Do the minutes and miles you spend on the treadmill seem to crawl by? Does bad weather put a serious damper on your training? If you’re like me, you find that the monotony of slogging out a few miles on the treadmill can be just as miserable as ironing a mountain of clothing or waiting in line at the DMV. To help deal with the drudgery, I tried (and reviewed below) two popular mobile apps for runners: Studio and Peloton.

In short, here’s the key difference between the two: With Peloton (we’ve all seen the ads for their bikes on TV!) you have an app with a ton of variety; it’s polished but also pricey. Meanwhile Studio is more basic, but pretty likeable and a whole lot cheaper. For more details, read on.

Studio – Free trial, $9.99 monthly subscription

Studio mobile app screenshot showing social features

Pros:

  • Better music than I’ve heard on the Peloton app.
  • Easy to hear and understand the instructors’ guidance since they are not running while teaching.
  • Instructors have personality & it comes through.
  • Offers both live and on-demand classes.
  • Decent variety of classes for treadmill running, outdoor running, and sculpting.
  • Strong social and gamification element (your workouts earn you “fitcoin,” which I have not quite figured out the value of yet, but am still for some reason excited about).

Cons:

  • I’ve found that some of the instructors have either annoying voices or poor audio quality, which made me ditch a couple of classes early on.
  • Some of the music is edgy and contains swear words – I’m totally fine with that, but just a warning!
  • Does not offer nearly the breadth of classes that Peloton does, if you want much more than treadmill.
Peloton app screenshot showing different types of classes

Peloton Digital –  Free trial, $19.49 per month subscription

Pros:

  • The apps for indoor workouts show the instructor running, and if this motivates you, then you may like the video aspect.
  • If you want more than running, Peloton has you covered with yoga, sculpting, treadmill, outdoor running, meditation and of course cycling.
  • Really nice production values and professional-seeming trainers.
  • Offers a full schedule both live and on-demand classes.

Cons:

  • Music seemed slightly more bland than the Studio app.
  • The fact that the instructors are running can make them harder to understand.
  • Does not seem to stress the social element or game play like Studio. It may be there, but they don’t promote it much.
  • So. Freaking. Expensive.

Both of these apps are great and with each I felt I did a better treadmill run and pushed myself harder than I would have on my own. I’d suggest that you try the free trial period on each of these, because your decision will likely come down to three personal preference factors:

  1. Do you like seeing the instructor run, or is this more of a distraction? If you like your coach to be a running partner, choose Peloton; if you like your coach to be more of a deejay, choose Studio.
  2. Do you want to do a lot more with your app than running? If you only want the treadmill workouts, then save yourself some money and do Studio. If you plan to take full advantage of different class types, including yoga and meditation, then Peloton may be worth the extra moola.
  3. Are you as frugal as me? If you are, then stick with Studio. If you’re spendy, do your Peloton thing.

I made the mistake of trying both for two months, which was long enough for me to get attached to certain instructors and classes, just like you would at your local gym. Now I’m going to have to get myself to cut one of these two apps eventually to avoid shelling out $30 bucks a month on my own personal mobile gym.