Are you comparing Trainingpeaks vs. Final Surge?
Trainingpeaks and Final Surge are two of the top apps for runners, triathletes, cyclists, and other endurance athletes.
Final Surge and Trainingpeaks direct competitors when it comes to apps that allow you to work with a 1-on-1 coach or buy template-based training plans for endurance events. The features of the two apps are very similar, and both apps are designed primarily for coaches to interact with their athletes as opposed to being designed primarily for an athlete to get training on their own (like our app, MOTTIV).
The main difference between Trainingpeaks and Final Surge is that Trainingpeaks requires a premium subscription of $19.99/month to access a lot of the fitness tracking and planning that most athletes will want to do. Final Surge is free besides the cost of purchasing training plans for an average of $12-35/month.
In this article, we'll discuss all the pros and cons of Trainingpeaks and Final Surge, and we'll answer the following questions you might have:
- What are the main features of Trainingpeaks and Final Surge?
- What are the pros and cons of Trainingpeaks and Final Surge?
- How much do Trainingpeaks and Final Surge cost?
- Are Trainingpeaks and Final Surge good for beginners?
- What athletes should consider Trainingpeaks vs. Final Surge?
BONUS: We'll also be discussing our app MOTTIV, which is a really good alternative to Final Surge or Trainingpeaks if these two apps don't sound quite right for you.
Trainingpeaks vs. Final Surge vs. MOTTIV Summary
Trainingpeaks Review
Trainingpeaks Overview
Trainingpeaks is an app that can be used on the web or in their mobile application that provides training tools for endurance athletes and their coaches. Athletes can create their own training plans from scratch, purchase template training plans, or work with a coach who will create their workouts in the Training peaks app.
Athletes can connect their fitness devices to download workout data to their devices, and their workout data will be imported into Trainingpeaks, where users can review their workout stats and track their training progress.
Compared to Final Surge, Trainingpeaks has many more data points you can monitor. The performance metrics available in Training Peaks are huge; you can track, measure, and analyze hundreds of different data points, which can be useful for some high-level coaches or self-coached data junkies.
Trainingpeaks Pros
- Connections: Trainingpeaks connected to more fitness devices and other apps than any training app on the market. If you want to synchronize your fitness data with a less popular fitness device (like Coros or Suunto, for example), Trainingpeaks will work for you.
- Fitness data: Premium Trainingpeaks users can get a lot of performance data when syncing their fitness devices. Coaches love the ability to get almost any fitness metric they can imagine.
- Training plan options: Athletes can purchase training plans from tens of thousands of coaches from all around the world who have uploaded template training plans for any event you can think of.
Trainingpeaks Cons
- Free version: Athletes don't get much for free on Trainingpeaks. Athletes can't get a training plan created for them without paying for it, and the stats that free users can track are very limited.
- Cost: To get many of the progress-tracking features, athletes need to be on a paid plan. In addition, athletes must purchase almost all training plans, which cost an average of $75 for four months of training.
- Ease of Use: Trainingpeaks isn't very self-serve; you typically need to learn how to work the app to get the training plans to work for you.
- Training plans: One of the biggest cons of Trainingpeaks is that if you purchase multiple training plans for a full season of racing, the training plans will conflict with each other. You may end up with workouts from four different training plans all on the same day, and not have any guidance on how to train for multiple races at one time.
- Training personalization: Training plans are based on templates, and while many training plans allow for some level of personalization, they're still generic templates.
- Holistic training: Many training plans in Trainingpeaks won't have strength workouts, mobility workouts, or workout nutrition advice. These added aspects of training are critical for keeping you healthy and allowing you to get the most from your training.
- Motivation: Trainingpeaks doesn't have many features that work to keep athletes on track and motivated to reach their goals.
Trainingpeaks Ease of Use
Trainingpeaks is designed primarily for coaches to manage their athletes, so it's not designed to be a self-serve app that you can easily use on your own.
Athletes who like learning about training and designing their own training plans will like learning how to use Trainingpeaks, but athletes who just want a training plan that's done for them will have a lot to learn to get comfortable using the app.
Who is Trainingpeaks Best For?
Trainingpeaks is an excellent app for athletes working with a 1-on-1 endurance sports coach or self-coached athletes who want to dive into all the data they could possibly want from their training.
Trainingpeaks Pricing
- Free: limited features
- Paid: $19.95/month, $49/quarter, or $124.99/year
- Training plans: $75/four months (on average)
Final Surge Review
Final Surge Overview
Final Surge is an app that's primarily used on the computer. While there are smartphone-based versions of the Final Surge app, they don't provide as good an experience as using the app on a desktop.
Like Trainingpeaks, Final Surge lets you find training plans you can purchase. You can also create your own training plans or find a coach to work with for 1-on-1 guidance (most coaches cost $200/month or more).
Final Surge Pros
- Integrations: Final Surge connects with many different devices and fitness apps.
- Free plan: Unlike Trainingpeaks, Final Surge allows athletes to plan their training and review a lot of deep fitness data on the free plan.
- Performance metrics: We believe the Final Surge platform offers a better balance of giving athletes enough fitness data to know if they're on track but not so much that it becomes confusing (we think Trainingpeaks is overkill).
- Huge variety of training plans and coaches: Final Surge has a really big ecosystem of coaches and training plans that you can search through to find something that works for you.
Final Surge Cons
- Expensive: While Final Surge appears to be free on the surface, training plans will cost $12-35/month for every single plan you add. Most people will need to add several training plans throughout a year, which really adds up.
- Can't train for more than one race at a time: Like Training Peaks, if you want to train for more than one race at a time, you'll end up buying a couple of different training plans and have a lot of days with overlapping workouts where you won't know which training session to do.
- Strength training, mobility workouts, nutrition advice: Strength training, mobility workouts, and workout nutrition are critical aspects of a well-rounded training plan that maximizes the time you spend training and minimizes the risk of sickness or injury. Unfortunately, many Final Surge training plans don't include these performance enhancers, and if you want to add a strength training plan, it'll cost you more.
- Designed for coaches: Training peaks and Final Surge are designed first and foremost for coaches, not the end user athlete. This results in an app that works well for coaches to manage all of their athletes but doesn't actually work very well for the athletes themselves.
Final Surge Ease of Use
Final Surge is generally considered easy to use for most athletes and easier to use than Trainingpeaks.
However, athletes will quickly find that Final Surge will break down in the real world, just like Trainingpeaks. Once you add more than one race, neither app works very well unless you know how to prioritize training on your own or are working with a 1-on-1 coach.
Who is Final Surge Best For?
Final Surge is best for runners, triathletes, and cyclists working with a 1-on-1 coach with a budget of at least $150/month.
Final Surge Pricing
- Free + the cost of training plans that average $12-35/month
BONUS: MOTTIV Review
MOTTIV Overview
MOTTIV is an app that can be used on the web or in via a smartphone app that creates a personalized training plan for athletes looking to prepare for any combination of running races, triathlons, cycling events, duathlons, and swimruns.
Athletes just need to enter the dates and distances of their races, how much time they're able to train, and their current fitness abilities, and they'll receive a personalized training plan that gets them ready for all their races at the same time.
Of course, we're biased, but we believe MOTTIV excels at keeping athletes on track to reach their goals. Getting a training plan is one thing, but having the support and motivation to stick to that plan is far more important. MOTTIV keeps you motivated throughout the training process so you always know you're on track and your goals are within reach.
MOTTIV Pros
- Ease of use: MOTTIV is designed for athletes who want a training plan that's done for them and easy to follow. All you need to do is input some data, then be ready to show up willing to work and follow the plan every day you have training scheduled.
- Unlimited training plans: Whether you have one race or 20 races to train for, MOTTIV can create a training plan that prepares you for all of them. Premium members can add as many races as they want at no additional cost.
- Strength & Mobility: MOTTIV strength and mobility workouts are full-length videos that you can follow along with to make sure you're doing the right thing.
- Nutrition guidance: Eating the right thing before, during, and after your workouts will make every workout you complete much more effective. Every single workout in the MOTTIV app has nutrition recommendations that are personalized to you.
- Progress stats: MOTTIV tracks and displays all your workout and progress stats. You don't need to learn how to work the app or where to find stats to understand if you're on track or not. MOTTIV easily shows you if you're headed in the right direction.
- Motivation: MOTTIV has some really excellent features that help keep you on track with your training plan because we all need a little support sometimes.
- Cost: MOTTIV provides all your endurance training, strength training, mobility training, personalized workout nutrition, and stats tracking, all in one place for one flat fee. Getting all of these services separately would cost well over $60/month.
MOTTIV Cons
- Workout complexity: Some people find our workouts hard to understand when they first start using the app, if they're new to endurance sports.
- Device connections: Although MOTTIV offers full workout synchronization with Garmin / Garmin Connect, as well as connections to Training Peaks, Strava, Zwift and more, our list of possible connections isn't as robust as Trainingpeaks.
- Lack of flexibility: While most people want a training plan they can simply follow to get the best results, some people want one they can customize totally, adding, subtracting, and modifying workouts as they see fit. MOTTIV is designed for you to easily follow along as closely as possible for the best result.
- Slow interface: MOTTIV hasn't been around for as long as Trainingpeaks or Final Surge, so some screens may take a few seconds to load while the app is being fully optimized for speed.
MOTTIV Ease of Use
MOTTIV is designed to be the easiest app for endurance athletes to use. All you need to enter to create a personalized training plan are your race dates and distances, how much time you can train, and your current fitness abilities.
In addition to it being easy to create training plans, the MOTTIV app has features throughout the app that tell you why and how to perform every aspect of your training, so you're never left guessing.
Who is MOTTIV Best For?
MOTTIV is best for athletes looking for a holistic training plan that includes endurance workouts, strength training, mobility workouts, and nutrition guidance.
If you are the type of person who wants to know what to do and have just a little help to know that you're on track and doing it right, then MOTTIV is for you.
MOTTIV Pricing
- Free plan
- Paid: $19.99/month, $179.99/year
Trainingpeaks vs. Final Surge vs. MOTTIV: Which One is Better?
When comparing Trainingpeaks, Final Surge, and MOTTIV, the answer to which one is better is like most things: it depends.
Both Trainingpeaks and Final Surge work best for athletes who know how to create training plans on their own or are working with a 1-on-1 coach.
Which of these two apps will work best for you really depends on which app your chosen coach decides to use.
If you're looking for a holistic training plan app that can create a personalised training plan for multiple races at a time and keeps you motivated to stay on track to reach your goals, then MOTTIV is the app for you.
