The Garmin-native
Runna alternative.
If you own a Garmin and want a Runna alternative, the short answer is: pick the coach that talks to your watch directly. Runna was acquired by Strava in 2025 and is increasingly built around the Strava ecosystem. Custom Gains stays in your corner — it reads your Garmin, builds your week, and lands every workout on your wrist.
Runna vs Custom Gains at a glance
| Custom Gains | Runna | |
|---|---|---|
| Pushes workouts to your Garmin | Yes, native | Limited / via export |
| Reads your Garmin recovery (sleep, HRV, readiness) | Yes | No |
| Won't let you overtrain | Recovery-aware guardrails | Fixed plan |
| Chat with your coach in plain English | Yes | No |
| Adapts when you miss a day | Yes | Yes |
| Built for beginners | Yes, jargon-free | Leans serious-runner |
| Owned by a social network | No (independent) | Strava (2025) |
| Starting price | $9/mo founder | ~$19.99/mo |
| Free trial | 30 days, code FOUNDING | ~7 days |
Why Garmin owners switch
Most running apps treat your Garmin as a place to dump finished runs. Custom Gains works the other way around: it reads what your watch already knows — distance, pace, heart rate, sleep, Body Battery, training readiness — and turns that into next week's plan. The workout appears on your wrist the night before. You press start.
It's also recovery-aware. Beginners quit for two reasons: they get overwhelmed, or they go too hard, get hurt, and bail. Custom Gains won't stack hard days when your readiness is low, and it'll tell you to rest when you need it — the one thing a fixed PDF plan can't do.
Choose Custom Gains if…
- Your training data lives on a Garmin and you want workouts pushed to the watch.
- You're newer to structured training and want plain-English coaching, not jargon.
- You want a plan that reacts to your sleep and recovery, not a fixed schedule.
Choose Runna if…
- You're deep in the Strava ecosystem and want tight Strava integration.
- You're an experienced runner who just wants a clean, prescriptive plan.
Ready to stop guessing?
Connect your Garmin, chat with your coach, and get next week built for you — pushed straight to your watch.
See my Garmin plan — freeFAQ
Is there a Runna alternative that works with Garmin?
Yes. Custom Gains is built around Garmin — it reads your Garmin data and pushes every workout back to your watch, which Runna does not do natively. You can try it free for 30 days with code FOUNDING.
Is Custom Gains cheaper than Runna?
Custom Gains starts at $9/mo on the founder plan (first 100 users), versus around $19.99/mo for Runna. Both offer a free trial; Custom Gains' is 30 days.
Does Custom Gains work for beginners?
Yes — it's designed for people who bought a Garmin and don't know where to start. It explains everything in plain language and is recovery-aware so it won't let you overtrain.
What happened to Runna?
Runna was acquired by Strava in 2025. It remains a strong app, but it's increasingly built around the Strava ecosystem. Custom Gains is independent and Garmin-native.