In this post, I will take you through my top 10 apps that I think they are worthwhile and have been releasing updates on a regular basis.
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I am going to break down the list into two categories: Apps with virtual riding experience, and apps with structured training.
APPS WITH VIRTUAL ROUTES
The list of apps below offer
ZWIFT
Price (USD): $15/month, $149/year. Running is free.
Free Trial: 15-day trial available.
OS Compatibility: Windows, MacOS, iPhone/iPad, Android, and Apple TV.
Smart Trainers Compatibility: Bluetooth, BLE FTMS, ANT+ FE-C
Zwift is the most popular indoor cycling app for cyclists. It is social and offers many options to keep you challenged and entertained. At any one time during the indoor cycling season, you can be on course with thousands of other cyclists.
Zwift offers five virtual worlds. Some are imaginary routes such as Watopia – their biggest and most popular world – and other worlds designed after real places such as London, Richmond, VA, New York, Innsbruck, and their latest Giro d’Italia Bologna course.
Zwift Offers The Following:
- Free Riding: Ride your bike at your own pace. If you have a smart trainer paired as a controllable trainer, resistance will change to simulate the terrain on Zwift.
- Group Rides: Ride with others in real time. These rides can be social rides, part of a challenge,
fondo , or stages. These rides are usually divided into groups (A to D) based on your pace and riding skills. - Races: Race with others in real time. Races are dividing into different categories based on your watts per kilograms.
- Structured Workouts: Follow
strucutred workouts to improve your riding abilities or prepare for a race. You can build your own workouts, follow a place, or import a workout from external sources. - Group Workouts: Similar to structured workouts but you do this with a group of other cyclists.
RUNNING - Free Running: With a compatible footpod, you can run on Zwift at your own pace
- Group Runs: Run with others. Usually, group runs are divided into groups (A to D) based on speed.
- Running Races: Race with other runners around the world in real time.
If you are looking for Zwift alternatives or apps to compliment Zwift, the following apps will do just that. And here is a video where I walk you through each one of them.
DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL
ROUVY
Price (USD): $15/month or $14/month for a 6 months subscription. Or $12/month for an annual membership.
Free Trial: 14-day trial available.
Device Compatibility: Apple TV, Mac OS, iOS, Windows 10, Android.
Smart Trainers Compatibility: ANT+ FE-C and Bluetooth
Rouvy is probably the most underrated cycling app out there. The app offers so many features to vary your training and keep you entertained and challenged.
Rouvy Offers The Following:
- Over 2,500+ available quality video and GPS routes.
- Create your own route (Windows Only)
- Augmented Reality
- Structured training: Build your own workout or pick from their workout library. You can also pull workout of the day from TrainingPeaks.
- Ride analysis including pedal analysis with compatible powermeters
- Join events, challenges, group rides, and races.
The basic membership gives you access to most features except the premium virtual
Rouvy works with most ANT+ FE-C, and Bluetooth smart bike trainers as well as dumb trainers with a speed sensor or just a power meter.
FULGAZ
Price (USD): $12.99/month or $108.99 with option to add an extra family member.
Free Trial: 14-day trial available.
Device Compatibility: Windows, iOS, Apple TV, and Android.
Smart Trainers Compatibility: Bluetooth and ANT+ FE-C
FulGaz offers a big library of High Definition routes. As of today, they have 415 routes or about 5000 miles of routes to explore.
FulGaz works best on Apple TV and it’s compatible with most Bluetooth smart trainers and even the KICKR Climb and Tacx NEO virtual road feel.
It’s also available as a native app on the iPhone or the iPad.
FulGaz doesn’t offer a workout library or workout control. So it’s good for someone who
Update November 7, 2019: FulGaz added a workout library and the ability to import custom workouts from TrainingPeaks, Today’s Plan or upload ZWO workout files.
VIRTUGO
10/29/2019: VIRTUGO is closing operation.
Virtugo is a lot like Zwift with made up virtual worlds and a couple of real-life courses but more emphasis on structured training.
They have different training programs for road racers, climbers, time trialist, sprinters, etc. They have a decent training library which you can browse through, view workout description and session details, and add to your training calendar.
STRUCTURED TRAINING
The following apps are designed with an emphasis on structured training, analytics, and offer a set of tools to help you plan and manage your indoor training.
TRAINER ROAD
Price (USD): $19.95/month or $189.95/year
Free Trial: 30-day coupon available from a friend referral.
Device Compatibility: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android.
Smart Trainers Compatibility: Bluetooth, ANT+ FE-C.
TrainerRoad offers a huge library of power based cycling workouts and triathlon plans. You can browse through hundreds of workouts or create your own via TrainerRoad Workout Creator.
They also have a well designed structured training plan for triathletes, off-road cyclists, road racers, etc. Training plans are divided into high, medium and low volume and you can customize the start and end date of each plan to fit your schedule. You can move workouts around to indicate which days you want to do certain workouts. For example, if you can only do your long rides on Fridays instead of Sundays, you can indicate that as you are adding a plan to your calendar.
TrainerRoad also offers a great analytics tool to analyze your rides and do power analysis for each ride and throughout your season.
One of the unique things about TrainerRoad is they have a great and busy community on their forum and Facebook. They also have a great podcast so check that out as well.
THE SUFFERFEST
Price (USD): $15/month or $129/year
Free Trial: 14-day free trial available.
Device Compatibility: Windows, Mac, iOS
Smart Trainers Compatibility: Bluetooth, ANT+ FE-C.
The Sufferfest has been around for a long time and releasing updates and new videos on a regular basis.
For $12.99 per month or $99 per year, you get unlimited access to a huge library of structured cycling, triathlon, and running workouts with video footage of professional races, soundtracks, and fun storylines.
Also, with a membership, you get access to Yoga, mental toughness training, and strength training. It’s the only app that goes beyond cycling with additional workouts to complement your cycling and make you a better overall athlete.
XERT
Price (USD): $9.99/month or $99/year
Free Trial: 30-day free trial available.
Device Compatibility: iOS, Android.
Smart Trainers Compatibility: BLE FTMS, ANT+ FE-C.
The way Xert works, it analyzes your current fitness based on your power data. Then it runs some algorithm behind the scene and recommends a “smart” workout for you for the day based on your current fitness and goals.
Xert also calculates your FTP and displays your FTP for the day based on your current fitness. Their “smart” or “adaptive” workout player can adapt the workout on the fly and adjust the intensity and duration of your workout based on your fitness.
Their iOS workout player was recently updated with activity dashboard, adaptive training advisor, and a new workout player. You can also use their web player, Android app or Garmin Edge device to connect to your smart bike trainer or powermeter via ANT+ FE-C.
Also, all their workouts are available to download as in ERG or Zwift files if you want to use it with Zwift for example. However, “Smart” workouts will no longer be “smart” – All the correct wattages and durations are calculated when you export the workout file, but the workout player in Zwift doesn’t support dynamically determined wattages or durations.
Xert works with ANT+ FEC or Bluetooth FTMS compatible trainers or any power meter.
They also have a Garmin connect app which you can use on your Garmin Edge device to do your workout outside for example, or do a race.
Xert also gives you a detailed look and analysis at your fitness and calculates your fitness signature and your maximum available power on the fly. So if you are in a race and trying to hold on to that final sprint, their Garmin Connect app will tell you how much peak power you have second by second and it’s pretty good at estimating that.
VELOPRO.BIKE
Price (USD): $10/month or $27/quarter
Free Trial: 30-day free trial available.
VeloPro is an AI training application. It creates unique training plans for each athlete based on cycling goals, experience, and fitness. You can browse the calendar to see the details for upcoming workouts, and view completed rides.
You can mark days off and change the workout from an outdoor ride to an indoor ride and download an ERG or a Zwift file.
Every day, you will receive a detailed email with your scheduled workout and weekly summary and even scheduled days off. VeloPro is packed with little feature and it will make you feel like you have your own cycling coach.
VeloPro doesn’t have its own workout player so you need to download or write down your workout.
FREE CYCLING APPS
The below, are two free indoor cycling apps that don’t require a monthly membership subscription. They are free and ready to download today.
RGT CYCLING
Price (USD): FREE and $10/month for a premium membership.
Free Trial: Free and Premium membership available.
Device Compatibility: Windows, Mac OS, iPad, Apple TV. Requires iPhone or Android device to use as a controller.
Smart Trainers Compatibility: Bluetooth and ANT+ FE-C
RGT Cycling is a high-quality indoor cycling app with close to real life graphics on real courses with realistic motion,
The app is graphics intensive but they recently released an Apple TV app along with a companion app to control all aspect of the software.
It works well on Apple TV but the graphics are scaled down a little bit when compared to a high-quality PC with a good graphics card like a gaming PC for example.
If you don’t have a gaming pc, Apple TV is the way to go with RGT.
MAXIMUM TRAINER
Unfortunately, due to lack of external developer help and donation, MaximumTrainer closed shop on September 7th, 2019.
Maximum Trainer is an open source app available for Windows and Mac and you can use it to do structured training and watch Netflix at the same time if you want to.
So with Maximum trainer, you can build your own workout using their workout builder, or use one of the workouts available on ERGdb.ORG. You can set up your own little studio using their multi-player feature and ride with 25 other riders at the same time, view power balance, and create your own workout.
Maximum Trainer is packed with features and very easy to use. It’s available for Windows and MacOS and works with ANT+ FE-C compatible trainer or compatible dumb trainer with a speed sensor.
OTHER APPS
Other apps worth taking a look at is Kinomap and BigRingVR. Both simulate real routes and offer different challenges to keep you entertained.
Here is a list of all the apps mentioned above and other apps that are also worth taking a look at and use.
FulGaz doesn’t offer a workout library or workout control. So it’s good for someone who like to ride and experience real courses.
That is not true! There are workout library, training plans and possibility to upload custom workouts and training peak connection.
You are correct. At the time I published this post, they didn’t have the custom workout library. It was added a few months ago and forgot to update the article. Thanks for bringing this up!
URW! Best regards!
I have tried road grand tours / rgt-cycling. After I logged out the first time the password did not work anymore. OK, asked for reset mail and got it. After password reset it worked again, however only until next logout. Then even the reset mail dis not work any more (thought the app said that it sent the reset notification). I tried this various times. I also contacted service, more than once, but never got an answer. Sad to see that extremely poor poor service for that really promising software that is really smart and great fun (as log as you access it).
What about Bkool? It’s the most realistic one!
So, I’m looking for an indoor cycling app, only one ironclad requirement – I don’t want any data (including usage times) leaving the device. Basic cadence sensor support, virtual rides and workouts would be nice. Any thoughts?
As Tariq reviewed on youtube we also now have https://trainerday.com with free and low cost options for training.
Hello thanks for reviews and YouTube video. I am looking for an app that is simply a library of routes for cycling and running. I don’t need it to connect to equipment or Bluetooth, or upload to Strava. Just need something with scenic views! Thanks
Hi there and thanks for the information.
I’m buying a Jorota 2x indoor trainer. I want to use Rouvy as I think it is really cool to cycle all over the world even when I’m stuck inside. I know I will need a cadence sensor, but there isn’t any information about whether I need a speed sensor. Do you have any idea if I need both?
Thanks in advance,
Aram