TL;DR: Today’s Plan shut down on 12 March 2024 (DC Rainmaker, quoting the closure notice). The Australian company had run since 2014 (archived Today’s Plan site) and was bought in 2019 by Zone5 Ventures, a sports tech company backed by Specialized’s founder (DC Rainmaker). Its notice named “many factors” and nothing more specific. If you are reading this after the shutdown, your data is no longer available from Today’s Plan, so this is not a migration guide. It answers the question you actually have: which of the Today’s Plan alternatives does the job Today’s Plan did. In our view no single product replaces all of it. Intervals.icu fits coaches who want the analysis, TrainingPeaks fits coaches who want the largest ecosystem, and Coachbox fits coaches who want lactate testing and planning in one place. Final Surge fits coaches who want a simple package price. Below is what each option gives you and what it costs.
What Happened to Today’s Plan
Today’s Plan was an Australian sports tech company. Its site dated the company from 2014 (archived homepage), and its team worked from Canberra (DC Rainmaker). In 2019 Zone5 Ventures took it over. Chris Yu of Specialized split his time with Zone5, and Specialized founder Mike Sinyard and Specialized CFO John Rangle invested in it personally (same source), which is why coverage of the closure calls Today’s Plan Specialized-owned (Cycling Weekly). In December 2023 the company announced it would close, and it set 12 March 2024 as the date it would cease operations (DC Rainmaker). Its website now says only that “Today’s Plan is no longer in operation” (Today’s Plan).
The official reason was thin. The notice said that “due to many factors, we must cease operations” and that the company “explored every possible avenue” first, without naming any of them (DC Rainmaker).
The notice also covered the exit. Annual subscribers would get a refund for the months after the closure date, users could export their data before 12 March 2024, and all access ended on that date (same source).
That export window closed on 12 March 2024 (DC Rainmaker). If you never pulled your data, you cannot get it back from Today’s Plan. You can usually rebuild the underlying activity history, because most of it came from a device and still sits in Garmin Connect, COROS, Strava or wherever your files first landed. Plans, notes and coaching context are the part you lose.
What You Are Actually Replacing
In our view, Today’s Plan did four things well, and coaches miss them in different proportions:
- Analysis of power and load, including its own Performance Index built from peak power over eight durations (archived Today’s Plan blog)
- Coach and athlete workflows in one product, for one-to-one coaches as well as clubs and organisations (archived homepage)
- Planning, with a plan builder, a plan library and dynamic plans that updated every athlete’s calendar at once (archived plan builder page)
- Vendor neutrality: it synced with Garmin, Stages Dash, Zwift, Lezyne, Wahoo and Polar (archived homepage) and did not tie you to one hardware brand
Rank those four for yourself before you read the list. The right answer depends on which one you put first.
1. Coachbox
Best for: Coaches who want planning, analysis and lactate testing in one subscription
We build Coachbox, so weigh this entry accordingly. In our view it covers the coaching workflow Today’s Plan had and adds lactate testing to it.
What Makes It Stand Out
- Lactate testing built in: type in your lactate values or upload a photo of a paper protocol, and Coachbox detects LT1 and LT2 automatically in under a minute. The test sets the athlete’s training zones.
- Zones with history: you update an athlete’s zones without erasing the previous values, and workouts linked to a zone show each athlete their own zones.
- Coachbox AI: an assistant that answers questions about your athletes and writes changes straight into the training plan. Coachbox also connects to ChatGPT, Claude and other assistants over MCP.
- Device sync across brands: completed workouts sync from Garmin, Polar, COROS, Suunto, Wahoo, Apple Watch, Fitbit and TomTom, and structured workouts go to Garmin, COROS and Wahoo. Power from a power meter or Stryd arrives with the workouts.
- The practice around the training: messaging, an annual plan, HRV, sleep and resting heart rate from the athlete’s device, and PDF reports for test results and training overviews.
- Matchmaking: Athletes who sign up on Coachbox looking for a coach can be matched with you, and your own page in the public coach directory makes you findable by sport and location (matchmaking).
Honest Limitations
Selling training plans through a marketplace is coming later and is not available today. In our view, pure strength programming does not go as deep as a dedicated strength and conditioning platform.
Pricing
Listed on our pricing page. Base costs 19 EUR per month billed yearly or 25 EUR billed monthly, with 5 athletes included; Build 49 or 65 EUR with 25 athletes, Peak 79 or 99 EUR with 50 athletes and Prime 149 or 190 EUR with 100 athletes. Each extra active athlete costs 1.50 to 2.50 EUR per month depending on the plan. Every plan includes 5 to 20 free lactate tests at the start of the license, then 3 to 6 EUR per test. All prices are excl. VAT. The coach pays; the athletes you coach use Coachbox for free. The trial runs 14 days without a credit card.
2. TrainingPeaks
Best for: Coaches who want the largest ecosystem and athletes who already use it
What Makes It Stand Out
The Performance Management Chart (PMC), a marketplace that TrainingPeaks says gets more than 100,000 visits per month and sold more than 70,000 plans in 2023 (TrainingPeaks for coaches), and wide device support: TrainingPeaks says it “syncs with more brands than any other endurance training app on the market” (coach features). Its coach page lists federations such as USA Cycling and British Triathlon among those who use it (same source).
Honest Limitations
The coach and the athletes can both pay: a coach pays for the Coach Edition and for each extra Premium athlete they cover, or athletes buy Premium themselves (TrainingPeaks for coaches, TrainingPeaks for athletes). Garmin acquired TrainingPeaks from Peaksware Holdings in July 2026 (Garmin press release). The announcement does not say whether support for other device brands will change. If vendor neutrality drew you to Today’s Plan, the new owner is worth weighing. For what the deal does and does not change, see Garmin acquires TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic. We did not find a way to record a blood lactate step test and derive thresholds from it in their help center (zones calculator).
Pricing
The Coach Edition costs 21.99 USD per month with 4 Basic athletes and 1 Premium athlete, plus 9 USD per month for each extra Premium athlete the coach pays for, with volume discounts. The 99 USD start-up fee is waived with a coupon code on the page, and TrainingPeaks notes that “additional taxes may apply” (TrainingPeaks for coaches). Athletes who buy Premium themselves pay 19.95 USD per month or 134.99 USD per year (TrainingPeaks for athletes).
3. Intervals.icu
Best for: Data-literate athletes and coaches who want the analysis and little else
What Makes It Stand Out
The fitness chart, power curve, automatic interval detection and custom charts (Intervals.icu), with the core platform free (pricing). It reports more than 160,000 active athletes (Intervals.icu), and in our view the community around it is warm. Coaches can follow and coach athletes, tag them and use group chat (communicate), and the Supporter tier adds teams and coaching organisations (pricing).
Honest Limitations
In our view, it is an analysis platform first and a coaching platform second. We did not find client billing on its pricing page (pricing), or a blood lactate step test workflow with threshold detection in its features (track). Read our full Intervals.icu review.
Pricing
Free, with an optional Supporter tier at 4 USD per month, as listed; the pricing page does not say whether taxes are included (pricing).
4. Final Surge
Best for: Running and triathlon coaches who want a straightforward coach-athlete tool with a package price
What Makes It Stand Out
Athletes get a free account (Final Surge pricing), and coaches pay a package price; the pricing page lists no per-athlete fee inside either package (same source). Workout comments and a Mailbox handle messages to individuals and teams, and planned workouts go to Garmin Connect, Apple Watch, TrainerRoad and Zwift (Final Surge features). Final Surge says coaches can use it for “any sport” (Final Surge).
Honest Limitations
We did not find lactate test analysis or a PMC-style fitness and fatigue model in Final Surge’s features or help center (Final Surge features, Final Surge support). In our view, its analysis does not go as deep as Today’s Plan’s did. Read our full Final Surge review.
Pricing
The Starter package costs 19 USD per month for 1 to 5 athletes and the Pro package 39 USD per month for up to 100 athletes, with a discount for yearly billing and no setup fees. The pricing page does not say whether taxes are included (Final Surge pricing).
Quick Comparison
| Platform | Lactate test analysis | Coach-athlete messaging | Ownership | How a coach pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coachbox | Yes, LT1/LT2 in under a minute | Yes | Coachbox | From 19 EUR/month billed yearly or 25 EUR monthly with 5 athletes, then 2.50 EUR per extra active athlete, excl. VAT |
| TrainingPeaks | Not found (where we looked) | With Premium athletes (source) | Garmin since July 2026 (source) | From 21.99 USD/month with 1 Premium athlete, plus 9 USD per extra coach-paid Premium athlete, excl. taxes (source) |
| Intervals.icu | Not found (where we looked) | Group chat (source) | Intervals.icu Ltd (source) | Free; Supporter 4 USD/month adds teams, tax basis not stated (source) |
| Final Surge | Not found (where we looked) | Mailbox and comments (source) | Final Surge LLC (source) | 19 USD/month for 1 to 5 athletes, 39 USD for up to 100, tax basis not stated (source) |
Every price in the table is what a coach pays, so every row shows the price excl. taxes where the vendor states its tax basis. TrainingPeaks lists its prices with “additional taxes may apply” (TrainingPeaks for coaches). Final Surge does not say whether its prices include taxes (Final Surge pricing). Intervals.icu does not say it either (pricing), so we show both prices as listed. Coachbox lists its prices in EUR excl. VAT. Because no vendor here lists a price with VAT included, we convert nothing, and because the currencies differ, we do not convert between them either. The tools also bill different things (a coach fee plus Premium athletes, a package, a free tier with a supporter option, a plan with athletes included), so we do not add them up into one total per roster.
How to Choose
Choose Intervals.icu if analysis was what you loved about Today’s Plan. In our view it goes deeper on analysis than most paid products, and the core platform is free (pricing). It suits self-coached athletes and coaches of small groups who handle billing and testing elsewhere.
Choose TrainingPeaks if your athletes already use it or you sell plans. Its marketplace and its Performance Management Chart are the reasons to be there (TrainingPeaks for coaches). In our view it is also the easier path when your athletes already train in it. It is less of a fit if vendor neutrality is what you want, now that Garmin owns it.
Choose Final Surge if you want a predictable package price. A coach pays 19 or 39 USD per month and athletes use a free account (Final Surge pricing). In our view it fits running and triathlon coaches who don’t need deep power analysis or lactate testing in the same tool.
Choose Coachbox if lactate testing is part of your method. We did not find blood lactate test analysis in the documentation of the other three tools on this list (see the table). In Coachbox, LT1 and LT2 come out of the test in under a minute and set the athlete’s zones in the same platform as the plan.
If vendor neutrality was the point, Intervals.icu syncs with Garmin, Polar, Suunto, COROS, Wahoo, Strava and Zwift (pricing), and Coachbox syncs with Garmin, Polar, COROS, Suunto, Wahoo, Apple Watch, Fitbit and TomTom.
If your athletes already have history somewhere, in our view you should follow the history. Restarting a fitness curve from zero costs you a season of context, and that is worth more than a feature comparison.
The Bigger Picture
The Today’s Plan closure is a reminder worth taking seriously: a platform holding years of your coaching work can close by a decision you have no part in. Whatever you pick next, check two things before you commit. Can you export your athletes’ data in a usable format at any time, and does the platform keep working in some reduced form if you stop paying. Today’s Plan gave people an export window and announced refunds for annual subscribers (DC Rainmaker). Not every shutdown will.
