Today Wahoo announced big news in the indoor cycling space: they have acquired Zwift competitor RGT (now “Wahoo RGT”) and are integrating RGT access into a new monthly subscription dubbed “Wahoo X”.
Priced at $14.99/month, but with a discounted annual plan, Wahoo X with its RGT component is a clear move from Wahoo to compete head to head with Zwift in the training software space. Let’s unpack this news and its implications for indoor cyclists.
Software: RGT vs Zwift
RGT has been Zwift’s strongest, most “Zwifty” competitor for quite some time. Sure, there are others out there (Rouvy, VirtuPro, MyWoosh, Bkool, BigRingVR, Fulgaz, and OneLap), but RGT seems to have more participation than any other non-Zwift platform, by far.
A few comparisons between RGT and Zwift:
- RGT has, until now, had a small team and budget, while Zwift is the 800-pound gorilla in the indoor cycling space with a large team and hundreds of millions of dollars in VC funding
- RGT is based on the Unity engine, while Zwift’s engine is proprietary
- RGT has built-in routes with basic graphics, but also supports “Magic Roads”, an (admittedly clunky) feature that lets users create a course based on a .gpx data file. Zwift has its own curated set of courses with highly detailed artwork.
- RGT’s physics are generally considered more realistic than Zwift’s when it comes to drafting, cornering, and (auto) braking, while Zwift’s visuals are more realistic than RGT’s.
- Both platforms run on AppleTV iOS, Android, Mac, and PC.
Pricing
The new Wahoo X plan has the same monthly USD price as Zwift: $14.99.
But Wahoo, in a move we’ll probably see repeated in the coming months, has zeroed in on a pain point for Zwifters – no annual membership discount – and offered a $50 discount for annual Wahoo X memberships.
Wahoo X membership includes access to Wahoo SYSTM, formerly known as Sufferfest, which Wahoo revamped/rebranded after acquiring it back in July 2019.
Hardware
With Wahoo manufacturing the industry-leading KICKR smart trainer line and Zwift working to release their first hardware offerings, things could get interesting with both companies also owning competing virtual cycling software platforms.
Thus far, Zwift has said they intend to stay on good terms with their hardware partners, allowing any standards-compliant smart trainer to be used on the platform. Wahoo, we assume, will do the same. (It’s the only smart move when your core market already owns smart trainers after COVID lockdowns forced hundreds of thousands of riders indoors.)
But we would expect to see Zwift offer some Zwift-specific features on their hardware, and we would expect Wahoo to do the same for RGT. These features might include custom lighting, braking, or steering that use proprietary protocols.
One could easily see a future in which the training platform users select is influenced by the hardware they already own. And if that’s the case, Wahoo has a huge first-mover advantage.
Concluding Thoughts
While Wahoo RGT looks to be Zwift’s toughest competitor to date, Wahoo will need to pour plenty of resources into building out and marketing Wahoo X if they want to take on Zwift head-to-head. If anyone can do it, Wahoo can: but they will need to leverage all of their strengths, including their hardware division (and its market penetration), industry-leading UI design, strong marketing chops, and solid relationships with pro teams.
Zwift, for their part, will need to consider implementing long-standing feature requests (level 51!) and taking other steps to keep loyal users on board while continuing to build out their offering with expanded maps and training programs. While Zwift’s user base is many times larger than RGT’s, users can be fickle. Zwift’s vibrant community is its biggest strength, and Zwift will need to fight now, more than ever, to maintain its loyal user base.
Competition in business is like competition in cycling: it forces you to work harder. It also makes you work smarter, giving up certain things so you can pick up other things. Wahoo recently did just that, announcing a pile of job cuts in order to “right-size” its business.
This new level of competition will force both Wahoo and Zwift to think harder about priorities, but in the end, the win goes to us as consumers as we reap the benefits of software and hardware improvements.
Your Thoughts
What does today’s news mean for Zwift, Wahoo, and cyclists? Share your thoughts below!
Hope this to be the competition Zwift needs to speed up development and listen to customer needs.
I have been on Zwift for just over two years. Never have i looked at RGT, until today and because of this post. Very interesting to see what is about to happen to RGT and with Zwift.
I’ve been dealing with the BT issues between Apple Watch and AppleTV with Zwift for almost 2 years. Hopefully, this competition will kick Zwift in the butt to get some of these core technologies fixed, once and for all! If not fixed soon, I’ll switch over to try out the Wahoo solution.
I think you’ve got some of those the wrong way round. The Makuri Islands are far from more realistic graphics. Magic roads are very unclunky – you can ride a GPX file in no time at all. Zwift will really need to up their game and decrease their price. Both are ending up a little high in price.
Not my experience with MRs, but granted it is limited. Uploading and getting a “working” road takes maybe 10 minutes. Load it up and…wait another 5 minutes because the app assumes you are waiting for others to join. Then any slope is staircased and not smooth. You think Titan’s grove or France is lumpy? You should check out my MRs. Oh…wait…users have developed apps to clean all that up. I gave up at that point.
Fix MR and I am in.
Not my experience with MRs, but granted it is limited. Uploading and getting a “working” road takes maybe 10 minutes. Load it up and…wait another 5 minutes because the app assumes you are waiting for others to join. Then any slope is staircased and not smooth. You think Titan’s grove or France is lumpy? You should check out my MRs. Oh…wait…users have developed apps to clean all that up. I gave up at that point.
Fix MR and I am in. I can probably live with the leaning and weaving…well maybe.
I’ve worked on several magic roads. All needed work and when I was finished were incredibly boring to ride. My time would have been better spent just roughing them out in a workout.
Key to getting a good magic road is using a 3rd party tool like GPX Magic. I have my own, called processGPX, but it is command-line only (linux, MacOS), written in Perl. GPX Magic is much easier for newbies.
Garbage in, garbage out. You need a lot of data points with smoothly varying altitude (and gradient) and nice rounded corners for the Magic Road to look good. Also if you repeat sections of road then you need to make sure the repeated passes of the same section perfectly align. I’ve been racing a lot on RGT the last year and well-made Magic Roads are fantastic, but it’s not something a newby can do after 5 minutes on Strava Route Editor.
The other hint is if you use GPS data, from a Garmin or Wahoo head unit, for example, import it into Strava Route editor first. This will snap the points to the real road. Then use GPX Magic to create a smooth route with enough data points.
What you lose on Magic Roads is custom scenery. When racing, I personally don’t care about scenery, but they’re supposedly working on that to auto-generate scenery from real-world map data. The generic scenery is good enough to be interesting, though.
Don’t you use scenery to know where you are on the course? Like “right after the windmill is the little kicker that comes out of nowhere, watch for it”?
Zwifter since Beta days and been with Sufferfest since the early days too. Comparing everything you get with each platform its heavily in favour of Wahoo. At the moment RGT and Zwift are different beasts but if i can get good racing and a “ghost” to race my pb on Wahoo i will stop Zwift in a heartbeat.
Zwift haven’t made any key changes/innovations (not even refurbishing their frustrating racing category levels) in the last few years. Their hardware was supposed to be launched at least a year ago (2020 was the initial launch date – and by the way, what they leaked already looks outdated compared to innovators such as muaverti) . In the digital world, sleeping on its laurel is very dangerous and Zwift will have to start moving and innovating if they don’t want to start their slow sad journey towards the elephant’s cementary…
I recently started using Zwift on my iPad because my laptop no longer met Zwift hardware criteria. If Wahoo RGT lets me use my laptop again, it may mean bye bye Zwift, especially with the true training programs/plans of SYSTM
Does RGT have more users than Rouvy? Somehow I doubt it.
Maybe this will propel zwift and trainer road to consummate a relationship
Tried RGT 4-5 years ago and again last month. Not much changed IMO over that time with RGT. The magic roads is a nice touch but still not perfect; granted it really depends on the GPX file. The main thing that bugs me is the rider dynamics in RGT. How the rider will oddly angle at times as if they are going around a bend, but going straight. The braking bugs me, not that there is breaking around a bend, but it brakes too much. Small things but for some reason it really bugs me.
I like the Zwift worlds and self navigation at times. But I do like the real world maps, just need a hybrid of the two so that some RGT maps have something in the map other than just Ventoux. That’s my view though.
Two things I hope. Either Wahoo picks up RGT and makes a great software, or it kicks Zwift into high gear and makes some changes. I’m still on the old menu screen still with macOS. Not running a basic GPU either as its running from a RX580 or a 6600XT egpu. Not that the new menu seems to be that great. So I guess I can still ride with friends, for now…
I have been a member of Zwift since I think 2016 and still reasonably happy. I do feel like I am in a rut with Zwift though and it has gotten a bit stale. I will keep Zwift but I think I might give this a go to mix it up and split my team between the two platforms.
I rode on Wahoo Systm before Zwift. It was cool at first, but I got tired of just watching videos while I worked out. I like zwift racing because its an actual competition to see what you can do instead of following a workout. I didn’t start to get stronger and lose some pandemic fat until I started racing on Zwift. I liked Wahoos Systm and I think I’ll try out X just to play with some of my favorite local routes.
I hope the working smarter bit is something Zwift takes to heart and focusses on improving their core strength (the software) rather than continuing to throw resources and focus at developing hardware (not their area of strength and an area with lots of competition).
Or alternately, zwift knew that wahoo had plans to buy a zwift competitor and decided to back into the same business model by producing hardware. Smarts and implementation aren’t necessarily directly related.
I’m going to give it a try as the new category enhancement has messed up everything for me in Zwift. D race participation has dropped by 75 percent and has made them not as fun as they used to be. I’ve talked to the head honchos and they are sticking to the category enhancement
Fewer people are racing D’s as a result of category enforcement? Doesn’t that mean the sandbaggers are gone? I’d think that would be a good thing.
There actually is a RGT app for Apple TV. It’s clunky, like the other RGT options, and requires that you run another platform (iOS, iPadOS) simultaneously, but it’s there and works ‘as expected’.
Updated the post above!
The RGT Apple TV app is stand-alone now so you don’t need to run another device simultaneously. You did have to in the past but not now
I think saying users are fickle is a bit harsh. Zwift had taken it’s user base fit granted for many years. They’ve never truly value their user base. In fact I’d say taken then for granted knowing that they don’t have a serious competition. TBF I don’t think zwift will be too worried just yet wahoo have a lot of with to do to get the platform anywhere near zwift although the annual pricing discount could tempt a few.
“Fickle” is definitely an odd choice of wording when it comes to a user base that has been insanely loyal over the years. Part of that is certainly that there’s no real competition out there but at least for me it also was me genuinely liking the brand and community.
If anything, the user base has been too loyal over the years even when Zwift showed over and over again that they truly don’t care.
Well, I wrote “While Zwift’s user base is many times larger than RGT’s, users can be fickle.”
I didn’t call Zwifters fickle. Just making the point that users of a particular system can be fickle… which is something that has been shown time and time again in today’s tech world. (See: mySpace. Or right now… Twitter!)
Well Zwift treated me like crap after being loyal to them for 10000 km and over a year. They rolled their eyes at my perfectly reasonable feature requests. I moved myself and my Kickr bike over to RGT several months ago. Much better platform IMO. Looks like I definitely made the right choice.
If the AI system in RGT can detect that I’m using Wahoo powerlink speedplay pedals and stops me from slowing down as I pedal through 95% of corners IRL then they will win the war. As it stands the braking alone in RGT puts people off and until they get that solved along with the forced quit when an event ends Zwift will rule. sadly.
AusCycling have adopted Zwift for their eseries. If there was a competitor that could come onboard to create more even races then … Even work with other organisations it would be awesome.
RGT does have a ZPower equivalent (V-Power), but you can’t race with it (as in stops you racing as opposed to disqualifying you afterwards on ZP).
As far as I remember, RGT can be use with Classic trainer as well. It does requires only Classic trainer + Speed and Cadence sensor, similar way with Zwift.
I’ve edited the post above. Again, my info was taken from a page on RGT’s own site… it would seem they need to get their documentation to agree with itself.
Zwift badly needs to develop and deploy more interesting worlds if they are going to hold my attention. Only Watopia and Makuri are really complex and varied enough to bother with, maybe a little bit of France. I’ve been thinking about trying out RGT just because I want to ride terrain in Flanders, Strade Bianchi, etc. Zwift needs to give us a cobbled classic world and a Tuscany world at a minimum, or RGT/Wahoo will win out.
RGT supports Classic Trainers with Speed Sensors in the same way that Zwift does 🙂 It’s called Virtual Power RGT Cycling – VIRTUAL POWER – RGT and Virtual Power
I’ve edited the post above. Again, my info was taken from a page on RGT’s own site… it would seem they need to get their documentation to agree with itself.
I like this. ZHQ needs some pressure. It plays like an MMO made by someone who never played one. If they’re not going to buy or become the next Trainerroad they really need to lean into the gamification more and make bike choice mean something. There are too many new bikes that just wont ever be ridden once you have your Tron. A shakeup in powerups can really offer some choice. Add more and dont lock them to racing only. Bike perks that change the duration of, or guarantee a specific powerup could make mid tier performers a secret weapon. Or X bike grants bonus XP or Drops gains. The days of Mariocart level of complexity needs to come to an end.
Wahoo is in a position to give away free trials to their platform and get people hooked. Zwift needs more than just having the largest playerbase.
This I wholeheartedly agree with:
“It plays like an MMO made by someone who never played one… they really need to lean into the gamification more and make bike choice mean something. There are too many new bikes that just wont ever be ridden once you have your Tron.”
The existence of the Tron bike, with its broke-the-play-balance traits, is a perfect example: Zwift is the most “gamified” option, here, but its developers aren’t guided by principles of good game design, so they flub basics. They introduced the entire drops store system, but they apparently didn’t start with simple ideas like “Choices should be meaningful” in mind. They’ve given us a raft of indistinguishable gravel bikes, and noplace much in the game that clearly benefits from riding one. These are not technical mistakes, though even there, their testing — the Dura-Ace fiasco — failed to concentrate on identifying the technical problems that would alienate users.
I’m not sure I want to deepen the power-ups, personally. A bike game needs to get the balance of available bikes (and other kit) right, though. (Personally I’m applying my own bike choice rules to my own rides, because Zwift has just botched this. The Tron bores me to tears. A trainer that LOOKS like one?? Please. It’s like they’re proudly waving the flag of their lack of decent game design.)
You actually feel the tron bike is so powerful that it broke the balance? I never use it, I want to see if I’m drafting or not.
Gravel bikes are the fastest bikes in the jungle, as well as on the routes in Makuri that have significant gravel. Not sure what more you can ask.
all trainers show on zwift.com main page now are Wahoo’s indoor trainers
I am moving to Wahoo. I am fed up with NY amd small island. France should be on all the time.
Zwift should be concerned. They’ve delivered very little and have limited to zero capability in their delivery process. The Zwift code base is clearly a mess to update and we can only assume a lack of resources behind feature and testing.
Unless Zwift has a full platform rebuild up it’s sleeve then RGT will grow faster as people default to it or realize the racing is more realistic.
Magic Roads – they are superb if you smooth the file. A quick process on a few free sites.
I don’t know if RGT is next best thing, but when I tested it a few years back, I thought graphics, and ride were great, but the amount of tracks was small and the tracks were very short…so I didn’t keep it.
at the moment I’m testing Virtupro, which I think will be great if training tracks are shared with other users like on zwift.
I need to go back to Rouvy when I have internet fiber connection 😉
I added a Rouvy subscription about 18 months ago out of sheer frustration with Zwift (I’m Level 50 with over five years riding on that platform). While I still ride both, I’m spending more and more time on Rouvy these days. It has a far greater number of routes available and offers a lot more options for the “non-heroic” riding that I do outside with my local bike club (not every ride has to involve a miles-long 10 degree climb to be fun). Will be interesting to see where Wahoo goes from here. Definitely agree that Zwift has rested on its laurels for way too long.
If the recent UI update is anything to measure Zwifts development innovation by, Wahoo has a bright future ahead of them.
As a UIX designer by trade – I am absolutely shocked they would deliver the home screen upgrade with missing features. Many of us depend on the “Ride with Friend” having multiple bikes in our pain caves. I had to switch to AppleTV to get the feature back. Go Wahoo!
I own a Wahoo’s kicked core and roam which I enjoy so trying Wahoo X is the next step. I’m pretty loyal and stick to what I like.
RGT has horrible animation and makes it awkward to look at. something zwift has done well, is its rider animations – they are fluid and realistic.. every other platform, rgt, rouvy etc has stiff awkward animations.
Hey, your comment rating system is no longer broken!!!
Yeah! I’m not sure what fixed it, but there you go. Now if I could just get emojis to work again…
Did my 1st ride on RGT today and it was good really good. Something about the draft and braking on RGT make it feel more realistic. One thing I’m certain about is the Wahoo Bike works 10x on RGT. On Zwift drafting and Wahoo Bike don’t mix.
Having got to level 50 in Zwift and ridden all of its roads many many times I’d be happy to try something new. However I tried RGT a short while ago, and liked many of the routes, but it just felt very empty – more bots than real riders. I wouldn’t pay the same for RGT as Zwift, as it is nowhere near the same experience – far fewer roads, far fewer people. They should drop the price to build participation.
they need to get that “racing against your ghost” feature out.
I can feasibly see Wahoo selling their trainer hardware and offering a free/reduced subscription to Wahoo X so the user has something with which to enjoy their new trainer. Before, one could get a 30-day subscription to Zwift with the purchase of trainer hardware (I got hooked up with Zwift through my Elite trainer, not Wahoo), but now I think Wahoo wants to “keep it in the family.” Zwift will simply have to step up their game, providing members with a hyper-realistic cycling experience, both for the casual rider all the way up to pro competitors. Personally, I don’t see myself departing Zwift anytime soon, but I will explore what competing training apps have to offer.
Portability aside, Zwift ported to the new UnrealEngine 5 would be amazing. However, I don’t think realism is their goal but more of an iconic look.
Maybe an iconic look, but one that works on a multitude of platforms. Zwift can be run on even the oldest of desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The graphics may not be the best, but it works! And for someone who wants to create the uber-discount home-trainer cycling experience, Zwift is the way to go!
But, yes, using the Unreal Engine would make for an incredible graphics experience, yet the conversion leaves a lot of legacy equipment relegated to uselessness and many current Zwift users considering a different virtual training option.
I’ve got so much time and athletic development invested in my progress in Zwift. Splitting myself off into another platform means I diminish my Zwift progress. And for what? A different form of recording the same cycling effort.
Run multiple apps on different devices so you always get progress on each app?
Been on ZWIFT since 2015 and run a successful club with thousands of members. We find the platform is fantastic and rarely have any issues.
I do feel ZWIFT at times forget who their loyal customer base is, they seem to spend more time doing things with Pro’s which may be good for promotion but it also neglects the average community cyclist.
The rollout of new courses is ok but being stuck on level 50 for 4yrs isn’t.
The feedback I get from our club members is mostly positive. also, there are certain ‘events’ staff members we deal with who are outstanding, one huge bonus for ZWIFT is how friendly and approachable Eric Min is!
We’ve never been able to quite workout why there are Races, Women’s Only But no Mens Only? Our club were offered a free account for all the ride leaders by RGT last year, gave it a go and it’s ok but they have a lot of work to do to challenge ZWIFT.
I’d also like to add Eric Schlange and Zwiftinsider are superb, always precise on their reporting and accomodating when our club has a milestone or achievement to share with the community.
One thing that rarely gets discussed is that ZWIFT has created a community and this community has done many great things especially, for charities. Our club to date has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Childrens cancer and other clubs have also achieved great things. without ZWIFT, this would never have happened!
Tried RGT this weekend and enjoyed the recent Dunoon off road map (once I worked out ERG differences to Zwift), have paused Zwift membership for now.
Some great hill.climbs, smart turbo seems to reapond quicker (subjective) and hills feel harder.