Expert analysis: Which indoor smart trainer you should buy right now

(Image credit: Josh Ross)

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I remember when I headed to Zwift headquarters last year to learn about a new project the brand was talking about. There'd been rumors for a while about an outrageous design themed around the in-game Tron bike. That day though, there was no Tron bike. Instead, Zwift announced the Zwift Hub; a smart trainer that I knew would absolutely transform the market. Turns out I was right on the money this time and our list of the best smart trainers for indoor cycling has never been the same.

I wasn't entirely right though. I figured by now we'd all have a clear sense of the picture and it would be back to business as normal just with a new normal. As we head into the holidays, that is not the situation at all. The Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals have only made the situation more confusing.

My job is to review bike technology. A big part of that, partially because I love using them, is reviewing bike trainers. Despite that experience, I was genuinely confused about the market and had to spend time combing through the prices and specs to figure out what were actually good deals, rather than just 'big discounts'. If you are looking for a new trainer this winter, and looking to score a Cyber Monday deal, here's how I see the market and what trainers I think are worth a purchase.

The world of trainers has settled into a four-tier layout for the 2023/2024 winter training season. At the bottom of both useability and affordability is the wheel-on-trainer. These are excellent choices when you are on a tight budget. Wheel-on-trainers were the standard for a number of years and will serve you well if that's where you need to start. Technology marches on though and these aren't the heart of the market anymore so I'm going to leave them out of this discussion, apart from calling out the slightly insane deal of 87% off the Lifeline TT-01 at Wiggle, which when you use the code OUTLET10, brings it down to just £13.49 plus shipping.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you've got smart bikes. You can find these in our list of the best exercise bikes but I've never been a fan of that term. While an exercise bike includes spin bikes, and gym bikes, that's different from the type of bike designed to simulate outdoor riding. In this context we are talking about products that take a wheel off smart trainer and build a bike around it. They are an incredible luxury to use and definitely the best of the best in the space, but they are also still too expensive for most people. I'm going to leave these out of the discussion as well.

That leaves wheel-off (direct-drive) smart trainers as the option most people are shopping for. There are a couple tiers of this option and a few main players. Like anything there's always someone new who's trying to break into the market but the main players are currently Tacx (owned by Garmin), Zwift and Wahoo. There's also Elite, which is popular worldwide though less so in the US, and Saris, who have seen financial difficulty in recent years and haven't launched a new product in a while.

I'm starting with Tier 2, or budget smart trainers, because this is the most popular option for the most people. This is also the category of trainers that the Zwift Hub has all but decimated. Every major brand used to have an option in this category - some had multiple - but those options are now either discontinued or make very little sense to buy. There are some discounts to find but by and large, there's no need to bother looking at specs because the pricing just doesn't make sense anymore.

Saris was at one time a credible player with a range of power meters and bike trainers that competed at every level of the market. Then the brand started swimming against a strong financial current. At this point, innovation is essentially gone but the same Saris H3 Smart trainer that's been around for four years is still a decent option. I actually still miss the ease of using the Saris app to set a specific wattage in ERG mode, the specs give +/-2% accuracy with 2000 watts and 20% gradient resistance. Plus the price has come down significantly. The only caveat is you need an 11-speed drivetrain.

The advantage of the Zwift Hub One is that you can use whatever bike you want without worrying about compatibility. You can also easily swap bikes with different drivetrains so sharing a single trainer is easy. The downside is that you won't be able to shift outside of Zwift and that could be an issue down the line. Also worth consideration is that the Zwift Hub One is only accurate up to +/-2.5% even though the resistance maxes out at fairly standard 1800 watts or 16% gradient.

If you'd prefer to use a traditional cassette than the single sprocket and virtual shifting, then the best option is the Wahoo Kickr Core. For the same price as the Zwift Hub One you get a choice of 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12-speed cassette preinstalled. The specs are also slightly better at the same 1800 watts and 16% gradient but accurate to +/-2%. I'd argue that's not particularly important but it's still a fact and it may matter to you. Both options also include a year of Zwift membership included.

Alternative: Pinnacle HC (Without Zwift):
UK: £699.99 £210.00 at Sigma Sports
This one's a left-field inclusion, but the deal is enormous so we can't ignore it. The Pinnacle HC is one of the lesser-known brands; actually an in-house brand of the Fraser PLC that owns Evans Cycles and Sports Direct in the UK. The product is almost identical to the Kickr Core in its design, but in our testing we found the build quality was a little less premium. You might not want to take that risk, but on the flipside, you might not be able to ignore the discount.

That starts with Wahoo. Wahoo has been the biggest name in indoor trainers for a long time and the brand still has more than one option here. If you want truly premium then the brand new Kickr Move is the most expensive wheel off smart trainer. The big feature is 8in (20cm) fore-aft motion but there's also the typical 2200 watt or 20% grade resistance available plus +/-1% accuracy. Wahoo isn't giving any discounts here for the holidays but it's an impressive piece of kit.

If that's a bit out of your price range then the other option available is the Wahoo Kickr v6. The resistance is the same 2200 watt or 20% grade but Wahoo added a bunch of race-focused functionality in the last update. The Kickr has a Race Mode (faster data reporting between the Kickr and your computer) that's so fast the UCI outlawed it in the last UCI Cycling Esports World Championships. On top of that there's WiFi and direct ethernet connection options if Bluetooth or ANT+ lead to dropouts for you. Even if racing isn't your thing, adding the Wahoo Kickr Climb accessory means the front of your bike will raise and lower as you climb, or descend in Zwift. Both the Kickr and the Climb are on sale right now.

Moving away from Wahoo, another premium option comes from fellow long-time player Tacx. Garmin actually owns Tacx now so you may see it described differently but Tacx was an early smart trainer company and the brand continues to have excellent products. The Tacx Neo 2T also adds realism but not by moving the bike. Instead the brand uses the same system that provides resistance to shake the trainer slightly depending on what you are riding across. It's surprisingly realistic and while not totally necessary, it's fun.

Perhaps more interesting, is the Tacx Motion Plates. Similar to the Wahoo Move, these provide motion to the trainer. The difference is that the Tacx approach is to make them available as an accessory. Right now the Tacx Neo 2T is cheaper than the Wahoo Kickr, in the US anyway, but only by about the price of the cassette that the Kickr includes and Tacx doesn't. The real competition is between the Kickr Move and the Neo 2T + the motion plates. Tacx offers similar specs but when you add a cassette and the motion plates, it's a cheaper package. Also, in the UK the deal is arguably better and Garmin is just throwing in the motion plates for free.

The last brand that might be worth looking at in this space is Elite. Elite recently introduced the Elite Justo and while it's not common in the US, the specs are worth consideration. Like the others you get 2200 watts or 24% grade resistance and +/-1% accuracy. You also get an absolutely beautiful design that folds up quite small and uses less plastic, bluetooth bridging for Apple TV users, an optional ethernet connection accessory, and there's a system to better move you from a rest interval to a work interval. Unfortunately as interesting as the Justo looks, there’s no deals and the pricing makes it hard to recommend when you compare it to the discounts available from other brands right now.

My advice here is pretty simple. If you have a dedicated bike for your trainer then get the Wahoo Kickr Core. It's a great system at a great price and it preserves your ability to use whatever training software you want in the future. If you don't have a dedicated bike for your trainer then go with the Zwift Hub One. It's so simple to drop any bike on or off of it that your life will just be easier. Also, it's not impossible to use it with other systems as most of the time you don't shift unless you are on Zwift.

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Josh hails from the Pacific Northwest of the United States but would prefer riding through the desert than the rain. He will happily talk for hours about the minutiae of cycling tech but also has an understanding that most people just want things to work. He is a road cyclist at heart and doesn't care much if those roads are paved, dirt, or digital. Although he rarely races, if you ask him to ride from sunrise to sunset the answer will be yes. Height: 5'9" Weight: 140 lb. Rides: Salsa Warbird, Cannondale CAAD9, Enve Melee, Look 795 Blade RS, Priority Continuum Onyx