NordicTrack Review: A 50-Year Brand Now Running on a Subscription

NordicTrack has been building home exercise equipment since 1975, and an independent lab test genuinely confirms its flagship exercise bike performs well against top competitors. The honest catch is that most of what makes current NordicTrack equipment worth buying lives behind a mandatory monthly iFIT subscription, the brand's own Trustpilot scores are poor, complaint volume is high, and the parent company has weathered real financial distress and two product recalls in the last two years.

PickSuperb Verdict Box

NordicTrack's engineering genuinely holds up under independent testing on specific products, but the ownership structure around it, a subscription-dependent business model, recent financial distress, and a high volume of customer complaints, is the part that deserves the most scrutiny before you buy.

Brand Snapshot

NordicTrack was founded in 1975 by Ed and Florence Pauls in Chaska, Minnesota, after Ed, an engineer, built the first cross-country ski training machine in his garage; it was patented in 1976. The Pauls family owned the company until 1986, when it was sold to CML Group, which over-expanded with more than 300 retail stores and heavy infomercial marketing, ran up significant debt, and itself filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998. That's an important, often-confused detail: the brand's real historical bankruptcy belongs to CML Group, not to its current owner.

Icon Health & Fitness acquired NordicTrack out of that 1998 collapse, and on June 10, 2021, Icon renamed itself iFIT Health & Fitness Inc., now commonly called iFIT Inc., headquartered in Logan, Utah. iFIT is privately held; a roughly $650 million IPO was floated and then withdrawn in October 2021 citing adverse market conditions. The company went through genuine financial strain in 2021-2022: layoffs in December 2021 and February 2022, a $300 million lawsuit filed by lender Pamplona Capital Management in January 2022 tied to a dispute with major shareholder L Catterton, and press reports describing iFIT as having retained bankruptcy counsel and calling the suit a potential existential threat. That suit was reportedly resolved amicably around February 2022 alongside a $355 million rescue financing round from L Catterton and Pathlight Capital, and longtime co-founder and CEO Scott Watterson stepped down from day-to-day management on February 28, 2022, reportedly as a condition of the new funding, remaining as Chairman. We found no confirmed Chapter 11 filing by iFIT itself in that window, only this documented financial distress and rescue financing, worth stating precisely rather than conflating with an actual bankruptcy. Current CEO is Kevin Duffy, per iFIT's own leadership page; the exact appointment date could not be pinned down with confidence.

Product Deep Dive: Hardware, the iFIT Subscription, and What You Actually Get

Beyond treadmills (covered in a separate review), NordicTrack's current lineup spans Commercial-series exercise bikes starting at $1,299.99, FreeStride-series ellipticals starting at $1,799.99, RW-series rowers starting at $1,999.99, a newer connected-Pilates/reformer line starting at $4,999.99 following iFIT's acquisition of Reform RX, and strength accessories like adjustable benches and iSelect dumbbells in the roughly $150 to $600 range.

The iFIT subscription underpins almost everything that makes this equipment distinctive. Following a March 2024 restructuring, iFIT Train runs about $15/month or $180/year for a single profile on Bluetooth-only equipment without a built-in screen, while iFIT Pro runs about $39/month, with sources citing the annual equivalent inconsistently between roughly $396 and $468/year, for up to five profiles and is effectively required for full functionality on any touchscreen-equipped bike, elliptical, or rower. Machines can typically run in a limited manual mode without a paid plan, but that strips out the auto-adjust programming and trainer-led workout library that's the actual selling point, so budget for the subscription as a near-mandatory ongoing cost, not an optional extra.

NordicTrack — Starting Prices by Category

Pros and Cons

Pros

•      OutdoorGearLab's independent lab test ranked the X24 bike 86/100, second of 13 bikes tested, praising incline adjustment, display quality, and ride feel

•      iFIT's content library itself is well-regarded independently, Garage Gym Reviews rates the platform around 4.1-4.2/5 for class variety, instructor quality, and licensed music

•      BBB accreditation since November 2021 with an A+ rating, reflecting the company's responsiveness to complaints

•      Genuine, large-scale engineering history dating back 50 years, not a recent drop-shipped brand

Cons

•      Trustpilot scores are poor across both of the company's main sites, 2.6/5 on nordictrack.com (2,126 reviews) and 1.9/5 on ifit.com (1,554 reviews)

•      784 BBB complaints in the last 3 years, 218 in the last 12 months, a high volume regardless of the A+ responsiveness grade

•      Two CPSC recalls in the last two years: adjustable dumbbells (Feb 2024, 40 reports, 8 injuries) and RW900 rowing machines for a touchscreen fire hazard (Oct 2025, 8 incidents including 2 fires)

•      Mozilla's Privacy Not Included project rates NordicTrack's data practices "still bad," citing opt-out default marketing consent, data-broker purchasing, and broad health/location data collection

What Real Customers and Labs Are Saying

The Trustpilot numbers here are genuinely poor, not thin or dismissible, 2.6/5 across 2,126 reviews on nordictrack.com and 1.9/5 across 1,554 reviews on ifit.com, both large, bimodal samples (roughly 37-50 percent one-star) rather than a small or unrepresentative pool. BBB's complaint breakdown, drawn from 784 complaints over three years, skews heavily toward service and repair issues (429), followed by general product issues (224), billing (50), delivery (26), and customer service (20).

"My console went blank after a firmware update and they told me it was out of warranty even though the update caused it"  — Representative complaint theme, cross-referenced across BBB filings tied to the 2022-2023 console-failure wave

That console-failure complaint lines up with a well-documented, specific incident: a wave of NordicTrack and ProForm touchscreen consoles went blank or unusable in late 2022 and 2023, widely blamed by owners on a problematic iFIT software push. iFIT acknowledged increased complaints and pushed a fix that didn't resolve the issue for many users, with backordered replacement consoles and some customers reportedly charged for out-of-warranty repairs. This is a real, specific reliability risk tied directly to the subscription-connected hardware model, not a vague complaint pattern.

Recalls, Legal History, and Privacy, Stated Precisely

Two CPSC recalls are worth knowing in exact terms. In February 2024, iFIT recalled roughly 15,400 NordicTrack 50-pound iSelect Voice-Controlled Adjustable Dumbbells in the US (plus about 650 in Canada) after weight plates could dislodge, with 40 reports and 8 injuries including contusions and abrasions. In October 2025, roughly 44,000 to 45,000 NordicTrack RW900 rowing machines sold between November 2018 and April 2022 were recalled because the touchscreen console could overheat and ignite, with 8 incidents reported, including 2 actual fires and over $6,000 in property damage, though no injuries.

On the legal side, Barclay et al. v. iFIT Health & Fitness, Inc., filed in Minnesota federal court in November 2019, alleged false advertising of treadmill horsepower claims; that case reached preliminary settlement approval in September 2024 and a final approval hearing in August 2025, with remedies including a $30 maintenance kit, a $69 treadmill mat, or an iFIT membership credit, plus a requirement that the company stop making "continuous horsepower" claims without proper disclaimers, correctly described as settled, not pending. A separate 2022 lawsuit over iFIT's discontinuation of live fitness classes without refunds remains unclear in its final status and should be treated as unconfirmed rather than resolved. On privacy, Mozilla's Privacy Not Included project currently rates NordicTrack's data practices as "still bad" (an improvement from the prior year's "awful"), citing default opt-out marketing consent, data-broker purchasing practices, and broad collection of health, location, and financial data through connected equipment and the iFIT app.

How NordicTrack Compares to the Competition

Who Should (and Shouldn't) Buy NordicTrack

Good Fit: Buyers Who Will Actually Use the iFIT Content

If trainer-led classes, scenic rides, and auto-adjust programming genuinely appeal to you and you're comfortable budgeting for an ongoing subscription, NordicTrack's hardware is independently verified as competitive on specific models like the X24 bike.

Weak Fit: Anyone Wanting Subscription-Free Hardware

If you want a machine that delivers its full advertised experience without an ongoing monthly cost, NordicTrack's current lineup isn't built for that, look at a competitor that doesn't gate core functionality behind a required plan.

Our Top Pick in the Lineup

The X24 exercise bike is the strongest independently-verified pick in the non-treadmill lineup, OutdoorGearLab ranked it 86/100 and second of 13 bikes tested, specifically praising its adjustable incline, display quality, and ride feel.

Pricing and Where to Buy

NordicTrack equipment sells through nordictrack.com and major retailers, with frequent seasonal promotions. Budget for the iFIT Pro subscription (about $39/month) as a near-mandatory ongoing cost on top of the hardware price for most current touchscreen-equipped models.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to pay for iFIT to use NordicTrack equipment?

Not strictly, most machines run in a limited manual mode without a subscription, but you lose the auto-adjust programming, trainer-led classes, and workout library that are the main selling point of current touchscreen models.

Has NordicTrack had any recalls?

Yes, two recent ones: adjustable dumbbells in February 2024 (8 injuries reported) and RW900 rowing machines in October 2025 for a touchscreen fire hazard (2 fires reported, no injuries).

Did NordicTrack or its parent company go bankrupt?

Not NordicTrack's current parent, iFIT. A prior owner, CML Group, filed Chapter 11 in 1998 before NordicTrack was acquired by Icon Health & Fitness (iFIT's predecessor). iFIT itself faced serious financial distress and a $300 million lawsuit in 2021-2022 but secured rescue financing rather than filing for bankruptcy.

Why are NordicTrack's Trustpilot scores so low?

Both nordictrack.com (2.6/5) and ifit.com (1.9/5) show low, large-sample Trustpilot scores, with recurring themes around subscription billing disputes, firmware issues affecting hardware, and customer service responsiveness.

Is NordicTrack hardware actually good?

Independent testing on specific products, like OutdoorGearLab's test of the X24 bike, found genuinely competitive performance. The concerns in this review are less about the hardware itself and more about the subscription dependency, complaint volume, and recent recalls.

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Final Verdict

NordicTrack's hardware genuinely holds up under independent testing on specific models, the X24 bike's 86/100 lab score is real, earned engineering credit. But the brand today is really a subscription business wrapped around that hardware, and the numbers around that subscription model, poor Trustpilot scores, high complaint volume, two recent recalls, and a documented firmware-failure incident that led to litigation, deserve equal weight before you commit. If you'll genuinely use the iFIT content and have budgeted for the ongoing cost, it's defensible; if you just want subscription-free exercise equipment, look elsewhere. For another review built around recovery-focused fitness gear and what's independently proven versus marketed, see our Therabody massage gun review.