Are you comparing Trainingpeaks vs. Trainerroad?
Trainingpeaks and Trainerroad are two popular online training plan apps for endurance athletes. They both allow you to train for cycling events, triathlons, and duathlons, while Trainingpeaks will also help runners, swimrun athletes, and other athletes train for their races as well.
Each app offers training plans, but they're each suited to a different kind of athlete.
The main difference between Trainingpeaks and Trainerroad is that TP is best for athletes who want a lot of performance data while working with a coach or functioning as their own coach, while TR is primarily for cyclists who want to ride indoors and want an app to create the training for them.
In this article, we'll discuss all the pros and cons of Trainingpeaks and Trainerroad, and we'll answer the following questions you might have:
- What are the main features of Trainingpeaks and Trainerroad?
- What are the pros and cons of Trainingpeaks and Trainerroad?
- How much do Trainingpeaks and Trainerroad cost?
- Are Trainingpeaks and Trainerroad good for beginners?
- What athletes should consider Trainingpeaks vs. Trainerroad?
BONUS: We'll also discuss our app MOTTIV, which is a good alternative to Training Peaks and Trainer Road if these two apps don't sound quite right for you.
Trainingpeaks vs. Trainerroad 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 Trainingpeaks 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.
Trainingpeaks Pros
- Connections: Trainingpeaks provides connections 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 synchronizing 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 done for them without paying for it, and the stats free users can track are very limited.
- Cost: To get many of the progress tracking features people want to monitor, 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 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 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 who are working with a 1-on-1 endurance sports coach or self-coached athletes who want to dive into all the data that they possibly can 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)
Trainerroad Review
Trainerroad Overview
Trainerroad is a web and smartphone-based app geared towards cyclists, but triathletes and duathletes can also create plans on the app. Athletes can train for multiple races at a time, and their workouts are personalized to them.
Trainerroad uses AI to determine a cyclist's strengths and weaknesses and creates training plans designed to create a well-rounded athlete.
Trainerroad is the only app in this article that can connect directly to your indoor bike trainer to control the resistance so you can follow their prescribed workouts.
Trainerroad Pros
- Connections: Trainerroad connects to a lot of devices and apps directly. If you plan on doing most of your training indoors on a bike trainer and want an app to control the trainer, you can sync your TR to do that.
- Adaptive training: Trainerroad uses your workouts to develop a profile of your athletic abilities, then recommends training based on that profile. It's still uncertain whether this generates improved performance, but it's a pretty cool feature.
- Hard workouts: Many people love how difficult most of the Trainerroad workouts are. You'll feel like you're getting a really solid workout every time you follow one of their recommended workouts (although this is also a con for many people).
- Easy to use: Most people can quickly pick up how to build plans inside the Trainerroad app.
- Stats: Users can easily track their stats without having to understand much about the app.
Trainerroad Cons
- No free version: Trainerroad doesn't have a free version.
- Burnout: Using Trainer Road can be tough; workouts are very hard, and many people report getting faster initially with the app but start to experience burnout and plateau after six months.
- Poor running support: There aren't any running race specific plans, and running workouts can't be sent to fitness devices to follow along. This isn't great if you're a runner, triathlete, or duathlete.
- No strength or mobility training: Strength training is one of the most significant performance enhancers endurance athletes can do, and mobility workouts will help athletes avoid developing tightnesses and physical limitations during training. Trainerroad doesn't include any strength or mobility training in their plans.
- No nutrition guidance: Pairing the right nutrition with every workout will make the workouts much more effective. Trainerroad doesn't provide any nutrition recommendations at all.
Trainerroad Ease of Use
Trainerroad is very easy to use because it is designed for the end user (as opposed to being designed primarily for coaches like Training Peaks).
The user experience can be complicated for people completely new to setting up training, but most people will get the hang of it within a few days.
Trainerroad doesn't have much information inside the app or the workouts as to how and why the training is designed the way it is. Athletes just have to trust it's correct or figure it out for themselves. However, Trainerroad has a very active forum community to help with support.
Who is Trainerroad Best For?
Trainerroad is best for cyclists who want a training plan designed by artificial intelligence that addresses an athlete's weaknesses. It is also great for athletes who do most of their training indoors on a bike trainer and want an app that will control the trainer for them.
Trainerroad Pricing
- Free: Trainerroad does not offer a free plan
- Paid: $19.95/month, $185/year
BONUS: MOTTIV Review
MOTTIV Overview
MOTTIV is an app that can be used on the web or via a smartphone app (available on iOS, MAC devices, and Android) 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 created 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 that 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 movements the right way.
- 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 for you. You don't need to learn how to work the app or where to find stats to know if you're on track or not. MOTTIV easily shows you if you're headed in the right direction.
- Motivation: MOTTIV has some 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 these services separately would cost well over $60/month.
MOTTIV Cons
- Workout complexity: Some people find our workouts a little bit difficult to understand when they first start using the app.
- Device connections: Although you can see all the device connections we support here (including a direct connection to Garmin connect, and connections to Wahoo, Zwift, Strava 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 follow, some people want one that they can customize themselves, to manually change or add and subtract workouts as they see fit. MOTTIV is designed strictly for you to follow along as close as possible.
- Slow interface: MOTTIV hasn't been around for as long as Trainingpeaks or Trainerroad, so some screens take a few seconds to load because some screens are still being optimized.
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 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 to follow 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 a little help to know that you're on track and doing it right, then MOTTIV is for you.
MOTTIV Pricing
- Free: MOTTIV offers a free plan
- Paid: $19.99/month, $179.99/year
Training Peaks vs. Trainerroad vs. MOTTIV: Which One is Better?
When comparing Trainingpeaks, Trainerroad, and MOTTIV, the answer to which one is better is like most things: it depends.
If you have a larger budget and you like figuring out training on your own, you have a coach, and diving into your training as deep as possible is important to you, then Trainingpeaks is right for you.
If you're primarily a cyclist and you're looking for an app that you can connect to an indoor bike trainer to guide every single workout, then Trainerroad is a great option.
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.
