PEAKVO2 vs Peak Interval: Ready-Made Protocols or a Custom Builder?
Run these workouts on your iPhone, or hands-free on Apple Watch. Get PEAKVO2 Peak Interval and PEAKVO2 are both interval apps for iPhone and Apple Watch, but they take opposite approaches. Peak Interval is a customizable builder: you design workouts or let its AI Coach create one from a photo, with 5-zone heart rate tracking. PEAKVO2 ships ready-made VO2 max protocols like the Norwegian 4x4 and tracks your VO2 max. Pick Peak Interval to build your own; pick PEAKVO2 for proven protocols with VO2 tracking.
Both are capable, Apple Watch native interval apps with heart rate, so this is not about which is better made. It is about whether you want to build your own workouts or run evidence-based VO2 max protocols that are already set up for you.
PEAKVO2 vs Peak Interval at a Glance
| PEAKVO2 | Peak Interval | |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Ready-made VO2 max protocols | Custom workout builder |
| What you run | Eight guided endurance protocols | Workouts you build, or AI-generated from a photo |
| AI workout creation | No | Yes, snap a photo and the AI Coach builds it |
| Named VO2 max protocols | Norwegian 4x4, Tabata, HIIT 30/30, and more | Not advertised; build your own |
| VO2 max tracking | Yes, trend over time | Not advertised |
| Heart rate | Zones tied to each protocol | Real-time 5-zone with post-workout distribution |
| Field tests | Built-in beep and Cooper tests | Not the focus |
| Apple Watch | Standalone, no phone needed | Standalone, launches with the workout |
| Price | 3 workouts free, then $0.99/mo, $9.99/yr, $19.99 lifetime | Free to download |
What Peak Interval Is
Peak Interval is a customizable interval training timer for iPhone and Apple Watch. You build workouts from scratch with a drag-and-drop builder of multiple exercises and rounds, or use its AI Coach, which can create a workout from a photo. It runs standalone on Apple Watch, launching automatically when you start a session, and tracks heart rate in real time with a 5-zone classification and a zone distribution breakdown after each workout. It is free to download. Its strengths are flexibility and its AI-assisted setup: if you want to design your own sessions, or turn a photo of a workout into a timer, it is built for that.
What PEAKVO2 Is
PEAKVO2 is an interval training app for iPhone and Apple Watch, built around VO2 max. It ships eight validated protocols, the Norwegian 4x4, Tabata, HIIT 30/30, Billat 30/30, Ronnestad 30/15, VO2 Max 3x3, VO2 Max 5x3, and Tempo Run, with full-screen color-coded phases, automatic transitions, a haptic tap at each switch, and the heart rate zones those protocols depend on. It runs natively on Apple Watch with no phone needed, tracks your VO2 max trend over time, and includes built-in beep and Cooper field tests. It is a training app, not a testing service. You can build your own intervals too, but you do not have to: you pick a proven protocol and it runs.
The Core Difference: Build-Your-Own vs Proven Protocols
Peak Interval gives you a builder and an AI assistant, so the workout can be anything you design or photograph. That is powerful if you know what you want, or want variety across many kinds of training, and its 5-zone heart rate breakdown gives good feedback on whatever you run.
PEAKVO2 makes a different bet: rather than starting you at a blank builder, it ships the specific protocols proven to raise VO2 max and optimizes hard for that outcome, tracking your VO2 max over time and letting you test it with beep and Cooper field tests. It has a custom builder too, but the point is you rarely need it. You could build a Norwegian 4x4 in Peak Interval, but you would be recreating what PEAKVO2 ships ready to run, without the VO2 max tracking around it. If you want a flexible builder with AI setup, Peak Interval fits; if you want proven VO2 max protocols and a tracked number, PEAKVO2 fits.
Who Each One Is For
- Choose Peak Interval if you want to design your own interval workouts, like the AI Coach building a session from a photo, and want detailed 5-zone heart rate feedback on any workout, for free.
- Choose PEAKVO2 if you want ready-made VO2 max protocols run for you, with the heart rate zones that raise VO2 max, your VO2 max tracked over time, and built-in field tests.
- Use both if you build general circuits in Peak Interval and want a dedicated, guided tool for VO2 max work. One is the builder; the other is the VO2 max program.
Build your aerobic engine with PEAKVO2
Guided VO2 max protocols, the Norwegian 4x4, Tabata, REHIT, and more, on iPhone and Apple Watch, with heart rate zones, built-in beep and Cooper tests, and your VO2 max tracked over time. Three workouts free.
Get PEAKVO2 free