TrueCoach Vs PT Distinction

​One of the most frequently asked questions we get from personal trainers who offer an online coaching service is about which software is better, TrueCoach Vs PT Distinction? There are features to both platforms which may come down to individual preferences, and we’ll dive into those in this comparison review.

Exercise Library

Both PT Distinction and TrueCoach have an exercise library, pre-loaded with videos, or with the capacity for you to upload your own. This is essential for your clients to have access to a good example of the exercise being performed on demand, when they need to see it. 

The TrueCoach exercise library is very friendly to search, with exercise names, movement patterns, primary muscle groups, planes of motion and types of exercise (gymnastic, weightlifting, monostructural) all being searchable terms. This is a great feature, particularly if you’re training athletes with a mixed modality approach, such as a Crossfit athlete or an athlete that has a particular need to focus their training efforts on a given plane of motion, such as someone with an injury.

TrueCoach also includes a wide range of movements, including traditional commercial gym setups and more functional training styles. Compared with PT Distinction which has a broad range of movements for a gym setting but rather more limited options for functional training.

The PT Distinction search function seems to be organised differently with the option to search for categories of movement within body parts. These movements aren’t always where you might expect them to be and sometimes require a bit of searching around in the menus.

The exercise library is a really important part of any online training software. Making sure your chosen exercise has a clear demo video, a description which is clear, and includes coaching cues is a must. Ideally, it will also identify some of the common errors when performing the movement to help your clients watch out of them. Your preference for PT Distinction or TrueCoach here will likely be based on your preferred methodology of coaching your clients. 

In both PT Distinction and TrueCoach, the exercises from the library can be grouped together to build a client’s programme. The programme is what they’ll follow for an extended period to progress towards their training goals. Programmes can be saved as templates on both platforms, and used for multiple clients.

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Nutrition Tracking

The nutrition tracking options are particularly good on PT Distinction, with no less than four ways for your clients to track their nutritional targets. 

The simplest way, and most accessible for a beginner, would be to have them snap a photo of their food using their phones and to upload it into the software along with a written food diary. This is a great option for clients who are new to tracking their food, or who might not be suitable for more focused calorie or macro counting.

For clients who are a little more experienced and already use My Fitness Pal, PT Distinction integrates with the app. This can integrate weekly diet summaries, calories and macro intake right there in the software.

For clients who are looking to dial in their nutrition a little more, PT Distinction offers an adherence chart and you can even create Meal Plans for your clients. This is a fantastic way to really focus on compliance with dietary targets, which is especially useful when clients have hit a plateau with their weight loss.

​Finally, PT Distinction has a “habit tracking” feature, which could be used for general dietary goals. This is a good tool to show your clients how they are improving at simply sticking with any habit they’re trying to build. The habit tracking feature is one of the best things about PT Distinction, and if your coaching style focuses heavily on habit building, this is a feature to check out.

Nutrition tracking is available in TrueCoach, although it’s probably a little less comprehensive. Clients can be set calorie and macronutrient targets which they then log in their own account. They also offer the feature of tracking metrics such as skin fold, body fat, and weight to generate a graph of their progress.

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Habit Coaching

Habit coaching is one of the absolute strengths of PT Distinction, which is very flexible and can be used for anything from nutrition habits such as sticking to calories or drinking enough water, to step counts and bedtimes. The flexibility of the habit coaching feature on PT Distinction allows a broad range of habits to be set. It’s highly responsive to your individual clients’ particular goals.

In TrueCoach, their habit coaching is called a “compliance tracker”. However, the compliance is tied only to the client’s training compliance. Their best feature is the software will calculate a compliance rate across 7 days, 30 days and 90 days, calculated based on the number of exercises assigned during that time frame vs. the number of exercises the client actually completed.

This is useful because if the client has a good 7 day compliance rate but a lower percentage over a longer term, it shows that they can focus their effort for short durations. If their 7 day compliance rate is significantly lower than their longer term, it may be an indicator something is wrong for your client at the moment and an intervention is required.

While these calculations are useful, it’s limited to focusing only on training consistency. If nutrition support or broader habit coaching is a big part of your personal training service, this may not be enough for the way you like to coach your clients and the sort of help they need.

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Group Training

Group training can be a useful feature, depending how you organise your personal training business. In TrueCoach you can assign one programme to a group of athletes, message them all as a group, and segment your coaching dashboard to see results for a given group of athletes.

In PT Distinction, this feature is a real time saver as you can copy programmes and share with multiple clients – and even schedule the training into their plan, with just one click. This is useful if you offer a trial period for your personal training services, train small groups of clients together, offer pre-paid training packages, or run group challenges.

Results Tracking

Results tracking in PT Distinction is extremely flexible and can be done for an individual client or a whole group at a time. There are results tracking sheets which can be edited and templates to select as a starting point. These templates can be used as they stand, or further customised for your particular client’s needs. Simply tell your client what you’d like them to track in the sheet, and PT Distinction can manage any number of sheets per client at any one time. 

In TrueCoach, tracking metrics is easy, with added visuals like graphs for a broad range of metrics. Common markers are health data, such as resting heart rate, or body fat percentages, strength numbers, movement assessments through flexibility or mobility assessments, aerobic capacity tests such as VO2 max, or performance markers like benchmark data. This list isn’t exhaustive, but should be enough for most personal trainer’s needs.

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Pricing Differences

TrueCoach starts at $25 per month for up to 5 clients, with a jump to $55 per month for up to 20 clients and $110 per month for up to 50 clients. Prices increase as your client base grows, but if you decide to enrol onto the yearly plan, you can save money. TrueCoach offers a 14 day free trial.

PT Distinction is similarly priced with 3 online clients starting at just $19.90, and 25 clients increasing the cost to $59.90 per month. PT Distinction offers a 30 day free trial. 

The drawback for both platforms is that the entry level number of clients is relatively small with a significant increase in cost for the trainer that has only a few more online clients. This might put trainers off as they’re starting to grow their business.

Ease Of Use And Support

Fans of TrueCoach rate the ease of use as the number one element that sets it apart from other personal training software. Reviewing results and communication with clients is seamless, with group communication equally as quick. 

PT Distinction does have live messaging which can be turned off and on within the software, but would benefit from reminders to check in and it can sometimes be easy to miss client data. 

Both TrueCoach and PT Distinction are relatively easy to use from the perspective of the coach, and client feedback seems to be positive across both platforms.

Both PT Distinction and TrueCoach have easy to use, live chat support available on every navigation page which makes getting access to help and guidance very easy.

PT Distinction also has an educational sister site, PTD University to help you to get the most out of the experience (some courses are free, some are not). 

PT Distinction also boasts incredible support from PTD Ninja 101, with masterclasses and done for you elements to help you get up to speed with the platform as quickly as possible. ​

White Label Options

TrueCoach offers some basic custom theming, with your logo as a header on all emails and pages within the client’s web app. They offer a customised sub-domain with 6 colour styles and themes which makes the app feel somewhat customised to your business.

PT Distinction offers none of these features at their entry level tier, but at their pro package, they offer a fully designed and customised app (available for iOS and Android, although the Android user experience isn’t quite as visually impressive). This is available at an extra charge but clients seem to find this a significant selling point for personal trainers, and it looks professional. 

Further, PT Distinction offers full website integration in a way which TrueCoach does not – yet. That means that your client is able to log in to their PT Distinction dashboard, messaging, programming and habit tracking – all via your own existing website. 

Conclusion

Choosing the right personal training software is important. It needs to integrate properly not only with the elements of coaching that you emphasise in your personal training business, but also the needs and technological sophistication of your clients. 

With both platforms offering trial periods of their services, it’s worth using both platforms to decide which is the best fit for your needs.

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Once you picked the perfect online training app for your business, ensure you have all personal trainer forms added so you can on-board new clients nice and easy.