6 Best Ellipticals for Home Gyms of 2024

Our tester did warn us about the noise, however, saying that this elliptical gets loud, especially when you’re doing an intense workout. We wouldn’t recommend using it early in the morning or late at night so as not to wake up your roommates. But other than the noise, he reports feeling just as energized with the Max Trainer M9 as he does on a Peloton bike.

Merach E19 Classic Smart Elliptical

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Pros

• Resistance bands maximize workouts
• Compact size that’s easy to store
• Free access to the Merach fitness app

Cons

• No manual resistance control
• Limited customer reviews

The Merach E19 elliptical incorporates elliptical cardio with resistance band training for four different workout modes (walking, HIIT training, strength training, and lower-body training). It’s a budget-friendly pick, and the compact size is a win for small spaces.

Our Tester’s Take

For a sweet price of $400, the Merach E19 costs less than a month of Equinox’s most expensive membership. It’s small but mighty, easily tucking into a room’s corner. It combines the classic elliptical motion with resistance band cables—so you can add bursts of strength training to your steady-state cardio (plus: these have built-in heart rate sensors to track your effort levels). If you don’t want to use the bands, lean on the armrests instead, which adjust up to 7.88 inches to meet your ideal height.

To adjust the resistance, you have to connect the Merach with the brand’s free fitness app—unfortunately, there’s no way to manually do so, which our testers didn’t love. Both courses and games are built into the app, too, so if you want a connected fitness experience, you’ll be taken care of with this option. However, our tester says the app isn’t updated often and glitches every now and then, but there are plenty of diverse workouts to choose from in its existing library.

Life Fitness

Life Fitness E1 Elliptical Cross-Trainer

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Pros

• Two console options
• High-quality build
• Quiet machine
• Highest weight capacity of ellipticals we tested

Cons

• No touchscreen
• Not as many features as others on our list

The Life Fitness E1 with the modest Go Console built with durability to last for years. It boasts all your basic stat tracking too, but the high-quality materials are the standout features here.

Our Tester’s Take

You’ll find a lot of Life Fitness machines in hotels and commercial gyms because they’re durable and dependable. If you want to bring the luxury gym experience to your home, the E1 Elliptical Cross-Trainer is a good place to start. It isn’t as shiny and attention-grabbing as other ellipticals on our list (read: no interactive or on-demand classes), but in this case, you’re paying for quality first and foremost. Our tester loves that it’s quiet, the preset workouts are challenging, and you won’t have to replace this for years. The lifetime warranty comes in handy if you find yourself needing a replacement.

The E1 comes with two console options. The Go Console, which is the simpler and more cost-effective of the two, comes with 13 preloaded workouts. Up to two users can store their progress on a personal profile and create one custom workout for each. You can’t store your phone on the Go Console as opposed to the Track Connect 2.0 option, but you can get a cheap stand on Amazon if you really want one. (For $3,499, the Track Connect 2.0 has 15 preloaded workouts and room for three custom workouts across four user profiles. It also syncs to the Life Fitness Connect app or your smartphone.

Let’s Compare the Costs of These Ellipticals

Before you make your final selection, let’s take a look at how the best ellipticals stack up in cost (before any sales or discounts).

How We Tested Ellipticals

We know how daunting it can be to decide which gym equipment is worth splurging on. So many machines promise different things, and it’s easy to get lost in the details. But we take our testing methodology pretty seriously. Our team dives deep into researching every elliptical on the market and we put our top contenders through the paces to test them on durability, functionality, ease of use, portability, and performance. We found the best ellipticals for home gyms that are high-intensity for your fitness goals and low-intensity for your joints.

We also tapped Josh York, an ISSA-certified personal trainer, to give us the rundown on how an elliptical can make a difference in your fitness routine. After a few weeks, each elliptical was graded on its exercise chops and how it held up against different factors such as body type, storage space, physical ability, budget, and more. Our findings are handed off to the medical experts to see how our user testing mirrored the industry research and brand claims. If spending your hard-earned cash is enough to make you sweat, rest assured that these best ellipticals are an investment well made.

How to Choose the Best Elliptical

Between the features and space requirements, buying an elliptical is a little more complex than you might think. That’s why we talked to the experts for shopping tips to get the most out of this low-impact machine. Here are the factors to keep in mind.