The platform you run your coaching business on is a decision you live with every day, so it deserves an honest comparison. This is a fair, side-by-side look at Trainera and TrueCoach (truecoach.co, now part of Xplor Technologies). All pricing is accurate as of June 2026.

TL;DR

TrueCoach is a mature, well-loved platform whose core strength is workout programming. The drag-and-drop builder, the 3,000+ exercise video library and strong client compliance tracking are genuinely excellent, and its review scores reflect that (Capterra 4.8 from 838 reviews). If you are a US, UK, Australian or Canadian strength coach who delivers programming and check-ins and handles nutrition elsewhere, it is a strong tool.

Trainera is the stronger overall pick for trainers who want local-language support, local-currency pricing, flexible client payments (cash and bank transfer included, with no 5% fee), serious built-in nutrition, and a marketplace that brings in new clients. For the Balkan market, and for any trainer who wants to be discovered rather than only manage existing clients, Trainera wins.

Quick comparison table

Workout programming

Credit where it is due: this is TrueCoach's home turf and it is excellent. The drag-and-drop builder handles everything from AMRAPs to strength sets, you can build reusable templates and duplicate programs across clients, and the exercise video library is large (marketed at 3,000+ professionally recorded demonstrations, with custom upload supported). Reviewers consistently single out programming as the reason they stay.

Trainera also ships a capable workout builder with a video exercise library, and adds AI generation of training plans and workouts on paid plans. For pure, fine-grained strength programming, a long-time TrueCoach power user may still find its builder marginally deeper. That is the one category where we will happily say TrueCoach is at least as strong. Everywhere else, the balance tips toward Trainera.

Nutrition

This is the most consistent product gap reviewers raise about TrueCoach. There is no built-in food database and no barcode scanner. Nutrition relies on the MyFitnessPal integration (macro visibility only) plus manual macro logging, and the more advanced habit and nutrition tracking is gated to Standard and above. There is no in-app meal-plan generation. Capterra reviewers explicitly ask for "better habit tracking and nutrition coaching tools."

Trainera treats nutrition as a first-class feature: nutrition plans with a meal library, macro tracking, and AI food-photo analysis. AI is included on paid plans and can generate both training and nutrition plans plus weekly insights, with no add-ons. If you coach nutrition, not just programming, this difference is decisive.

The practical effect is fewer moving parts. With TrueCoach, a nutrition-led service means your client logs food in a separate app, you see only macros, and you build any actual meal plan by hand or in a third tool. With Trainera, it lives in one place: you build a plan from the meal library, the client photographs a meal, AI estimates the macros, and you track progress without app-switching. For a coach who charges for nutrition as part of the service, that consolidation is the whole point of an all-in-one platform.

Progress tracking and workflow

TrueCoach is strong at tracking client compliance, which is part of why strength coaches like it. That said, Capterra reviewers note gaps: no appointment scheduling, programs must be assigned to specific days rather than weekly, and you cannot build programs from the mobile app (the coach app is mainly for communication). A recurring negative theme is occasional technical glitches such as slow load times and freezing.

Trainera covers a broader workflow: progress tracking through measurements, photos, streaks and achievements with an XP system, calendar and scheduling included in the plan, and support for group training, gym management and hybrid coaching where you train the same client both in person and online. That hybrid model is common in markets where a trainer works out of a gym during the day and runs online programs alongside it. Trainera ships as a web app plus separate iOS and Android apps, with integrations for Apple Health, Google Fit, Fitbit, Polar and Huawei Health.

Pricing

TrueCoach charges in US dollars only. As of June 2026, Starter is around $30 per month for up to 5 clients, Standard is around $70 for up to 20 clients, and Pro is around $165 for up to 50 clients. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial with no card required. A point reviewers on Capterra raise: moving from 20 to 21 clients pushes you from Standard to Pro, more than doubling your monthly cost right when your business is growing.

Trainera uses local-currency pricing. In Bosnia, Starter is from 19.99 KM per month (10 clients), Pro is 44.99 KM (30 clients), and Business is 84.99 KM (100 clients). Croatia and Montenegro pay in euros, Serbia in dinars, and the US in dollars (Starter $19.99, Pro $49.99, Business $99). There is a free plan to start with zero risk, and everything is included with no add-ons.

Payments

This is where many trainers get caught off guard. TrueCoach Payments is built on Stripe and included as a feature, but it charges a flat 5% fee per transaction, calculated on the full invoice total including taxes. For context, standard Stripe retail pricing is around 2.9% plus $0.30, so the effective rate sits well above raw Stripe. The 5% even applies to refunded amounts, and chargebacks cost $15 each. At $5,000 a month of client billing, that is $250 a month in fees, more than any subscription tier.

There is also lock-in: you cannot connect an existing Stripe account. TrueCoach's help center states you must create a new Stripe account inside their platform. And critically, TrueCoach Payments is only available to coaches with bank accounts in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. Coaches elsewhere, including the entire Balkans and most of the EU, must invoice clients outside the platform entirely.

Trainera supports Stripe, PayPal, bank transfer and cash tracking, with no fee to enable payments. In markets where many clients still pay in cash or by bank transfer, being able to record those payments natively keeps each client's financial picture in one place rather than in a parallel spreadsheet.

Languages and localization

TrueCoach's interface is English only; its own documentation states the platform is "only available in English at this time," with other languages on the public roadmap. The client app metadata lists English, Chinese and Spanish, but no Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian. If your clients are not comfortable in English, that gap directly hurts engagement, because clients use an app most when it speaks their language.

Trainera offers its interface in 21 languages, including Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, with support in the local language. For trainers serving Balkan clients, this is the single most decisive difference.

Getting new clients

This is the biggest strategic difference. TrueCoach manages the clients you already have but does not bring you new ones. There is no browsable coach marketplace; the closest feature is a single shareable Coach Profile page (Standard and above) that you must drive your own traffic to. TrueCoach does not match or send clients to coaches.

Trainera gives every trainer a public web page with their own branding (and a custom domain on higher tiers) plus a listing in the trainera.fit marketplace, so prospective clients can find you, see your specialty and send a request. If you want practical ways to grow revenue alongside that, see our guide on how personal trainers increase income.

Who each is best for

Choose TrueCoach if

• You are an English-speaking strength and conditioning coach in the US, UK, Australia or Canada
• You have 5 to 50 clients and your service is programming plus check-ins
• You are fine handling nutrition in a separate tool and want a mature, deep workout builder

Choose Trainera if

• Your clients speak Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian or English and you want local support
• You want local-currency pricing, a free plan and a low entry point
• You need flexible payments, including cash and bank transfer, without a 5% fee
• You coach nutrition and want a food library, macros and AI food-photo analysis
• You want to be discovered by new clients through a marketplace, not only manage existing ones

The honest verdict

TrueCoach is a genuinely good product, and in raw workout programming it is among the best in the category, backed by strong Capterra and App Store ratings. It is also narrow: English only, payments limited to four countries with a 5% fee, shallow nutrition, no marketplace, and a steep cost cliff at the 21-client mark. Its Trustpilot score sits at 2.4 out of 5 ("Poor"), which is worth weighing against the higher Capterra and App Store numbers.

Trainera wins on the dimensions that decide a coaching business outside the US: local languages, local currencies, flexible payments including cash and bank transfer, serious built-in nutrition with AI, a free plan to start, and a marketplace that actively brings in new clients. It matches TrueCoach on workout programming and beats it nearly everywhere else. Create a free Trainera account and see the difference for yourself.