Tonal vs Mirror vs Tempo: What’s the Best Smart Home Gym?

The clear winner on price alone is the 40 inch Echelon Reflect. At just less than $1,000, it’s hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars cheaper than the home gyms offer by Tonal, Mirror and Tempo. With Echelon, you’ve also got the option to stick with the cheaper $19.99 per month subscription plan, which gives you access to the one demand workouts but not the live classes. Again, the subscription cost is much lower than the $39 to $49 monthly subscriptions offered by the others. That said, Echelon Reflect’s screen is smaller than the others, and in our opinion, their workout experience isn’t as high quality.

Note on the financing — all these companies offer financing through third party financing companies. The prices quoted are all based on what most of these companies call “starting at” pricing for a 36 month payment plan, so you may pay more depending on your credit history.

Also — don’t forget about shipping! You are likely to pay $200 or more for delivery and installation, depending on where you live. So factor that into your overall cost of ownership. Given recent supply chain shocks and surging demand, you may also have to wait a while for your home gym delivery.  Let’s dive into the cost of each so you can see what you get for the price.

How much does Lululemon’s Mirror gym cost?

How much is Tonal?

How much is an Echelon Reflect?

The overall cost of an Echelon Reflect should include the equipment, delivery fee and the monthly subscription. With 2 equipment options and 2 monthly plan options (that you can also get on a yearly, reduced cost) figuring out what the overall cost is going to be is a little confusing! Let’s break it down:

• Equipment cost
  • $999 for the 40″ model
  • $1,640 for the 50″ model
• Monthly fitness subscription cost
  • $19.99 per month for on-demand classes only
  • $39.99 per month for on-demand + live workouts

You can also save on the subscriptions by committing upfront to twelve months with the annual plan.

The 40 inch is by far the lowest cost connected gym that we’ve seen, and the 50 inch is priced competitively against the Mirror and Tempo Studio. If you are on a budget, Echelon offers a lot of bang for your buck. You can also buy it on Amazon — rather than direct from the brand — if you prefer.

How much is a Tempo Studio?

Tempo’s price comes in at the upper half of our list, but you do get a lot. In addition to the touchscreen fitness center, you get a lot of strength training accessories included in the base cost. Like Mirror and the others, Tempo Studio’s overall cost will include the equipment, delivery and the monthly subscription. We’ll break down all the equipment you get for the $2,495 base price in a moment. The subscription is $39 per month – in line with the others.

Now – more on the hardware cost. In addition to the touchscreen/connected workout equipment, you get a ton of weight gear and other equipment. Each Tempo Studio comes with:

2 7.5 pound dumbbells 1 25 pound barbell 6 collars 4 10 pound plates 4 5 pound plates 4 2.5 pound plates 4 1.25 pound plages A heart rate monitor A workout mat A recovery roller Check Price

Source: Tempo

So that’s a ton of versatile equipment included for the base price. It’s worth noting that Tempo recently released a much lower cost home gym called the Tempo Move for just $495 $395. It’s a smaller, more portable offering that doesn’t include a screen, but instead leverages the display on your smartphone. For a more comprehensive review of Tempo’s Move vs Studio, check out our comparison!

Another consideration – Which home gym company will still be around in 5 years?

Typically, when you purchase a piece of fitness equipment, you don’t need to think too much about the financial health of the manufacturer. However, Mirror, Tonal and Tempo sell “connected” devices, so you will need the company you buy from to stay in business so you can continue to have access to the live fitness classes, the on-demand workouts, your data, etc. If the company you choose goes bankrupt, you may end up with a thousand dollar hunk of glass and metal taking up space in your home.

To that end, we’ve also analyzed the financial stability of Mirror and it’s competitors, Tonal, Tempo and Echelon, so that you can feel comfortable that the brand you choose will be around to keep you working out for years to come. We’ve used financial data from government filings and from Crunchbase, a database of venture capital investments. And, while we can’t promise that the companies that we’ve reviewed will be able to stay in business, we hope that this data will give you some comfort about the smart home gym players.

Financial stability of Mirror vs Tempo vs Tonal and Echelon

• Mirror – Mirror was acquired by Lululemon, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: LULU). As a such, there is a ton of financial data available. For their fiscal year ended Feb, 2020, Lululemon had over $637 million in profit – so it’s a pretty healthy company. Hopefully they continue to invest in Mirror’s technology.
• Tempo – Tempo is a private company that has raised venture capital financing. Like most startups that raise VC funding, they are likely not profitable. That said, Tempo has raised an impressive almost-$80 million in funding, which seems like enough cash to stay in business for a while.
• Tonal – Tonal is also another private company that has raised VC funding. In fact, they’ve loaded up with over $450 million in VC dollars… which is a ton. The most recent round of funding was announced in March 2021, and was $250 million. So they’d better be in business for a while! Tonal also recently inked a huge sponsorship deal with Lebron, for what it’s worth.
• Echelon – This is yet another private company that’s raised capital from venture investors. In December 2020, Echelon raised $65 million from Goldman Sachs, a respected investment bank. Like Tempo, Echelon should  have sufficient runway to last for a while!

Head to head comparisons

Most of the people we’ve interviewed for this review were only comparing two of the options. Let’s dig in to look at what we believe the most common ones are to compare.

Tonal vs Tempo

The main difference between Tonal and Tempo is price. Tonal is clearly a more expensive option than Tempo, especially if you look at Tempo’s newest product, the low-priced Move. Another huge difference is that Tonal needs to be installed on your wall – making it a lot less portable and a bit more of an effort vs. the Tempo. On the flip side, the built-in resistance bars of the Tonal ARE the industry leading tech right now, so if you must have the coolest piece of fitness equipment on the market, then that’s the best bet for you.

Tempo Studio vs Mirror

The main difference between the Tempo Studio and Mirror? Mirror has finally released connected weights, almost catching up to Tempo’s amazing bars and plates system. The Mirror is a little less expensive, but also comes without equipment. From a design perspective, you do have to install the Mirror on your wall (although it’s easier to put in than the Tonal), so if you need portability or don’t have a huge wall space it’s probably not the one for you. 

The Verdict: Which do we recommend — Mirror, Tonal, Tempo or Echelon Reflect?

Now that we’ve compared these connected gym systems, which do we recommend? Like everything in life, there are tradeoffs — but a few standout above the rest.

First of all if cost is most important to you, we recommend you try Tempo’s new more affordable option, the Tempo Move, which we’ve reviewed in-depth in a separate article and costs just $395, OR the Echelon Reflect. Starting at just $999, the Reflect is by far the lowest cost option of the smart mirror home gyms. Plus, the on-demand subscription price starts at just $39.99, and you can get real savings if you commit to a year in advance. See if Echelon is available if you are looking for the lowest cost way to get a connected home workout! If you want a larger screen, Mirror is the most cost-effective option at just $1,495. And for a limited time, you can get $500 off that price PLUS free shipping…for bargain hunters, that’s hard to beat.

If you are looking for a combination of strength training and cardio, Tonal and Tempo are the strongest options because they include the equipment you’ll need for resistance and weight training. Although, only Tonal gives you up to 100 pounds of resistance on each arm, more than the ~50+ per arm that you’ll get if you use all the weights that come with Tempo. Thus Tonal is the best option for serious athletes who want maximum #gains. We love the larger screen on the Tempo, and the cost is a lot less than Tonal. Plus, Tempos has live and on-demand classes, so our choice —  if you want resistance plus cardio — is Tempo. Check it out now!