Rouvy uses real-world video for its simulation and allows you to upload your own footage
(Image credit: Rouvy)
Over the past five years, Rouvy has emerged as a major competitor among the best indoor cycling apps. But whereas on Zwift you ride in virtual worlds that are imaginary or simulations of real places, Rouvy uses real-world footage of real places. It superimposes your avatar and objects such as 'ghost riders' and start and finish lines on this, to produce its simulation.
If you want to know which is better for your riding, you can read our Zwift vs Rouvy comparison to help you decide. Alternatively, scroll down for an in-depth look at Rouvy.
Rouvy superimposes your avatar and other riders on real-world video (Image credit: Rouvy)
What is Rouvy and how does it work?
You can trust Cyclingnews
Our experts spend countless hours testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.
Rouvy, as a company, is based in the Czech Republic. Founded by Petr Samek, a keen cyclist and software engineer, Rouvy differentiates itself from other virtual trainers in two ways: real-world video and the sheer scale of routes.
Although it is designed and marketed as an indoor training tool, the racing element has very real incentives, including annual prizes worth $30,000.
Rouvy's real-world video footage of routes has allowed it to build a large library of iconic riding locations to try out. This visual appeal is enhanced by calibrated video smoothing software, which is overlayed with players' avatars. Rouvy is also capable of streaming its routes in 4K, if you have a screen of that resolution.
How much is Rouvy?
The monthly subscription fee is £10.75 or $14.99. This undercuts most of its competitors, although it's not as cheap as MyWhoosh, which is free to use. There's a seven-day free trial period to familiarise yourself with all the features and ensure it is the app for you before the first payment is taken.
You get a discount from this if you sign up to Rouvy for a year and there are also discounts for groups of between two and five riders who subscribe together.
Rouvy now has a flexible subscription model. This allows you to pause your subscription once in a calendar year for up to 180 days. You can still ride a short distance each month and you can buy temporary access for between one and three days while your subscription is paused.
Rouvy's group ride feature lets you ride with friends without the stresses of training or racing (Image credit: Rouvy)
How to get started
This is perhaps the easiest of all virtual cycling apps to use in terms of set-up convenience. Programmed to provide a click-and-ride experience if you have a smart trainer or power meter connected kit, Rouvy’s initial user experience is seamless.
Rouvy supports users on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, iPads and Apple TV. Once you've downloaded the appropriate app, you navigate into the settings menu and select your trainer. It’s really that simple.
What equipment do I need?
If you only have access to a simpler turbo trainer without digital integration, the realism of resistance and effort is going to be lost. With your road bike on rollers or on a non-smart trainer, you’ll still be able to enjoy the graphic elements of Rouvy with a speed sensor, but without the power resistance features.
If you have a power meter connected, either on your bike or part of your smart trainer, Rouvy will calculate your virtual speed. This takes into account factors usually experienced when riding outside, like wind resistance, and uses an average approximate figure to correct your moving speed in-game.
Other Rouvy users and Rouvy's ghost riders can provide pacing and they also allow you to draft.
Smart trainers or smart bikes work best, with Rouvy able to create exact resistance profiles to mimic the in-game gradients. This automatic power adjustment, based on route profile, is what indoor training is all about. Rouvy supports a huge diversity of over 50 smart bikes and indoor trainers, including the popular Wahoo Kickr and the Tacx Neo 3M.
Rouvy has a huge library of routes and training plans to keep your indoor riding entertaining (Image credit: Rouvy)
All the courses and rides
There are 25,000km of possible roads to ride on 1,500 routes and Rouvy’s software has an ability to really leverage the input and scale of its riding community. Action camera footage, GPS computer data and real-world digital mapping allow Rouvy to blend credible realism into its vast 2D virtual worlds. We recently rode along with Rouvy's route creation team to see how it's done.
Rouvy offers many iconic rides, including some of cycling’s most celebrated passes: Stelvio, Sella and Gavia. The Ironman Kona course is also in the offering. There are other Alpine and Pyrenean routes too and an impressive variety of UK-specific cycling terrain and events.
Rouvy offers Spotlights, which focus on a location or event and change every few weeks, and help you to find new content.
If you have a GPS-logged personal route, you can upload it as a GPX file and Rouvy will recreate it for you to ride digitally.
Most of the famous real roads can be ridden in avatar mode, while the other routes are ridden in a POV format.
Rouvy also allows you to upload your own route video, share it, and ride it in POV mode. In October 2024, it added Rouvy Route Creator functionality, which allows any user to upload GPS-tagged video from a GoPro, superimpose a wide range of virtual objects from spectators to helicopters, and ride it in avatar mode.
The Rouvy platform supports targeted training, including lactate threshold workouts (Image credit: ROUVY)
Racing and training
Rouvy offers up to $30,000 of prizes as an incentive to race and conquer challenges within the game, providing a real-world racing appeal for those who thrive on outright competition.
You can create your own events, be it races or group rides and invite other riders to join you, as well as join events created by other users. Rouvy also allows you to comment in-app as you ride.
As well as cash prizes, you can earn coins in the app, which can be used to pay for avatar- or virtual bike upgrades.
As a training or group riding tool, there are ample features beyond the pure racing structure. Rouvy has a large number of structured workouts and training plans, including a selection from the Lidl-Trek pro team, which uses the platform for training and to virtually ride critical parts of race courses.
Training zones can also be programmed into Rouvy. It allows you to enter your maximum heart rate and FTP values, or take one of its in-app FTP tests. Rouvy then uses this data to autonomously select appropriate training zones when required on your rides.
In total, Rouvy offers seven active training zones: active recovery, endurance, tempo, lactate threshold, VO2 max, anaerobic capacity and neuromuscular power.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
