Wahoo Puts Its New Running Features Behind Paid App Tiers

Wahoo, the Atlanta company known for cycling computers and smart trainers, revised its training app into three subscription tiers on Wednesday, moving a set of running and analysis features behind two paid levels while keeping basic tracking free.

The company split the app into three levels. A free Base tier, included with Wahoo hardware, still records workouts, plans routes and connects devices. Core, at $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, adds performance analytics, training-load tracking and fitness trends. Pro, at $17.99 a month or $179.99 a year, adds guided training plans, video sessions and the SYSTM library of strength, mobility and recovery workouts. The tiers went live Wednesday, at 8 a.m. Eastern.

The main new feature for runners is one Wahoo calls 3DP, short for Three-Dimensional Pace, and it is modeled on 4DP, the power profile Wahoo has sold to cyclists for years. It sorts a runner into three measures the company labels “Threshold Pace,” “Maximal Aerobic Pace” and “Anaerobic Capacity.” In running terms, those point to the pace a runner can just hold at the edge of sustainable effort, the faster pace tied to how quickly the body can take in and use oxygen, and the short reserve left for efforts above that. Wahoo has also added a connection to COROS so that data can pass between the two platforms.

The move comes in the middle of an industry fight over paid software. Garmin, whose watches sit on most runners’ wrists, introduced Garmin Connect+ in 2025 and put features that had been free, among them its training-readiness score and VO2 max trends, behind a $6.99 monthly charge. The decision drew a long backlash from owners who felt they were paying a second time for data their watches already gathered. Wahoo is now entering the same fight.

It is doing so while promoting a tie to the one major brand that has refused to follow. COROS, the fast-growing watchmaker popular with trail and ultrarunners, has said it has no plans to charge for software. Its chief executive told the technology site TechRadar in May that the company would rather absorb the cost: “If the profit from hardware sales is able to cover it, then we’ll find a way to offer it for free.” Wahoo used part of the same announcement to advertise its COROS integration and the rest to explain what runners will now pay for.

Whether runners will pay is another matter. Most already carry a Garmin, a COROS or an Apple Watch, each with its own app, and Wahoo’s running hardware amounts to a single device, the ELEMNT RIVAL multisport watch, plus the KICKR RUN treadmill it added as part of a recent push into running.

The plans are on sale now. The running features sit in the paid Core and Pro tiers, while the free Base tier remains for anyone with compatible Wahoo hardware.