At-Home Indoor Cycling Apps Compared
Aaptiv vs. Peloton: Pros and Cons
[EDIT 5/30/2019: Disclaimer: It’s been brought to my attention through a few comments and many disappointed reviews on the Aaptiv Facebook Group Page — though they mysteriously disappear at times — that Aaptiv is making some changes. Along the way, it seems many of the workouts that people loved most have been deleted from the app, and some of their best trainers have been let go. What worries me (and led me to cancel my subscription and post this disclaimer) is that there are a growing number of negative reviews concerning Aaptiv’s management of user credit card information, even on their own Facebook Group page. So, I cancelled my Aaptiv Account. Since I’ve cancelled my own account, I can no longer offer a free trial to readers who are interested, I do apologize!]
About a year ago, I stumbled across this excellent blog post: A DIY Peloton at-home stationary cycling solution for introverts. The post was so informative and helpful that it led me to build my own at-home cycling station, in the hopes of saving money compared with the alternative of attending live classes in a local studio, which can range in price but often cost $15-$20+ per class these days.
I used many of the tips and links provided in the DIY peloton post to build the “hardware” of my bike and supplemental tools like a comfier seat, an iPhone/iPad holder, etc (see picture above and links below).
While this post will provide links to all of that information if you are interested in building your own bike, it will focus more on the “software” side of at-home indoor cycling as a workout: Let’s compare two apps that exist to guide individuals’ workouts from home — Aaptiv and Peloton — and and outline how they stack up.
My At-Home Indoor Cycling “Hardware”
Below you’ll find links to all of the equipment I bought to get set up with my bike at home. All together, I spent $393.29. So, to break even, I’d need to use the bike at least 26 times (assuming indoor cycling classes are on the low end priced at $15/class) to break even on my investment. Definitely worth it to me, but you’ll want to make sure you’re fairly committed to cycling before investing in all of this equipment to make your workout more convenient.
Sunny Health & Fitness SF-B1002 Belt Drive Indoor Cycling Bike, Grey
SuperMats Heavy Duty Equipment Mat
Sunny Health & Fitness Mobile Phone & Tablet Clamp Mount Holder for Bikes
Wahoo RPM Sensor for iPhone, Android and Bike Computers
Heart Rate Monitor (yes, I highly recommend this, especially if you want to ensure you are working hard enough to get a good workout at home!)
While I would recommend all of the above as a minimum for general comfort and usability, you could also follow some of the other tips in the DIY Peoloton Blog post above and:
- Switch out your pedals — I got these Shimano SPD Pedals because they work on indoor and outdoor bikes if I ever want to take my cycling workout outside during the warmer seasons.
- Get cycling shoes — this is the single most beneficial thing I have done to get more out of my cycling workouts. I cycled at my local studio for 2 YEARS before investing in shoes and it was a huge game changer!
Basic Men’s cycling shoes (we bought them in a local cycling store for $80; on amazon they range from $70–$110 so do your research!)
Basic Women’s cycling shoes (again, we bought in-store for $80 but they are currently $110 on amazon)
Note: If you are new to indoor cycling, or at least new to clip-in cycling shoes and pedals, it’s worth taking the time to find a local cycling store and make sure you’re “doing it right” — switching out your pedals is very simple but you need a particular tool for it, and cycling shoes and pedals are great but there are different varieties and they are not all compatible with one another. You can also try on various shoes to see how they feel on your foot (and that’s a good idea because cycling shoes are not like other athletic footwear — you want them to fit very snug with your toes right up to the end of the shoe) and whether it might be worth it to you to spring for a fancier pair. I’ve found these lace-up entry-level shoes do great for me and the lacing up, while not the standard for cycling shoes, allows me to adjust them to better fit my foot than the standard straps would.
The “Software” of At-Home Cycling: A Caveat
While I’ve got my hardware mostly squared away (currently figuring out the maintenance piece for an indoor flywheel bike), I’ve been fine-tuning my experience with the available “software” on the market to guide my at-home cylcing workouts.
I still find that I hands-down get the best cycling workout by attending a class at my favorite local studio in Columbus, Ohio, Cycle614, with great instructors whom I personally know and trust, and can depend on to provide an excellent sweat session. However, that said, I was recently I was reminded of my love of cycling at home (the convenience, and therefore likelihood of completing a workout, is undeniable!) when my brother-in-law expressed interest in building his own at home peloton.
So, I thought that, while all of the tips I just gave him are fresh in my mind, and while the New Year is right around the corner (yes, arbitrary, but regardless, it’s a time when many choose to renew their commitment to a healthier lifestyle including regular exercise), it would be a good time to get back to my own cycling commitment and share my experience with the different platforms I’ve tried to get a great workout in at home. I’ve been dabbling in a lot of different workouts this year — yoga, strength training, running— and cycling has taken somewhat of a backseat lately. As soon as I got back on my bike, however, I remembered how much joy it brings me, and I want to share that with you!
The Software of At-Home Cycling: What’s out there?
To date, I’ve tried two apps: Aaptiv and Peloton. In addition to being available on iOS, each app also has an Android App (Aaptiv Android; Peloton Adroid) I’ll go through each in turn, explaining their pros and cons, and finally I will outline which I think is best for a variety of categories, including:
- Best Price / Overall Value
- Most Convenient / Easiest to Get Going
- Best App Design / Friendliest User Experience
- Best for Travelers
- Best Ability to work out “live”
- Best Community / Customer service & support
- Best for Motivation / Engagement
Option #1: Aaptiv
I have been using Aaptiv for about a year. Now is a good time of year to listen for ads on podcasts and sign up if you hear one. Aaptiv ordinarily costs $96 annually ($8.33/month, after a free 7-day trial) or $15/month if you want to go month-to-month ($180/year if you use it for 12 months). You can get a longer, 28-day, trial if you have a friend who shares an Aaptiv guest pass with you via text or email. I have several guest passes I am happy to share if you comment on this post with your e-mail address! I was able to get an annual subscription to Aaptiv for about half the usual cost, or ~ $50/year, with a seasonal discount, this time last year. If you happen to be or know a university student, they are running a student holiday special right now for 50% off!
In Aaptiv’s own words, here is how it works:
Get unlimited access to thousands of workouts and programs, created and guided by our world-class certified trainers.
Get a perfect workout in 3 easy steps:
1. Enter your goals to find programs and workouts you’ll love.
2. Choose a workout based on duration, trainer, music, and more.
3. Put on your headphones and let our trainers guide you.
Audio Only?
While some may question the audio-only guidance of Aaptiv, I’ve found it to be one of its many benefits (other benefits include always having a personal trainer in your pocket, an ability to filter workouts by duration, preferred trainer, musical genre, and difficulty level, in addition to having access to a guaranteed great workout anywhere in the world — Aaptiv cuts right through travel excuses!).
I find that with an expert instructor in my ear, along with great music with a good beat, I have just enough guidance, without the distraction of trying to squint at a screen and follow along perfectly. I tune into my own body and how it feels and push myself harder this way. And, I still get feedback from my Apple Watch (I currently use the Series 4) and Heart Rate Monitor on how hard I am actually pushing myself.
Aaptiv: Price, Variety, and Customer Service
Personally, I think that Aaptiv provides great value for its price point. If you’re looking for variety — they’ve got it. If you want motivation or upbeat music, check. If you get sick of doing the same routine over and over — no problem, because they add 30 new workouts to the app every week!
For the price of 2–3 in-studio classes, Aaptiv provides access to over 2500 varied workouts, a choice of multiple trainers/music/difficulty levels, and a strong community behind the app as well if you’re into posting sweaty selfies to instagram or facebook as an additional accountability measure. It’s the kind of price / service that begs the question “Why not try it out — at least the free trial — to see if you like it? What have you got to lose?
Finally, I can personally vouch for Aaptiv’s great customer service. I had an issue recently where the music of a workout would separate from the audio track of the trainer’s voice when I was trying to airplay my audio to an Apple HomePod (like Amazon Alexa/Echo Dot but from Apple). I tweeted Aaptiv and they responded immediately that it was a known bug they were in the process of fixing, thanked me for bringing it to their attention, and worked with me individually to resolve the issue:
Option #2: Peloton
In contrast to Aaptiv, there is the new-to-me (though not new overall) Peloton — which, it should be noted, is designed to be used as part of an entire system that includes a propriety Peloton-branded bike and supplemental gear. Also note that Peloton has now branched out into treadmill territory as well!
Despite the fact that Peloton’s business model includes a heavy emphasis on cycling hardware in addition to software, it is entirely possible to use only their app with your own DIY bike. However, might this make Peloton a sort of jack of all trades, master of none? By hedging their bets and offering both products and services as a company, perhaps Peloton is stretched thinner and less of an expert in either domain? Nope! Despite the fact that Peloton offers both a product (hardware of the bike itself)and a service (monthly subscription app for live streamed workouts), they do not subsidize their product for the sake of selling the subscription — people seem willing to pay for both — let’s explore why.
Peloton: Premium Proprietary Pricing
My brother-in-law loves this app for his at-home cycling workouts, so I decided to give it a whirl. I think it provides a nice in-between option for those who are not up for the $15-$20 price point and commute/time commitment of attending studio classes in person, but also want a little more (i.e. different kind of) engagement and motivation from their at-home ride than an audio-only app like Aaptiv.
The Peloton app costs $19.49/month after a free 14-day trial (currently only available on iOS), or about $240/year. So, you’d need to use just the app 16 times to make it worth the cost of 15 in-studio classes. There is a way to make the app more affordable though! My brother-in-law recently discovered that up to 5 people can share a Peloton account, so this can bring the $20/month price point down to anywhere from $10 to $4/month!
As mentioned above, in addition to the price of the Peloton app (which is currently available on iOS, iPad, and Android, though the free trial is only on iOS), while you absolutely can pay for and use the Peloton app with your own DIY bike at home, the Peloton model is ideally pairs the app with a propriety Peloton-branded bike and supplemental gear as well.
If you are interested in the Peloton-branded bike and supplemental gear, packages currently range in price from $2,245 to $2,694 and include items such as:
- the bike itself plus limited warranty and setup ($2,245)
- the above, plus delivery, shoes, weights, headphones ($2,404),
- the above plus a heart rate monitor and bike mat ($2,494), or
- at the highest price tier, 2 sets of shoes/headphones, 2 heart rate monitors and 2 water bottles ($2,694).
As a reminder, for the sake of comparsion, I bought all of my (non-proprietary, non-branded) equipment from Amazon for $393.29. This means I saved a minimum of $1,851.71 (if you calculate from the lowest price point that Peloton currently offers).
“Yeah, but I’m not handy — I don’t think I could even build my own bike if I wanted to!” you may be thinking. Let me alleviate those concerns for you if you’re worried/wondering — my bike was not at all difficult to put together. I put on some music, cracked open the instructions and included tools, and spent 1–2 happy hours setting up my bike and then feeling quite accomplished afterwards.
The limited time investment involved, and the fact I built my bike completely alone, despite very little experience building…well…anything apart from terrible IKEA furniture, really…makes me pretty confident you can figure it out too. And, if you feel really uncertain, you can always pay ~$77 more for Amazon to provide you with Exercise Bike Assembly in-home.
Do you need the Peloton bike to use the Peloton App?
You do not. But, you might ask, how helpful is it to have the Peloton-branded bike and supplemental gear? Good question. One thing to know is that during classes, the Peloton instructor will shout out various resistance levels that correspond to this particular type of bike, so if you aren’t sure how to set your own resistance to challenge yourself, getting a good workout at home on your own DIY bike could be tough.
If, however, like me, you’ve cycled in studios for years and are familiar with your own resistance settings and how to “translate” what an instructor is saying to what you need to do on a different machine to feel challenged, you’ll be okay.
It is nice that the peloton bike has a little spot to set your free weights (my studio has this too), but, I just got around it by setting up a little dumbbell rack I bought from Amazon within reach of my bike.
In Peloton’s own words, here is how it works:
HIGH PERFORMANCE DESIGNED FOR THE HOME
With refined lines and a compact 4’ x 2’ footprint, the Peloton bike lets you fit a high-energy workout into any room in your home.
Your all-access pass to up to 20 live studio classes daily
With a mix of cycling, running, bootcamp, floor and outdoor workouts available at a tap, the award-winning Peloton Digital experience just got even better. Choose your goal. Chase it down, then find a new one tomorrow.
Live cycling classes that fit your lifestyle
Join game-changing live studio cycling workouts alongside our elite team of NYC instructors.
Cardio and strength to unlock your best
Expand your comfort zone with a mix of cardio and strength studio classes alongside our elite Peloton Tread team.
Explore new paths with outdoor classes
On-the-go motivation never sounded this good. From street, to gym, to trail, run with goal-smashing playlists and audio inspiration from our Peloton instructor team.
Round out your fitness from the ground up
Flex, stretch, strengthen and more. Choose from a robust variety of floor workouts streamed live from our studio, including strength, stretching and yoga.
Peloton: Live Streaming Classes
As shown above, Peloton is similar to Aaptiv in many ways: they both provide a variety of workouts beyond cycling (although from what I can tell, this has been Aaptiv’s vision from the start, whereas I think Peloton’s wheelhouse has always been cycling but they are now branching out to add on in other domains to meet consumer demand and remain competitive with apps like Aaptiv).
Both apps provide an ability to filter content and workouts to some extent for what you want (various durations, difficulty levels, etc), however the two apps differ in one very important offering:
Peloton offers live classes.
For many individuals, the live class component from Peloton is a powerful, game-changing addition to an at-home workout. Participation in live streamed classes may help participants feel more engaged and motivated. Why is this? While riding along, you can see the studio and in-class participants, so you have a bit of that studio feel of being with a group of people working towards a common goal. In addition, you know that the in-studio instructor can see who is part of the class both in person and online. The instructor calls out various online participants by username to celebrate milestones and birthdays. An ability to schedule or join a live class may also help increase accountability for those looking to make exercise a more regular habit or part of their routine.
What’s your personality? Does a Live Class Matter for You?
Aaptiv has added a scheduling feature to their app as well, probably in an attempt to help its users levarage the motivation of increased accountability. However, unless you are a so-called upholder (an indivdual that responds well to both inner and outer expectations, according to Gretchen Rubin, author and creator of The Four Tendencies Personality Framework) you might not feel particularly obligated to show up for the pre-recorded class you’ve scheduled with your Aaptiv trainer — after all, they aren’t showing up in person in an NYC studio, expecting you because you are listed on their roster. Most people, however, are not upholders but obligers (Obligers are individuals who find it easier to comply with outer expectations but may have a hard time meeting expectations they set for themselves). Obligers, who benefit from external accountability, may find the idea of a Peloton trainer expecting to see them “show up” because they signed up to be just the bit of motivation needed to make it out of bed and onto the bike. The leaderboard of other live participants and their streaks and milestones might also provide a motivational boost.
Live Classes: are they worth it?
This very much depends on your personality and what works for you. I know people who disagree that in-studio classes provide the best workout because they experience anxiety in that setting. Others say their schedule and time constraints don’t allow for the time commitment of going to class in a studio. Sometimes budget is the barrier. For those for whom schedule, anxiety, or funds might interfere with a good workout in-studio, but who still benefit from external measures of accountability to reach their goals, Peloton’s live-streamed classes are likely to be an excellent solution. Live classes provide an ability to participate in a like-minded community by connecting to a real group of people who are simultaneously working out together, but with an increased level of convenience, comfort, and affordability. Additionally, you can take recorded Peloton classes anytime (their live classes are added to the ever-growing library of options available to app users).
Personally (and huge caveat here: in full disclosure I have only used the Peloton app once so far, as compared with a full year of Aaptiv use, so I’m sure with repeated Peloton use I would find instructors I love, build a little community of regulars, and the app would grow on me), I found the Peloton live class component a bit distracting and somewhat lackluster. It was like being in a studio…but not as good. I didn’t feel like I was a true part of the community and the audio quality of the music and instructor was lower than Aaptiv’s. Also, when it comes to a workout like cycling…do you really need a screen? What is there to look at, ultimately? Just a person pedaling alongside you? It didn’t do much for my form, my engagement, or my overall workout — I actually had a hard time getting my heart rate above 130 most of the ride, whereas with Aaptiv I regularly hit 180 and above!
Apart from the live class component, I personally feel that Peloton is pretty pricey for what you get: for a minimum annual investment of $2,485 (lowest bike package of $2445 + 1 year of $20/month app subsciption) you could attend ~124–165 in-studio cycling classes in a year (which averages out to 10–13 classes per month or 2–3 classes per week, depending on whether they run you $15 or $20 each), and you would probably get a better workout.
Yes, its true you’d have the convenience of the Peloton bike in your home…but note that none of the packages include maintenance of your bike, so once you’ve invested, you’re on your own after the limited warranty runs out. While the ongoing $20/month commitment of the app might motivate some (as a form of external accountability to obligers, maybe?), others find that investing money in a gym membership has no impact on or actually diminishes motivation to use it. I imagine the same would be true for an online fitness subscription.
Conclusions: Aaptiv, or Peloton?
Both Aaptiv and Peloton offer guided cycling workouts for at-home fitness enthusiasts. While they each have benefits and drawbacks, I would suggest that each app wins in the following ways:
- Best Price / Overall Value: Aaptiv — $50–100/year (vs. $240/year for the Peloton app or $2,485 for the bike+ app).
- Most Convenient / Easiest to Get Going: Peloton. If you have ~$2500–2700 up front + $240/year burning a hole in your pocket, zero time or interest in ordering and setting up your own bike hardware / investigating software, and benefit from external accountability, the all-included hardware and software package Peloton offers will get you from purchasing to pedaling quickest.
- Best App Design / Friendliest User Experience: Aaptiv (I find the Aaptiv app easier to navigate, but this may just be personal preference).
- Best for Travelers: Aaptiv — I love the variety of workouts beyond just cycling, and that many of the workouts are bodyweight only or can be done with the limited basic equipment available in a hotel gym. Many are also easily done outdoors. Peloton is starting to add a variety of workouts to their digital platform , and some are outdoors, but Aaptiv has more, and constantly adds to their library.
- Best Ability to work out “live”: Peloton (this is not an option with Aaptiv)
- Best Community / Customer service & support: Aaptiv; although Peloton’s live classes do attempt to cultivate community, in my opinion, you feel more like an outsider looking in than a legitimate part of the in-studio experience. Since everybody using Aaptiv is remote, the social media community is more strategic, active and supportive.
- Best for Motivation / Engagement: This really depends on what motivates you, but Peloton’s live classes might provide a slight edge here (if you can get past the monetary invsetment to access them). Conversely, if you get distracted by screens and get your best workout by tuning into your own body and how you feel to push yourself, Aaptiv is for you!
If I were reading this blog post one year ago, I would:
- do my research, set a budget, and decide: DIY bike or Peloton bike?
- IF I decided to DIY it (which I recommend! It’s not that hard and you save over $1800!), order and set up my own bike “hardware” at home (feel free to use the links above or the links at the post I originally found as a great time-saving starting point! In full disclosure, these are amazon affiliate links, which means that if you buy from them I get a little bit of the money, but it all honesty, it took a long time to complete and compile all of this research, and I never suggest anything I haven’t personally tried and recommend, so I appreciate your using my links if you do end up buying any of your hardware after reading my post!) OR IF I decided on Peloton, pick a package and order my bike!
- try out both Aaptiv and Peloton for my “software”— they both have free trials! By the time you’ve done several rides with each platform you’ll have a better sense of what they offer and what they are missing, and you’ll feel better informed about what you personally want from your at-home cycling workout. That will make you more comfortable investing financially in one platform or the other!
A couple last things to consider
Obviously if you purchase a Peloton bike, you’re likely to want to invest in the Peloton App, but, you could still try out Aaptiv in the meantime and perhaps use it to mix things up from time to time if Peloton gets too repetitive for you!
In addition, remember that you can kind of goldilocks your decision like my brother in law — save a lot of money by building your own DIY bike but enjoy the fancier live classes of pairing it with the pricier Peloton app.
Last but not least, there are other proprietary Peloton competitors out there that I don’t know much about and they are probably worth looking into. Check them out here, in particular the Echelon seems somewhat promising at about half the price of Peloton.
[I used to be able to offer guest passes for people to try a trial with Aaptiv for 28 days, however, as mentioned in my disclaimer above, It’s been brought to my attention through a few comments and many disappointed reviews on the Aaptiv Facebook Group Page — though they mysteriously disappear at times — that Aaptiv is making some changes. Along the way, it seems many of the workouts that people loved most have been deleted from the app, and some of their best trainers have been let go. What worries me (and led me to cancel my subscription and post this disclaimer) is that there are a growing number of negative reviews concerning Aaptiv’s management of user credit card information, even on their own Facebook Group page. So, I cancelled my Aaptiv Account. Since I’ve cancelled my own account, I can no longer offer a free trial to readers who are interested, I do apologize!]
I hope this post is helpful for any cycling lovers out there who are tired of the time commitment to drive back and froth to a studio and want the convenience of at-home workouts at their fingertips! Please let me know if you enjoyed / appreciated the post by clapping below!
