Apps can fix a lot of the key pain points most coaches face, including:
- Your clients sign up for coaching and soon drop out.
- You’re spending hours each month or week on administrative tasks.
- Your clients complain that the experience “isn’t what they hoped for.”
By adopting a few of the coaching apps below, you’ll be able to:
- Effectively track client progress (“What gets measured gets improved” – Robin Sharma).
- Automate processes that you previously completed manually.
- Create a seamless coaching experience for the student.
- And so much more…
Whether you’re a life coach, business coach, sports/fitness coach, or any other type of coach, I’ll show you specific use cases for each of these apps and how they can help your business grow.
Specifically, we’ll cover the best apps for the following categories:
- Habit Tracking
- To-do list
- Worksheet creation
- Meeting scheduling
- Community
- Video/lesson module storage
- Administrative task automation
Let’s jump into it.
upcoach – An All-in-One Solution
Before diving into each specific category, I wanted to share a coaching platform that bundles all of these categories into one solution. This enables users to have one login for all coaching materials rather than downloading multiple apps.
From a coach’s perspective, upcoach enables you to:
- Track student habits in a built-in habit tracker.
- Automatically assign to-dos in a trackable to-do list.
- Create worksheets that live inside the platform and show the percentage of a worksheet students have completed.
- Schedule coaching calls directly inside the coaching platform (and sync with Google, Apple, and other calendars).
- Create accountability groups and online discussions.
- Automate administrative tasks like support so you can focus on coaching.
- Store additional materials like videos, files, and more.
Here’s a brief look at the platform, and you can also schedule a demo or sign up today to see for yourself:
Habit Tracking Apps
Many coaches focus on setting goals, though the real challenge is achieving those goals, which starts with building small habits every day. As Robin Sharma, one of the world’s leading executive coaches, says, “What gets measured gets improved.”
Therefore, here are a few habit tracking apps to check out.
upcoach
Asking a client to download a particular habit tracker and then send results every week is inconvenient. As you know, achieving a goal often comes down to tracking of the habits easier.
That’s why we built upcoach.
It’s an all-in-one coaching platform that offers a built-in habit tracker that enables coaches to monitor client habits without any additional effort on the client’s part.
Students can set their own habits, though if you’re worried they will forget to add a habit, or want them to watch a video before adding a habit, you can set upcoach to automatically add a habit after completing a lesson.
Within the habit tracker, you can also set how often a habit should be completed (once per week, three times per week, etc.) and whether it should be completed in the morning or evening.
You can sign up for upcoach here.
BetterYou
BetterYou is a habit tracker for health and wellness coaches as one of its features is tracking roughly how many calories a person burns. It also provides nudges at opportune times to help people improve their daily habits.
When a user signs up, they enter their health or wellness goals (or any goals), and then BetterYou works in the background and automatically tracks progress. It also offers a personal coach that sends messages and nudges to improve achievement rates.
Habitica
If you want to gamify the habit tracking experience, Habitica is a great option. Clients can earn rewards and prizes when they complete a habit, and it even lets users “buy” in-game rewards like watching a favorite movie. Clients set their own goals and track their own progress.
While any coach can use it, their primary user base tends to be health and wellness clients.
Habitify
Habitify is another habit tracker that takes a data-backed approach to habit tracking. It’s great for type A people who want to see their progress history.
When you set up Habitify, you set your own goals, and then it sends scheduled reminders to improve completion. Users can then look at their average completion rates, view progress graphs, and more.
To-Do List Apps
Along with tracking habits, you probably have a few one-off action tasks for your student to complete each week. For example, it might be sending a critical email, signing up for a healthy meal delivery service, or attending an event.
Rather than putting the onus on the student to either write it down or remember the action task, use a to-do list and enter it for the student. This will help improve their progress and make your future sessions much more productive.
Here are a few of our favorite to-do list apps.
upcoach
While the apps below are standalone to-do list apps, upcoach is a full online coaching platform that offers a tasks list feature. The coach can schedule the tool to automatically assign tasks once a student has completed a lesson module, or they can manually assign a task to students.
By having everything in one cohesive platform, students can easily see tasks without switching back and forth between lesson content, habit trackers and other notes from their coaching sessions.
You can also set due dates or allow the students to set their own due dates. Then, you can easily glance at the platform and see what percentage of tasks each student has completed.
To see a quick overview of how many students have completed their tasks, the coach can go to the student CRM and see an overview of the percentage of completed habits.
You can see a demo of upcoach or try it out for yourself here.
TickTick
TickTick makes it easy for students to create to-do lists. To create a to-do, students can type it in, enter it via voice input, or even turn emails into to-dos.
It’s also easy to add a deadline for a task and TickTick will send reminders (multiple, if necessary) to ensure students get it done. It’s also possible to create recurring tasks and add critical information like locations.
To help students avoid feeling overwhelmed, it also allows users to tag, sort, and prioritize to-dos.
GoogleTasks
Want something easy and free? GoogleTasks easily integrates with your student’s Google calendar making it simple to add tasks during a coaching session.
While it doesn’t offer all the bells and whistles of some of the other to-do list tools, it’s great for those that just want a simple to-do list that integrates with their Google calendar.
However, one handy feature the desktop version offers is turning emails into to-dos with a simple drag and drop functionality.
Any.do
Any.do makes it easy for students to plan their day. If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “Show me your calendar and I’ll tell you your priorities,” this is the best app to do just that.
Students can add to-dos, meetings, and virtually any other task to their calendar. Once they complete it, they can check it off with satisfaction.
Worksheet Generator Apps
Most coaches find themselves creating worksheets for their students to complete on their own time. However, creating worksheets from scratch can be a major time suck for coaches. In addition, most coaches (especially group coaches) never know if the student actually completed the form as they may have made their own copy.
To help you create worksheets more efficiently and track student completion rates, here are a few apps you might want to consider.
upcoach
Creating worksheets is super easy with upcoach’s SmartDocs feature. SmartDocs enables coaches to create worksheets with simple customization options. In addition, all Smart Docs are embedded into the overall upcoach platform. This way, students have access to all assignments and course material in one place, improving the likelihood that they will complete the tasks.
For coaches, the benefit of Smart Docs is that students can’t copy the worksheet and complete it elsewhere. This means coaches can log into the platform and easily see the percentage of each worksheet students have completed. If the coach notices that one worksheet in particular has a low completion rate, they can address this in coming meetings.
Without this feature, coaches either don’t have zero visibility into how much of a worksheet is completed, or they have to manually look through each student’s worksheet to determine where students are getting stuck.
You can see the SmartDocs feature by scheduling a demo or trying out the platform yourself.
Quenza
Quenza is a drag and drop activities builder that makes it easy for coaches to create engaging worksheets.
It also offers a library of pre-made templates that include “science-based activities and pathways.”
It also sends notifications to clients whenever you send out a new to-do and sends reminders for existing to-dos.
Canva Worksheets
If you’re looking for an easy, free worksheet builder, Canva is a good option. They offer plenty of pre-built templates that you can download and send to your students to complete.
Customizing the worksheets is also relatively easy with its drag and drop builder. However, this can also be somewhat annoying as users can’t create custom rules or make bulk stylistic edits. It’s also inconvenient for longer worksheets as you have to pay to set the size of the worksheet.
TopWorksheets
If you’re looking for a more academic worksheet creator, TopWorksheets is another option. It enables teachers to create self-grading worksheets to save time and automate student feedback.
You can also use some of the templates created by previous TopWorksheets users. Or, if you prefer to create one from scratch, you can do so by using the drag and drop editor. It also offers a host of different question options, including:
- Fill the blanks
- Dropdown menus
- Match elements
- Drag & drop
Project Management Apps
Tracking student progress in an Excel spreadsheet or Google Doc can get messy quickly as it’s easy to forget to enter completed tasks or add new tasks.
Therefore, using a project management app that enables you to track student progress easily is essential. Here are a few of our favorite project management apps.
upcoach
Most coaches only use project management software because their existing coaching platform doesn’t offer options like accountability groups, task lists, habit tracking, and other necessities for an outstanding coaching experience.
However, upcoach does all of these things in one platform. You can host all of your videos, communicate through the forum, track student habits, schedule calls, assign tasks, and more.
If you want to see the platform yourself, schedule a demo or sign up today risk-free.
Trello
Trello is a popular kanban-style project management app that many coaches use to move students through their coaching process. Within the Trello platform, users can label each project stage, collaborate with @mention tags (which trigger email notifications), and visually view project progress.
It offers a free plan, and many group coaches enjoy using it in tandem with their coaching platforms.
Basecamp
Basecamp is another project management app that makes it easy for coaches to move students through their coaching program. Therefore, it offers a kanban style approach, enables students and coaches to tag one another, and attach files and documents.
However, the biggest difference between Basecamp and Trello is that it only offers one pricing option – $99 per month. Therefore, Basecamp is more suitable for larger coaching teams.
Notion
Notion is another great project management software built on pages and databases. Therefore, it’s great for coaches that want to customize their own project management experience.
For example, you can choose to create lists, calendars, tables, or even kanban boards and customize them to your liking with various content (images, links, etc.).
It also allows users to tag other members to encourage collaboration.
Meeting Scheduling App
Scheduling coaching calls can become unnecessarily complicated quickly when clients encounter conflicts and want to reschedule. Rather than playing phone or email tag, adopting a meeting scheduling app can make this process painless.
Here are a few of the most effective scheduling apps.
upcoach
Coaches can set their availability directly inside the upcoach platform and allow clients to book the times that best suit their schedules. Once a client books a meeting, it automatically syncs with the calendar of their choice and the coach’s calendar. Coaches can also set the meeting time rather than allowing clients to choose, and then clients can sync it with the calendar of their choice.
Once the meeting is scheduled, clients can either access the link from their calendar or directly inside the upcoach platform.
To see how upcoach works for yourself, schedule a demo today or try it out risk-free.
Calendly
Calendly is probably one of the most popular meeting scheduling apps available today. It integrates with several coaching platforms and enables coaches to block off times for students to schedule coaching sessions.
Once Calendly set is up, you can integrate it with your various calendars, including Google Calendar, Outlook, Microsoft Office, and iCal. It has a limited free version and several paid plans.
ScheduleOnce
ScheduleOnce is a meeting scheduling tool used predominantly by sales professionals. So rather than using it to schedule regular coaching calls, ScheduleOnce is best for scheduling calls with new prospects that come to your website and want to learn more about your services.
When you purchase ScheduleOnce, you’ll see that it posts a calendar with available timeslots directly on your contact page. Therefore, prospects can book an appointment with zero work on your part.
Google Calendar
If you’re looking for the simplest solution possible, Google Calendar is probably your best option. Unfortunately, you’ll have to coordinate over a different medium (email, text, etc.) to find a time that works for everyone.
However, it is easy to integrate it with Zoom and send a calendar invite once you’ve all decided on a time that works.
Community Apps
Group coaching has become wildly popular over the past several years as coaches learn that the community is often just as powerful, if not more so, than the lessons coaches provide.
By introducing each student to a handful of other like-minded individuals, they can hold each other accountable and ask questions throughout the week. To make it easier for students to communicate with one another, here is a list of the top community apps for coaches.
upcoach
If you need an all-in-one solution that enables you to create communities and accountability groups for your clients, upcoach is a great solution.
This way, clients can meet up on their own and ask each other questions throughout the week, freeing up your time as a coach and improving the student experience.
Students can also connect individually through the one on one chat if relevant.
Slack
Slack is one of the go-to resources for community building as it offers much of its functionality for free and most people are familiar with the platform.
Coaches can use it to create groups for the entire community or separate students into subgroups. It also makes it easy to have group conversations or private one-on-one conversations.
Discourse
Discourse is a forum app that coaches can attach to their coaching platform or website. The discussions are presented in scrolling threads to make it easy to find anything on one screen. It is designed for both mobile and desktop users and will notify them whenever someone replies to a thread, uses an @mention, etc.
In short, Discourse is a dead-simple tool that anyone can use to converse with other course members.
Vanilla Forums
Vanilla is perhaps the most robust community app on this list as it offers features like:
- Knowledge base builders
- Gamification options
- Modern, out-of-the-box forum design
- Extensive theme customization
- Advanced moderation features
It also offers an analytics suite to understand average engagement rates and improve community interaction.
Video Apps
Many coaches prefer to record videos and send them to students to consume before the coaching call. This way, coaches can answer higher level questions rather than explaining new concepts on coaching calls.
So if you need an app to host and store your coaching videos, here are a few solutions.
upcoach
If you want all of your coaching videos inside a single coaching platform along with your habit trackers, task lists, community, and more, upcoach is a great solution. It offers a video module feature that lets you upload videos and group them into different lessons. You can also lock videos, making it easy to release them only after a student has completed a certain task or on a certain date.
Once students complete a video, they can mark the lesson as complete. This way, it’s easy for you as a coach to see how many students have completed the lessons before each call.
To see the upcoach platform yourself, schedule a demo today.
OnForm
OnForm is a unique video platform designed specifically for sports coaches. Rather than acting as a passive video hosting service, it allows coaches and students to upload videos and edit them to analyze the athlete’s form. For example, a student can upload a video, and then the coach can put it in slow motion, annotate various elements of their form, and more.
It also offers integrated chat messaging for easy coach/student communication.
Vimeo
If you want a dead simple video hosting platform, Vimeo is a great option. You can upload your videos, create a playlist, control who can see the videos, and more.
It’s also easy to upload thumbnails to create a more professional and polished look with minimal additional effort.
Streamable
If you want a video hosting service that also enables basic video editing services (such as clipping, rotating, etc.), Streamable is a great solution.
You can also embed the videos on your website or send them directly to your clients.
Accounting and Invoicing Apps
Organizing the financial aspect of your business is one of those administrative tasks that you probably hate. It takes time away from coaching your students, yet it’s also necessary to run your business.
If you’re still manually sending out invoices and tracking expenses in an Excel spreadsheet, consider using one of these apps to automate processes and save time.
Paperbell
Paperbell is an accounting and invoicing app specifically designed for coaches. Rather than creating custom invoices and proposals, Paperbell allows coaches to create a handful of coaching packages that can be sent directly to prospects to purchase. This way, a coach only has to create each invoice once, and payment is collected automatically.
Students can also choose to pay with their credit card, PayPal, and various other payment methods. This makes it much easier to track revenue as you don’t have to chase down checks, cash, and other forms of payment.
Stripe
If you already have a website, you can accept payments directly with Stripe. It charges a 2.9% fee for each transaction plus a base fee of $0.30 per transaction.
With Stripe, you never have to send invoices because it allows you to list various coaching packages on your website that students can purchase online with Stripe.
This makes it easy to ensure all of your payments are filtered into one specific place, though you’ll still have to keep track of expenses and payments yourself.
We’re excited to announce that upcoach will soon be integrated with Stripe!
Freshbooks
Freshbooks is a full accounting platform that plenty of coaches use to collect and track payment. It primarily targets entrepreneurs and solopreneurs and is therefore relatively easy to navigate. Coaches can create proposals and send invoices from within the platform, though it isn’t completely automated as you’ll still have to send them to clients manually.
Many users love that Freshbooks automatically calculates revenue and expenses, making tax season a breeze.
Xero
Xero is a Freshbooks competitor and offers basically the same features. Therefore, you can create proposals, send invoices, and easily calculate revenue and expenses.
However, some users claim it is less intuitive than Freshbooks, and only offers limited customer support.
Final Thoughts
If you want an individual app to enhance the coaching experience, you can choose one app from each category above. However, if you want a platform that combines all of the apps above to create a single cohesive user experience, consider trying upcoach today.
It was built to help coaches deliver transformational results that propel them into the top 1% in their industry.
Schedule a demo today, or sign up to see the platform for yourself!
