“What’s the difference between ProCoach and Coach Catalyst?”
On the surface, they look very similar, but while they do have some things in common, I think these two platforms are more distinct than they appear.
*Transparency Disclosure: I am one of the founders of Coach Catalyst, but I am also a Level 2 Precision Nutrition certified coach. I have had a chance to play with both softwares extensively.
Both my company and PN have great products, but each serves a different coach. My goal for this post is to give you a better idea on which might be the right fit for you.
I don’t care which one you choose, but I want you to choose one so that you can change more lives. Each of the softwares will make you a better coach, and ultimately that is what this is about, giving you the tool to impact more lives, without giving up your own.
This is my honest look at the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms.
History
ProCoach
ProCoach was created by Precision Nutrition (PN). PN has a couple core businesses. For educating health professionals, most notably fitness, they have one of the top nutrition certifications in the world. For the consumer market, they have one of the top online nutrition coaching programs where they have coached over 100,000 clients.
ProCoach is the software that PN uses internally with their personal coaching clients along with providing it for coaches to use with their own clients.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst (CC) was developed by Trevor Wittwer, CSCS, Pn2, and Kane Sivesind, MS, when they couldn’t find any suitable, scaleable habit-based coaching platform in the market. What started as a habit-based accountability and education system has evolved into a robust coaching software that does much more than just habit coaching.
Coach Catalyst focuses on the three most important components of coaching: education, connection, and accountability.
We saw that the fitness and nutrition industry was broken. Everything is about collecting information and data, but the major tenets of behavior change, accountability, and coaching were getting ignored in the software space.
We decided to make it our mission at Coach Catalyst to give you back the one non-renewable resource you want more of, time, all while driving forward the 3 tenets of your business: revenue, results, and retention.
Let’s dive into the features. This article is organized by feature with a little blurb about how each software approaches that feature.
Program Diversity
ProCoach
ProCoach uses a check-in process where you build the client's plan from a library of "practices." When you assign a practice the system will automatically populate all the lessons - "resources" that go along with that practice. This allows the client to move through the content at their own pace.
You can also send resources from the PN library to the client directly via the messenger.
Some resources contain open-ended questions that populate the client's owner's manual.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst (CC) has a library of over 30 programs a coach can download and customize.
These programs range from short 7-day challenges to 6-week transformation type challenges to 6-month habit-based nutrition coaching courses.
Most programs consist of short daily lessons and expert-curated content, and every program has daily check-ins for accountability.
Habits, lessons, forms, messages, and workouts can all be assigned to the client's calendar bespoke independent of programs.
A coach can also create custom programs from scratch modifying done for you content or utilizing their own.
Programs can also be used as templates to then be modified at the client level.
Customization
ProCoach
PN doesn’t give the coach the ability to do any sort of personalization of the content for his or her clients. Since you are essentially putting clients into the PN ecosystem, you use the curriculum they have created for you - which is great by the way.
I do think PN does an elegant job introducing the partnership between you, the coach, and PN to the client but ultimately the lessons and videos come from the staff at PN.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst allows you to download any program from the library and have complete autonomy over the content.
You can put in your own colors, signature, content, videos, images, or audio. Coach Catalyst’s goal is to showcase YOUR brand, not ours.
Inside the client facing mobile app is the coach's branding and colors. You can even have your own white-label app in the app stores if you want a complete branded experience for your clients.
Program Creation
Coach Catalyst | ProCoach | |
|---|---|---|
Done-For-You Content | ||
Modify Existing Content | ||
Create Your Own Content | ||
Rearrange Habits | ||
Custom Habits |
Software Flexibility
ProCoach
PN gives you ability to choose from libraries of both habits or resources. You cannot create any custom habits so you must prescribe within their framework.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst allows the coach to create any type of program he or she wishes. The coach can start from scratch or build off of one of the done-for-you programs.
A coach has the ability to customize how a program is delivered to a client. He or she can change the order of habits, add specific habits for that client, or even shorten the program for that client.
A coach can also add bespoke habits or lessons directly to a client's calendar and doesn't need to work in a program format.
Branding
ProCoach
All materials and content showcase the Precision Nutrition brand. The coach does have the ability to upload an avatar picture and have a coach profile.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst out of the box is branded from B-Z, meaning everything is branded to the coach or organization, except for the app in the app store.
If a coach would like to have your own app in the app store, Coach Catalyst offers a white-labeled app for $49 per month.
Technology Platform
ProCoach
ProCoach is web and email based for the coach. They do have an iOS and Android app for the client but as of this writing the Android app isn't compatible with the most updated version of Android (Dec 11, 2023).
The client can receive email or app based notifications as reminders.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst operates on both web and mobile for the coach and the client. This means there is separate technology built specifically for each client or coach device.
This ensures a great experience no matter what device you are on.
Notes:
As the world is leaning more on mobile experiences and client inboxes are getting ever more crowded getting “lost” in a client inbox is a real issue.
Also with email based delivery, content going to spam is a real concern. Some clients might find the process very cumbersome to have to click through each email to get information.
Ultimately, If you fail to get feedback from a client that makes the coaching process difficult.
Clients are living on their phones and it's important to meet clients where they consume information.
Communication
ProCoach
Since ProCoach operates on a web-based platform for the coach, the coach needs to log-in to their account to send messages to their clients. The clients can message via the web or the app.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst operates in a similar fashion to Facebook messenger. The client and coach(es) have one thread and all communication happens on that thread.
Since Coach Catalyst is both web-based and app-based, a coach can send a message from the web portal or the coach app on their phone which then alerts the client via push notification and the client can respond directly in the app.
If the client chooses not to have the app, the client is alerted by email that they have a new message and then clicks through via the email to answer the message in the web portal.
With Coach Catalyst coaches can...
- send real-time messages (text, audio, or video messages)
- schedule messages to go out in the future (great for follow-up questions)
- send bulk messages - message all your clients at once
- create communities - similar to Facebook groups - where they can post and engage with clients in the comments
Messaging
Coach Catalyst | ProCoach | |
|---|---|---|
Message Notifications Delivered Via Email | ||
In-App Client Messaging Client | ||
In-App Coach Messaging | ||
Send files (.pdf, .gif, .jpeg, .png) via messaging | ||
Send clickable urls | ||
Send Audio Notes | ||
Send Video Notes | ||
Create Community Groups |
Open-Ended Questions/Surveys
ProCoach
ProCoach has a really cool feature called the “owner’s manual.” This owner’s manual gets populated as the client fills out open-ended questions in the resource lessons assigned to a client.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst has the ability to create custom forms that can be added to the client calendar. These forms include intake forms, waivers, weekly check-ins, program feedback, surveys or even NPS scores.
Data Tracking
ProCoach
ProCoach gives a coach the ability to track 3 things: weight, girth (total of circumference measurements), and progress photos (front, side, and back). Weight and total girth are graphed.
This appears to be automatically added to the client account as a "task" every two weeks. I was unable to figure out how to assign measurements outside of this timeframe so if you can, I missed it.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst has the ability to collect both number based data and photos. A coach defines what it is he or she wants to collect then the client has the ability to upload that information.
Number-based examples include: weight, waist circumference, vertical, 1RM deadlift, hours of sleep, number of cats, etc…
Photo-based examples include: front relaxed progress, front flexed progress, breakfast, lunch, cats, etc…
Number-based data can be seen as raw data or on a trend graph. Photos can be seen as raw pictures or with a side-by-side comparison feature.
CC integrates with all the major wearables (Apple Health, GoogleFit, Fitbit, Garmin, Oura, MacrosFirst and more) which allows CC to pull data - like steps, HRV, calories burned, etc...- automatically from client devices.
Coach Catalyst has a “vault” for each client where as a coach you can keep private notes about a client, record their goals, and also upload resources that will immediately be available on their smartphone.
Finally, Coach Catalyst has resource folders - similar to google drive - where you can put videos, images, pdf's, or links. You can assign clients to folders so you can update the folders at any time and don't have to update clients.
Resources are great as a mini-membership site. You can create folders for recipes, meal plans, important documents or even create a supplement store linking to your favorite supplements.
Data Collection
Coach Catalyst | ProCoach | |
|---|---|---|
Weight Collection | ||
Circumference / Girth Collection | ||
Progress Photo Collection | ||
Customizable Data Collection | ||
Wearable Integration | ||
Customizable Photo Folders | ||
Notes Area | ||
Intake Forms Built-In | ||
Built-In Open-Ended Question Forms | ||
Customizable Forms | ||
Resources Folders |
Workouts
ProCoach
ProCoach gives the coach the option to add on ProCoach Workouts for an additional $49.00 per month. This feature consists of 26 different workout programs (13 men, 13 women). Like other aspects of ProCoach, these are automatically delivered and not customizable by the coach.
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst has a native workout builder so you can build specific plans for your clients along with using done-for-you templates.
Workouts
Coach Catalyst | ProCoach | |
|---|---|---|
Done-for-You Workouts | ||
Modifiable Workouts | ||
Build-Your-Own Workouts | ||
Exercise Database | ||
Customize Exercises | ||
Add Your Own Exercises |
Investment
I used the word investment instead of cost because either software is going to allow you to coach at scale. If you only have a few clients, you probably don’t need a software. Or, just grab out $5 plan and start building the systems you will need as you scale.
When you are ready to scale past just a couple clients. Software is going to allow you to provide an exceptional, professional experience from 2 to 200 all the while saving you a ton of time.
Just think for a second if you had 10 clients and you needed to check manually every day if they did their habits and workouts I get exhausted just trying to imagine all the back and forth follow-up.
Here is the rundown as of Dec 2023.
ProCoach
ProCoach has tiered pricing based on the number of clients that you have, and you have the option to add-on workouts to your plan.
Up to 20 Clients: $99.00 / mo
21-50 clients: $149.00 / mo
51-100 clients: $199 / mo
101-200 clients: $299 / mo
Add-Ons
Pro Coach Workouts: $49.00 / mo
All-In
Investment for 3 clients + workouts = $148.00 / mo
Investment for 25 clients + workouts = $198.00 / mo
Investment for 75 clients + workouts = $248.00 / mo
Investment for 150 clients + workouts = $348.00 / mo
Coach Catalyst
Coach Catalyst’s pricing structure is based on the number of clients in your organization.
3 Clients: $5.00 / mo
12 Clients: $39.00 / mo
13-50 Clients: $79.00 / mo
51-75 Clients: $99.00 / mo
76-100 clients: $119.00 / mo
Add-Ons
Branded App: $49 / mo
Additional Coaches: Free
Who is ProCoach for?
The coach who…
…wants a paint by numbers approach to getting started with nutrition coaching.
...wants to select from pre-determined habits and resources.
...wants a little more guidance on how to be a great coach.
...doesn’t want anything to do with the content or backend and just wants to coach their clients.
...doesn’t care about branding and is comfortable displaying the PN brand.
...is okay with messaging and notifications to be email and web based for the coach.
Who is Coach Catalyst for?
The coach…
...where brand is important to them.
...who wants the ability to create custom habit-based programs for clients.
...who wants to customize or create their own content.
...who wants to run shorter programs, challenges, or front end offers.
...who wants an app-based mobile experience for the both coach and client.
...who wants to use the software to communicate with clients and store their data without the client being on a program.
...who wants a software to be flexible and dynamic.
...who wants to create their own number or photo-based metrics.
...who wants a software to scale across an entire gym or organization.
That's it, I hope that gives you a little more insight into which platform you should choose. I guarantee you are going to happy with either.