How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Zwift and MyWhoosh offer virtual worlds and racing, while ROUVY and FulGaz focus on filmed real roads.
- TrainerRoad and Wahoo SYSTM are built for structured training plans, not for social riding.
- MyWhoosh is the only fully free option in this list, which makes it the cheapest way to start.
- Peloton's cheapest app tier limits cycling classes to three per month, so riders who want unlimited cycling classes need the higher App+ tier.
- Every paid app here offers a trial or money-back window except Peloton, so try before committing to a year.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Zwift | Social riding and racing in virtual worlds | $19.99 per month | Free trial (14 days) |
 ROUVY | Riding filmed real roads and race courses | $19.99 per month | Free trial (7 days) |
 TrainerRoad | Cyclists chasing measurable fitness gains | $21.99 per month | No (30-day money-back guarantee) |
 Peloton | Instructor-led classes without Peloton hardware | $12.99 per month | No |
 Wahoo SYSTM | Training plans plus yoga, strength, and mental work | $17.99 per month | Free trial (14 days) |
 MyWhoosh | Free virtual riding and racing | $0 | Yes |
 FulGaz | High-quality filmed routes for solo endurance rides | $14.99 per month | Free trial (14 days) |
 iFit | Trainer-led workouts filmed around the world | $14.99 per month | Yes (limited free account) |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best indoor cycling apps
#1
Zwift
Best for: Social riding and racing in virtual worlds
Visit zwift.com
Starting price$19.99 per month
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Zwift turns indoor riding into a multiplayer game. You ride through virtual worlds such as Watopia, join group rides that start every few minutes, and race in organized leagues. The social pull is the main reason people stay: there is almost always a ride happening, and the companion app makes it easy to find friends, events, and clubs.
The trade-off is cost and focus. At $19.99 per month, Zwift sits at the premium end, and every rider in a household needs a separate subscription. Structured training exists, but it is not as deep as TrainerRoad. Pick Zwift if you ride to have fun with other people and need events to stay consistent.
What we like- Largest community and race calendar
- Virtual shifting and smart bike support
- Running mode included
Watch out for- No family plan, so each rider pays full price
- Graphics feel dated next to newer rivals
#2
ROUVY
Best for: Riding filmed real roads and race courses
Visit rouvy.com
Starting price$19.99 per month
Free planFree trial (7 days)
ROUVY records real roads on video and places your avatar on top of the footage, so a climb looks like the actual climb. That matters if you are preparing for a specific event: you can ride official IRONMAN bike courses and famous passes before race day and learn the gradients. The app also includes structured workouts and training plans, so it works for more than sightseeing.
Pricing matches Zwift for a single rider, but ROUVY wins for households. Duo covers two riders and Group covers up to five, and you can pause a subscription for up to 180 days. Choose ROUVY if real roads motivate you more than cartoon worlds, or if more than one person in your home rides.
What we like- Real video of famous climbs and IRONMAN courses
- Duo and Group plans cut household cost
- Pause up to 180 days
Watch out for- Smaller racing scene than Zwift
- Augmented reality avatars look less polished than full virtual worlds
Starting price$21.99 per month
Free planNo (30-day money-back guarantee)
TrainerRoad skips the game entirely and focuses on making you faster. Its system builds a plan around your available hours, then adjusts workouts based on how you perform and how life interferes. Missed sessions, illness, and unplanned hard rides all feed back into the plan, which is the feature serious riders value most.
There is no free trial, but the 30-day money-back guarantee covers new subscribers. You need a smart trainer or power meter to get the full benefit, since the app controls resistance in ERG mode. Choose TrainerRoad if you train with a goal and a deadline, and you care more about watts than about riding with friends.
What we like- Adaptive plans that adjust to your schedule and fatigue
- AI FTP detection without test days
- Workouts transfer to outdoor rides
Watch out for- No virtual world, racing, or social riding
- Most expensive monthly price in this list
Starting price$12.99 per month
Free planNo
Peloton's app works without Peloton equipment, which makes it the most accessible entry here. You get thousands of classes across more than a dozen workout types, led by instructors with large followings. For a rider who also wants strength, yoga, and running content in one subscription, that breadth is hard to match.
Read the tier details before subscribing. App One at $12.99 per month limits Bike, Tread, and Row classes to three per month, so a rider who mainly wants cycling classes needs App+ at $28.99 per month. Peloton also does not control a smart trainer or offer a virtual world. Choose Peloton if instructor energy keeps you consistent and you want one app for many workout types.
What we like- Huge class library across cycling, strength, yoga, and running
- Well-known instructors
- Works on phone, tablet, and TV
Watch out for- Cheapest tier caps cycling classes at three per month
- No smart trainer control or virtual world
Starting price$17.99 per month
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Wahoo SYSTM, formerly The Sufferfest, builds plans from a 4DP test that measures sprint power, sustained power, and repeatability, not just FTP. That gives the plans more texture than a single-number approach, and the library extends beyond cycling into yoga, strength, mobility, and mental training. The video workouts pair footage with structured efforts, which suits riders who like a coached feel without a live class.
The app is now part of Wahoo's Pro tier, which also adds training insights and analytics. There is no racing scene and no community riding, so motivation has to come from the plan itself. Choose Wahoo SYSTM if you want one training system for several sports and you like plans built on detailed profiling.
What we like- 4DP profiling measures more than FTP alone
- Plans cover cycling, running, swimming, and strength
- Video workouts feel coached
Watch out for- No racing or social riding
- No Apple TV app
Starting price$0
Free planYes
MyWhoosh is the outlier in this list because it costs nothing. You get virtual worlds, more than 700 workouts, training plans, group rides, and racing without a subscription. It is the official partner of the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, and its Sunday Race Club offers real prize money, which gives the racing scene a serious edge.
Free does not mean equal. The community is smaller than Zwift, so off-peak rides can feel lonely, and the graphics demand a fairly capable device. Some riders also report stability quirks. Still, for a rider who wants virtual riding without a monthly bill, MyWhoosh is the obvious first try, and it pairs well with a paid training app if you later want deeper plans.
What we like- Completely free with no subscription
- Virtual worlds, workouts, and plans included
- Hosts prize-money esports races
Watch out for- Smaller community, so quiet hours feel empty
- High graphics demands can strain older devices
#7
FulGaz
Best for: High-quality filmed routes for solo endurance rides
Visit fulgaz.com
Starting price$14.99 per month
Free planFree trial (14 days)
FulGaz films real roads in high resolution and syncs your trainer resistance to the terrain, which makes long solo rides feel closer to a documentary than a game. The route library covers more than 2,000 rides from over 60 countries, including famous tours and race courses, and you can trim routes to train a specific section. Structured workouts can be layered over the scenery, and TrainingPeaks workouts import directly.
The weakness is motivation structure. There is no racing calendar to speak of, the training plans are thin, and the community is small. FulGaz now sits under the same parent company as ROUVY and Zwift after a series of acquisitions, but it still runs as a standalone app. Choose FulGaz if you ride mostly alone and want beautiful, realistic footage for endurance work.
What we like- 4K footage from more than 60 countries
- Precise gradient simulation
- Group rides on any route
Watch out for- Thin training plans and almost no racing
- Video downloads take storage and time
#8
iFit
Best for: Trainer-led workouts filmed around the world
Visit ifit.com
Starting price$14.99 per month
Free planYes (limited free account)
iFit takes a different approach from the cycling-first apps: a trainer leads you through workouts filmed in locations on all seven continents, and on compatible machines the trainer controls your resistance and incline in real time. The Train tier at $14.99 per month covers one user on a phone, tablet, or Bluetooth equipment, while Pro at $39.99 per month covers up to five users and opens the full experience on touchscreen machines.
For a cyclist, the honest catch is that iFit is a general fitness platform, not a cycling simulator. There are no virtual worlds, no racing, and no power-based adaptive training like TrainerRoad. Choose iFit if your household trains across many machines and modalities and you like being coached through video rather than riding in a game.
What we like- More than 10,000 trainer-led workouts
- Trainers adjust your machine's resistance and incline
- Covers cycling, running, rowing, and strength
Watch out for- Best experience needs NordicTrack, ProForm, or Freemotion equipment
- Cycling content is video-led, not a virtual world
How we chose
We compared pricing pages, feature lists, and public reviews for each app, and we opened every homepage to confirm it loads and belongs to the product listed. Prices come from vendor pricing pages and recent pricing summaries where the vendor page shows regional pricing. We favored apps that work with common smart trainers, state their prices clearly, and serve a distinct rider: social riders, structured trainers, filmed-route fans, and budget riders. Apps that had shut down, changed owners, or no longer fit the category were left out.
Picking the right app for your setup
Start with your trainer and your motivation style, not with the app store rating. A smart trainer with controllable resistance works with every app in this list, but the experience differs: Zwift and MyWhoosh use it for virtual worlds, ROUVY and FulGaz use it to match filmed gradients, and TrainerRoad and Wahoo SYSTM use it for ERG-mode intervals. A basic trainer with only a speed sensor limits you to estimated power, which is fine for casual riding but weak for structured plans.
Match the app to how you stay consistent
If group rides and races keep you on the bike, Zwift or MyWhoosh will do more for you than a better training algorithm. If you follow a plan reliably on your own, TrainerRoad or Wahoo SYSTM will convert your hours into fitness more efficiently. If scenery keeps you pedaling through long winter sessions, ROUVY or FulGaz fits better. Be honest about which pattern describes you, because the best app is the one you still open in February.
Check the total household cost
Monthly prices hide the household math. Zwift charges every rider full price, while ROUVY Duo and Group plans and iFit Pro spread one bill across several people. MyWhoosh costs nothing at all, which makes it a useful companion app even if you pay for a second training tool. Add the trainer itself to the budget too: a decent direct-drive smart trainer costs several hundred dollars, and that one-time purchase matters more than a few dollars of monthly difference.
Try before you pay for a year
Every paid app here except Peloton offers a trial or money-back window, and annual plans only save money if you ride all year. Use the trial to test trainer pairing, check that workouts sync to Strava or Garmin, and confirm the app runs well on your screen of choice. If an app drops connections or stutters on your device during the trial, that problem rarely improves after you pay.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a smart trainer for these apps?
A smart trainer with controllable resistance gives the full experience, since apps can adjust resistance to match hills or intervals. Most apps also work with a classic trainer plus a speed or cadence sensor, but power readings become estimates and ERG mode is unavailable. If you already own a smart bike or a Peloton-style bike without open Bluetooth, check compatibility first, since some closed systems only work with their own app.
Which indoor cycling app is best for racing?
Zwift has the deepest racing calendar, with daily races and organized leagues, plus the largest fields. MyWhoosh is the strongest free alternative and hosts prize-money esports events, though fields are smaller outside peak hours. ROUVY also runs races, but its strength is real-road courses rather than mass-start virtual racing.
Can I use two apps at once, such as Zwift and TrainerRoad?
Yes, many riders pair a training app with a virtual world app. TrainerRoad workouts can run inside Zwift, and some riders run one app for resistance control while another records the ride. That means paying two subscriptions, so it only makes sense if each app solves a different problem for you.
Are there any free indoor cycling apps?
MyWhoosh is fully free, with virtual worlds, workouts, plans, and racing included. ROUVY and FulGaz offer limited free access or trials rather than a permanent free tier. iFit offers a limited free account, but the full workout library needs a paid plan.
What is the cheapest paid indoor cycling app here?
FulGaz and iFit Train both start at $14.99 per month, undercutting Zwift, ROUVY, TrainerRoad, and Wahoo SYSTM. FulGaz suits scenic solo riding, while iFit Train suits general fitness across machines. If virtual world riding is the priority and budget is tight, MyWhoosh at no cost beats every paid option.
Sources we checked (12)
- https://www.zwift.com
- https://rouvy.com
- https://www.trainerroad.com
- https://www.onepeloton.com
- https://www.wahoofitness.com
- https://mywhoosh.com
- https://fulgaz.com
- https://www.ifit.com
- https://roadmancycling.com/blog/zwift-vs-trainerroad
- https://roadmancycling.com/blog/rouvy-vs-zwift
- https://www.cyclistshub.com/wahoo-systm-review/
- https://www.cyclistshub.com/FulGaz-review/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.