trainwell vs Future: which one actually watches you

Neither one watches you train. trainwell advertises $149 a month and bills your card $447 every 3 months. Future is $199 a month, cancel when you like. Both give you a real human who writes your program and reads what you report afterwards, and neither of them sees the rep.

trainwell's own blog says coaching is app-based, and that live video workout sessions get scheduled separately.¹ Future's help center describes one video call at the start and messages after that.² Since neither one is live, the choice comes down to billing, calls, refunds, and how differently the two apps behave.

We sell live video coaching at Bespoke Fit and compete with both of these, so read the rest with that in mind. Every price and policy below came off trainwell's and Future's own pages on September 8, 2026, and each one is footnoted.

What you're choosing between

trainwell (you may remember it as CoPilot) matches you with a dedicated, full-time trainer through a quiz. You do a 40-minute call, your trainer writes a plan into the app, and the app then walks you through each workout with your trainer's voice cueing the next set. Motion tracking is optional if you own a watch. Messaging and video calls with your trainer are unlimited.³ Our line-by-line comparison with trainwell has the rest of it.

Future gives you a dedicated coach too, starting with what it calls a virtual Kickoff Call. Your coach builds workouts from a library of over 2,000 exercises. You press play, hear your coach's recorded voice introduce the session, watch video demos, report your reps and adjust your weight in the app, and your coach uses that to tune next week.⁴ We keep the same page for Future.

The prices, and how each one is really billed

trainwell publishes one price: $149 a month, billed in 3-month increments, plus tax, which it calls over 25% savings against a monthly rate the site never prints.³ 3 months at $149 is one $447 charge. There's a 14-day free trial that starts the day of your first trainer call.

Future publishes four. Month to month is $199. Prepay and it drops: $537 for 3 months ($179 a month), $1,014 for 6 months ($169), $1,788 for 12 months ($149).⁵ The homepage shows $50 for your first month and then $199.²

	trainwell	Future
Advertised price	$149/mo, billed in 3-month increments	$199/mo, less if you prepay
What your card is charged	$447 every 3 months	$199 monthly, or $537, $1,014, $1,788 up front
Cheapest monthly rate	$149, on the only plan they price publicly	$149, on the 12-month prepay
A full year	About $1,788	$2,388 monthly, $2,239 with the $50 first month, or $1,788 prepaid
Trying it	14-day free trial	$50 first month
Getting money back	No refund for the term you've paid for	First month refunded on request, prepaid balance refunded at the $199 rate

The cheapest way to buy either service costs the same, $1,788 a year. The difference is what happens if you leave early. trainwell's terms carry a clause headed "No Refunds": cancelling takes effect at the end of your term, you keep access until then, and you don't get that term's money back.⁶ Future refunds a dissatisfied member's first month on request, and if you cancel a prepaid plan early it refunds the unused balance, recalculated at the standard $199 a month.⁷ Cancel a 12-month Future plan after one month and you're billed $199 for that month and the rest comes back.

If you've been burned by a subscription before, that's the part to weigh, not the $50 gap in sticker price. On trainwell you're committing $447. On Future you're committing $199.

Two caveats on the sticker prices. trainwell's checkout doesn't always show $149, which we go through in what trainwell actually costs, and on the day we checked its homepage carried a banner reading "New Year Sale: 14 Day Trial + $100 Off Personal Training", so ask what the $100 applies to before assuming your first charge is $447.³ Future's tier table lives in the help center rather than on the sales page, which is why reviews quote four different numbers. How much Future costs untangles that.

What a check-in means on each service

On trainwell, a check-in can be a call. The FAQ says the subscription includes unlimited messaging and video calls with your trainer, on top of the 40-minute call that starts the trial, and describes near-daily communication.³ If you want to talk to a person about why last week fell apart, you book it, as often as you like.

On Future, a check-in is a message. The help center describes the Kickoff Call, then the Messages tab: your coach answers questions, reads the feedback you leave after each session, and adjusts the plan week to week.⁴ Nothing in Future's published material promises calls after that first one. Coaches may well hop on one if you ask, but it isn't advertised, so check before you sign up if that matters.

The cheaper service includes unlimited video calls. The more expensive one gives you a message thread. Neither is a coached workout, and that difference rarely shows up in a feature table. Does trainwell have live sessions goes through what those calls are and are not.

Inside the two apps

trainwell's app runs the session. It guides you set by set with your trainer's recorded voice telling you what's next, and if you wear an Apple Watch (Series 5 or newer) or a Wear OS 3 watch, its motion tracking counts reps and reads your pacing and range.³

Future's app hands you more controls mid workout: tap Repeat Cues to hear an instruction again, Flag to swap an exercise you can't do today, report your reps, adjust your weight, check Exercise History for last time's numbers, or Record My Form to capture a clip for your coach.⁴

Both run on recorded audio. The trainwell app is closer to a workout partner, and Future's is closer to a log your coach reads afterwards.

Two things the reviews get wrong

Wearables. Future gets described as Apple Watch only. It isn't. Its help center lists Apple Watch Series 4 and newer for iPhone, any Wear OS 3.0 watch for Android (Garmin, Google Pixel Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and 5, Montblanc Summit 3), and says any Bluetooth wearable broadcasting heart rate will do. A watch is "not required, but highly recommended".⁸ trainwell also says no watch is necessary, recommends Apple Watch Series 5 or Wear OS 3 and newer, and has no built-in Garmin or Fitbit app, though data flows in through Apple Health or Google Health.³

The split is what the watch is for. On trainwell it drives motion tracking of the movement itself. On Future it feeds heart rate to your coach.

Nutrition. Neither writes you a meal plan. Future draws the harder line: healthy eating guidance yes, custom meal plans and calorie or macro targets no, with a pointer to a registered dietitian for those. Its coach directory can be filtered by Nutrition.⁹ trainwell says its trainers teach you to build your own meal plans and cover healthy eating and mindful eating.³ If nutrition is the main thing you're buying, neither is the purchase.

Which one will keep you training?

Both sell accountability. Future's homepage claims 98% of members say they're more consistent within 4 weeks,² and trainwell's says more than 52,000 clients have used it.³ Those are marketing numbers, not audited ones, so go by the mechanics instead.

Pick trainwell if you want the lowest price for a dedicated human, you want the app to run the session so you don't have to think, and you want to be able to get your trainer on a video call whenever things wobble. Take the 14-day trial seriously, because after it the money is committed for 3 months.

Pick Future if you want to pay month to month with an actual refund window, or you want the bigger exercise library and more control inside the workout. Both services let you switch coaches in the app as often as you like, so that isn't a tiebreaker. If you're confident enough to prepay, the 12-month rate matches trainwell's price and still refunds the unused part.

Pick neither if the reason you're shopping is that you keep starting and stopping. Both put the same thing between you and the workout: a plan on your phone, and nobody on the other side until afterwards. If you've already run that experiment twice, a third app probably won't fix it.

The thing neither one does

Nobody watches your set, on either service, on any tier. What your coach gets is the number you typed, a clip you remembered to film, or a heart rate curve. The set where your knee caves on rep six, and the two reps you skip because the last ones hurt, never make it into the app.

Both companies are straight about this on their own pages, which is more than most roundups ranking them manage. Search results muddy it. trainwell's homepage carries invisible site markup describing the service as "1:1 live coaching", which is likely why so many articles file it under live training when its own blog says otherwise.¹ Future's homepage never uses the word live.

A coach on video for the whole session is a different product, and not many companies sell it. That's what we built: a real coach on the call every session, correcting form while the weight is still in your hands, at $49 your first month and then $299/mo locked for life for one of 25 founding spots, unlimited sessions, 30-day money-back guarantee. It's twice trainwell's advertised rate and $100 a month more than Future's, and it's the wrong buy for plenty of people: if you already train well alone, if you want to start a workout at 6am on a whim (ours are booked appointments), or if what you wanted was a better app.

If you've been consistent for years and want programming plus someone to answer to, an app with a human in it does that for $149 to $199 a month, and both of these are good ones. If it's Future you're leaving, Future app alternatives lists the rest of the field.

Common questions

Which is cheaper, trainwell or Future? trainwell, on the sticker: $149 a month against Future's $199. But trainwell bills in 3-month increments, so the charge is $447, and a year works out to about $1,788. Future's 12-month prepaid plan also works out to $1,788. Paid month to month, Future runs $2,388 a year, or $2,239 with the $50 first month.

Does Future have live video sessions with your coach? No. Future's help center describes one virtual Kickoff Call to meet your coach, then messaging in the app. Workouts play from the app with your coach's recorded voice and video demos. If you want live coaching, you can record a clip mid workout and your coach responds later.

Does trainwell have live coached workouts? Not as standard. trainwell's own blog says coaching is app-based and that anyone who wants traditional live video workout sessions schedules those separately through the app. What is included is unlimited messaging and video calls with your trainer, plus a 40-minute call to start.

Which one is better if I keep quitting? Look at what happens when you go quiet. trainwell includes unlimited video calls, so you can get a human on a call the week it starts slipping. Future's published model is messages after the first call. Neither has a coach present during the workout, which is the thing that gets most people to start the set.

Sources

1. trainwell, June 10, 2026. The top remote personal training programs. trainwell.net blog, read September 8, 2026. The "1:1 live coaching" wording appears in the JSON-LD organization description in the trainwell homepage source, read September 8, 2026. ↩ ↩²

2. Future. future.co homepage, "$50 first month, then $199/month", "Cancel within 30 days for a full refund", "98% say they're more consistent within 4 weeks". Read September 8, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. trainwell. Homepage and FAQ, covering price and billing increments, the 14-day trial, the 40-minute call, unlimited messaging and video calls, the 52,000 clients figure, smartwatch support and nutrition. Read September 8, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. Future help center. What should I expect from my Future Pro Coach and What should I expect from a Future Pro workout. faq.future.co, read September 8, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Future help center, February 5, 2026. Membership Plans and Pricing. faq.future.co, read September 8, 2026. ↩

6. trainwell, updated February 17, 2026. Terms and conditions, section 10, "No Refunds". trainwell.net, read September 8, 2026. ↩

7. Future help center, updated March 27, 2026. Refund and Cancellation. faq.future.co, read September 8, 2026. ↩

8. Future help center. Which smartwatches are compatible with Future and Do I need a smartwatch to use Future Pro. faq.future.co, read September 8, 2026. ↩

9. Future help center. Does Future Pro include Nutrition. faq.future.co, read September 8, 2026. ↩