Looking for Feedback on a New Climbing App: CruxCoach

Hey all,

I'm working on a new climbing app called CruxCoach and I’d really appreciate some input from folks who train seriously. I’m especially interested in hearing from those of you who've used apps like Redpoint, Crimpd, Kaya, etc.

The short version: CruxCoach is trying to bridge the gap between tracking and training—with more emphasis on reflection, journaling, and personalized insights based on your actual struggles and strengths.

Before I get too deep into development, I’d love your honest thoughts. Below is a rough comparison with some existing tools, followed by our own current and planned features. Would love to hear if you think any of this is redundant, actually useful, or totally missing the mark.

Current Solutions

Redpoint:

• Pros: Solid tracker. Integrates with Strava, TheCrag, Apple Watch

• Cons: Paywalled training, grade-based only. Not reflection-based

• Community: iOS only (last I checked), but solid if your gym uses custom grading

Crimpd:

• Pros: 75+ curated workouts from pro climbers. Benchmarking tools

• Cons: No progress tracking outside workouts. Doesn’t "teach" climbing

Kaya (different niche):

• Community/social driven

• More focused on video content & outdoor scenes

• Data = kinda noisy, especially for nuanced personal progress

Toplogger:

• Mostly for gyms/commercial use, not individual-focused

Where We Think the Gap Is

A lot of current apps fall into either:

• Good tracking (like Redpoint)

• Good training (like Crimpd)
  But very few tie the two together meaningfully. Reflection, targeted insights, and actually helping climbers improve technique—rather than just strength—seems underserved.

We’re leaning into:

• Purposeful journaling after sessions

• Visualizing trait-based improvement (not just grades)

• Discover/training plans that directly respond to your weaknesses

• A "teaching-first" approach, not just “here’s a hangboard plan”

Would love thoughts on any of this:

• Is this solving a real problem or reinventing the wheel?

• What do you wish your current app did that it doesn’t?

• Any must-have features we’re overlooking?

• Would you ever actually use something like this, and if not—why?

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

So I'm not much interested in training, but I have an insight that may be of value to you. I would be interested in ANY climbing journaling app that lets me log climbs and export the data to a .csv file or similar or that lets me store the data in the cloud like Google drive. I've used some apps that do that and I love that. 

I want a better climbing tracking app (MP is doggy door doo garbage for routes not already in the database which represents well over half of my climbing) and I think a lot of other people do, too. Get me in the door with a good climbing journal and I'll eventually get around to checking out the other features. 

The problem is I don't want to try out a new journaling app that doesn't let me control my data, as I've gotten burned before when projects fail and close. So giving me easy control and export of my data is imperative for me to have any interest. 

If I could journal my training independently of my climbing that would actually be pretty rad and I would definitely use that. You know, whenever I start training again, whenever that is. 

I was trying to make something like this, but I'm not a programmer so it is not going great. Mostly my idea was around the Dave macloud comment about how  people that don't progress never seem to know why they fell off. So I mainly am trying to get it to be a place to enter beta, why I think I fell off, plans for next attempt, and provide some kind of long-term database of climbing history.  Writing in Kotlin for Android.

Ricky, have you tried the "Climbing Tracker" app? All it does is log climbs (that you input manually). It exports to .json and will automatically backup to Google.

- Data protection

Your data is only stored locally, so your data cannot fall into the wrong hands. Of course, you can still create a backup and save it in your favorite cloud.