The first platform my close friend paid for was Trainerize. He ran his online physique coaching business out of Instagram DMs — scale screenshots, posing photos, a "felt flat this week" buried three messages up — and Trainerize was the obvious answer. It's the name everyone recommends. Millions of workouts get delivered through it.
He lasted about four months.
Not because it was bad software. Trainerize is genuinely good at what it was built for. He left because he was a physique coach using a tool built for personal trainers, and every week he paid for that mismatch in the same currency: time. I built Cohva because of what happened next — he went back to spreadsheets, which is a strange thing for software to lose to.
This post is about when Trainerize is the right call and when it isn't. If you're a trainer running general fitness clients or a studio, I'll tell you plainly: stop reading and go use Trainerize. It's better at that than anything I'd build. The rest of this is for physique and prep coaches.
What Trainerize actually costs in 2026
Start with pricing, because this is where the mismatch shows up as a number. Everything below is from Trainerize's pricing page, checked the day this post was published — verify it yourself before deciding anything, since prices move.
- Free — 1 coaching client, no credit card required. Includes the mobile app and workout programming.
- Grow — from $10/month, up to 2 clients.
- Pro — from $25/month for up to 5 clients, scaling to $135/month for up to 50 clients.
- Studio Plus — from $275/month for up to 500 members.
Annual billing saves 10%. So far this looks cheap, and at the entry tiers it genuinely is — $10/month for two clients is hard to argue with.
Then you read the rest of the page. These are add-ons, priced on top of the plan:
- Advanced Nutrition Coaching — $20/month on Grow and Pro 5/Pro 15; $45/month on Pro 30 through Pro 200.
- Business — $25/month on Grow and Pro.
- Video Coaching — $10/month on Grow and Pro.
- Stripe Integrated Payments — $10/month on Grow and Pro.
- Pro Branded App — a one-time $169 setup fee on Pro.
Look at the first one again. Advanced nutrition coaching is an add-on. For a physique coach, nutrition isn't an advanced feature — it's the job. Macros are not a module you bolt on when business picks up; they're most of what a client pays you for.
Run it at fifty clients. Trainerize Pro 50 is $135/month, plus $45/month for the nutrition your coaching is actually made of, and you're at $180/month before anything else is switched on. Add video coaching, Stripe payments and the Business add-on and the same solo coach is at $225/month — I do that addition at two, five and fifty clients in what a physique coach actually pays. Cohva's Pro plan is $69/month for the same fifty clients, and there is no nutrition add-on because there are no add-ons at all — every plan includes the entire platform, priced only by how many clients you coach.
I'm not claiming Trainerize is overpriced for what it does. I'm claiming that a pricing page where nutrition is optional is telling you exactly who the software was designed for, and it isn't you.
The real problem isn't price
If it were only money, my friend would have paid. Coaches aren't precious about $100/month when the tool earns it.
The problem was that the loop didn't fit. Physique coaching runs on one cycle that repeats every week: the client checks in with weight, photos, measurements, adherence and how they felt; you compare this week against last week and against four weeks ago; you adjust macros, training, cardio, or nothing; you explain the change. Around that loop sit the longer arcs — a prep countdown, blood work trending across panels, cycle health, the photo record that tells the real story.
Trainerize descends from personal-training software, and it shows in the parts that matter most to a prep:
Photos are a gallery, not a comparison. You need this week's front relaxed sitting beside the same pose from four weeks ago, date and weight attached. Scrolling a grid of thumbnails and holding the difference in your head is not the same job. Visually comparing physiques over time is most of contest prep.
There's no concept of a show. No show date the platform holds, no weeks-out countdown you and the client both see, no planning backward through peak week. Every prep decision hangs on a date that lives only in your head.
Health markers have nowhere to go. Serious prep means watching blood work trend panel over panel, and noticing when a female client's cycle goes missing during a hard prep. The answer there is a spreadsheet.
Measurements are thin. One bodyweight field where you need waist, chest, arm and thigh as structured, trended data.
That's the pattern. He was exporting data out of the software he was paying for, into spreadsheets, so he could see the things that were the entire point of the coaching. Paying for software and doing the work by hand.
What Cohva does instead
Cohva is the tool he couldn't buy, built with him in the room — the full story is on the about page. It does the physique loop and nothing else:
- Programming with per-set reps and RPE, because "3x10" isn't how physique coaches write training.
- Macro targets with food and water logging, against a verified USDA-sourced database.
- Daily and weekly check-ins — the loop, on both sides, without five screens.
- Side-by-side pose comparison against any prior week.
- Body-site measurements mapped onto a body figure and trended.
- Blood work flagged HIGH/LOW against reference ranges and trended panel over panel.
- A show countdown with a prep timeline and peak-week planning.
What it doesn't do: class schedules, session booking, in-gym anything. No front desk. If you run a facility, Cohva is genuinely the wrong tool and Trainerize's Studio Plus tier exists for exactly that reason.
The pricing follows the same logic — free for up to two clients, paid plans from $19/month, scaling only by roster size. No add-ons, no per-message fees, no cut of your revenue.
When you should stay on Trainerize
I'd rather you pick correctly than pick me. Stay on Trainerize if:
- You run general fitness or lifestyle clients, not physiques. The prep arcs are dead weight to you.
- You run a gym or studio. Class scheduling, session booking, 500-member rosters — Cohva does none of it.
- You want a branded app. Trainerize sells one; Cohva doesn't.
- You have one client. Trainerize's free tier covers one, Cohva's covers two, and at that size you should be spending on clients, not tools.
- Your workflow already fits. If check-ins take you two minutes and nothing lives in a spreadsheet, switching costs more than it returns.
Trainerize is a broader product than Cohva and probably always will be. Breadth is the whole reason it doesn't fit a prep.
How to decide in an hour
Don't take my word for any of this — I'm obviously not neutral. Both platforms have a free tier, so test them the honest way. Create one fake client on each. Load a week of real-looking data: weight, four progress photos, measurements, a check-in note. Then run your actual week against both.
Count the screens it takes to review one check-in. Try to put week 6 next to week 14 as a real comparison. Try to record a blood panel. Try to tell the platform there's a show in fourteen weeks. Then total your real monthly cost at your current roster and at twice your roster, add-ons included, from the pricing page alone.
If Trainerize wins, use Trainerize. If you want the longer version of this test, I wrote a ten-point checklist that works on any platform including mine: how to choose a physique coaching platform. And if Everfit is the other name on your shortlist, its plan-plus-add-on total is worked out the same way in the Everfit pricing breakdown.
Try Cohva free — two clients, the entire platform, no credit card. If it doesn't make your week faster within one check-in cycle, it hasn't earned the switch.
FAQ
What is the best Trainerize alternative for physique coaches?
It depends on what you coach. Trainerize is built around personal-training and gym operations; physique coaching runs on weekly check-ins, pose comparison, macros, measurements, blood work, and a show date. If that's your week, look for software built around that loop — Cohva is my answer, but the real test is running a fake client through a free tier and counting screens.
Is Trainerize good for contest prep?
It's capable software, but it has no concept of a show date, no weeks-out countdown, no peak-week planning, and no home for blood work. You can absolutely run a prep on it — most coaches fill the gaps with spreadsheets, which is exactly the cost to weigh.
How much does Trainerize cost compared to Cohva?
Checked in July 2026: Trainerize starts free for 1 client, Grow from $10/month for 2, Pro from $25/month for 5 and $135/month for 50 — with Advanced Nutrition Coaching, the $25/month Business add-on, video coaching and payments all priced on top. A Pro 50 coach running all four is at $225/month. Cohva is free for 2 clients and $69/month for 50, everything included. Verify both pricing pages yourself before switching; prices change.
Can I move my clients from Trainerize to Cohva?
Your programming and client history live in Trainerize's format, so plan a transition week rather than a hard cutover. Most coaches move one or two clients first, run both in parallel for a check-in cycle, and switch the rest once the loop feels faster. Start with the free tier and two clients — that's the cheapest way to find out.
Does Cohva replace gym management software?
No, and it isn't trying to. There's no class scheduling, session booking, or front-desk anything. If you run a facility, Trainerize's Studio tiers are a better fit. Cohva is for coaches whose business is check-ins, photos, macros, and preps.