Looking for a Garmin Connect alternative?
Garmin Connect is great for your watch data — but thin on planning a whole season. The Next Race adds real multi-race planning on top, and pushes workouts back to your Garmin. Free.
Garmin Connect comes free with your watch and is a solid home for your activities, daily health, and Garmin Coach's canned plans. Where it runs thin is planning a full season yourself — the calendar is limited, building structured multi-sport sessions is fiddly, and there's no way to blend several races.
The Next Race is the planning layer: a fast drag-and-drop calendar, editable structured workouts, automatic multi-race blending, and an AI assistant — free. Two-way Garmin sync pulls your activities in and pushes your planned workouts back to your Garmin calendar and watch, so you keep training on the device you already own.
The Next Race vs Garmin Connect
| Feature | The Next Race | Garmin Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free with your device |
| Structured multi-race planning | Blends overlapping race blocks automatically | Single canned plans (Garmin Coach) |
| Drag-and-drop calendar | Yes — built for fast edits | Basic calendar |
| Editable structured workouts | Fully editable — simple & advanced builder | Limited / mostly canned |
| Workouts on your watch | Yes — two-way Garmin sync | Yes — native |
| Multi-brand sync | Strava, Garmin & Polar | Garmin devices only |
| Daily health (sleep, HRV, Body Battery) | Not the focus | Comprehensive |
| AI assistant | Yes — plan with Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini via MCP | No |
| Indoor smart-trainer control (ERG) | Built-in | No |
| Best for | Planning your season | Device data & daily health |
Garmin Connect is free with a Garmin device, and Garmin Coach plans are included. The Next Race is free too, and adds the planning layer on top — no subscription.
Why athletes switch from Garmin Connect
Real season planning, not canned plans
Garmin Coach hands you a fixed 5K or half-marathon template. The Next Race lets you build and fully edit your own multi-week plan and drag it around as life happens.
Blend multiple races
Training for a spring marathon and a summer triathlon at once? The Next Race merges the blocks so sessions don't collide — Garmin Connect plans one event at a time.
It still lives on your Garmin
Two-way sync pushes your planned workouts to your Garmin calendar and watch and pulls your activities back in. You keep the watch; The Next Race just plans for it.
Not locked to one brand
Also sync Strava and Polar, so your training history isn't trapped inside Garmin's ecosystem.
When Garmin Connect is still the better pick
Garmin Connect is the best home for your device data — sleep, HRV, Body Battery and daily health go deeper than anything The Next Race offers, and if a canned Garmin Coach plan is all you need, it's free and built in. The Next Race is for athletes who want to plan a real season themselves and push it to their watch.
Garmin Connect alternative — FAQ
Is The Next Race a Garmin Connect alternative?
It's the planning layer Garmin Connect is thin on. Keep Garmin Connect for your device data and daily health; use The Next Race to build and edit a real multi-race season — it syncs both ways with Garmin, for free.
Does The Next Race work with my Garmin watch?
Yes. Two-way Garmin sync pulls your activities into The Next Race and pushes your planned, structured workouts to your Garmin calendar and watch.
How is it different from Garmin Coach?
Garmin Coach gives you a fixed, canned plan for a single event. The Next Race lets you build and fully edit your own structured plan, blend several races, and adjust it with an AI assistant.
Is The Next Race free?
Yes, and so is Garmin Connect. The Next Race adds season planning on top of the device data Garmin already gives you — with no subscription.
A better way to plan your training.
Free multi-race planning, a fast calendar, and an AI assistant. Make the switch today.