Articles · 6 November 2026 · 3 min read
The best Runna alternatives in 2026
Runna costs £99.99 a year and its beginner plans aren't free any more. Here's what else is worth a look, what each costs, and where each falls short.
In short
- Runna is £15.99 a month or £99.99 a year in the UK, and its beginner plans went behind the paywall in June 2026.
- Bao Run does Couch to 5K for free and race plans for £39.99 a year, and it's built for weeks that don't go to plan.
- Kiprun Pacer and Garmin Coach are free, but Kiprun starts at 10K and Garmin Coach stops at the half marathon.
Runna does a lot well: adaptive plans, watch sync and a tidy app. The trouble is the price. In the UK it’s £15.99 a month or £99.99 a year, and since June 2026 even its beginner plans (New to Running, Return to Running and Path to parkrun) need a subscription.
Price isn’t the only complaint in reviews. Runners also say the plans can be too hard, and that rescheduling is limited: a run can only move within its own week or one week either side, and never onto a day that already has a run.
Prices below are UK list prices, checked in November 2026.
| App | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Bao Run | Free; Plus £5.99/month or £39.99/year | Beginners, and anyone whose week changes |
| Kiprun Pacer | Free | Free race plans from 10K up |
| Garmin Coach | Free with a Garmin | Garmin owners training up to a half |
| Coopah | About £14.99/month or £79.99/year | Talking to a human coach |
| NHS Couch to 5K | Free | A fixed nine-week start |
| Nike Run Club | Free | Guided runs for motivation |
1. Bao Run
We make Bao, so we’re biased, but here’s why we built it: most plans assume your week goes the way you planned it. Ours rarely does.
- Moves with you. Drag a run up to three days either way and it still counts for its own week, so the next week isn’t overloaded.
- Time off and illness. Add a holiday and the runs in between come off. Mark yourself ill or injured, even for days that have passed, and your streak waits.
- Easier on the hard days. One tap turns any session into a shorter, easy one, and one tap puts it back.
- Reads your recovery. Sleep, resting heart rate, HRV and other sport (a match, a long ride) decide how hard today should be.
- Free where it counts. Couch to 5K, sending sessions to a Garmin, GPS tracking on Android, and importing runs from Strava, Health Connect or a FIT file all cost nothing.
- Plus for races. Plans for a faster 5K through to the marathon, with recovery weeks, a taper and B races, for £5.99 a month or £39.99 a year. That’s less than half of Runna, with two weeks free and no card.
What it doesn’t have yet: an iPhone app (it works in Safari), Apple Watch support, or human coaches.
2. Kiprun Pacer
Decathlon’s app is free and covers 10K up to ultra-trail. It adjusts after each workout and can send sessions to Garmin and COROS watches. There’s no beginner or 5K plan, so it isn’t a place to start running. Reviews also mention syncs failing and activities appearing twice, and one reviewer found the early interval sessions very hard.
3. Garmin Coach
Garmin Coach is built into Garmin Connect, so if you own a Garmin there’s nothing to install. Plans go up to the half marathon. Coach workouts can’t be moved to another day, and the plan doesn’t always react when the watch itself says you’re tired. It only works with Garmin watches.
4. Coopah
Coopah’s selling point is access to human coaches and a friendly community. It’s a little cheaper than Runna. Reviewers say changing run days or a race date can be fiddly, and that the plan doesn’t account for other sport.
5. NHS Couch to 5K
The NHS app has helped millions of people start running, with audio from a coach over nine weeks. It’s a fixed nine-week plan rather than one that adapts to you, and it stops at 5K.
6. Nike Run Club
Nike Run Club’s guided audio runs are good for motivation. It’s less suited to structured race training that changes as you go.
Which one?
- Starting from nothing: Bao’s free Couch to 5K adapts as you go, moves when you need it to and works with your Garmin. The NHS app is the simpler fixed alternative.
- Training for a race on a budget: Bao Plus is £39.99 a year. If it has to cost nothing, Kiprun Pacer covers 10K and up, and Garmin Coach covers up to the half if you own a Garmin.
- Busy, unpredictable weeks: Bao. Moving runs, time off and easier sessions are all free.
- You want a person to talk to: Coopah.