform our lives and bodies, and the two apps leading this revolution are the Athlytic and the Oura app. Both promise to redefine your health journey, but is one easier to navigate than the other? Or is more the data, more the knowledge your approach to a better you?

To help you gain a better insight into which app will suit you and your lifestyle better, I have shared my experience with both.

The Integration

The Athlytic app works with the data collected by Apple Health and using the Apple Watch. It uses the ‘Breath session’ on the Mindfulness app on my Apple Watch for calculating the HRV.

For an accurate reading, I record this first thing in the morning, and in case I forget, it takes the latest HRV recorded from the previous night. The app also integrates with My Fitness Pal to receive calorie intake and macros. Combining this data with calories burned, the app is amazing for people who want to keep their weight in check.

While being great at calculating data and splitting it into an easy-to-read format (more on that later), the app requires me to wear my Apple Watch at night (oh, how I hate wearing a watch at night) or strap it on the first thing in the morning to record my HRV, which I must say, isn’t the most convenient.

The Athlytic app also integrates with Oura. However, the integration is more complicated than the whole Ross and Rachel “we were on a break” debate. It requires Apple Health, a third party app for integrating HRV to Apple Health and whatnot. Not my cup of tea.

The Oura app receives its data from the Oura ring. With many app integrations such as Strava, Noom, Headspace, and many more, Oura is focused on wellness and sleep. What it lacks is combining the nutrition aspect, which, if Oura integrates, might I say, it would take down every other health tracker on the market.

Oura also sends and receives ceratin data to and from Google Fit and Health Connect on Android devices.

Compatibility

The Oura app can be downloaded on any device running iOS 15 or higher and Android 8.0 or higher with Google Play services. The Athlytic app, on the other hand, can only be downloaded on Apple iPhones running iOS 16.0 or later and not on devices supporting Android.

The Interface

Both the apps, at a first glance, don’t seem to intimidate me, which is a good thing. The data is stored in separate tabs, making it easier to access and read. The Athlytic app has 4 tabs- Today, Trends, Workouts, and Journal.

The ‘Today’ tab covers a snapshot of Recovery, Sleep, Exertion, and Energy Burned. Tapping on each will further give detailed data on the same. The ‘Trends’ tab shows the graphs on how each metric is performing; the ‘Workout’ tab shows detailed workouts recorded in the past, and ‘Journal’ (similar to tags on the Oura app) lets me add various behavioral and external factors that help me keep a tab on what led certain metrics fluctuating.

The Oura app has a home feed with a summary of Readiness, Sleep, and Activity. The Home tab also displays the Daytime Stress graph, Body Clock, and a summary of data calculated, such as – Heart rate graph, Heart Health (cardiovascular age and cardio capacity), and cycle insights graph.

The Readiness, Sleep, and Activity tabs further delve into the metrics each is recorded using. The Explore tab holds over 70 guided meditations, and Trends provides a visual representation of where each metric is heading.

Both apps are easy to navigate and switch between metrics. The reports aren’t overwhelming, and the data doesn’t look like a bunch of numbers being thrown at you.

Features Within The App

With a myriad of features, both apps pack a wealth of information. While most features are similar, such as the readiness score in the Oura app and the recovery percentage in the Athlytic app, the sleep analysis, and the calorie and workout tracking, there are certain features that make each app stand out.

While the Oura app and the Athlytic app excel at sleep analysis, the Athlytic lacks a sleep latency feature and records ‘awake time’ instead. This means the time it takes for me to fall asleep combined with the minutes I wake up in the middle of the night.

The Athlytic app also shows a ‘sleep time consistency’ based on data collected over a period of a week, a month, and two months. This is further used to suggest customized target sleep times in order for a better sleep schedule. Similarly, the app also suggests a target sleep based on the sleep debt, most recent sleep, and recovery and exertion calculated by the app.

Oura, too, suggests a bedtime guidance based on previous data but does not alter it as per the changes in the sleep data.

When it comes to activity tracking, for the times when I want to lose or maintain weight (which is almost always), the Athlytic app really stood out. It integrates with the ‘My Fitness Pal’ app, thereby tracking my food calories along with the macros. Combine this with the calories burned throughout the day, it is so easy to maintain a calorie deficit or equilibrium.

They also track heart rate training zones, which the Oura app doesn’t. While Athlytic takes the ‘calories in, calories out’ approach to a tech level I never imagined, the lack of cycle tracking is what bugs me. Oura does an impeccable job at tracking cycle phases and predictions for my next period. Even if Athlytic adds this feature, it’s hard to imagine any app coming close to what Oura does, but it would be a great feature to have.

As for the notifications on the Athlytic app, everything from metrics being out of whack, daily tagging reminders, target exertion reached, daily reports, and bedtime reminders, requires a subscription.

Oura also sends alerts such as battery level, inactivity alerts, activity progress, bedtime notifications, insight notifications, and circles notifications.

Furthermore, the Athlytic app lets you set a ‘recovery preference’ to prioritize HRV or sleep based on the mindfulness app on my Apple Watch and the ability to save RHR. Along with this, ‘Training Goals’ can also be added, which further sets your Target Exertion Range and Target Sleep.

Oura’s preference settings are more general and based on day-to-day activities. Which is understandable since the Athlytic app focuses more on training and fitness, and Oura Ring has more of a wellness and health approach.

The Subscription

The Oura Ring comes with a subscription model of $5.99/ month, and the Athlytic app comes with a subscription of $3.99/ month or $29.99/ year.

From a price point of view, the Athlytic app is cheaper, but it does require an Apple Watch to gather data via the Apple Health app.

Final Verdict 

I never thought I’d say this, but I loved using the Athlytic app. The ‘calories in, calories out’ approach while calculating my macros made my meal planning so much easier. The only drawback is that it requires me to wear my Apple Watch at night or first thing in the morning, which I genuinely hate.

For cycle tracking, my loyalty lies with Oura, but I would like for the Athlytic app to introduce the same. The comfort of wearing it almost every day and not having to think twice about my metrics being recorded makes it my go-to health-tracking device.

If anyone from Athlytic is reading this, please make the integration with my Oura Ring simpler and introduce the cycle tracking feature. It would make the app nearly perfect, in my opinion, and it would eliminate the need for juggling devices to get the best of both worlds.

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