The indoor cycling world is increasingly focused on a few large players, with Zwift dominating and shaping the landscape. That consolidation has advantages for riders looking for social and competitive interactions with other riders, but is progressively squeezing out alternatives.
At the same time, apps and the hardware on which they run are becoming increasingly integrated. This makes it easier to get started riding indoors but, in Zwift’s case, ties you into its environment. We’ll run through the current major forces in the world of indoor cycling apps.
App consolidation continues
Zwift continues to dominate the indoor cycling landscape (Image credit: Zwift)
The number of different options for indoor training has been reducing significantly over the past few years as larger names swallow up smaller competitors.
It’s already over three years since Wahoo closed down RGT, its virtual cycling app. In the past year Rouvy bought, then closed down Bkool, migrating the Spanish brand’s user base onto its platform.
In its turn, Zwift, the largest player in the indoor app space, bought Rouvy in April 2026. Rouvy continues to follow its own development priorities and to provide and enhance its real-world video based riding, while Zwift has its own work plan for its more gamified riding environment.
The two platforms are working more closely together though, with users being able to earn credits in one app by riding in the other. They still require separate subscriptions though.
Zwift now also owns Australian training app Fulgaz, which it acquired by its purchase of Rouvy, whose purchase of Fulgaz had in its turn preceded its own purchase by Zwift. Somewhat surprisingly, given the Bkool experience, Fulgaz continues to operate as a separate app within the Zwift/Rouvy family.
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MyWhoosh remains free
MyWhoosh is a free alternative to Zwift and focuses on racing (Image credit: MyWhoosh)
The main alternative to the Zwift/Rouvy firmament remains MyWhoosh, which continues to offer free access. It’s based in Abu Dhabi, but has broken out of its initial desert landscapes to offer virtual worlds based on other parts of the real world, akin to Zwift.
Not only is MyWhoosh free, it offers prize money for racing on the platform – up to $1m for some competitions. That’s been tempered somewhat by MyWhoosh’s recent stipulation that more highly ranked racers in the platform’s Sunday Race League and other competitions must use a $789 Favero power meter to be eligible for prize money.
Peloton pushes its app offering
Although renowned for its Peloton Bike and that ad, Peloton’s main user base is its phone app users, without the hardware. The phone app allows you to follow Peloton’s workouts live or on-demand, although you need to subscribe to one of its more expensive tiers for access to the full library and progression recording. It covers rowing, pilates and a range of other indoor and outdoor activities too.
Minor players continue to offer alternatives
A larger user base will offer more riders to compete or ride with (Image credit: ROUVY)
Although the indoor training space is now dominated by a few large players, there continue to be alternatives.
icTrainer, for example, offers a low priced training environment based on real-world video, while Golden Cheetah has free-to-use performance analysis and includes a workout builder.
If one of your motivations for using an indoor training app is the competitive or social aspect, then a larger player is a major draw, favouring Zwift/Rouvy and, to a lesser extent, MyWhoosh. If there’s a small user base, it may be hard to find other users on an app to ride with or compete against.
Wahoo consolidates its apps
Wahoo adds extra analysis in the paid tiers in its app (Image credit: Wahoo)
Wahoo has followed a different path to Zwift and its peers, concentrating its offering on the Wahoo app. This has a free tier and two paid tiers, tied in closely to the brand’s hardware.
With the third generation Elemnt cycling computers, activity tracking both indoor and out is brought into the app. Pay for the Pro tier and Wahoo grants you access to its Systm workouts, structured training and extended content, although there’s limited interactivity. Its primary focus remains its hardware though.
Garmin’s approach is similar, with Garmin electronics and Tacx indoor training hardware its primary focus. Tacx does have its own app which includes structured workouts and real world route video content to ride, but it’s a minor player.
But Garmin has recently bought TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic, adding to its structured training and performance analysis capabilities. TrainingPeaks was previously just a training prescription platform, but in October 2024, bought IndieVelo and launched TrainingPeaks Virtual. This is praised for its simulation of cornering, braking and other factors to add extra realism, and integrates into TrainingPeaks' calendar and workout building software, as well as WKO5 for deeper analysis. Integration into Garmin Connect could enhance that environment further, and Garmin's deep pockets could steer it toward becoming a serious challenger to the Zwift domination.
TrainerRoad is another app which is highly workout focused without visuals or interaction with other users to back up its extensive collection of workouts. It offers machine learning-based tailoring of its recommended workouts, based on your targets and progression, to help guide you toward your goals. It’s recently partnered with Zwift though, so you can follow its workouts on Zwift for a more engaging experience.
Indoor app companies continue to expand their hardware offering
The Zwift Ride indoor bike offers turnkey hardware, but ties you into using Zwift or Rouvy (Image credit: Zwift)
It’s not just apps which are becoming increasingly integrated, indoor training platforms are offering linked hardware on which to run their apps too.
Wahoo has come from the hardware side, with its trailblazing Kickr smart trainer launched in 2012. Direct drive smart trainers have become the default hardware for training and Wahoo has expanded its options with the lower priced Kickr Core, the pricier Kickr Move, its smart bikes and the Kickr Rollr too.
After a turbulent first foray into hardware, Zwift has got into the realm again with its Zwift Ride smart frame. Linked to a standalone trainer, this offers a significantly cheaper and more portable alternative to a monolithic smart bike such as the Wahoo Kickr Bike. It still allows you to keep your outdoor bike setup for the outdoors though, and have a dedicated indoor set-up that can be shared between family members if needed.
In addition, Zwift Ride incorporates Zwift’s Cog and Click virtual shifting and controllers to interact with the Zwift app. You’re no longer locked into riding solely on Zwift either, with Rouvy now supporting Zwift’s virtual shifting, offering an alternative, less gamified ride environment.
Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
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