Is an iFit Subscription Worth It for Your Treadmill?

As with Peloton, the catch with iFit-enabled machines is that on top of the treadmill’s up-front cost, you’re likely to end up paying quite a bit more in monthly subscription fees. That’s because in order to access anything beyond the most basic functionality, you’ll also need to sign up for an iFit Pro subscription, which costs $39 per month. (For context, Peloton’s equivalent subscription costs $44 per month, although Peloton offers some features, like live classes, that iFit does not.) You can add up to four secondary users to your account. 

Scenic visuals: The videos themselves are quite slick. The typical format involves a trainer doing a walk or run, usually in some strikingly beautiful location, while the camera’s perspective mostly follows behind them, as if you’re running behind your coach. The runs I tried took me on a mountain trail in Aspen during the snow and down the side of a hill through a village to a beach in Thailand. It didn’t exactly make me forget that I was working out inside a CR lab, but it was surprisingly pleasant. 

Automatic machine adjustments: To me, the best feature is the fact that the treadmill’s settings automatically change with whatever is happening with the coach on the screen. So when the coach goes up or down a hill, the treadmill’s incline increases or decreases to match, and the treadmill speeds up and slows down along with them. The transitions are smooth, and I found it psychologically helpful that the workout decided these things for me, rather than me having to decide to up the speed or incline on my own. 

Helpful tips: I also enjoyed aspects of the coaching. The coaches talk to you pretty much the whole workout, offering some generic encouragement and instruction throughout. I appreciated the basic reminders about running posture. I also liked the fact that the coaches can set your expectations for how long whatever you’re currently doing will last—it makes it a bit easier to get to the end of a higher-intensity interval if you know you only have 45 more seconds, for instance.

Tons of variety: The iFit library offers a wide variety of video workouts, not just for whatever machine you own—not just treadmills but also bikes, ellipticals, and rowers. You can also log in to the iFit app on your phone or tablet to access prerecorded yoga, meditation, and strength sessions that don’t require any equipment. I tried a few of these nonmachine workouts in my living room at home, and for the most part, I quite liked them. I enjoyed the iFit experience more than yoga and Pilates videos I’ve watched on YouTube, because so many of iFit’s videos are organized into progressive series. That meant that instead of randomly clicking around on YouTube trying to find a “beginner” video that really matches my neophyte status, I could simply find a beginning yoga iFit series and start with the first workout. (Plus, no ads!)

Bizarre virtual coaching experience: While some aspects of the coaching were enjoyable, I also found this to be the main downside of the experience. There was something uncanny and off-putting about the disconnect between how much the coaches are clearly striving to be friendly and collegial and the reality that they are speaking into a void. At one point, the coach running the snowy Aspen trail said, “It’s my first time hiking in this area. Is it yours?” Did he expect me to respond?

Excessive fitness babble: Because the coaches speak for the entire duration of each workout, it’s essentially inevitable that their monologues slip into what I think of as fitness babble, semi-stream-of-consciousness narration about wellness, self-improvement, “the journey,” and more. There’s a lot of talk of “showing up for yourself.” In the most distasteful moment I experienced, the coach ran past a stand selling pizza, and remarked, “If you’re hungry, and I know you’re not, you can always grab a slice of pizza.” He paused, then followed up with, “Don’t grab that slice of pizza. Keep running.” I can’t help but bristle at this; after all, pizza is not evil, and neither is hunger. I’m here to get a little running in, not to get unsolicited diet advice. 

This even showed up in a sitting meditation video I tried. In my experience with apps like Headspace and Ten Percent Happier, a good meditation session is mostly silence, with the voice of the coach very occasionally breaking in to remind you to focus on your breath. But in this video, the coach narrated the whole thing with various platitudes. For me, it wasn’t exactly conducive to mindfulness. 

Limited compatibility: Some exercise machines work with a Bluetooth standard known as FTMS that lets you get the benefits of automatic settings adjustments with a variety of different apps. But an iFit spokesperson confirmed that iFit does not support FTMS, which means you can enjoy iFit’s automatic speed and incline adjustments only on iFit-enabled machines. So if you want to cancel your iFit subscription and sync a Peloton workout to your NordicTrack or ProForm treadmill instead—or sync an iFit workout to another brand of machine—you’re out of luck. You can’t.

If you’re on the fence about going with a treadmill that requires a subscription service like iFit (or Peloton), it can be helpful to ask yourself what barriers tend to keep you from getting as much exercise as you’d like to, advises Chris Gagliardi, a health coach and personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise and based in San Diego. Here are a few things to consider.

Don’t underestimate the benefits of predesigned workouts. One of the biggest potential benefits of a subscription workout service like iFit or Peloton is the fact that the service essentially plans your workout for you. The workout libraries offer numerous plans for progressively harder workouts. Gagliardi says one main thing he hears from clients who’ve used these services is that structure is a huge benefit. “They can just show up, it’s ready to go, they don’t have to think about it and create their own workout.”

Don’t confuse a workout subscription with accountability. Structure isn’t the same as accountability, says Gagliardi. In other words, don’t expect that making a major monetary investment in a workout machine and a service will be enough to keep you motivated. “Sometimes people that I’ve worked with are hoping that just because they’re paying for it, that’s going to make them more accountable, but it doesn’t necessarily happen that way,” Gagliardi says. 

Consider the type of coaching you need. If you’re looking for more focused coaching, an on-demand service won’t provide anything more than generic advice, particularly if, like iFit, it doesn’t offer live classes. A personal trainer can respond to the way your body moves and reacts to a workout in a way that a virtual coach clearly can’t. 

Try before you buy. A treadmill—especially one that works best with a costly monthly subscription fee in perpetuity—is a big investment. Ultimately, the best way to figure out whether a particular machine and a subscription to a workout service like iFit or Peloton might be right for you is to try to test them out before you buy, Cagliari says. If a friend or family member owns the treadmill you’re thinking about buying, ask if you can come over and try out the machine and the service. 

You may also be able to try out a machine at a sports equipment store. (NordicTrack’s website mentions Dunham’s Sports as a chain to visit to try out a machine before you buy it.) Call around to local fitness retailers to find out if you can test out the model you have your eye on in-store. You may also want to check around with some local gyms or community centers such as YMCAs, which may also have iFit-enabled treadmills. (The treadmill brand Freemotion, which primarily supplies machines for commercial spaces like gyms and fitness clubs, also uses iFit.)

Take advantage of iFit’s free trial. You can download the iFit app and try it out for free for 30 days. Canceling is simple (I checked!), and you can do it with a few clicks from the Membership page when you’re logged in to your account. So even if you don’t have an iFit-enabled machine, you can get a feel for its workouts and videos, which can give you a good sense of whether the content will work for you. 

Be aware of past issues. One potential concern with connected fitness equipment is that issues with the software can render the machines inoperable. That’s something to keep in mind with iFit in particular: In the spring of 2023, a number of iFit-enabled treadmill users began reporting issues with their service in which the machines’ screens went blank and rendered the treadmills unusable. Consumer Reports collected more than 80 stories of consumers’ experiences with this issue, and users generally attributed the problems to a software update. Affected customers filed a class action lawsuit against the company last year. 

An iFit subscription definitely has its benefits. I found the auto-adjust technology to be convenient and helpful, and the coaching and virtual runs mostly engaging. But the irritating parts of the experience—particularly the ongoing fitness babble—outweighed those pros for me. That’s largely based on my personal preferences, however. Others may find iFit’s benefits outweigh any downsides and are well worth the price.

If you decide iFit is a good choice for you, here are our five recommended treadmills that work with it.