Zwift v Wahoo X v TrainerRoad: which app is best for indoor cycling?

There’s never been a better time to train indoors. The arrival of smart and direct-drive turbo trainers in the last decade has helped to transform the realism of riding inside on

a stationary bike. But it’s the various training platforms on offer that have truly brought turbo training into the 21st century. Virtual worlds, e-racing and pro-level training

plans that adapt after each session are now just a monthly subscription away, and the features on offer are being added to and improved all the time. While there are dozens of

indoor cycling apps to choose from, which is best for your virtual riding requirements? We put the three biggest – Zwift, Wahoo X and TrainerRoad – through their paces to

dissect the pros and cons of each, spending two weeks on each platform to get to grips with their key features. All three have their own unique selling points but, in a crowded

market, there is plenty of a crossover to make them ripe for comparison and, ultimately, help you decide which is worth your hard-earned money. Our tester, Charlie Allenby, gets

stuck in. Charlie Allenby / Our Media First, an overview Before we get started on a comparison of Zwift vs Wahoo X vs TrainerRoad, let’s start with an overview of each platform.

Zwift Even if you’re completely new to indoor cycling, there’s a good chance you’ll have heard of Zwift. The training platform goes big on its social side and has thousands

of members all over the world, who you’ll find riding around its 11 different virtual worlds at all hours of the day. If you have the right equipment (see ‘Platforms’ for the

minimum requirements), you can use your efforts on a turbo trainer to pedal an avatar of yourself around Zwift’s more than 1,000km of roads. Upgrade to one of the best smart

trainers on the market and Zwift will, in turn, up the immersion and be able to simulate climbs, descents and even the aerodynamic benefits of riding in a group, by automatically

adjusting the trainer’s resistance. This virtual recreation of in-real-life (IRL) riding has seen Zwift become the birthplace of virtual racing, while other notable features are

more socially focused group rides and a wealth of training plans and workouts. Wahoo X Zwift has some new competition in the form of Wahoo X. A major disruptor to the turbo trainer

market with the launch of its original Kickr back in 2012, Wahoo has made a serious attempt at dominating the whole indoor training market by acquiring two popular apps – The

Sufferfest and Road Grand Tours, with the former originally aimed at training sessions and the latter at virtual riding. The two apps have been rebranded as Wahoo SYSTM and Wahoo