Are you familiar with this scenario?
You acquire an athlete. You develop the methodology, plan their training, analyze their data, and over months or years, you build a trusting client relationship.
Then your collaboration ends.
Your athlete leaves – but they remain on the platform.
Their entire training history, all their data, and the familiar environment are fully retained for them. They can take out a premium subscription, purchase ready-made training plans, or effortlessly choose a new coach.
The work and client retention came from you. But the third-party system ultimately secures the long-term client relationship. And this is exactly where a training platform suddenly becomes more than just a matter of training planning and data analysis.
Because with every new athlete, you also make a business decision: Are you using your platform to build your own coaching business – or simultaneously building the platform’s business?
We explore exactly this question in this article, using TrainingPeaks and AZUM as examples.
This is exactly where B2C and B2B models differ fundamentally
TrainingPeaks and MATS pursue hybrid B2C/B2B models: They provide coaches with professional coaching tools, but at the same time have their own offers and direct client relationships with athletes. TrainerRoad, JOIN, and 2PEAK are direct B2C models.
Within a B2C environment, your athlete always remains a direct consumer in the third-party system and becomes part of the ecosystem themselves: They can take out premium subscriptions, buy training plans, or find other coaches. Even if your collaboration ends, the business relationship between the platform and the athlete can continue.
This is by no means a criticism of this general market approach. But as a coach, you should know what business model you are building your own business on.
Because ultimately, it’s not just about which platform offers the most features. It’s about which infrastructure strengthens your brand, your client relationship, your margin, and your growth. This is exactly where TrainingPeaks and AZUM differ.
(AIOSEO tip: Insert a suitable image here with the alt text “AZUM vs TrainingPeaks – Comparison of B2B and B2C business models”)
As a coach today, you basically have three paths
1 | You develop your own software. With AI, this is easier than ever. You have maximum control, but you also take on development, maintenance, interfaces, updates, product management, and investments. Your coaching business also becomes a software business. You wanted to coach athletes – not develop software.
2 | You build your business on a B2C platform like TrainerRoad, Join, MATS, or TrainingPeaks. The technology is already there. In return, you and your athletes move within another company’s ecosystem. Other coaches, training plans, premium subscriptions, and other offers can be part of the same platform. Depending on the offer and sales channel, “payment processing fees” or transaction fees may also apply. You use the technology – but at the same time, you are also helping to build someone else’s business.
3 | You use a B2B infrastructure that was developed for your coaching business. You don’t have to develop the technology yourself, but you can build your own brand, methodology, offers, and client relationships on it.
AZUM was developed for exactly this third path. A coach-first B2B infrastructure.
Let’s look at what this difference means in everyday coaching and for your business in concrete terms.
1. What happens to your athlete when your collaboration ends?
Over months, you build real trust and a close bond with your athlete.
With a B2C platform like TrainingPeaks, however, the athlete remains in their ecosystem even after the contract ends: They book premium upgrades, purchase third-party plans, or choose new coaching via Coach Match. The platform thus seamlessly continues the client relationship – completely independent of your service.
While a marketplace occasionally creates visibility for new clients, it also reveals the underlying logic: Your primary coaching software simultaneously serves the platform as a sales channel for third-party providers.
At AZUM: There is no third-party marketplace, nor direct sales of our own coaching offers to your clients. AZUM does not profit from placing subsequent coaching. You, as a partner, are the focus – and we provide the technical platform for your entrepreneurial success.
2. Who profits from the yield of your know-how?
Your training concepts contain years of practice, sound methodology, and intensive work.
If you offer your plans in the TrainingPeaks Store, the platform retains a 30% commission according to its guidelines – even if the purchase is made via direct links from your channels.
With increasing sales, this margin becomes noticeable:
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100 EUR sales revenue → 30 EUR fee to the marketplace
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1,000 EUR sales revenue → 300 EUR fee to the marketplace
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5,000 EUR sales revenue → 1,500 EUR fee to the marketplace
Although a marketplace provides visibility for new clients, the crucial question arises: What portion of your income do you want to permanently cede for this sales channel? Ongoing coaching subscriptions via TrainingPeaks Payments also incur their own processing fees.
At AZUM: Via the direct Stripe integration, you sell your training plans and coaching packages entirely under your own direction – without having to share your revenue. AZUM demands no share of your turnover. Apart from the usual flat platform fee, only the standard terms of the payment processor apply.
Our principle is simple: Your expertise creates the added value – and the revenue belongs in your business.
(AIOSEO tip: Insert a suitable image here with the alt text “Scale coaching revenues without commissions – training platform AZUM”)
3. Who actually pays for the full coaching experience?
With a free TrainingPeaks Basic account, you can coach your athletes and, as a coach, access their analytics.
However, the athlete themselves does not get the full range of functions. Certain analysis and planning features require Premium. This creates a decision for you as a coach:
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Do you cover the additional costs?
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Do you factor them into your coaching fee?
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Or does your athlete pay for an additional premium subscription themselves?
At AZUM: The coaching environment is part of your business model – not an additional product that needs to be sold to your athlete. Your athlete does not need a separate, paid AZUM subscription for training data, communication, and analysis. You pay for the infrastructure you use to coach your athletes.
4. Do automatic threshold adjustments replace sound performance diagnostics?
TrainingPeaks automatically identifies performance jumps in heart rate, watts, or pace and suggests an update to the thresholds.
This might be useful for basic orientation. However, this automation by no means replaces an in-depth metabolic analysis. While externally determined parameters can be entered manually, the actual evaluation and transfer to concrete training zones mean additional manual effort for you.
At AZUM: Metabolic profiling is seamlessly anchored and feeds your customized training planning directly with valid values. You precisely tailor the analysis to the athlete and their discipline and directly link the findings to session planning.
Diagnostics thus do not remain an isolated measurement result, but unfold their full benefit directly in your daily coaching workflow.
5. Should communication with your athletes really take place in external tools?
Successful coaching does not live on hard data and prescribed sessions alone. Regular exchange, quick feedback, and timely adjustments form the foundation of professional support.
While TrainingPeaks has an integrated messaging function, according to documentation, this chat is limited to Premium members and adult users. Comments on individual sessions remain separate from this. If you coach athletes with a free account, you inevitably have to resort to additional communication channels for general dialogue.
At AZUM: The entire dialogue and coaching are integrated directly into your central training environment. Your athletes do not need paid add-ons or external messenger services to contact you. No media breaks. No detours. A seamless coaching experience.
6. Who retains control over your valuable coaching know-how?
Your sophisticated training structures and methodological content don’t just fall from the sky. They embody your expertise – the very core for which athletes pay you. This makes the question of who retains control over the authorization of this content all the more crucial.
At AZUM: If the joint coaching ends, the athlete account can simply be deactivated. Access to your coaching environment and the shared plans is immediately locked. If you resume coaching at a later date, you flexibly unblock access again. Sovereignty over access to your coaching knowledge lies entirely in your hands.
7. Which brand does your athlete see every day?
When you bring an athlete onto a platform, you automatically familiarize them with that platform’s brand. This sounds like a minor detail at first. But over months and years, it becomes part of how your service is perceived.
Who is at the center of the digital coaching experience: the platform – or your coaching business?
At AZUM: Your digital coaching environment can be fully adapted to your own brand design and visual guidelines. This makes your identity visible in everyday digital training, and your athlete connects methodology, communication, and coaching more strongly with your offering. The platform should work in the background. Your coaching brand should be in the foreground.
8. Optimize your workflows – without giving up your individual coaching.
More athletes mean more planning, more communication, more analysis, and more administration. If this work increases proportionally with every new athlete, at some point, demand won’t be the problem. Your time will become the bottleneck.
This is exactly why scaling in coaching does not mean treating every athlete the same. It means making recurring processes more efficient so that more time remains for decisions where your expertise really counts.
At AZUM: Training planning, templates, analytics, communication, and athlete management interlock. Reusable content and automated processes reduce repetitive work. You standardize your processes. Not your coaching. This allows your business to grow without your workload having to grow proportionally.
9. Automate workflows – without giving up your professional expertise.
Modern AI tools provide you with noticeable support in your daily training routine. But they must never replace your professional expertise.
The AZUM AI Coach Assistant generates structured sessions in no time upon command. You set the goal, evaluate the result, and do the fine-tuning for your athlete. Your coaching competence determines the training. The technology accelerates the implementation.
This is exactly where we see the sensible use of AI in coaching: Automate the repetition. Keep the coaching decision. Because your athlete doesn’t pay you to generate as many clicks as possible in a software program. They pay you for your individual coaching and your decisions.
10. What happens to your platform costs as your business grows?
A platform shouldn’t just work today. It should also fit your business model when you are coaching 20, 40, or more athletes.
At TrainingPeaks, the actual cost structure depends, among other things, on which Coach Edition you use, which athletes get Premium, and who pays for these accounts. A direct comparison therefore requires a clearly defined configuration.
Let’s take the example that you pay for a Premium account for every athlete at TrainingPeaks:
20 Athletes
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AZUM Coach Plus: 125 EUR / month
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TrainingPeaks Coach Edition including Premium accounts: approx. 164.85 EUR / month
40 Athletes
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AZUM Coach Plus: 265 EUR / month
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TrainingPeaks Coach Edition including Premium accounts: approx. 302.00 EUR / month
In this specific configuration, AZUM is around 24% lower for 20 athletes and around 12% lower for 40 athletes. AZUM Coach Plus includes 20 accounts for 125 EUR per month. Each additional account costs 7 EUR.
Important: This is not a flat-rate price comparison for every possible use. The actual costs at TrainingPeaks depend on account types, Premium configuration, taxes, and other factors.
The more important question is therefore not just what your platform costs today – but how its cost structure evolves with your business model.
11. And what about the effort involved in switching?
Even if another infrastructure better suits your own business, a practical hurdle remains: The switch.
Athletes, training history, settings, and existing workflows shouldn’t suddenly turn into an additional project.
At AZUM: There is no setup fee. With our white-glove migration service, we support you with the switch and the transfer of your athletes and their training history. Onboarding and joint setup are included. More extensive individual training or additional services can be offered separately.
Because a better infrastructure is of little use to you if the path to get there causes more work than it later saves you.
Does your choice of software strengthen your coaching business – or the provider?
You invest in your expertise. You develop your methodology. You build content, reputation, and client relationships. Your technology partner should support these investments.
The question is not which platform has the longest feature list. The question is which business model you are strengthening with every new athlete.
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You have the option to develop your own software solution.
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You can offer your services via a third-party B2C network.
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Or you can choose a digital environment designed to strengthen your own business.
The principle behind AZUM is clear: The monetization of your service remains with you. You determine your portfolio. We provide the technical basis for your success.
You develop your coaching business. AZUM provides the right foundation.
(Status of TrainingPeaks prices and terms: October 27, 2026. EUR conversion based on the last available ECB reference exchange rate from October 26, 2026.)