Obé Fitness Review (2023): We Tested This Workout App for Women

Obé Fitness is a workout app for women determined to steer clear of fitness trends and quick-fix hacks. Instead, obé is aiming to help women enjoy fitness and develop healthy and sustainable habits around movement. While it didn’t make the list of best workout apps for women, it’s a well-deserving contender.

In this obé Fitness review, you’ll hear about our hands-on experience with the app and who we think it’s best suited for. Let’s get into it. 

More Than 60 Workout Apps Tested

At Garage Gym Reviews, we take the best online workout programs and workout apps seriously. We understand it’s a headache to try dozens of different apps and trial periods to end up wasting money and not using your subscription. That’s why our team of personal trainers, gym owners, nutrition experts, and Olympic-level athletes have come together to test more than 60 workout apps so you don’t have to. 

For this obé Fitness review, Frieda Johnson, GGR editor and NASM-certified nutrition coach, put this female-specific workout app to the test. During the testing process, she reviewed and scored a variety of categories including price, user interface, accountability, instruction, and equipment demands to name a few. Each category was scored on a scale of 1 to 5 using our in-depth testing methodology. 

Obe Fitness

Obe Fitness

GGR Score: 3.6

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Product Highlights

• Fitness platform designed for women
• Features live and on-demand classes and training programs ranging from 5-60 minutes
• Appropriate for any skill level
• Over 20 types of workout options ranging from kid programs and foam rolling to HIIT and sculpt
• Pre-planned progressive video programs covering a variety of areas including dance, yoga, wellness, and BodyComp

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Over 20 live classes daily
• Huge range of workout types and programs
• Designed for all fitness levels
• Many users appreciate the music choice

Cons

• On the pricier side for a fitness app
• Reports that some videos are not easy to follow

Bottom Line

This women-centric fitness platform offers a huge variety of live and on-demand classes and progressive training programs. Although there is a one-month free trial period, this app requires an ongoing subscription and falls on the expensive side.

A Quick Look at Obé Fitness App

The obé Fitness app was started in 2018 by co-founders Ashley Mills and Mark Mullett. The duo was inspired by the boutique fitness studios that started popping up in major cities around 2015. Essentially, the pair was looking to recreate boutique studio classes that members could access anywhere and anytime for a more affordable monthly price. 

Before You Subscribe

• Obé Fitness offers prenatal and postnatal workouts along with menstrual tracking features.  
• Obé classes range from indoor cycling and cardio boxing to outdoor walking and dance classes. 
• You can search and filter fitness classes by equipment, fitness level, class length, and music or select from the daily live workout classes. 

Is the Obé Fitness App Worth It?

From our experience with the obé Fitness app (and 60 other workout apps for men, women, beginners, etc.) the price of $24.99 per month falls in our middle-of-the-road range. It certainly doesn’t make our best free workout app roundup, but it’s not the most expensive app we’ve tested either. 

It’s also designed specifically for women and has features for cycle tracking and will suggest workouts based on your menstrual phase, which is a feature we have not seen in other apps we’ve tested. 

Our GGR tester Frieda sums it up by saying, “The app does have a lot to offer, but I don’t know that you’re getting that much more than you could from a more affordable app.”

Obé Fitness App Specs

Experience With the Obé Fitness App

Frieda is a yoga enthusiast with additional interests in walking, running, and strength training. She enjoyed the variety of exercise modalities the obé Fitness app offers and the high-energy instruction from the obé coaches. 

RELATED: Best Running Apps

Frieda notes that Apple Health users can benefit from the cycle tracking data and sync it with the obé app. Within the app, you’ll see the “cycle insights” feature which will have workouts recommended to you based on where you are in your menstrual phase. There is a mood check-in component, too. Connecting your Apple Health data can also allow you to track heart rate, VO2 max, activity tracking, and step count. 

Pricing and Subscription Options

When we test fitness apps, we want to make sure your monthly subscription isn’t out-pricing the cost of a gym membership. That’s why we give low scores to apps over $35 per month and high scores to apps under $10 per month. 

The obé Fitness app earns a middle-of-the-road 3-star rating for price with a $24.99 monthly fee. If you decide to commit to an annual subscription, it will cost you $169.99 up front, which works out to $14.17 per month. 

We also review and score the trial period for all apps we test. This app earns a 3-star rating again with a seven-day free trial. This is a nice feature, but keep in mind you’ll have to enter your credit card information and if you don’t cancel before the trial ends, your card will automatically be charged monthly (or annually) until you cancel.

RELATED: Best Health Apps

Obé Fitness App Setup

When Frieda installed the obé Fitness app, she went through an in-depth questionnaire to get started. However, upon seeing her personalized recommendations on her dashboard she says, “The suggested workouts only reflected one of the areas I said I was interested in, so the quiz felt kind of like a waste of time.”

For that reason, she docks a point from the app set-up process for a 4-out-of-5-star rating. When it comes to the ease of use and app interface, she also gives obé Fitness a 4-star rating. 

“The app can be a bit confusing because it auto-populates workouts in your schedule based on the results of the quiz, but it’s not always clear how to change those if you’re not interested,” says Frieda. 

However, if you’re just searching for a workout, you can filter by class category, which Frieda found helpful. We’ll outline the filters and different categories in the “workout variety” section in a bit. 

RELATED: At-Home Bodyweight Workout 

Coaching and Instruction 

Obé Fitness earns another 4-star rating when it comes to coaching and instruction. Frieda says her experience with the instruction was solid. 

“The class instructor is performing all the exercises with you and explaining them as you do them,” says Frieda. “I thought it was a good balance of encouraging and motivating without being obnoxious. And the exercises were simple but effective.”

Frieda also notes that most instructors offer form cues and other tips throughout the workout. She elected to take strength classes, dance HIIT classes, and sessions for stretching and mobility exercises. “All of the classes I took were well done,” she says. 

Accountability and Community

In terms of accountability on a workout app, our testers are looking for coaching feedback, community forums, leaderboards, or challenges. While obé Fitness does not have these types of features, the app gets a 3-out-of-5-star rating because you can allow the app to send push notifications to your home screen and add workouts to your online calendar. 

Frieda has one qualm with this feature: obé automatically adds its recommended workouts to your schedule (within the app) after you complete the initial quiz. Frieda says the problem is, “you can add additional workouts to your schedule, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to remove the ones they added if I don’t want them.” 

RELATED: Workout Schedule for Beginners 

Workout Variety and Progression

When it comes to variety and getting creative with limited equipment for your at-home workouts, this app is pretty stellar. When Frieda used the app to search the workout library, she noticed there were 4,500 classes listed that do not require equipment. For this reason, the app earns a 4-out-of-5-star rating for equipment demands. 

Frieda was also impressed with the number of choices she had. Not just in the amount of workouts but the variety, too. She rates the obé app a 4.5 out of 5 stars for variety saying, “there is a ton of variety including the lineup of daily live classes.” 

One thing Frieda truly appreciates about the app is the user interface allows you to search for different types of workouts based on nine different filters including: 

• Class category
• Class type 
• Music 
• Fitness level
• Class length
• Body focus (full-body, upper body, lower body)
• Impact (no impact, low-impact, high-impact) 
• Instructors
• Equipment

For reference, the class type expands to over 20 different styles of training including: 

Plus, you can change your filters to populate workouts for 20 different types of equipment including: 

Frieda’s callout for this app is the progression. Although this app has a ton of variety, many of the workouts are stand-alone sessions. “There are only a handful of full training programs available,” says Frieda who scores obé Fitness at 3 out of 5 stars for progressive overload. 

“However, the fitness programs I reviewed progress safely and effectively. Most programs are only three to four weeks long, though, which is typically not long enough for most people to see real results.” 

RELATED: What Is Progressive Overload?

Obé Fitness vs Peloton 

Peloton App

Peloton App

GGR Score: 4.5

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Product Highlights

• World-class workout classes
• Variety of fitness routines
• On-bike and off-bike workouts
• Don't need a Peloton bike to sign up for the app

Pros & Cons

Pros

• World-class programming
• Not just bike workouts
• Can be used all over the world
• Keeps tracks of all training metrics
• Train from the comfort of your own home
• Seven-day free trial
• Two plan options

Cons

• Required to access Peloton Bike's features

Bottom Line

The Peloton app is one of the best training programs we've come across on any piece of exercise equipment.

Obé Fitness is unique in that it’s designed for women, has cycle tracking capabilities, and pre- and postnatal workouts. However, it’s also similar to some of the popular fitness platforms we’ve tested including iFIT and Peloton with different modes of exercise with less focus on progressive programming over time. 

In the comparison below we have obé Fitness side-by-side with the Peloton app, one of the most popular apps for on-demand fitness and live classes. The main difference is the fact the Peloton app centers around Peloton equipment. While it’s not necessary to own a Peloton-branded treadmill, the app will have tons of machine-based cardio workouts whereas the obé Fitness app has much less equipment-specific workouts when it comes to cardio. 

If you’re interested in our hands-on experience, check out our Peloton app review. 

Customer Experience 

Frieda was not thrilled to find out she had to call obé Fitness to cancel her membership, which is why she gives the app a 3-star rating for customer service. We reserve higher scores for apps that allow you to cancel or modify your subscription in the app or your phone settings. 

She notes that when you’re in the app and tap the “manage subscription” button, it just opens a webpage browser, which forces you to login (again) and once you’re logged in, the only new development is the fact you’re provided with a customer service number to call. 

“Overall it was a terrible experience just to cancel a subscription. However, the customer service representative I spoke to was pleasant and professional,” says Frieda. “They offered me a significant discount for the next month if I didn’t cancel, but they were not pushy when I declined.” 

Customer Reviews

On the Apple App Store and Google Play the app has an average rating of 4.8 and 4.7 out of 5 stars, respectively. However, Frieda went to Trustpilot to scope out additional customer reviews, where there was an average rating of 3.1 stars (but we take that with a grain of salt because there were only 10 reviews). 

For the most part, customers hate the cancellation policy (which we don’t blame them) and they are frosted with the bugginess of the app and frequent app crashes. 

Final Verdict of Our Obé Fitness Review

After Frieda participated in both live and on-demand classes and willed her way through the cancellation process, her main takeaway is that the price feels too high for what you get. “However, it may be an ideal app for someone who takes advantage of all of the features, like the live classes, mood tracker, and cycle insights,” she says. 

From our experience, you may enjoy obé Fitness if you: 

• Have limited equipment at home
• Are seeking pre- or postnatal workouts
• Want the maximum amount of exercise variety
• Are not seeking personal training or one-on-one support 

Full Rating

Obé Fitness App

This women-centric fitness platform offers a huge variety of live and on-demand classes and progressive training programs. Although there is a one-month free trial period, this app requires an ongoing subscription and falls on the expensive side.

Product Brand: Obe

Product Currency: $

Product Price: 24.99

Product In-Stock: InStock

Editor's Rating:
3.6

Obé Fitness: FAQs

Lauren Strong, CPT

Lauren is an NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer working with clients of all ages and skill levels. She specializes in coaching the squat, bench, and deadlift and enjoys introducing beginners to barbell training. Before becoming certified, she worked in marketing roles after graduating from the University of Maine with a BA in Journalism. Writing for Garage Gym Reviews blends her two passions: writing and lifting. Lauren spends her leisure time in the kitchen, reading fiction, and taking nature walks. She's also an avid downhill skier, learning how to ski when she was just two years old. She lives in Maine with her husband and two cats.

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