At a glance
- Developer
- Buena Vida LLC
Seattle, WA, USA - Founder
- David Cole
Ex-Amazon. Led UX and research for Amazon Halo - Funding
- Self-funded. No investors.
- Launched
- March 2026
Updated October 2026 (3.0.4) - Platform + price
- iPhone
$14.99/month or $99.99/year
7-day free trial - Training plans
- Personal plans from a first 5K to a Boston qualifier, plus return to running and weight loss, each scored on 30 measures (how we score)
- Research
- Every measure and coaching claim links to published studies: 293 so far (see them)
- Nutrition
- Calorie and macro targets that follow each day's training
3.5M+ foods, barcode & voice logging - Run tracking
- GPS, Bluetooth sensors, live voice coaching, Live Activities, widgets, automatic shoe mileage
- Privacy
- No account, no ads, no trackers. Health data is stored on the iPhone, not on our servers.
- Recognition
- Featured in a reader segment of The Verge's Installer newsletter
May 2026
Good to know
- iPhone only. No Android or web version.
- After the 7-day free trial it's a subscription. There's no free tier.
- Run history comes through Apple Health. Strava and Garmin users should turn on Apple Health sharing in those apps, and older runs may not carry over.
Stories I can help with
David led UX and research for Halo, Amazon's first health and fitness product, and started running while designing it. Since 2025 he has designed and built Buena Vida himself.
No account, no ads, no trackers. Health data stays on the iPhone, so there's nothing to sell or leak.
A 30-measure rubric, tied to research, used to score popular running plans and all of the app's own. David can explain what separates a great plan from an average – or unsafe – one.
Many runners use separate apps to track runs, follow their plan, and count calories. Buena Vida does all three.
About the app
Best for: runners who want their training plan and calorie counting in one app.
Buena Vida is an iPhone running app that gives you a training plan, tracks your runs, and sets daily calorie goals that change with your workouts.
Buena Vida puts a run tracker, a training plan, and a calorie counter in one iPhone app. Pick a goal, from a first 5K to a Boston qualifier, and the days you can run, and it gives you a plan based on your fitness in Apple Health. Voice coaching talks you through each workout. Calorie goals go up on long-run days and down on rest days. There are no ads, and your health data stays on your phone. $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year after a 7-day free trial.
Buena Vida puts a run tracker, a training plan, and a calorie counter in one iPhone app, covering jobs many runners split across Strava, a plan app, and MyFitnessPal. Because they're connected, your food goals follow your training: more carbs on a long-run day, fewer calories on a rest day. You can log food by voice or barcode.
You pick a goal (a first 5K, a faster half, a Boston qualifier, weight loss, or a return to running) and the days you can train. The app checks your recent runs in Apple Health, then gives you a plan that fits your calendar and race date. You can see the whole first week before the free trial starts. Every plan is scored on 30 measures, like how fast mileage rises and how much rest is built in, with links to the research.
During a workout, voice coaching talks you through each interval, telling you when to push and when to ease off. Detailed live stats, including heart-rate zones, splits, and cadence, let you adjust as you go, and race-time predictions build from your own runs.
There are no ads, and health data stays on the iPhone. Buena Vida is an independent app, designed and built in Seattle by David Cole, who led UX and research for Amazon's Halo fitness tracker. $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year after a 7-day free trial.
Founder
David Cole is the founder of Buena Vida. He spent 11 years at Amazon, where he led UX and research for Amazon Halo and architected its product experience. He designs and builds Buena Vida himself in Seattle.
A 25+ year tech veteran, David Cole founded Buena Vida in 2025 after 11 years at Amazon. As head of UX and research for Amazon Halo, Amazon's first personal health and fitness product, he architected the product experience, turning a short list of hardware features into a full product: who the app was for, what the app did, and the application of health science to the product's key features. He went on to lead strategy for new products and experiences across Amazon's store as a Senior Principal (Director), the company's most senior individual-contributor designer. A runner and triathlete in Seattle, he designs and builds Buena Vida himself, self-funded and ad-free.
David Cole has designed digital products for more than 25 years, at Intuit on TurboTax and then for 11 years at Amazon, on its online store and devices like Amazon Halo, Amazon's first personal health and fitness product. As Halo's head of UX and research, he architected the product experience: who the app was for, what the app did, and the application of health science to the product's key features. He went on to lead strategy for new products and experiences across Amazon's store as a Senior Principal (Director), the company's most senior individual-contributor designer, and pitched product ideas to Jeff Bezos more than 20 times.
He started running at 37, while designing Halo. Since then he has run 6 marathons, 11 half marathons, and 3 Ironman 70.3 triathlons.
He left Amazon in 2023, and in 2025 started building Buena Vida, the app he wished he'd had as a new runner: training plans, run tracking, and nutrition in one place, with the data kept on the phone. He designs and builds it himself in Seattle, with no investors and no ads.
David can talk about
- What makes a strong training plan
- Designing health products people trust
- Fueling for training
- Leaving big tech to go independent
- Starting to run at 37
- Privacy by architecture
- Building mileage safely
- Marathons and triathlons in your 40s
What's new in app
Personal plan generator. A runner shares a goal, current fitness (from Apple Health, with permission), and the days they can train. Buena Vida matches a plan, fits it to their calendar and race date, and previews week 1 before the free trial starts.
Screenshots + logos
Click any image for the full-size file.
Logos, icon, photo
Wide one-line logos: light · dark · everything (zip, 66 MB)
