All comparisons

HQ.training vs TrainingPeaks

Fitness, fatigue and form for every athlete, without a Premium tier

TrainingPeaks set the vocabulary of endurance coaching, and Garmin bought it in July 2026. HQ works in the same terms, TSS and fitness, fatigue and form, but gives athletes all of it free and charges a coach one flat price.

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What this page says about TrainingPeaks comes from TrainingPeaks’s own pricing pages, terms and help center, read on 13 October 2026. Prices and features change, so check theirs before you decide.

The short version

HQ is the better pick if

  • Your athletes shouldn’t need a paid tier to see their fitness chart, plan ahead or message you.
  • You coach a squad and want one bill: $19 a month, against a TrainingPeaks base fee plus $9 a month for each coach-paid Premium athlete.
  • You coach strength as well, and want 184 exercise videos and typed supersets next to the intervals.
  • You sell plans and want to keep the money: HQ takes no cut, TrainingPeaks keeps 30% of marketplace sales.
  • You also run a gym or studio, and want bookings and memberships on the same account.

TrainingPeaks is the better pick if

  • You want workouts pushed to the watch on their own; HQ gives you a .fit file to download for now.
  • You rely on its device list: Polar, Suunto, COROS, Wahoo and Stryd sync directly.
  • You want its depth of analysis: Peak Performances, more than 30 trend charts, WKO.
  • You sell through its marketplace, or want Coach Match to send you athletes.

HQ.training and TrainingPeaks, side by side

  • Included
  • Partly, or at extra cost
  • Not offered
HQ.training TrainingPeaks
Athlete price Included: Free, with fitness, fatigue and form included Partly, or at extra cost: Basic is free; Premium is $19.95 a month or $134.99 a year
Coach price Included: $19 a month for any number of athletes, or $39 with more AI Partly, or at extra cost: $21.99 or $54.99 a month, plus $9 for each coach-paid Premium athlete (less in volume) and a $99 activation fee
Fitness, fatigue and form Included: Fitness, fatigue and form for every athlete, free, with four weeks projected Partly, or at extra cost: The originator of the chart; for athletes it is Premium only
Planning ahead Included: Free athletes see and plan future sessions Partly, or at extra cost: Planning future workouts is Premium only
Structured workouts Included: Typed shorthand or drag-in blocks, by zone, % FTP, % LTHR, pace or RPE, in each athlete’s own numbers Included: Builder with power, heart rate, pace and RPE targets
Strength Included: Supersets and circuits, 184 exercises with video, and your own videos Included: Strength builder with exercise videos, supersets and circuits
To the watch Partly, or at extra cost: Download as .fit for the watch or .zwo for Zwift; no automatic push to the watch yet Included: Sends structured workouts to Garmin, Apple Watch, Zwift and others
Devices Partly, or at extra cost: Garmin, Apple Health, Oura, WHOOP, Fitbit, Withings and Renpho; .fit, .gpx and .tcx uploads for other watches Included: Hundreds of devices, Polar, Suunto, COROS and Wahoo included; no direct Strava sync
Recovery data Included: HRV, sleep and resting heart rate from Oura, WHOOP, Fitbit or Apple Health, and weight from Withings or Renpho Partly, or at extra cost: Oura and WHOOP metrics; Apple Health’s daily data doesn’t sync
Messaging Included: Direct messages, and a comment thread on every session Partly, or at extra cost: Messages for Premium athletes and coaches aged 18 and over; comments on workouts
Selling plans Included: Sell plans, courses, videos and coaching subscriptions; HQ adds nothing to Stripe’s card fee Partly, or at extra cost: Its marketplace keeps 30%, private-link sales included
Billing athletes Included: Monthly or yearly coaching subscriptions in your store, with an optional free trial, paid out by Stripe; HQ takes no cut Included: TrainingPeaks Payments: recurring plans at 3.5% + $0.30 on US cards
AI Included: An AI plan builder for coaches and for athletes’ own training, included with a usage limit Not offered: No AI coaching feature in its help center
Analysis Partly, or at extra cost: Fitness, fatigue and form, time in zone, weekly volume, and power and pace curves with eFTP and critical power; no custom charts yet Included: Peak Performances, more than 30 trend charts, and WKO on the desktop
Gym and studio tools Included: Timetable, memberships, check-in and point of sale on the Gym & Studio plan Not offered: Not offered
Export Included: CSV of workouts, weekly totals and health metrics for any date range, and of the food log and habits Partly, or at extra cost: Workout files and CSVs, 12 months per export

What sets them apart

What athletes get for free

On TrainingPeaks the fitness chart, planning ahead, the annual training plan and messaging are Premium, at $19.95 a month. On HQ they are part of the free account, so a coach never has to decide which athletes get the full picture.

What a squad costs

A TrainingPeaks coach with 20 athletes, all on coach-paid Premium, pays $54.99 plus 19 × $8.55, which is $217.44 a month, and a $99 activation fee unless it is waived. On HQ the same squad costs $19 a month.

Garmin owns it now

Garmin announced on 22 July 2026 that it had bought TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic. Its announcement doesn’t say how other watch brands will be supported. HQ is independent and isn’t tied to any one maker.

Where TrainingPeaks is ahead

It sends workouts to the watch by itself, connects far more devices, and goes deeper on analysis. If those come first for you, it is the stronger tool today.

Moving from TrainingPeaks

  1. Connect it once

    Your whole archive comes across, planned sessions keep their structure, strength work and comments, and your thresholds fill in.

  2. Bring the squad

    A coach can connect their TrainingPeaks coach account and bring every athlete’s calendar, history and thresholds, or import their workout and metrics exports.

  3. Switch over

    Until everyone has moved, HQ checks TrainingPeaks every hour for anything new. Once you train in HQ, disconnect it.

Questions

Can I bring my history from TrainingPeaks?
Yes. Connect your account and the first sync brings your whole archive: planned sessions with their structure, strength work, comments and thresholds. TrainingPeaks’ workout and metrics CSV exports import too.
Does HQ use TSS and the PMC the same way?
Yes. Fitness is your 42-day training load, fatigue your 7-day load, and form the balance between them, all from TSS. When a session has no TSS, HQ estimates it.
Do athletes pay anything on HQ?
No. Every athlete has a free account with the calendar, the fitness chart, messages and device sync. Only the coach pays.
What does TrainingPeaks do that HQ doesn’t yet?
Push workouts to the watch on its own, sync Polar, Suunto, COROS and Wahoo directly (on HQ you upload their files), and chart more than 30 trends.

Sources

What this page says about TrainingPeaks comes from TrainingPeaks’s own pricing pages, terms and help center, read on 13 October 2026. Prices and features change, so check theirs before you decide.

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