PT Distinction Vs Trainerize

One of the most frequently asked questions we get about online personal training software is PT Distinction Vs Trainerize, which is better? While there's probably no one single best software that's best for everyone, there are certainly some major differences that could mean one or the other is better for you.

In this article we'll break down the main differences between PT Distinction and Trainerize, covering all of the major aspects of the software and what's important to you.

Exercise Library 

Both PT Distinction and Trainerize feature an exercise library, allowing personal trainers to grab new exercises for their clients on the fly. The extent of these libraries, however, differs markedly.

Trainerize regularly adds new exercises to its library to help trainers keep their workouts interesting. The app includes both descriptions and videos of people carrying out the movements, allowing trainers to ensure that their clients have proper form.

PT Distinction includes videos, descriptions, and coaching cues, highlighting some of the mistakes that your clients are likely to make. However, the app also accommodates home gym exercises as well as a regular gym and outdoor activities which Trainerize does not.

The Main Difference
The main difference between PT Distinction Vs Trainerize is that PT Distinction has a much more online personal training friendly exercise database. For example, PTD have a lot of exercises that can be done at home whereas Trainerize exercises are more gym based.

Nutrition Tracking

PT Distinction offers four main options designed to help trainers and their clients track food intake.

• The first is a photo and written food diary using the in-built camera on the smartphone.
• The second is My Fitness Pal integration, which shows things like calorie intake, macros, and weekly diet summaries.
• The third option is the adherence chart for those who want to go deep with their regime.
• And the final tool is “habit tracking” that lets you see how your clients’ ability to stick with a diet evolves.
  
  

By contrast, Trainerize adopts a goal-orientated strategy. The app starts by asking you what your clients want to achieve and then provides you with realistic expectations of the final result they might expect. There are also tools for measuring compliance and capturing weekly and monthly progress.

The Main Difference
PT Distinction nutrition tracking has a lot more flexibility but this can make it a little complicated for the newer PT. Trainerize does a lot of the nutrition tracking work for you but does lack the flexibility some clients might need.

Habit Coaching

Clients can’t usually change their lives in a day. Instead, it takes consistent work over many weeks and months to make substantial gains in fitness, health, and strength.

For this reason, PT Distinction includes habit coaching - a set of tools that allows trainers to identify and track their clients’ daily habits. The hope is that with more data, personal trainers will be able to show their clients the progress they are making. 

Trainerize incorporates a similar feature that helps trainers instill better habits in their clients, such as sleeping for 7+ hours per night, making meals from scratch, engaging in mindful activities, taking more exercise, and getting their heart rate up. Like PT Distinction, it recognizes making progress is “all about the little things.”

The Main Difference
Trainerize provides you with a list of predefined habits which is ideal for the newer personal trainer who isn't sure what to track. This is a great feature but it can be limiting. PT Distinction is definitely more for trainers who know what habits they need to track has a lot more flexibility.

Program Builder

Both Trainerize and PT Distinction allow you to build programs for your clients, tailor-made to their current level of progress. PT Distinction claims that it has “the fastest program builder on the planet” and makes it easy to include additional features like drop-sets, circuits, EDT, tempo changes, and so on. You click a couple of buttons, and the app will map out all the training for you.

The PTD program builder also got a massive updates and Tim, the Founder of PT Distinction released a walk through video here:

Options on Trainerize are not as extensive, although the app does to a lot to help make the process of building a program more rapid. It includes pre-built templates for workouts and tools that allow you to carry out assessments quickly.

The Main Difference
PT Distinction definitely wins out on this one. They have what is probably the most comprehensive and easy to use program builders on the market.

Group Training

Online group training has become an excellent option for online personal trainers. But to do it well, you need to include training plans, goal-setting, and coaching tools that allow you to track the nutrition and lifestyle habits of your clients.

PT Distinction offers a host of tools that enable you to do all of this and more while catering to a group. The purpose of the program is to prevent you from losing group training members as fast as you gain them by providing proper oversight and tools to make the training more enjoyable.

Trainerize offers somewhat of a scaled-back version of the group tools you find on PT Distinction. The app does provide private chat rooms for engaging with groups of clients (which are great for small group challenges), but not the level of support that you get from its rival.

The Main Difference
This is another one for PT Distinction. They've put a lot of thought and effort into not only creating a system whereby you can train groups, but also where you can manage larger groups of 1:1 clients separately.

Results Tracking

Results tracking options on PT Distinction are extensive. You can log pretty much anything, from food diaries, habit adherence, weight measurements, body circumferences, and training results. You can then plot these over time to see progress. 

Trainerize also recognizes that results tracking is an important motivator. If you can show your clients that training is working, they’re more likely to stick with a regime. Trainerize, therefore, lets trainers enter stats (such as the amount of weight lifted) during workouts, which they can then send to their clients afterward digitally, or print out.

The Main Difference
Results tracking on Trainerize is definitely more geared towards providing information for the trainer, which they could then share with a client. PT Distinction is focused more on results tracking for the client and helping them to understand their progress via the app.

PT Distinction Vs Trainerize Pricing

Trainerize tiers its pricing, depending on the number of clients you have. For up to two clients, you’ll pay $5/month. If you need up to five clients, that’s $20 per month. And for up to 500 clients, the location based Studio package costs $250/month/location.

PT Distinction’s pricing schedule is a little different. The entry-level package is $19.90, and for this, you get up to three accounts. You can also add extra clients for a supplement of $6 each. You also get a month’s free trial when you sign up.

The Main Difference
PT Distinction is slightly more. However, there's a HUGE factor that needs to be considered with pricing and that's how much it costs to onboard new clients. With Trainerize, you pay per client no matter what. With PT Distinction, each new client gets a free month trial so you can offer free trials from your site.

Ease of Use/Support

Both apps are pretty easy to use if you're familiar with technology. The dashboards are very intuitive and the info you need is never more than a few clicks on both platforms.

PT Distinction has a very in context support system which walks you through all of the features of the software when you sign up in a step by step fashion.

Trainerize utilises a more typical help center that you might see on a software as a service website.

The Main Difference
PT Distinction is slightly more complicated but with much better support and guides. Trainerize is a simpler to use straight off the bat but pays for simplicity with lack of functionality in some areas and a complicated Help center.

Marketing Support 

PT Distinction offers considerable marketing support for those looking to begin their training brand journey and recommends specific companies on its blog that you can use for different things (such as building personal trainer websites and SEO).

As well as a comprehensive support system, PT Distinction also offer the PT Distinction University which is free for all PTD subscribers.

Trainerize is less creative in its approach. It allows you to create apps for trainers to explain to their clients why they should train with them, but beyond that, the support is limited. You can, however, share the content you publicize on Trainerize on your social media platforms too.

The Main Difference
PT Distinction has a more comprehensive marketing support system as part of their software with courses on online training, sales and systems for running a successful online fitness business.

Your Own Branded App

With PT Distinction, you don’t have to stick with the stock app colors. Instead, you can create an app that reflects your brand, improving the client experience, and making your business look even more professional.

Trainerize offers a similar service but does not include it in their standard pricing model. Instead, you need to apply separately for it.

Both Trainerize and PT Distinction provide in-app messaging, allowing you to communicate with customers directly through the app instead of via a third party. PT Distinction offers additional support that shows you how to use its messaging center to increase client retention and boost conversions.

The Main Difference
If a branded app is an integral part of your business or even if you're not sure whether it should be, PT Distinction is your best option. It comes free with any paid plan unlike Trainerize, which is an extra $99 set up.

Website Integration 

One of the things that sets PT Distinction apart from other apps is the sheer level of customization and integration that it offers. Suppose, for instance, that you have a separate website, but you want to provide your clients with PT Distinction functionality whenever they visit.

The app makes this easy by integrating PT Distinction login with your regular website. Clients may never notice that you’re forwarding them to an entirely different portal. It looks so professional.

The Main Difference
Trainerize started out with a free profile page hosted on the Trainerize platform which, at the time, was a great service. Things have come a long way since then and PT Distinction took note of what PT's really wanted. As a consequence, their website integration are far superior.

App Integrations

Both PT Distinction and Trainerize support a lot of app integrations, but interestingly, they are NOT the same.

At present, PT Distinction does not support integration with APIANT, Contracbook, DocuSign, Maintenance Care, Mindbody, Retently, Shopify, or, surprisingly, Twitter. It will, however, integrate with AWeber, Google Docs, Infusionsoft, Mailchimp, PayPal, Squarespace, Stripe, Wix, Wordpress, and Zapier.

By contrast, Trainerize will not integrate with Google Docs, Infuisionsoft, PayPal, Squarespace, Stripe, Wix, Wordpress, and Zapier. It will, however, lets you integrate with many of the software solutions that PT Distinction does not, including APIANT, AWeber, Contractbook, DocuSign, Mailchimp, Maintenance Care, Mindbody, Retently, Shopify, and Twitter.

The Main Difference
The integration options for both are extensive but almost polar opposites. Your choice of app, therefore, will depend heavily on the auxiliary apps you use already.

Summing Up

While the softwares are built for pretty much the same purpose, they are vastly different in the way that they function, enable the business owner to streamline certain processes and the features available to clients.

When answering the question, PT Distinction Vs Trainerize, which is better? I'd lean more in the direction of PT Distinction. When you summarise all of the key points above, it's easy to see why.

	PTD	Trainerize
Exercise Library	8/10	6/10
Nutrition Tracking	7/10	6/10
Habit Coaching	8/10	8/10
Program Builder	10/10	8/10
Group Training	8/10	5/10
Pricing	7/10	8/10
Ease of Use	7/10	9/10
Marketing Support	9/10	7/10
Branded App	9/10	7/10
Website Integration	8/10	6/10
Total	88/100	76/100