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Ownly

Coaching apps

App development for coaches, by people who have coached.

We have shipped two coaching apps to the stores for two different coaching businesses, and the client came back for the second one. Our founder ran a coaching business for eight years before building software for them, so the questions we ask at the start are the ones that decide whether clients still open the app in week six. We scope yours on a call and give you a fixed price in writing.

Why coaching apps fail, and it is almost never the features

A coaching app dies in week two, and the reason is nearly always friction on the client's side rather than anything missing on the coach's. A check-in that needs good signal to upload does not get done, because it is being recorded in a car park. A plan that cannot be edited on a Tuesday stops matching reality by Wednesday. A video that has to be found before it can be watched gets skipped.

The coach's side has its own version: if adding a new client means rebuilding a twelve week block by hand, the app has replaced one admin job with another. The features list looks identical either way, which is why choosing an app off a feature comparison is how coaches end up on their third platform in two years.

Your own app, or somebody else's platform

A rented coaching platform sets the rules: you pay per client, the check-in works the way it was designed for everybody, the store listing carries its name rather than yours, and your data comes out in whatever form it chooses. Your own app is built around how you coach, carries your name, and belongs to you once it is paid for.

For a coach with twelve clients, we usually start with your own website and booking, built around how you coach, and grow it from there. Your own app pays for itself when the coaching itself is the product you are scaling, when you are running a group programme alongside one to one work, or when the platform's limits have started shaping how you coach. Every app feature we have already built is listed under apps for members and clients. Read build or buy for how we work out what to build first.

What goes into a coaching app that gets used

Roles from day one, so what a coach can do and what a member can see are different jobs rather than the same screen with things hidden. A video library with timed unlocks, so a programme arrives in the order the coaching intends instead of all at once on day one. Plan templates, so the same block is not rebuilt per client.

Then the parts that decide retention: photo and video check-ins that upload on one bar of signal, progress a coach can see week on week, voice note replies attached to the exact exercise they are about, push notifications that reach a phone rather than an inbox, prepaid session balances and booking inside the app, and community posts so members are not the only person in their own programme.

The stores, and the part coaches do not see coming

Apple and Google both require things of a coaching app that have nothing to do with coaching: account deletion and data export inside the app, privacy labels that match what it really collects, permission strings, age ratings, and a review queue with no service level. We have had a build sit with Apple for thirteen days. Nobody can promise you otherwise, and anybody who does has not shipped one.

We handle submission and review, publish under your brand, and set the app up so updates reach phones the same day rather than waiting for another review round. The project briefing will price your actual scope and email you a range and a timeline.

The proof

Two coaching apps, and where each one is live

ProFlow Academy is live on the App Store and Google Play. ProFlow Physiques is live on the App Store and Google Play. Both were built from scratch for the business that runs them.

See it working

A short film of one of our own demonstrations, recorded from the running software. Every company in it is invented, and the link opens the real thing.

Questions we get asked

Do I need my own app, or will a coaching platform do?
Your own app is worth building when the coaching is the product you are growing: when you are paying per client, when a platform's limits have started shaping how you coach, or when you want your own store listing and your own data. For a coach just starting out, we usually build the website and booking first and add the app as the client list grows.
How much does a coaching app cost?
We scope yours on a call, because what is in it moves the number: check-ins, video, payments, community, a second platform and offline behaviour all add real work. Watch the project briefing first, then book if the approach feels right.
Will it be on the App Store under my own brand?
Yes. Both ProFlow apps are published under their own brand with their own listings, screenshots and data. We handle submission, Apple review and the store admin that follows.
Can clients use it with bad signal?
That is a design requirement rather than a nice to have, because check-ins get recorded in gym car parks. Uploads are built to survive a poor connection and to resume rather than fail, which is the single biggest cause of a check-in never arriving.
What if I run both group and one to one coaching?
They usually want to be two products rather than one app with a mode switch. That is exactly what happened with ProFlow: a group programme app first, then a separate app built from scratch for one to one coaching, because a single app trying to be both would have made the working one worse.

Coaching more clients than your current setup can hold?

Tell us how the coaching runs today and where it breaks. We will tell you what an app would take, roughly what it would cost, and what to build first.