Trainerize vs TrueCoach - A Comprehensive Review for Online Personal Trainers
If you’ve found this article, we can only conclude you are in the process of considering buying personal training software to support the growth of your fitness business! While the below list of questions may not pertain to you (if true, we recommend you jump to the next section), we wanted to start here as personal trainers often ask us these questions.
- With so much free content on Youtube and Instagram, how many people are actually paying for online personal training apps?
- What percent of personal trainers are actually working with clients through applications for online training sessions?
- How much money can I really make as an online personal trainer?
- I am strongly considering online personal training - what is the best personal trainer software for me?
These are all great questions and questions we’d love to answer. Our short answers are:
- Yes! People do pay for online personal training apps.
- According to a recent New Consumer Trends Report for 2021, 82% of Millenials and 76% of All Consumers surveyed say they’ve switched to exercising more at home during COVID-19 and that 81% of Millenials and 66% of All Consumers report that they prefer at-home exercise.
- It depends…are you planning to train one-on-one or to train small groups/classes online or are you planning to create training plans designed for hundreds (if not thousands) of subscribers?
- It also depends…but keep reading and we’ll provide you a breakdown of two leading personal training software companies - Trainerize and TrueCoach.
You might ask how we selected Trainerize vs TrueCoach as the comparison set for this article? In full disclosure, we build custom apps for fitness influencers and trainers. We’ve been building custom fitness apps for over 5 years now. Over the years, we’ve been following Trainerize and TrueCoach and we’ve spent countless hours gathering feedback about other personal training software providers as we believe it is important to know what options personal trainers have in order to build the best products.
Second, G2, a trusted software reviews platform constantly ranks Trainerize and TrueCoach as two of the best personal trainer software on the market based on their proprietary G2 Score (which they claim evaluates customer reviews to analyze software by user satisfaction).
One last comment before we dive in. These views are entirely our own. We receive no compensation from Trainerize or TrueCoach for this article nor from any links on this page. We wanted to provide you with an objective evaluation based on our independent research. If you happen to come across any information which conflicts with your own research - we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to drop us an email at team@tempokit.com.
Intro to Trainerize
Trainerize was founded in 2008 by Sharad Mohan and operates out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. ABC Financial, a U.S.-based software company serving the fitness industry, acquired Trainerize in 2020 for an undisclosed amount. According to the Trainerize about page, the company positions itself as helping to make fitness more accessible and currently supports 45,000 fitness businesses, 200,000 personal trainers & coaches, and over 1 million clients with its software.
Intro to TrueCoach
TrueCoach was founded in 2015 by Casey Jenks and Robbie Jack and operates out of Denver, Colorado. TSG (which has since been acquired by Xplor) acquired TrueCoach in 2020 for an undisclosed amount. At the time of the acquisition and according to the press release, TrueCoach was supporting 15,000 active fitness businesses and personal trainers with its software.
Trainerize vs TrueCoach
What can Trainerize do for your online personal training business?
Trainerize provides personal trainers and gyms (or fitness studios) with a website and app to manage their online personal training businesses. Once you become a customer, you receive access to a web portal on Trainerize.com. Think of this web portal as your command center - it’s where you upload your fitness content, where you configure your pricing and packages, and where you manage communications with your clients. Trainerize is a comprehensive solution full of bells and whistles to support various types of trainers, gyms, and studio owners.
What can TrueCoach do for your online personal training business?
Much like Trainerize, TrueCoach provides personal trainers, gyms, and fitness studios with a website and app to manage their online personal training businesses. Similarly, once you become a TrueCoach customer, you receive access to a web portal on TrueCoach.co. At the core of the offering, the Trainerize and TrueCoach web portals are similar in their approaches to providing access to manage your online personal training business. With fewer bells and whistles, TrueCoach supports those trainers, gyms, and studio owners seeking a solution to launch and manage simple online training businesses.
What most distinguishes Trainerize vs TrueCoach are the features offered to both Trainers and the Trainer’s clients. Let’s dive into those distinctions now.
Trainerize Key Features
Web vs App Experience
As mentioned earlier in the article, Trainerize customers receive access to a dedicated web portal to configure and manage their online personal training business. Once you are ready to accept online clients, you will direct your clients to download the Trainerize app (which is free to download) in order to access your workout plans and interact with you. Your clients can also access your workouts by logging in to your portal on yourbrandname.Trainerize.com.
Customer Support
Once you become a Trainerize customer, you are invited to a free 60-minute group onboarding session where a Trainerize customer support representative will guide the group through the steps of configuring their online personal training business via the web portal. In addition to this guided onboarding, Trainerize has published a Help Center library containing resources, how-to videos, and checklists to support customers. Periodically, Trainerize will host webinars and live Facebook sessions to present case studies, answer customer questions, and share helpful strategies for growing an online personal training business.
Branding and Customization
One of the first tasks is to set up your profile which populates on Trainerize.me. You can populate your business name, provide a written description, and enter your physical location. Adding your logo is easy to do but unless you purchase a Custom Branded App (CBA), you are limited to selecting either a light or a dark theme. While you are able to customize the web address (assuming it is available) where your clients gain access to your workouts - yourbrandname.Trainerize.com - you won’t be able to host your Trainerize portal on your own website. There are settings to add links to your website link as well as links to your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles.
Customers can invite members from your team or gym to help configure your Trainerize. Once added, depending on the member permission settings, these members can support the configuration or gain access to view certain reports.
Workout Builder
The Trainerize Exercise Library features:
- A library of exercise videos which were filmed by Trainerize staff can be utilized.
- Customers can upload or link to their own exercise videos published on YouTube.
- Categorize exercise videos by custom tags.
- Each exercise video can include written instruction, file upload, and designated warmups or cooldowns.
The Exercise Library can be utilized to assemble Workouts and Programs in Trainerize.
Next, we will summarize the key features of the Trainerize Workouts Library:
- A library of workouts that were created by Trainerize staff can be utilized.
- Customers can build their own workout routines from scratch using a workout builder tool where customers can drag and drop and sequence exercises.
- Workouts can be configured by type (e.g. circuit vs interval vs video/instructor-led) and pacing (e.g. number of sets, weight recommendation per exercise, recommended rest period).
- Once a workout has been created, customers can duplicate and then edit those workouts to reduce the time spent creating workouts.
Once the Exercise and Workout Libraries have been populated, the trainer can begin populating the Trainerize Program Library which we’ll summarize the key features of here in this section:
- A library of training programs that were created by Trainerize staff can be utilized.
- Customers can build their own training programs from scratch using a workout builder tool where customers can drag and drop and sequence workouts based on a set calendar or duration of time.
- There are permission settings so that only certain clients or groups can access the training programs in Trainerize.
- Once a training program has been created, customers can duplicate and then edit those workouts to reduce the time spent creating workouts.
Separate from the Exercise, Workout, and Program Libraries is the Habit Library. Within the Habit Library, customers can customize pre-selected Habits based on the Habit Category (Nutrition, Active Living, Mindfulness, and Sleep).
Payment Settings
Trainerize Payments are powered by Stripe, a leading payment gateway company. You’ll need to create a Stripe account in order to accept payments through your Trainerize account. With Trainerize, customers first configure their payment settings by selecting the Country and Currency. There are three types of “Products” a Trainerize customer can create for their clients. Main Products (which are your core offerings), Add Ons (which can be utilized as client upsells), and Session Packs (which are used to sell multiple sessions at once).
Each Product can be customized with a description and image. Customers set the payment type (one-time or recurring). One-time payments can restrict access to the product by a defined duration in days, weeks, or months. Recurring payments can be configured to charge the client on a recurring basis by day, by week, or by month with a duration that auto-renews or has a set expiration. With recurring payments, you can toggle on or off the ability for customers to self-cancel. For each payment type, client access can be defined as immediate or after a fixed period of time (this could be a nice way to create pre-sales or early access).
Within the Payment Settings of Trainerize, customers can configure sales, review their invoices and transactions as well as any customer purchase disputes directly in their dashboard.
Client Management
Trainerize features a robust set of client management tools to help support one-on-one and group client communications and client progress tracking. While not an exhaustive list, we will summarize those key features for you here in this section.
- Dashboard & Reporting - An omni-client dashboard allows customers to easily evaluate the health of their online personal training business and dive into performance for a given client group or even an individual client. From the Client Dashboard, customers can search for and filter their Clients by activity status, compliance with their program (e.g. signing in, completing workouts, following nutrition guidelines, submitting payments, etc).
- Client Profiles & Goal Setting - Each Client has a comprehensive profile that includes their personal info, any consent or waiver forms they complete during onboarding, attachments you’ve uploaded to their profile, payment history, and their activity within the Trainerize app. Customers can leave private notes which can be shared with the Client, manage the programs the client is enrolled in, set goals, and track progress towards those goals.
- Client Access Settings - When onboarding a new Client, customers can provide Full Access to the client which enables 2-way messaging, or Partial Access which enables only you to contact the client through Trainerize.
- Client Onboarding & Waivers - The Trainerize onboarding experience can be customized to collect specific information and/or waiver forms from the client.
- Client Grouping - Once a Client has joined your Trainerize, you can invite them to a group for shared communications and access to shared Programs or Workouts.
- Client Messaging - Within Trainerize customers can manage their communication chats with individual Clients as well as with Groups.
- Appointment Calendar - The calendar feature within Trainerize is used to manage appointments with clients and can be synced with your Google Calendar.
Marketing Support
Trainerize provides Advanced Business features intended to help manage and streamline marketing and customer support functions of online personal training businesses. The customer’s clients can be invited directly to Trainerize from the web portal. For example, customers can configure welcome messages and onboarding when new clients are invited to Trainerize. Additionally, in-app messages can be configured to acknowledge client accomplishments such as signing in for the first time or achieving a personal goal. Payment reminders can also be configured.
If you are utilizing Facebook Advertising to grow your client base, Trainerize enables you to add your Facebook Pixel within your Trainerize.me profile so that you can calculate your Cost per Acquisition (CPA).
Other Notable Trainerize Features
When you log in to your Trainerize, there is a dashboard that can be customized to feature the information which matters most to you. By default, the Trainerize dashboard includes the equivalent of a “news feed” highlighting recent activity and can be customized with performance charts to summarize the growth of your online training business.
Trainerize recently introduced a “Habits” feature to support online trainers interested in helping their clients with habit coaching. Currently, this feature supports Active Lifestyle Habits, Nutrition Habits, Sleep Habits, and Mindfulness Habits.
Integrations are a key feature of Trainerize which makes it easier for you to connect your Trainerize with other technologies you may use to manage your online personal training business. Integrations currently supported by Trainerize are MINDBODY and ABC Fitness Solutions for gym management; MyFitnessPal and Evolution Nutrition for nutrition plans; InBody for connected gym equipment; Apple Watch, Fitbit, and Withings Health Mate for wearables; YouTube for video hosting; and Skype for video calls.
TrueCoach Key Features
Web vs App Experience
TrueCoach customers receive access to a dedicated web portal to configure and manage their online personal training business. Once you are ready to accept online clients, you will direct your clients to download the TrueCoach app (which is free to download) in order to access your workout plans and interact with you. Your clients can also access your workouts by logging in to your portal on yourbrandname.truecoach.co.
Customer Support
While TrueCoach does not provide any group or one-on-one onboarding support to new customers, similar to Trainerize, they have published a Help Center which contains step-by-step instructions for getting started, how-to videos, and case studies to guide customers. TrueCoach also periodically hosts webinars to showcase customers, provide tips for growing an online training business, and answer common questions.
Branding and Customization
One of the first tasks is to set up your TrueCoach profile. You can populate your business name, provide a written description, and enter your physical location. Adding your logo is easy and unlike Trainerize, you can customize your TrueCoach theme with up to 9 different colors. While you are able to customize the web address (assuming it is available) where your clients gain access to your workouts - yourbrandname.truecoach.co - you won’t be able to host your TrueCoach portal on your own website.
Customers can invite members from your team or gym to help configure your TrueCoach portal. Once added, depending on the member permission settings, these members can support the configuration or gain access to view certain reports.
Workout Builder
Within TrueCoach, there is an Exercise Library and a Workout Program Library. In this section, we will summarize the key features of the TrueCoach Workout Builder.
The TrueCoach Exercise Library features:
- A library of exercise videos was provided in partnership with Central Athlete.
- Customers can upload or link to their own exercise videos published on YouTube or another video hosting platform.
- Each exercise video can include written instruction, file upload, and can be categorized by patterns, by exercise type, by primary muscle, and by planes.
- Additionally, customers can build custom warmups, cooldowns, assign metric sets for each exercise, and upload other documents.
The Exercise Library can be utilized to assemble Workout Programs in TrueCoach.
In this section, we will summarize the key features of the TrueCoach Workout Programs Library:
- Customers can build their own workout programs from scratch using a workout builder tool where customers can drag and drop and sequence exercises, and create supersets and/or circuits. Rest days can be programmed in.
- Workout Programs can be configured for sequential sets, supersets, fixed sets, intervals, and time-based.
- Workout Programs can be assigned to specific clients or kept open and available to all clients.
- Once a workout has been created, customers can duplicate and then edit the workout programs to reduce the time spent creating similar workout programs.
Payment Settings
TrueCoach Payments are also powered by Stripe, a leading payment gateway company. You’ll need to create a Stripe account in order to accept payments through your TrueCoach account. In the TrueCoach web portal, customers first configure the services and products offered and then the subscription settings. The subscription settings include payment information, tax collection, subscription duration (start and end dates, and the billing cycle - which can be configured to weekly, monthly, and annual renewals.
Client Management
TrueCoach features a solid set of client management tools to help support one-on-one and group client communications and client progress tracking. While not an exhaustive list, we will summarize those key client management features for you here in this section.
- Dashboard & Reporting - Unlike the Trainerize dashboard, the TrueCoach dashboard focuses more on providing customers with a “feed” of their client’s activity. There is also a “to-do” list component of the dashboard to help customers focus on priority tasks.
- Client Profiles & Goal Setting - With TrueCoach, you can onboard clients by “client type” with the options of Remote, In-Person, and Hybrid. Within the client profile, customers can populate basic details of the client, add limitations/notes, input their measurements, set goals, add a nutrition plan (integration with MyFitnessPal or through TrueCoach directly), add progress pictures, track equipment available to the client, and track their weight and/or macros.
- Client Onboarding & Waivers - While TrueCoach provides automated notifications for some messaging, unlike Trainerize, TrueCoach does not provide built-in custom onboarding or waiver collection.
- Client Grouping - Once a Client has joined your TrueCoach, you can invite them to a group for shared communications and access to shared Workout Programs.
- Appointment Calendar - Unlike Trainerize, there is no Appointment Calendar to easily manage appointments across all TrueCoach clients.
- Client Messaging - Within TrueCoach customers can manage their communication chats with individual Clients as well as with Groups.
Marketing Support
Compared to Trainerize, TrueCoach provides minimal automated marketing support built into the TrueCoach portal.
Other Notable Features
TrueCoach offers a referral program to current customers. For each new customer referred to TrueCoach, you will receive $100 (and they will receive $100).
There is a video chat integration with Skype to enable video messaging between clients and their TrueCoach coaches.
Trainerize vs TrueCoach Cost Comparison
TL;DR when comparing Trainerize vs TrueCoach costs, for the online trainer with fewer clients, TrueCoach may be the more cost-effective online personal training software for you. For personal trainers, gym owners or fitness studios catering to a larger number of clients, Trainerize is likely going to be the cheaper solution when compared to TrueCoach. TrueCoach offers a 90-day money-back guarantee, so do keep that in mind as you are comparing Trainerize vs TrueCoach.
Summary of Monthly Subscription Tiers
How much will Trainerize cost me?
Trainerize offers a free trial for 30 days. During this free trial, you will gain access to the Trainerize web portal and you will be able to configure your online personal training business. The Trainerize pricing is based on a few different variables. The first is the number of clients you expect to utilize through TrueCoach. At the time of our research (Jan 2022), TrueCoach’s month to month pricing is:
- Free: $0 per month for up to 1 active client
- Grow: $5 per month for up to 2 active clients (or $2.50/client/month)
- Pro: from $20 to $200 per month depending on the number of active clients you need. The $20 per month plan allows for up to 5 active clients (or $4.00/client/month) which scales up to the $200 per month plan and allows up to 200 active clients (or $1.00/client/month). So the more active clients you support, the lower the per-client cost but the higher the total cost.
- Studio: Per location, Trainerize charges $225/month for up to 500 clients (or $0.45/client/month) or $315/month for unlimited clients. Enterprise Studio plans are offered (for those with more than 4-locations) but a conversation with the Trainerize sales team is required.
If you select to purchase an annual plan, Trainerize provides a 10% discount on all plans.
In addition to the subscription plans, Trainerize offers a number of a la carte upsells. While not an all-inclusive list, at the time of this article, those a la carte upsells included:
- Custom Branded Fitness App (CBA): Available to Studio and Enterprise plan customers at no additional cost, with CBA you can have your own, semi-customized fitness app available on iOS and Google Play. You’ll need to pay additional fees to Apple and Google but these accounts would be created under your brand name and not under Trainerize’s brand. For a one-time $99 set-up fee, so long as you are a Pro customer, you can receive an app with less brand customization which would be published under the Trainerize account within the app stores.
- Video Call Sessions with Clients: To host one-on-one video calls within the Trainerize app, you can purchase call time in packs of 10 hours for $10 per pack (or $1.00 per hour).
- On-demand Video Workouts: To stream video workouts on-demand, you can purchase 100 hours for $10 per pack (or $0.10 per hour of video streaming).
How much will TrueCoach cost me?
Like Trainerize, TrueCoach offers a free trial for 14 days. During this free trial, you will gain access to the TrueCoach web portal and you will be able to configure your online personal training business. The TrueCoach pricing is based on a few different variables. The first is the number of clients you expect to utilize through TrueCoach. At the time of our research (Jan 2022), TrueCoach’s month to month pricing is:
- Starter: $25 per month for up to 5 active clients (or $5.00/client/month)
- Standard: $55 per month for up to 25 active clients (or $2.20/client/month)
- Pro: $110 per month for up to 50 active clients (or $2.20/client/month)
- Enterprise: For more than 50 active clients, you will need to contact the TrueCoach sales department
If you select to purchase an annual plan, TrueCoach provides customers with a discount depending on the plan. The discount ranges from 18% to 24%.
What Others Have to Say About Trainerize and TrueCoach
At the time of writing this article, we evaluated the popular customer and user reviews platforms to compare Trainerize vs TrueCoach and check what real trainers and gym owners have to say about their experiences.
TL;DR when comparing Trainerize vs TrueCoach user reviews, the online web portal experience for trainers and gym owners as reported by G2 and GetApp is very similar - both companies scored well in customer reviews. The key distinction is that the Trainerize app for clients seems to perform significantly better when compared to the TrueCoach app in both the Apple Store and Google Play.
Aggregated Trainerize Reviews from Customers
- Apple App Store review of Trainerize - 3.8 out of 5 stars and 1k reviews. Ranked #200 in Health & Fitness.
- Google Play App Store review of Trainerize - 3 out of 5 stars and 1,724 reviews.
- G2.com review of Trainerize - 4.7 out of 5 stars and 136 reviews. Awarded a “Category Leader” badge for Winter 2022.
- GetApp.com review of Trainerize - 4.6 out of 5 stars and 634 reviews
- TrustPilot review of Trainerize - 4.3 out of 5 stars and 7 reviews.
Aggregated TrueCoach Reviews from Customers
- Apple App Store review of TrueCoach - 2.4 out of 5 stars and 395 reviews.
- Google Play App Store review of TrueCoach - 1.5 out of 5 stars and 138 reviews.
- G2.com review of TrueCoach - 4.7 out of 5 stars and 110 reviews. Awarded a “Category Leader” badge for Winter 2022.
- GetApp.com review of TrueCoach - 4.7 out of 5 stars and 354 reviews
- TrustPilot review of TrueCoach - 2.9 out of 5 stars and 2 reviews.
Final Thoughts on Trainerize vs TrueCoach
There are clearly pros and cons for both Trainerize as well as for TrueCoach. While the web portal experience scores similar marks for both Trainerize and TrueCoach, the Trainerize app for clients is a clear winner as determined by the app store reviews. For smaller online training businesses, TrueCoach will likely be a bit less expensive than Trainerize. In terms of features and functionality, Trainerize is the more robust offering when compared head-to-head with TrueCoach.
That said, the choice will ultimately come down to your business objectives and the specific use case you are aiming to solve. We recommend you sign up for a free trial at both companies and get a feel for which product you prefer.
Drop us a line and let us know if anyone else has experience using these apps or ones similar?
TempoKit - An Alternative to Trainerize and TrueCoach
While Trainerize and TrueCoach are good solutions for those seeking to manage their online personal training business with between one and a hundred clients, TempoKit is the answer for those aspiring to build communities in the hundreds or thousands. With TempoKit you can build a custom digital fitness business (website + app) featuring your brand, your workouts, and your advice without spending tens of thousands of dollars working with a web development agency.
Think of TempoKit as your technology department. We’ve taken care of all the coding and made it easy for you to create a custom fitness app directly through our platform. TempoKit offers many of the same features as Trainerize and TrueCoach but optimized those to enable easier management of larger communities.
With our free Starter tier, you’ll gain access to our online tools which enables you to launch a custom branded website with the following features:
- Brand management to upload your logo and color palette
- Exercise library to upload your videos (or publish from Youtube)
- Workout editor to create your workout routines
- Training plan editor to manage your plans using our drag and drop features
- Nutrition meal plan builder and recipe editor
- Post updates and share tips with a private community message board
- Member dashboard to monitor your most active members and most popular workouts
- Member profiles to monitor their progress and add personal notes
- Notifications to remind your members to complete their workouts
- Integrations with YouTube to pull in your existing exercise or workout videos, Zapier to connect TempoKit with your other creator tools, and Teachable to extend your course customers access to your TempoKit app.
To accept payment from your community members, we’ve made it easy to connect with your Stripe account through our integration (we charge $2 per active subscriber per month for enabling this feature).
So, if you are interested in adding a custom fitness app to your digital business, for $99/month plus $2 per active subscriber, you’ll get everything in our free Starter tier plus private messaging (so that you can interact with individual community members), premium support to help you upload your content, and your own apps published in the Apple and Google Play stores. To accept payment from your community members, we’ve made it easy to connect with your Stripe account through our integration.
If this sounds like you, signup for free to start building your digital fitness business!