I’ve used Trainerroad on and off again for 3 or 4 years and I’ve very much had a love/hate relationship with the platform.
I’ve been back again for maybe 3 months and tomorrow my subscription ends and it’ll be for the last time. I’ve mentioned before how expensive Trainerroad is and you can miss me with that ‘cheaper than a coach and the forum and podcast are great’ line.
I’ve found the newer features to be pretty damn flawed after the shiny new honeymoon period wore off pretty quick and of all things I found the individual workout level to be the most useful feature. AI ftp test was nice but again, flawed in as much as it over estimated my ftp every time after my first test.
I guess at this point I can say Trainerroad has educated me on what I should be doing and when I should be doing it and let me tell you, when the realisation hits home that it really ain’t that complicated it becomes tough to pay £20 per month (that’s 25% more expensive than zwift or wahoo systm) for whats on offer.
There are a number of things I like about TR, but apart from that, the competition just doesn’t stack up for me. Wahoo won’t be getting my money because I’ve been hit by some Wahoo hardware woes and, much like with Suunto on the watch front, I’m just done with them. I also didn’t like Sufferfest’s style, and the Wahoo SYSTM rebranding happened after I gave up on Wahoo, so I don’t know how different it is. I also don’t need or want the simulation graphics of Zwift or RGT (blue bars work just fine for me), and Xert from what I’ve seen lacks a lot of the user friendliness and platform polish I find TR has. No, I don’t necessarily follow TR plans exactly anymore (I use individual blocks as a starting point and modify as desired to fit my needs), and I personally don’t like Plan Builder, but I like the new features that came out recently, and TR has the best user interface for my tastes. I’ve also had fantastic interactions with customer support staff every single time I’ve reached out, which counts for a lot in my book. They’ve helped me fix problems that weren’t with TR but rather other platforms I had integrated (e.g. Strava), which I think is above and beyond.
All that said, as was mentioned earlier by others, I consider myself fortunate that I’m in a position where I feel like I can comfortably afford TR without giving it much thought, and I really feel for those who are in a tight spot for whatever reason and feel like they have to leave simply because of cost, whether outright or due to exchange rates. Indoor training has made regular exercise more accessible for me than it had been in a long time prior after running blew up my knees and grad school blew up my free time, and it does wonders for my health, both physically and mentally, so I would be rather unhappy if I felt like I had to make sacrifices there to make ends meet.
The one thing as an end user I was there was better Comms on dates for upcoming features. Some stuff has been dangling for ages. However, as a tech support minion for a small and slightly less small software companies I understand dates always slip from unexpected issues.
The cost currently is bearable (I’ve stopped drinking instead) but clearer comms might help people if they need decide between TrainerRoad and Zwift/Sufferfest/etc.
I agree with a lot of this. The user interface is superb and I am a huge fan of so many of the features (although I have a suspicion that AI FTP might be over-estimating slightly). I think Progression Levels in particular are a brilliant feature, and can certainly help if you’re the type of athlete who likes to build their own plans/blocks of training. I am that type of ‘athlete’, and TR is a brilliant platform for building your own blocks of training. However I’m not convinced that is worth £20 pcm.
What I would be interested in (and I think Nate mentioned it at the start of the year) is different levels of membership. For example, I don’t really need the training plans of AI FTP, but I would see value in having access to the workout library, calendar, and PLs. Maybe a tiered approach would enable those with limited funds to still benefit from parts of the TR platform relevant to them as users.
I subscribe to TR from the UK. Currently my monthly equivalent (after conversion fees) is due to go up from £12.20 to £14.75. For what I get, I personally think that this remains excellent value for money. Would I prefer it to remain cheaper? Damned right I would. However, I previously tried Zwift, Fulgaz, BKool and Sufferfest before TR, none of which came close to what will make me renew TR come November.
yep that’s not the standard trainerroad price for the uk. It’s $19.95 a month which right now is £18.07 + bank exchange rate charges which are appriximately £0.80 for me giving £18.87. I can get zwift for just £12.99 and others for even less.
It is good value at £14.75 but at my current £18.31 it represents to me less than good value already and at todays rates it’ll rise to £19.32. Fortunately I don’t need to economise currently but if I do I know where to look.
I feel for the people outside the US who are suffering with difficult decisions. I hope things right themselves quickly for us all!
Having said that, Europe/UK are basically experiencing what we in the US have experienced for decades. The dollar was lower than other currencies, and it meant products from anywhere but Asia were more expensive for us. When we traveled, prices were crazy high because the dollar was worth less than the Euro and GBP. Exchange rates just killed us. I know so many people who earned their whole life in GBP or Euros (or the prior currencies) and then retired to the US where they are wealthy due to the exchange rates.
It doesn’t help those of you who are suffering today, but I wanted to comment because this price difference has been short term and will probably be over in a year or two. If you can stick it out, you’ll find yourselves back to strong currencies in short time, Best wishes to you all!
What doesn’t help in particular for us outside the UK is that TR only accept payment in $ whereas other platforms such as zwift accept payment in local currencies.
Right, but basically you’ve had a currency advantage due to the exchange rate for years. If TR change it to local currency, then when economies right themselves, you’ll actually be paying MORE than you were before. The USD won’t remain strong for long. It never does.
A number of people here suggesting that TR should charge in local currencies (at least for major currencies like GBP,EUR,AUD,YEN etc) and therefore absorb FX fluctuations. The elephant in room here is that in the UK (and Europe) this has historically meant that we’re charged (ie screwed over) on a 1 to 1 rate of the underlying exchange rate - the last laptop I purchased was GBP = USD even though the rate was 1 to 1.4.
I’d wager TR’s pricing would adopt a similar model if the started charging in local currencies.
I have been wondering how that all works with apps like Zwift. Considering that they set a fixed price in each different currency, that presumably means they absorb any and all gains / losses driven from the volatile delta between the USD and other currencies over time.
I am sure it’s more complex than that with all the intricacies of the banking world and international connections, but a company tied to a primary currency, with fixed pricing in other currencies must be winning and losing at times. Making that all work is likely a dance of expectations related to the predicted differences over time and like any financial speculation is subject to unexpected results.
The current state is an extreme on top of an extreme from what I see. The consequences are tough for current TR users with that shift, but it’s interesting to consider what it means if that pain gets shifted to the company instead.
