Ask ten physiotherapists what they want from a physiotherapy app and you will get three different answers wearing the same label. The disagreement is not about features. It is that the word covers a clinical system, a patient-facing exercise tool and a pocket goniometer, and those have almost nothing to do with each other.
Three different things are called a physiotherapy app
- The one you work in. Records, diary, notes, money. It replaces a desktop, and the only real question is whether it is usable with one thumb.
- The one the patient gets. Home exercises, next appointment, a way to confirm they are coming. Different user, different problem, and almost always a different product.
- The measuring tools. Goniometer, inclinometer, posture photographs, timers. Single-purpose, often excellent, and they do not keep records — whatever they measure still has to end up somewhere.
Before comparing anything, decide which of the three you are shopping for. Half the disappointment with physiotherapy apps is buying the second one and expecting the first.
Native, web, and the word that hides the difference
A native app is downloaded from a store and installed on the phone. A web app runs in the browser. Between them sits the progressive web app, which is a website that can be added to the home screen, where it opens full-screen with its own icon and is, for practical purposes, indistinguishable from a native app until something goes wrong.
The distinction people care about is not the technology. It is this: what happens when the signal drops. And the answer is much less generous than the marketing suggests.
- Native, built for offline. Writes the note to the phone and syncs later. Genuinely useful in basements and lifts. Rarer than you would think.
- Native, but still online. Installed from the store and useless without a connection. Very common.
- Progressive web app. Usually opens offline and shows you the last screen; usually cannot save a new note. “It works offline” frequently means “it opens offline”.
If offline matters to you, do not accept any of the three words as an answer. Ask the vendor directly: can I write and save a full session note with the phone in flight mode, and will it be there afterwards? The answer is usually no, from everyone, and it is better to know.
What an App Store listing proves
It proves the company paid a developer account and passed a review. It does not prove the product is good, maintained, or suitable for clinical records — and its absence does not prove the opposite. Some serious clinical software is deliberately browser-only, because one codebase updated on a Tuesday afternoon beats three codebases waiting on store approval.
What is genuinely worth checking is smaller and duller: does it install to your home screen, does it remember you are signed in, does it survive a phone restart, and does the keyboard not cover the field you are typing into. Those decide whether you use it on a Wednesday.
Test it on your own phone
Not on a demo tablet in a showroom. Your phone, your hands, one real follow-up note, standing up.
Create a free account → No credit card. The first 7 days have no limits at all.The app you want the patient to have
Here is the uncomfortable arithmetic of patient-facing apps: every install is a step, every account is a step, and every step loses people. A patient in their sixties, handed a card at reception telling them to download an app, create a password and log in to see four exercises, will do it about as often as you would expect.
What works better, almost universally, is a link. One personal address per patient, sent by whatever messaging app they already use, that opens directly on their exercises, their next appointment and a button to confirm they are coming. No install, no account, no password to reset three weeks later.
That is not a technical preference, it is an adherence one. The best-designed exercise app in the world does nothing for the patient who never finished installing it, and the exercises you prescribed are the ones that decide whether the treatment works.
What a free app usually means
Four different things, and they are worth telling apart before you put patient data in one:
- Free trial. Free for a fortnight, then not. Fine, as long as you know the date.
- Free tier. Genuinely free forever, with limits — usually on patients, storage or documents.
- Free tool, paid everything else. The goniometer is free; the record-keeping is the product.
- Free because you are the product. Rare in clinical software and worth ruling out explicitly: read what the terms say about what is done with the data.
For anything that will hold patient records, the questions that matter are the boring ones: can you export everything, what happens to the records if you stop paying, and who is the data controller. We went through those in detail here.
The phone is also the risk
A clinical system on a phone is a clinical system in a coat pocket, on a train, occasionally in a taxi. Three habits cover most of it, and none of them is a feature you buy:
- A lock screen with biometrics, and a screen timeout short enough to be mildly annoying.
- No shared device. If reception and the clinicians use the same tablet, everything in the audit trail is a lie, because every action belongs to whoever left it logged in.
- Remote sign-out that you have actually tested, before the evening you need it.
Worth reading alongside: what patient data protection asks of a small practice.
A twenty-minute test that settles it
Do this on your own phone, with your own hands, before you decide anything:
- Write a full follow-up note for a real session, one-handed, standing up. Time it. Under three minutes is workable; over five and you will end up writing notes at home.
- Book a recurring appointment and then move one of its occurrences.
- Send a patient their exercises and open the link on a second phone, as the patient would see it.
- Turn on flight mode and try to save something. Watch what it does. This is the test nobody runs and everybody should.
- Add it to your home screen and restart the phone. If it asks you to sign in again every time, you will stop using it.
What Physioly is on a phone, honestly
Physioly is a progressive web app. It runs in the browser on a phone, a tablet and a computer, installs to the home screen with its own icon, and there is no separate mobile product with fewer features — the record, the diary, the finances and the reports are the same on every screen.
On the patient side there is no app to install at all. Each patient gets a personal link you send through whichever messaging app they already use, and it opens on their next sessions, a confirmation button, their home exercises with a 3D demonstration, and the video link if the session is online. They create no account and install nothing.
What is not there:
- No listing in the App Store or Google Play. Installation is from the browser.
- No offline note-taking. You can read what is already on screen; saving needs a connection.
- No built-in goniometer or measurement tools. Measurements are typed into the record.
- No automatic push reminders. The system composes the message; you send it.
If a store listing is a requirement for you, that is a fair reason to look elsewhere. If what you want is the whole system usable on the phone in your pocket and nothing for the patient to install, that is precisely what this is, and the free plan costs nothing forever with an unlimited first week.
Questions we get asked
Is there a good free app for physiotherapists?
It depends which of the three you mean. Free measuring tools are plentiful and some are excellent, but they do not keep records. Free clinical systems usually mean a free tier with limits on patients or documents, which is workable for a small caseload. Before putting patient data into any of them, check that you can export everything and what happens to the records if you stop paying.
What is the difference between a native app and a progressive web app?
A native app is installed from a store; a progressive web app is a website added to the home screen that opens full-screen with its own icon. In daily use they look the same. The difference that matters is offline behaviour, and it is smaller than people assume: many native apps are equally useless without a connection, and most progressive web apps open offline but cannot save.
Can I write clinical notes from my phone?
In any product that is genuinely responsive rather than a desktop screen squeezed small. Test it rather than trusting the answer: write one real follow-up note on your own phone, one-handed, standing up, and time it. Under three minutes is workable. Over five and the notes will migrate to your evenings.
Should patients have to install an app to get their exercises?
Preferably not. Every install and every account loses people, and the patients who most need the exercises are often the least likely to complete a download and a password. A personal link sent through the messaging app they already use, opening straight on the exercises, gets followed far more often than a well-designed app nobody installed.
Does Physioly have an app in the App Store?
No. It is a progressive web app: it runs in the browser on phone, tablet and computer and installs to the home screen with its own icon, with the same features on every screen. Patients install nothing at all — they get a personal link with their sessions, exercises and confirmation button. What it does not do is save notes offline.