How intervals.icu and TrainingPeaks compare on analysis, planning, coaching, devices and how each is paid for, checked in October 2026, and who each one suits.
The intervals.icu vs TrainingPeaks choice depends on who plans your training. intervals.icu gives riders and coaches deep training analysis on a free account with no time limit. TrainingPeaks is built around coaches and the athletes they work with, and planning your own workouts ahead on it needs a paid Premium account. Both are well established. Every fact below was checked on the companies' own pages on 25 and 29 October 2026.
Is intervals.icu better than TrainingPeaks?
Neither is better for everyone. intervals.icu suits riders and coaches who want detailed analysis they can shape themselves, without paying. TrainingPeaks suits athletes whose coach already works there, athletes who want a ready-made plan from a coach, and coaches who want to sell plans and find athletes.
| You are | Look at first | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A self-coached rider | intervals.icu | Planning and fitness charts are on the free account |
| A rider with a coach on TrainingPeaks | TrainingPeaks | Your coach's plans and messages live there |
| A rider who wants a plan written by a coach | TrainingPeaks | It has a store of plans written by coaches |
| A triathlete or runner as much as a cyclist | Either | Both cover several sports |
| A coach building a business | TrainingPeaks | Coach Edition, a plan marketplace and a matching service |
| A club, or a coach who likes to explore the data | intervals.icu | Coaching groups with admin, coach and member roles, and custom charts |
How do intervals.icu and TrainingPeaks compare side by side?
They differ most in what the free account includes and in how much is built for coaches. Both collect rides from the main device makers and show fitness, fatigue and form. The table is as each product's pages described it in late October 2026.
| intervals.icu | TrainingPeaks | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is behind it | David Tinker, who started it in 2018, and a small team | Garmin, which bought it in July 2026 |
| Free account | The core platform, with no trial or time limit | Basic: logs workouts and works with a coach or a bought plan |
| Paid plan | Supporter, optional, adds extras | Premium, needed to plan ahead and for the fitness chart |
| Analysis | Power curve, critical power models, interval detection, custom charts | Peak performances, interval and climb detection; WKO5, a separate desktop program, goes further |
| Planning | Drag-and-drop calendar, text workout builder, annual plan with Supporter | Calendar, structured workout builder, Annual Training Plan, plan store |
| Coaching | Anyone can coach; coaching groups with roles | Coach Edition with head and assistant coaches, groups and messaging |
| Phone | A website that works on phones; an app announced as in development | Apps for iPhone and Android |
| Your data | An open API with a personal key | An API for approved developers only |
| Languages | More than 20 | Eight |
| Community | A public forum, where the news is posted and the developer answers questions | A blog of training articles, Coach Match and TrainingPeaks University |
Which has deeper training analysis?
intervals.icu gives more analysis on a free account. Its power curve, critical power models, interval detection, decoupling and custom charts cost nothing. TrainingPeaks puts its fitness chart and planning in Premium and sells WKO5, a desktop program, for deeper power modelling.
On intervals.icu you can build your own charts, compare rides and correct power spikes. It also estimates your FTP from your rides. Its Supporter plan adds weather analysis, fully custom zones and a short submaximal fatigue test, which its news of 22 October 2026 announced as automatic.
TrainingPeaks Premium shows fitness, fatigue and form on its Performance Management Chart, with your peak performances and a weekly fitness summary. Both use a 42-day average for fitness and a 7-day average for fatigue by default, and intervals.icu lets you change those days. Expect close but rarely identical numbers, because each counts load from its own FTP and its own set of rides. Our guide to fitness, fatigue and form explains the model behind both.
Which is better for planning and coaching?
TrainingPeaks has the larger set of tools for running a coaching business: Coach Edition, a plan marketplace, a matching service and courses for coaches. intervals.icu lets anyone coach, with coaching groups, plans shared across athletes and chat.
On TrainingPeaks, a coach account has a head coach, assistant coaches, athlete groups, shared plans and messaging. Athletes on a free Basic account can be coached, and a coach can pay for an athlete's Premium. Coach Match pairs athletes with coaches, and TrainingPeaks University offers courses and certifications.
On intervals.icu, a coaching group has admin, coach, member and follower roles. Coaches see and change each athlete's calendar and data, and training plans can be linked to many athletes at once. A public directory lists coaches by country. A coach's week in either tool is covered in our guide to cycling coaching software.
Do intervals.icu and TrainingPeaks work with the same devices?
intervals.icu and TrainingPeaks work with mostly the same devices. Both collect rides from Garmin, Wahoo, COROS, Polar, Suunto, Hammerhead and Zwift, and both send planned workouts to Garmin, Wahoo, Suunto and Zwift. TrainingPeaks also sends workouts to COROS, Polar and Apple Watch, and intervals.icu sends planned runs to HUAWEI watches.
TrainingPeaks lists thousands of compatible devices and apps from many makers, and it has its own indoor riding app, TrainingPeaks Virtual.
intervals.icu runs in the browser. Its developer announced in January 2026 that an official app for iPhone and Android was in development, and its October news described a cleaner mobile site, with the fitness page redone for phones. Whichever you choose, connect your devices to it directly, so every ride arrives without you doing anything.
How do you pay for intervals.icu and TrainingPeaks?
intervals.icu is free with no trial or time limit, and an optional Supporter subscription adds extra features and coaching groups. TrainingPeaks has a free Basic account, a Premium subscription billed monthly, quarterly or yearly with a free trial, and Coach Edition, which the coach pays for.
The two models differ in who pays. On intervals.icu, there is no separate coach plan. Creating a coaching group needs Supporter, and so does coaching in one. On TrainingPeaks, the coach pays a monthly base fee, and either the coach or the athlete pays for each Premium athlete. The cost per athlete falls as a coach takes on more. Current prices, in the currency each maker shows, are on our pages for TrainingPeaks and intervals.icu.
Can you use intervals.icu, TrainingPeaks and Velograph together?
You can use all three together, with one limit: Velograph connects to intervals.icu but not to TrainingPeaks. Your bike computer can send each ride to both intervals.icu and TrainingPeaks, so a coach's plan can live in one and your own analysis in the other.
Velograph reads your rides from intervals.icu, building every number from the file your device recorded. Sessions you plan in Velograph go to your intervals.icu calendar, and later moves and edits follow. Velograph adds bike fits kept in the rider's Passport, roles for team staff such as bike fitters and mechanics, and Ask, an AI coach that comes with Rider Plus. With a coach attached, the coach decides what goes on the calendar.
The free Rider plan keeps your bikes, bike fits and rides with ride analysis, with no end date. Rider Plus, a paid plan, adds training plans, race tools and the AI coach; see pricing and what a rider gets on their own. The setup is in intervals.icu and Velograph, and TrainingPeaks alternatives compares more platforms.
How was this comparison checked?
Every fact comes from pages the companies published themselves: intervals.icu's and TrainingPeaks' own pages, help centres and news posts, and press releases from Garmin and Polar. Both were read on 25 October 2026, and every fact here was checked again on 29 October 2026.
Velograph publishes this comparison, and Velograph reads rides from intervals.icu. Prices are left out here because they change. Each comparison page lists its sources with the date they were read.
Velograph is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any team, rider or company named in this article. Names are used only to refer to publicly reported work.
