Zwift: Indoor Cycling Fitness reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A gamified indoor cycling and running platform users love for its motivation and virtual worlds, yet one that wears them down with endless updates, dropped trainer connections, and a sharply hiked subscription price.
What users love
Turns dull indoor training into an addictive game
The core reason for the love: people who hated training indoors now look forward to it. The virtual worlds, riding with real people, and gamification make time fly and keep them hooked.
I have always hated indoor training. Zwift makes training indoors way more entertaining and rewarding.
my name is Tim and I'm addicted to zwift
Used to hate going an exercise or spinning bike, but love using zwift on my zwift bike
Genuinely motivates you to train and keeps you fit year-round
Through winter, rain and snow, the app gives people a reason to get on the bike every day. They report real progress: weight lost, power and speed up, better sleep and mood.
Zwift has transformed my aerobic training
competing against other people has made me run quicker took 15 minutes of my 10k my fitness level is brilliant
I enjoy every minute on Zwift ! already improved my speed on the road, lost some weight !!
Structured workouts and training plans are praised for quality
Beyond the game, users value the well-designed workouts, plans and FTP tests: the app coaches you through the session, gives tips, and helps with cadence and power. For many it's a full-blown coach.
Not only does it coach your ride, it handles all the details & gives tips.
Zwift is really helping me with cadence and power.
I've already improved my riding form, efficiency, and power.
Running is effectively free — a standout reason to love it
Runners point out that Zwift is free for running, turning a dreary treadmill into a competition. With a speed pod and a Garmin watch it sets up easily, and the motivation to run climbs.
free for runners, puts the 't' back in dreadmill.
running is free 🙌
Excellent running platform for winter/shut in runs.
What users hate
Connection to trainer and sensors drops mid-ride
The single most common pain: the app loses its link to the trainer, heart-rate monitor or controllers mid-ride and the workout is gone. Users say swapping phone, Wi-Fi or device makes no difference, and many leave for competitors over it.
continually looses connection and you loose your ride you could be 20 miles in and its gone, tried everything to fix but I'm now looking for alternatives
CONSTANTLY dropping connections with my bike and heart rate monitor
Bluetooth connections drop every few minutes on Android
Endless mandatory updates before every ride
Almost every time before a ride there's another update to wait through — sometimes 3GB, sometimes ten minutes. You're ready to pedal and instead you sit and wait; for many this has become the defining annoyance.
Almost every time I get on the bike another update needs to run and I have to wait for it before I can start.
Terrible, constant updates for no discernable reason, which then lead to me having to retype my password. I just want to bike.
Every update is a gamble as to whether it'll be functional or not, and there are always updates.
The sharply raised subscription feels like a rip-off
The price jumped 40-50% (to £17.99 / $20 a month), and users find it out of proportion to what they get, especially given the bugs. Many name free rival MyWhoosh as the reason they're leaving.
the 40 percent price increase is insane. £17.99 per month?!
MyWhoosh is gaining a steady influx of Zwifters because of the ridiculous 50% price hike.
they have massively increased the subscription and removed the custom workout function for phones. Meaning I pay more for much less.
Crashes and freezes mid-workout that wipe your progress
The app crashes every few minutes, gets stuck loading, or 'stops responding,' forcing you to start the workout over. Android is especially unstable, and reinstalling or rebooting doesn't fix it.
the app still crashes every few minutes
keeps crashing, lots of latency and freezes and losing progress. Tried on mobile, tablet and laptop.
It constantly crashes on the phone app and is unusable.
The screen flips itself upside down
A known Android-tablet bug: auto-rotate misfires and the picture keeps flipping, especially from the shake of hard pedaling. Support tells people to install third-party apps — hardly a fix for a screen you can't read.
The screen flips upside down constantly.
After 1 ride, The app keeps turning the screen upside down when in use.
the screen will keep flipping upside down in landscape mode
Graphics look dated, especially on Android
Many find the visuals primitive — '90s,' 'Atari.' The sting is that Android graphics are visibly worse than on iPad/Mac/Windows, even on high-end devices with flagship specs.
Graphics are lousy. Unappealing. Childish.
the app on Android is seriously poor graphically compared to iPadOS, macOS and Windows versions!
Graphics are 1980s atari esc which is, let's face it, pretty poor.
Huge size and updates devour storage
A 1.5-3GB download, updates that demand even more, and on weaker devices it hits 'out of storage' — failing to open or freezing on 'unzipping files.' People are begging for a lite version.
Downloaded App Twice Still Not Opening Saying Empty The Storage Download Again.
updates require 3GB of room to perform an update
It constantly gets stuck in "unzipping file" I have to uninstall it and re download it
Forced sign-up and data collection before you can even ride
You can't even check trainer compatibility without creating an account loaded with personal details and a card on file. The pushy location permission, the missing account-delete option, and post-signup spam all grate.
requires you to fully sign up with all of your details just to see if it's compatible with your bike. That's garbage bro
The app should test if it can connect to my equipment BEFORE forcing me to create an account! Also there's no option to remove my account.
The amount of required information needed to create an account is invasive.
Payment and cancellation are a broken mess
Billing bypasses Google Play: people keep getting charged after cancelling, the sign-up flow simply doesn't work, foreign cards are refused, and refunds are near-impossible. Support is no help here.
Cancelled the subscription, got the cancellation confirmation email, they still took the money for the next month.
ive been charged for the last 4 months after cancelling my subscription
it asks me to join and renew subscription but nothing happens when you click
The mobile UI is a squeezed-down desktop, awkward on a phone
On a phone the fonts are tiny and unreadable, lists snap back to the top, buttons are small, and sound won't mute. Many ask for a dedicated mobile app instead of the PC version crammed onto a small screen.
maybe try making a mobile-dedicated app instead of the PC version on a tiny screen
have to tap multiple times any interactions on the app. Icons are small.
the list will jump back to the top when you lift your finger, so there is no way to scroll to the bottom
Cycling and running only — rowers and other machines left out
People buy a rowing machine advertised as Zwift-compatible, only to find the app supports just cycling and running. Requests for rowing and other activities recur but go unanswered.
But zwift only has cycling and running. So what is the point of rowing machines being able to connect?
now I have a rower I really wish you would incorporate an app for rowing
is only for cycling not running or walking