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A smart trainer measures your power and talks to an app over Bluetooth or ANT+, so software can change the resistance for you. A dumb trainer only provides resistance, with no measurement and no connection: you control effort with your gears, and you need a separate power meter to know your watts.
A dumb trainer is a resistance unit and nothing more. Pedal harder, it pushes back harder, usually through magnets, a fan, or fluid. There is no electronics, no measurement and nothing to pair.
You change effort the same way you would on the road: by changing gear and cadence. Some have a handlebar lever to change resistance level.
They are cheap, essentially indestructible, and completely adequate for getting fit. What they cannot do is tell you what you are producing, which means you are working from feel, heart rate, or a power meter of your own.
Two things, and they are separate:
The control part is what most people actually notice. It turns "ride hard for five minutes" into "the trainer puts you at 260 watts and keeps you there".
A dumb trainer is fine if you are happy training by feel or heart rate, you want to spend as little as possible, or you already have a power meter on the bike and only need resistance.
A smart trainer is worth it if you want structured sessions that run themselves, you want your indoor numbers to be comparable week to week, or you want to use training apps and games properly.
There is a middle option worth knowing about: a dumb trainer plus a separate power meter gives you measurement without control. You get real numbers, but you still change resistance with your gears.
Be aware that accuracy varies between trainers, and cheaper ones estimate power rather than measure it directly. For training purposes, a trainer that is consistently a few per cent out is still perfectly useful, because you are comparing yourself to yourself.
Smart trainers broadcast over Bluetooth, ANT+, or both. Your phone, tablet or laptop needs to speak one of them.
Most modern phones and laptops have Bluetooth built in and nothing else, which is usually enough. ANT+ generally needs a small USB dongle on a computer. See ANT+ or Bluetooth, which should you use.
Browser-based games and apps, including the ones on this site, use the Web Bluetooth standard, which works in Chrome and Edge on most desktops and Android. Apple's restrictions mean it does not work in Safari on iPhone or iPad.
Partly. Apps can show your speed and estimate power from a speed sensor using a known resistance curve, but they cannot control the resistance, so ERG mode and gradient simulation are out.
Usually slightly less. A good power meter measures force directly at the pedals or crank, while many trainers estimate from known characteristics. For training, consistency matters more than absolute accuracy.
Not by itself. It makes good sessions easier to execute and easier to stick to, which over a winter does tend to show up.
That is the problem we are actually trying to solve. Turbo Trainer Games turns your watts into the controls of a browser game — your power flies the aircraft, climbs the mountain, pulls the sledge. Nothing to install, and it works with a smart trainer you already own.
It is in closed testing at the moment, so there is nothing to play yet. But you can put your name down.
Ask for early access