How to use a smart trainer without a subscription: every real option, and what each one leaves out

At a glance

The trainer already does the hard part

ERG is a trainer feature, not an app feature. Wahoo describes it plainly: you set a power target and the trainer adjusts resistance to hold it, regardless of cadence or speed [Wahoo App Modes]. Any app or head unit that can send that target can run a structured session. The subscription question is about everything else.

The cheapest option is the one already in the box. The Wahoo app for iOS and Android gives a KICKR, CORE, SNAP or MOVE four modes: Passive, Target Power (ERG), Resistance and Simulation [Wahoo App Modes]. Set 220 W and the trainer holds 220 W. What it does not do is step through a session for you: there is no interval timer, so a 5 x 5 minute set means changing the target by hand ten times. Wahoo's own structured workouts live in SYSTM, which is a paid subscription. For one easy spin or a single long block at a fixed wattage, the free app is enough.

The head unit is the strongest free answer for a rider who already owns one. Wahoo states that planned workouts can be completed indoors with an ELEMNT, BOLT or ROAM controlling a KICKR or another ANT+ FE-C compatible smart trainer [Wahoo ELEMNT Support]. The computer runs the timing, shows the targets and sets the resistance, so nothing runs on a phone or a laptop. A Hammerhead Karoo can drive a trainer in ERG the same way. The steps, and the one setting that leaves the flywheel free when a workout has no power targets, are in our companion guide on doing a structured indoor workout without a Zwift subscription. They are not repeated here.

The head unit has one dependency: the workout has to come from somewhere. Wahoo lists a planned-workout provider as a requirement, with a short set of 2 fitness tests and 7 workouts shipped on older ELEMNT computers to try the feature [Wahoo ELEMNT Support]. That gap is where a plan, a calendar or a coach comes in, and it is the same gap every free app on this page leaves open.

The free apps, and what each one is good at

MyWhoosh is the free option with a virtual world. Auuki, Incyclist and GoldenCheetah are free open-source apps that run a workout file and record the ride. TrainerDay gives 20 workouts free and charges $4.99 a month for the rest. All of them hold ERG targets well enough for interval work.

MyWhoosh is the closest thing to Zwift without a bill. It is free, it has a game world, group rides, races and a large workout library with training plans, and it runs on Windows, macOS, iPhone and iPad, Android and Apple TV. A rider who paused Zwift for the summer and wants a world in January should try MyWhoosh first. The trade is the one any big platform asks: you ride its sessions, on its calendar, in its app.

Auuki is the lightest of the open-source options. It is a progressive web app, which means a website that installs and runs like an app, and its web version is free and open source under AGPL-3.0 [Auuki README]. It runs Zwift .zwo files and its own built-in sessions in ERG, slope or resistance mode, works with trainers that use Bluetooth FTMS or Tacx FE-C over Bluetooth, saves a .FIT file, and syncs with intervals.icu and Strava [Auuki README]. It needs Chrome, Edge, Opera, Samsung Internet or Brave. Safari, Firefox and the iPhone are not supported [Auuki README]. Incyclist and GoldenCheetah are desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux. Incyclist adds video and map routes; GoldenCheetah is an analysis tool first, with a Train view that runs .erg workouts.

TrainerDay sits between free and paid. The free tier includes 20 workouts, and Premium is $4.99 a month or $44.99 a year in the US App Store, with apps for iOS, Android, Windows and macOS. Paying unlocks its full library and its plans. At about $45 a year it is the cheapest paid option here by a wide margin, and it gives honest value for that price.

Pausing Zwift for the season instead of cancelling

Zwift lets you pause a membership bought directly from Zwift for 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days, monthly or annual [Zwift Pausing]. The pause starts when the current billing period ends, and billing restarts on its own. Trials and memberships bought through the Apple App Store cannot be paused.

Pausing is normal. Zwift is the best indoor riding experience on the market, and many riders who pause it in spring want it back when the weather turns. The question is what to ride on the two or three indoor days a summer, or a holiday month, still needs. Pausing for 90 days covers a full summer block, and you are not charged during the pause [Zwift Pausing]. One catch: resuming early to schedule another pause starts a charge [Zwift Pausing].

If your trainer came with a Zwift Cog and a Zwift Click, the paused weeks need a short note. Virtual shifting is a Zwift feature. ERG is not: in ERG the trainer sets the resistance to match the target, so gears do nothing anyway. On a single 14-tooth cog, every option on this page still runs an ERG session normally. Our guide to the KICKR CORE 2 with a Zwift Cog for structured workouts covers the gearing details.

The paused months do not have to cost fitness, and the research is specific about why. Riders who cut training from 6 days a week to 2 or 4, at the same intensity and duration, held VO2max for 15 weeks [Hickson & Rosenkoetter 1981]. When intensity dropped by one-third instead, VO2max was not held and long endurance fell 21% [Hickson et al. 1985]. So two indoor sessions a week are enough, if the sessions keep their intensity. That is a job ERG does well, and any option above can do it.

The gap the free options leave: which workout today

Every option above runs the session you give it. None of the free ones decides what that session should be, or what to change after a missed week. In a trial of recreational cyclists, the interval format alone changed gains by a factor of two [Seiler et al. 2013]. Choosing the session is the plan's job, not the trainer's.

The evidence for structure is strong, and it is also specific. In 35 trained recreational cyclists riding about 6 hours a week, two interval sessions a week for 7 weeks of 4 x 8 minutes at about 90% of peak heart rate raised VO2peak and power by 11.4%. The 4 x 4 and 4 x 16 minute groups gained 4-6% [Seiler et al. 2013]. A library of hundreds of workouts does not tell you which one belongs on Tuesday, how long the block should run, or what to drop when Thursday disappears. That is the question this whole indoor cycling training cluster is about, and a winter for a self-coached rider breaks on it more often than on the trainer.

This is where AdaptCycling fits, as one option among several. The plan reads the week you actually had, including missed days, illness and schedule changes, and re-plans what comes next. You can push the planned sessions to a Wahoo ELEMNT or a Hammerhead Karoo and ride them on the head unit in ERG, with no riding app at all. If your Zwift membership is active, the Zwift workout generator exports a session as a .zwo file. Ride Live, in beta, runs today's planned session on a Bluetooth smart trainer from Chrome or Edge on a laptop or desktop. It is built for FTMS trainers such as the KICKR and KICKR CORE, holds each target in ERG, grades each rep, and eases the rest of a set after a missed rep, with a one-tap Undo. It does not run on Safari, Firefox, iPhone or iPad. It has no virtual world, no group rides and no racing. Ride Live is part of the paid plan, $15 a month or $150 a year after a 14-day trial with no card.

Quick answers

Sources cited in this guide

1. 01
   Wahoo App Modes. Trainer control modes for KICKR, CORE, SNAP, or BIKE in the Wahoo app. Wahoo Fitness Support.
2. 02
   Wahoo ELEMNT Support. Planned Workouts [ELEMNT]. Wahoo Fitness Support.
3. 03
   Auuki README. Auuki: an app for executing structured workouts on a smart trainer. GitHub (project documentation).
4. 04
   Zwift Pausing. Pausing and Resuming Your Membership. Zwift Support.
5. 05
   Hickson & Rosenkoetter 1981. Reduced training frequencies and maintenance of increased aerobic power. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
6. 06
   Hickson et al. 1985. Reduced training intensities and loss of aerobic power, endurance, and cardiac growth. Journal of Applied Physiology.
7. 07
   Seiler et al. 2013. Adaptations to aerobic interval training: interactive effects of exercise intensity and total work duration. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.

See the direct comparisons

• AdaptCycling vs Zwift →
• AdaptCycling vs Wahoo SYSTM →

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