Suppose you are looking for the best smart gym equipment. Skip the gym and work out in the comfort, safety, and privacy of your own living room. We’ve tested all the most popular smart fitness equipment, from connected treadmills and bikes to rowing and strength training machines.
Smart fitness devices allow for a whole other level of interactivity than their more affordable, non-connected counterparts. Most offer large libraries of guided classes with knowledgeable instructors and/or customized workouts and programs based on your goals and current fitness level. It’s like having a personal trainer in the comfort in the form of home gym safety, and privacy of your own home.
BEST FOR A TREADMILL FOR PELOTON BIKE FANS
1. Peloton Tread+
The Peloton Tread+ is a sleek connected treadmill that offers thousands of live and on-demand fitness classes you can take in the comfort of your home
Pros
- Large touch display
- Thousands of live and on-demand classes for all fitness levels
- Features a shock-absorbing slat belt
- Attractive design
Cons
- Pricey
- Large
- Requires monthly subscription
- Doesn’t decline
Peloton moved beyond stationary bikes with the Tread+, and as you can imagine. It’s not your typical treadmill. Equipped with an HD touch display, the Peloton Tread+ offers thousands of live and on-demand classes to motivate your runs.
It is the best smart gym machine whether you’re an advanced runner or just starting. The Tread+ gives you access to a plethora of modifiable workouts to target every part of the body—all in the comfort of your own home, on your time if you love running, and can handle the cost.
BEST FOR BEST FOR LIVE ROWING WORKOUTS
2. Hydrow Rower
Combining top-of-the-line equipment with live streaming workouts, the Hydrow is expensive, but it's one of the most luxurious smart rowing machines you can buy.
Pros
- Offers frequent live classes, competitive leaderboards, and racing challenges
- Smooth, comfortable, and quiet operation
- Sleek design with a large, bright screen
- Excellent classes and instructors
- Supports Bluetooth headphones and heart rate monitors
- The company donates to Water.org every 60 days you’re active
Cons
- Expensive
- A limited selection of workouts not using the machine
- Class membership costs extra
- You can’t play your own music.
If you want an efficient home gym, full-body workout, it’s hard to beat rowing. And if you want a premium at-home rowing machine, it’s hard to beat the Hydrow. At a hefty $2,199 plus a monthly membership fee, the Hydrow offers a Peloton-like experience, combining sleek hardware with live streaming workouts. Its excellent instructors and competitive leaderboards keep you motivated, and the company gives back to charity, making a donation to the nonprofit Water.org for every 60 days you’re active. The bright 22-inch screen makes it a strong competitor to the NordicTrack RW900, and the Hydrow excels in terms of aesthetics and comfort.
BEST FOR LOW-IMPACT CARDIO
3. NordicTrack RW900
With its 22-inch HD touch screen and vast library of outdoor, studio, and Google Maps-based iFit workouts, the NordicTrack RW900 rowing machine is an excellent choice for beginner, intermediate, and advanced rowers alike.
Pros
- Large, bright screen
- iFit gives you access to a massive library of beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts
- Includes outdoor, studio, and map-based workouts
- Automatically adjusts resistance level to match wind and water conditions for outdoor workouts
- Quiet
- It folds up to save space when not in use.
- Works with heart rate monitors.
Cons
- Expensive
- iFit membership costs extra after the first year
This $1,699 rowing machine features a 22-inch HD touch screen on which you can browse and stream outdoor iFit workouts filmed all around the world. It offers a wide variety of studio classes featuring exercises on and off the machine. Classes can be filtered by intensity and duration, offering options for everyone from beginners to advanced rowers, and you get access to Olympic athletes and world-class trainers who can teach you how to row correctly, give you tips to perfect your technique, and motivate you to push harder. The RW900 keeps you engaged and makes working out fun.
BEST FOR COMPETITIVE INDOOR CYCLING
4. Peloton Bike+
With a rotating screen and a new Auto Follow feature for automatic resistance adjustments, the Peloton Bike+ is a compelling upgrade over its predecessor, and the best smart indoor cycling bike you can buy.
Pros
- Auto Follow allows automatic resistance adjustments
- Screen rotates for a good viewing angle during mat-based workouts
- Impressive speaker system
- Offers easy pairing with Apple Watch
- Excellent delivery and setup experience
Cons
- Expensive
- Long delivery lead time
I wasn’t looking to join a cult, but with its Bike+, Peloton has me drinking the Kool-Aid. Starting at $2,495, the Bike+ builds upon its predecessor with a new digitized Auto Follow resistance system that automatically adjusts to match your instructor’s cues during on-demand classes, so you can focus on your output and climbing the leaderboard instead of fiddling with a knob. This feature, combined with an upgraded sound system, allows for a more immersive at-home cycling experience than ever and one that will leave you dripping in sweat and, occasionally, tears. That, plus a rotating touch screen and Apple GymKit integration for easy Apple Watch pairing, make the Bike+ a compelling upgrade over the six-year-old original and one of the best pieces of smart home gym equipment you can buy.
BEST FOR BUILDING MUSCLE
5. Tempo Studio
With its sophisticated form-tracking and rep-counting software, challenging on-demand and live classes, and excellent trainers, the Tempo Studio is the best smart strength training machine we've tested.
Pros
- The wide selection of live and on-demand classes for all levels
- Excellent instructors
- Attractive design and large screen
- Offers personalized weight recommendations
- Counts your reps and gives you real-time feedback about your form
- Connects with a heart rate monitor to track calorie burn
- Displays motivating leaderboards
- Price includes accessories
Cons
- Buffers on a slow internet connection
- Rep counting can be finicky.
- No partner workouts
- It doesn’t currently come with a bench
- Class membership costs extra
- Can’t customize music
Tempo Studio. Suited for everyone from beginners to advanced lifters, the Tempo Studio uses 3D sensors and artificial intelligence technology to suggest the appropriate weight you should be lifting for each move, count your reps, and offer real-time feedback about your form to keep you honest and safe. Like Tonal, it offers on-demand workouts with knowledgeable, motivating instructors. And with a larger screen, form corrections, and live classes, Tempo exceeds Tonal in many ways and undercuts its price significantly. Both are excellent fitness machines.
BEST FOR STRENGTH TRAINING AT HOME
6. Tonal
The Tonal system isn’t cheap, but it’s like having a full gym’s worth of strength training equipment—and a virtual personal trainer—in your home.
Pros
- Fun and easy to use
- Sets and adjusts weight for you
- A wide selection of workouts and programs for beginners, intermediate, and advanced lifters
- Supports partner workouts
- Motivating, knowledgeable instructors
- Good variety of music stations
- Some yoga and HIIT classes
- Offers basic form feedback
Cons
- Expensive
- No live classes
- Sometimes misses reps
- Cords can rub against skin
The Tonal system certainly isn’t cheap, but it’s like having a weight room’s worth of equipment—and a virtual personal trainer—all in one sleek, streamlined machine that’s mounted to your wall. It offers up to 200 pounds of resistance and supports hundreds of moves to work your upper body, lower body, and core. Its artificial intelligence sets the weights for you, tracks your reps and progress in real-time, and adapts as you get stronger, so you’re always challenged. Perhaps best of all, it offers various fun and effective workouts, including partner sessions, yoga, and HIIT, with good music and encouraging, knowledgeable trainers.
7. FightCamp
Pros
- Hundreds of on-demand classes for all fitness levels.
- Attractive design.
Cons
- Requires a monthly subscription service.
- No Android support.
FightCamp is a connected home boxing gym that offers hundreds of on-demand classes on your phone or tablet. Its unique punch-tracking technology keeps you motivated to get the most out of your workouts
8. Mirror
Pros
- Thousands of live and on-demand classes for all fitness levels
- Excellent instructors
- Wide variety of workout types
- Sleek design
- Large display
- Good for small spaces
- Connects with a heart rate monitor to track calorie burn
- Allows for music customization.
Cons
- Pricey
- Requires monthly subscription service
- No touch screen
- Weights aren’t included
- Doesn’t offer form feedback.
The Mirror is an interactive fitness device that’s like having your own private gym. With thousands of classes to choose from, you can exercise in the comfort of your home without sacrificing a lot of space.
The bottom line
What makes a fitness machine smart, and why pay extra for it? At the most basic level, smart home gym equipment connects to the internet. Most machines have a screen on which you can stream workouts, but some work with a companion app to let you view classes on your phone or TV.
Many machines also feature live classes with competitive leaderboards, giving you an extra jolt of motivation to run, row, or cycle your way to victory. This also fosters a sense of community, making it feel like you’re not working out alone.
