Runalyze vs EffortSignal
TL;DR
EffortSignal is a Runalyze alternative for athletes who want to plan and review their own training in one place. Build structured running or cycling workouts, organize your calendar, and compare activities and intervals with your own history.
Runalyze is a strong choice if running performance estimates are central to your analysis. Its Effective VO₂max, race predictions and Marathon Shape help you explore how your recent training relates to race performance. It also supports other endurance sports, training load and detailed statistics.
Both products help you understand completed training. The choice depends on the questions you ask most often: how your running performance is developing, how to organize your next training week, or how today’s effort compares with previous sessions.
Training analysis compared
| What matters to you | EffortSignal | Runalyze |
|---|---|---|
| Running performance estimates | Progress compares periods and seasons using your recorded training. It does not reproduce Runalyze’s Effective VO₂max or Marathon Shape models. | Effective VO₂max estimates running performance from heart rate and speed; Marathon Shape uses mileage and long runs to adjust distance predictions. |
| Training load over time | Fitness, fatigue and form use TRIMP, with documented calculations and missing-data limits. | Heart-rate-based training load includes acute and chronic load. |
| Reviewing recorded efforts | Compare up to five activities, review metrics and duration curves, and export the comparison as CSV. | Performance curves and race comparisons, plus trend analysis and box plots for exploring your training history. |
| Finding useful past sessions | Similar activity and similar interval searches find candidates from your own history. These automatic searches require Pro. | Recurring Routes groups activities with matching routes and shows past performances. It is a Premium feature. |
| Tracking part of a route | Private Segments tracks your passages through a saved section. Free includes three tracked segments. | Recurring Routes compares matching whole routes. That is a different scope from tracking a selected section. |
| Connecting your devices | Garmin, COROS, Polar, Suunto and Wahoo, with provider-specific transfer directions and limits. | A broader published connection list, including additional services such as Fitbit, Oura and Whoop. Check your exact source before switching. |
Why consider EffortSignal for workout planning?
If you already analyze your runs but plan the next week elsewhere, EffortSignal brings those tasks together:
- Build the session. Use the visual Workout Planner to create steps and repeats with sport-specific targets.
- Put it on your calendar. Schedule saved workouts, move sessions and reuse week templates.
- Review what happened. Match the recording to the plan and compare planned versus completed training. Basic summaries are Free; detailed performance evaluation requires Pro.
- Look closer at the effort. Inspect intervals, compare previous sessions and follow changes in your training trends.
Runalyze’s official documentation emphasizes completed-training analysis. We have not confirmed an equivalent visual workout-builder and reusable-week workflow in the sources reviewed here; this is not a claim that Runalyze has no planning features.
Free and paid options
Both products have a free plan. EffortSignal includes activity analysis, basic planning, training load and manual comparisons in Free. Pro adds automatic similarity searches, comparison with an external FIT file, detailed workout execution review and higher segment limits. See EffortSignal pricing for current prices and Early Access terms.
Runalyze offers Free, Supporter and Early Premium. Supporter removes advertising; Early Premium adds analysis features such as Recurring Routes. See Runalyze pricing for current prices and the full plan comparison.
Trying EffortSignal with your existing activities
Start with a few familiar sessions so you can compare the analysis. EffortSignal accepts FIT, TCX and GPX activity files, with a 64 MiB file limit. Runalyze documents individual activity exports and a separate account backup.
Use a supported activity file for import; a whole-account backup or summary CSV is not the same format. The sensor streams available in the exported file determine which analysis is possible. Do not expect Runalyze-specific estimates, tags or settings to transfer with an activity recording.
Historical Garmin import into EffortSignal is currently unavailable. Check Device Sync before relying on an automatic history transfer.
Common questions
Is EffortSignal a free Runalyze alternative?
Yes, for the analysis and planning features included in its Free plan. Automatic similarity searches and other Pro features have separate access rules. Compare the actions you use with the current plan details.
Will my training numbers match after switching?
Not necessarily. Products can use different calculations, settings and history windows. Missing sensor data can also change the result. EffortSignal’s calculation guides explain how its metrics work; matching names do not guarantee matching values.
Which should I choose for marathon training?
Runalyze is worth keeping if you rely on its race predictions and Marathon Shape. EffortSignal is worth trying if your priority is building workouts, organizing training weeks and comparing completed efforts. You can evaluate the same activity in both before deciding.
About this comparison
Prepared by EffortSignal on September 15, 2026. EffortSignal descriptions follow the linked feature guides for release 0.1.13; Runalyze descriptions come from its official pages linked throughout. Runalyze’s signed-in workflows, physical-device transfers and an end-to-end migration between products were not tested for this article.
Explore EffortSignal features, check pricing, or read Intervals.icu vs EffortSignal for another comparison.
Content checked September 15, 2026 · EffortSignal release 0.1.13