Trainerize check-ins vs Teddy: two different jobs
Updated
If you coach on Trainerize, you already have check-ins. This page is for the coach whose clients do not open them. Trainerize and Teddy do different jobs, and many coaches could use both.
Short version: Trainerize is a training platform. Your client gets a program, logs workouts and answers check-in forms inside the Trainerize app. Teddy is not a training platform. It phones or texts your client between sessions, walks them through their routine, asks a few short questions and tells you what happened. Your client installs nothing.
What Trainerize check-ins are
Trainerize has a Check-In Form. ABC Trainerize’s product manager wrote on its ideas forum on 24 Oct 2025: “We’re excited to let you know that Check-In Form is now live in ABC Trainerize!” (checked 27 Oct 2026). Its pricing page also lists consultation forms on Pro, habit coaching, habit streaks and badges, in-app messaging, auto messages and voice messages (checked 27 Oct 2026). A voice message there is a recorded audio message in the app, not a phone call. We found no phone call feature on the pricing page or the FitMetrics page. Coaches can run 1-1 and group video calls in the app with the Video Coaching add-on, and Zoom calls log to a client’s profile (checked 27 Oct 2026).
Trainerize also sells FitMetrics, an add-on that drafts a reply to every check-in from the client’s data. The coach reviews each reply before anything is sent. The FitMetrics page lists it at 149 dollars a month plus 0.10 dollars per AI action (checked 27 Oct 2026).
Coaches have asked for more. On Trainerize’s own ideas forum, Coach Alex Dill wrote on 2 Oct 2025 that when clients complete check-in forms there is “no notification sent to the trainer via email or even an app push notification”, and the idea had 84 votes with no reply from Trainerize when we read it (checked 27 Oct 2026). Trainerize may have changed this since, so check before you rely on it.
The point is not that Trainerize check-ins are bad. A form in an app is a good fit for a client who already opens the app every day. It is a poor fit for a client who does not.
What Teddy does
Teddy phones each client at their chosen time, or texts them a link. On a call it does the routine with them at their pace, then asks short questions on the topics you switch on for that client: sleep, digestion, pain, strength, mobility and mood. It scores each answer from 1 to 5 and keeps their own words. Those six subjects are fixed. There are no custom questions and no form builder. For questions to ask yourself, see check-in questions to ask your coaching clients.
Text clients get a link to a routine page with your videos in large type, and reply DONE when finished or HURT if anything hurts. You see who checked in, who has missed two days in a row, and who said something hurt, with a text to your phone if you choose. You can reply by text from the dashboard. You can use a platform voice or record your own. Read how Teddy’s check-ins work.
Side by side
Facts in the Trainerize column were checked on 27 Oct 2026 at the links in the section above and in the sources list.
| Compared | Trainerize check-ins | Teddy |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Trainerize: A training platform with a check-in form, habits and messaging | Teddy: A daily phone call or text between sessions, with a routine page and a dashboard |
| What the client needs | Trainerize: The Trainerize app | Teddy: Their phone. A call or a text link, no app and no login |
| How the client answers | Trainerize: Fills in a form in the app | Teddy: Says it out loud on a call, or replies DONE or HURT by text |
| Questions | Trainerize: Questions you write | Teddy: Six fixed subjects you switch on, scored 1 to 5 |
| Workout programs, logging, nutrition | Trainerize: Yes, that is its core | Teddy: No. Teddy has lessons built from your videos, not a program builder or a food log |
| Phone calls to clients | Trainerize: None found on its pricing or FitMetrics page. Coach-led video calls with the Video Coaching add-on | Teddy: Yes, daily, in a platform voice or your own |
| Coach alerts | Trainerize: Reported gap in 2025 for form notifications (see above). FitMetrics adds a compliance dashboard | Teddy: Pain, HURT replies and two missed days are flagged first on the dashboard, with an optional text |
| Teams | Trainerize: Studio plans | Teddy: An owner sees every client, each coach sees their own |
What each costs
Trainerize’s pricing page does not agree with itself, so we give both sets of figures. The plan cards show Basic free for 1 client, Grow at 9 dollars a month for 2 clients, Pro from 23 dollars a month for 5 clients, and Studio Plus from 248 dollars a month per location. The comparison table and FAQ on the same page show other figures, including 10, 25, 79, 135 and 275 dollars. Annual billing “saves 10%” according to its FAQ (checked 27 Oct 2026). FitMetrics is extra.
Teddy’s first client is free, with no card needed, and after that pricing is per active client per month. We do not publish a price table yet, and we are not claiming one product costs less than the other. They do different jobs, so a coach on Trainerize would add Teddy to the cost, not swap one for the other.
Who should use which
Use Trainerize if your clients follow a program in an app, log workouts, track food or want challenges and badges. If they open the app and answer your forms, you do not need another tool for that.
Use Teddy if your clients will not install or open an app, if they are older or less comfortable with technology, if you coach in person and want a daily nudge between sessions, or if you want to hear when something hurts the same morning.
Use both if you run Trainerize for programming and some of your clients simply do not respond to it.
If you are still choosing tools, see where Teddy fits as personal trainer software for the days between sessions.
Using both together
There is no integration. Teddy does not read Trainerize and Trainerize does not read Teddy. Alongside is the honest word. To use both:
- Keep programming and payments in Trainerize if that is where your clients are.
- Add the clients who do not respond to Teddy. All it needs is their name, phone number, a check-in time and their OK to be texted.
- Add the lessons you want Teddy to run with them. These are separate from the workouts in Trainerize, so you will keep two sets.
- Let Teddy handle the daily nudge and the pain and missed day flags. Keep Trainerize for the plan.
The setup guide walks through adding your lessons and your first client.
The cost of using both is two places to look. If you only want check-ins and homework reminders and your clients do not use the Trainerize app at all, Teddy may be all you need. If you need programming, nutrition or an app your clients live in, it is not a replacement.
Where Trainerize is better
Trainerize does programming, workout logging, nutrition, habits, a branded app, studio plans and an AI assistant. Teddy does not do programming, workout logging, nutrition, habits or a branded app. It does lessons and daily check-ins, with team accounts for studios.