Peloton All Acess Membership v. Digital Membership
15 months ago I downloaded the Peloton app and signed up for a Digital Peloton Membership. I had no idea then how important Peloton would become on my fitness journey.
When I took the plunge to try out the Peloton app, I started with the digital membership and a (less expensive) Sunny cycling bike. I was immediately hooked. I loved the cycling classes, the energetic instructors, and more importantly the positive environment that Peloton fosters. I understood rather quickly why people love Peloton so much. After a while of just cycling, I started trying other classes like strength, bike boot camps, stretching, yoga, and even meditation. All of those things and more are available on both memberships by the way.
In this post, I break down the benefits of each Peloton membership option to help you decide on which membership is right for you.
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What are the two Peloton Membership Options
One thing that really confused me about Peloton, when I first started out, was the difference between the memberships. Beginning in May 2023, Peloton began offering three different app only options and two different membership options for Peloton equipment. I started out with a digital membership and moved to the all-access membership when I bought my bike about a year later. Let’s dive into the different membership options.
About the All Access Peloton Membership
If you have a Peloton Bike, Tread, or Rower you can access the All-Access membership which is $44 per month and has the full menu of Peloton content and features. It’s only available if you have a Peloton Bike, Tread, or Rower.
All-access membership includes:
- All of the Peloton content including rides, strength classes, runs, walks, and many other classes including exclusive classes only available to All-access memberships.
- Scenic rices and Lane Break
- Integrated features like performance metrics to track your progress
- An ability to track output and compete on the leaderboard
- Access to Peloton digital so you can access classes from other devices
- Unlimited profiles for family members on one account
- Century Club T-shirt when you hit the Century Club (100 classes in one type of class)
- Like and save songs from workouts to your own playlist within the app
How we use the All Access Membership
Matt and I each have our own accounts on the All-Access membership. When I had my Sunny bike and used the Digital membership, I wished I knew what my resistance and output were. With the all-access membership, I feel like I can keep better track of my progress because I know these metrics. Off the bike, I use the Peloton app and stream to my tv to do other workouts like strength or yoga.
One little feature that I’ve noticed and enjoy is available on the all-access membership but not on the digital membership. This may be just a bike feature and not necessarily a membership feature but I do like it, you can adjust the volume to add more music or more instructor. I like this because sometimes on longer endurance rides I’d rather read than pay attention for the whole 60 minutes. I just select “more instructor” and then the volume of the music backs off a bit without altering the volume of the instructor so I don’t miss cues.
Peloton Guide Membership
The Peloton Guide Membership requires you to have the Peloton Guide which “transforms your TV into an AI-powered personal trainer.” The Guide Membership is a strength based membership that has similar perks to the All-Access Membership with a few exceptions. The Guide Memberships only allows for 5 accounts within the household. You still get access to live metrics and the leaderboard. You also have access to cardio workouts and all other workouts that are included in the App+ Membership.
About the Digital Peloton App Memberships
In May of 2023 Peloton introduced it’s tiered pricing model for it’s Peloton App memberships. They now offer the Peloton App Free ($0), Peloton App One ($12.99/mo), and Peloton App+($24/mo). The tiered pricing gives greater flexibility to users. Some top line differences between the digital Peloton App memberships and the equipment memberships are you’ll only be able to have one person/profile per account. The App memberships require each person to have their own membership to have their own profile. That being said, when I had the digital membership Matt (who didn’t ride very often) would ride on my profile. He just never had his own profile. There are discounts available on the digital membership including a student discount ($6.99), military discount ($9.99), among others, however it’s not completely clear on which tier.
Additionally, if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred card (referral link) you can get up to $120 in credit statements until June 30, 2022.
Digital app membership includes:
- Individual user membership – each user will have to have their own membership
- All of the Peloton content including rides and other classes
- Leaderboard – digital membership has a leaderboard and you can give high fives but you aren’t competing because there are no output metrics to share.
How we used the Digital Peloton App Membership
Before we got a Peloton bike, I used a Sunny Bike with the digital app. You can take the classes right on your phone or tablet or you can screencast it onto a TV. Some TVs even have a Peloton app and you can select your workouts right on the TV. This setup worked really well for me. I really enjoyed the Sunny Bike and didn’t mind not competing on the leaderboard. My only complaint about that setup was I missed out on some metrics that I found to be important later on. I never really truly knew my resistance and I never knew what my output was. Since I didn’t know my output I felt as though I couldn’t track my progress as well.
I used the app on my phone and would screencast to a TV for all other classes like strength, stretching, and yoga. I still do that.
I also started taking guided meditation classes when I was a digital app user. I love the meditations for starting my day and for going to sleep. They are a great way to practice mindfulness. I appreciate that Peloton offers a large variety of fitness and wellness classes, not just workouts.
What are the main differences between the two memberships
Price – there’s a clear price difference with the all-access membership at $39/mo and the digital app membership at $12.99/mo.
Leaderboard – The main thing I’ve noticed with the leaderboard is that while you can give and receive high-fives on the leaderboard with the digital membership, you can’t compete on the leaderboard because your output metric isn’t tracked. The leaderboard standing is determined by output. Additionally, it seems that if you are on the all-access membership, you cannot see the digital members on the leaderboard. When riding with a friend, I couldn’t see her on the leaderboard even though we were doing the same ride at the same time.
Number of Users – With the all-access membership you can have multiple users with one membership. So both Matt and I have profiles with our all-access membership. With the digital membership, each user would need their own membership to have their own profile. When I had the digital membership, I had a profile and Matt would occasionally ride under my profile.
Is a Peloton really worth it?
Bottom line, yes I think so.
Did you know you can buy a Peloton bike on Amazon now? Click here for the Peloton listing on Amazon.
I think it’s a well-known hack to buy a less expensive bike and stream the workouts from the digital app. When I first considered cycling I was convinced right away that I didn’t need a Peloton and that using the digital app with a more affordable bike would be just fine. It worked just fine for me. I liked my Sunny bike but I did miss out on having those additional metrics. Now that I’ve made the switch to a Peloton bike, I think it is worth it. I like having the opportunity to see my output progress. I like participating in the Power Zone rides, for which you’d need a bike to know your zones.
There is a big difference in the monthly fee of the all-access membership and the digital app membership as well but I do think the $39 a month for two users is well worth the cost of the Peloton all-access membership.
