Quick Answer: Yes. Your Peloton Row works without the All-Access Membership — the machine rows normally and "Just Row" mode shows your live metrics on screen. What you lose is the class library, Form Assist, the leaderboard, and your saved history. The screen stays locked to Peloton's software unless you unlock it, and a one-time hardware adapter opens it up to streaming apps and sends your rowing data to your watch and training apps — with no $49.99/month fee.
Table of Contents
- What You Lose and Keep When You Cancel
- Just Row Mode: What You Get for Free
- The Manual Route: Sideloading
- The Full Unlock: FitSwitch
- Rowing Apps and Your Watch
- Cost Comparison
- Frequently Asked Questions
What You Lose and Keep When You Cancel
The Peloton All-Access Membership is $49.99/month — $599.88 a year, covering everyone in the household on the same machine.
What You Lose
- Live and on-demand rowing classes
- Form Assist and instructor form feedback
- The leaderboard and social features
- Saved workout history and personal records
- Programs, challenges, and structured plans
- Heart rate zone training and performance trends
What You Keep
- Just Row mode — open rowing with live metrics on screen
- The hardware — rail, seat, handle, and resistance all work normally
- Live metrics during the session — stroke rate, split, output, and distance
- Bluetooth heart rate — pair any strap
- The screen — the rotating touchscreen still powers on
Cancelling is a software paywall, not a hardware lock. The Row underneath is a well-built machine with electronically controlled resistance and accurate sensors, and none of that is subscription-gated.
One thing to be clear about: metrics shown during a Just Row session are not saved to your Peloton profile once the membership lapses. You see them while you row; you cannot review them afterwards. That turns out to matter, and it is the main thing FitSwitch fixes.
Just Row Mode: What You Get for Free
"Just Row" is Peloton's free mode, and on the Row it is more useful than the equivalent on the Bike, because rowing metrics are genuinely informative on their own:
- Stroke rate — strokes per minute
- Split — your pace per 500m
- Output — power in watts
- Distance and elapsed time
- Heart rate, with a strap paired
If you already know how to row and you want a good machine with a readout, Just Row covers it at no cost.
Two gaps remain. The screen shows a metrics panel and nothing else — no films, no browser, no third-party rowing apps. And nothing you do is recorded anywhere, so there is no way to see whether this month's splits are better than last month's.
The Manual Route: Sideloading
The Row runs Android underneath, like the rest of the Peloton range. With developer access and a computer you can push Android apps onto it yourself — the process is covered in our guide to sideloading apps on a Peloton, and the community OpenPelo project automates parts of it. We also wrote an honest OpenPelo vs FitSwitch comparison.
The drawbacks are the same on every Peloton machine:
- Peloton software updates can wipe sideloaded apps, and you start over
- No metrics overlay, so your rowing data vanishes behind whatever app you open
- No broadcasting to watches or training apps
- Patchy app compatibility
- A real risk of putting the machine into a bad state
It solves "I want Netflix on the screen." It does not make the Row a connected machine, and it does not get your sessions recorded anywhere.
The Full Unlock: FitSwitch
FitSwitch is a small adapter that plugs into the Row's USB port. It is $139.99 once, with a 30-day money-back guarantee and no subscription of its own. The same unit works on the Bike+, the Tread, and the Tread+.
What It Does
- Runs any app on the Row screen — Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, Spotify, a web browser, and 50+ more
- Keeps your rowing metrics visible — a live overlay with stroke rate, split, output, and heart rate on top of whatever you are watching
- Broadcasts your row — over standard Bluetooth and ANT+ profiles
- Speaks FTMS as a rower — so training apps and watches can read your stroke rate, power, and distance
It detects that it is running on a Row and shows rowing metrics automatically, the same way it switches to speed and incline on a Peloton Tread. There is nothing to configure.
No Peloton membership, no developer mode, no computer, and no permanent change to the machine. Unplug it and the Row is exactly as it was.
Rowing Apps and Your Watch
This is what Just Row cannot do at any price: get your sessions out of the machine and into something that remembers them.
Training Apps
FTMS is the standard Bluetooth language for gym equipment, and it includes a Rower Data profile carrying stroke rate, power, and distance. FitSwitch broadcasts your Row over it, so a compatible app can read your live rowing data and record the session properly.
Kinomap is the obvious fit — it is multi-sport with filmed real-world routes covering rowing as well as cycling and running, so you can row an actual waterway instead of a progress bar. We have a full Kinomap guide and setup instructions.
Check the current compatible apps list before paying for any app subscription, since rowing support is less common than cycling support.
Training apps connect through the free FitSwitch Bridge companion app on your iPhone or Mac, which relays the connection.
Garmin
Garmin watches and head units pick up the broadcast directly, so your row lands in Garmin Connect with stroke rate, distance, and training load — and flows on to Strava or anywhere else you sync. ANT+ is built in, so there is nothing extra to buy.
Apple Watch
Apple Watch needs one extra step. watchOS supports Bluetooth heart rate and cycling sensors natively, but not rowing equipment, so it will not pick up the Row's data on its own. Use a workout app that connects to FTMS equipment itself and the full session records — stroke rate, output, distance, and heart rate — closing your rings and landing in Apple Health. Without one, the watch still logs a rowing workout from its own motion sensors, just without the machine's output and split. The same caveat applies on the Bike.
Any ANT+ or Bluetooth heart rate strap works alongside all of this.
Cost Comparison
Over one year, starting from a Row you already own.
| Setup | Year one | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Keep All-Access | $599.88 | Classes, Form Assist, leaderboard, saved history |
| Cancel, Just Row only | $0 | A working rower with a live metrics screen, nothing recorded |
| Cancel + FitSwitch | $139.99 | Streaming on screen, metrics overlay, sessions recorded to your watch and apps |
| Cancel + FitSwitch + a rowing app | $139.99 + app | All of the above plus guided or virtual-route rowing |
FitSwitch pays for itself against All-Access in under three months, and nothing renews. Third-party app subscriptions, where you want them, are separate and not included.
The honest caveat: Peloton's rowing classes include form feedback, and technique matters more on a rower than on a bike — bad form is slower and harder on your back. If you are still learning to row, the membership is doing real work for you. If you already row well, you are mostly paying for content you could replace.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you use a Peloton Row without a subscription?
Yes. The machine rows normally without an All-Access Membership, and "Just Row" mode displays live stroke rate, split, output, distance, and time. You lose the class library, Form Assist, the leaderboard, and saved workout history.
What is Just Row mode?
Just Row is Peloton's free open-rowing mode. It shows your live metrics during the session with no instructor and no class structure, and needs no subscription. Sessions are not saved to your Peloton profile without a membership.
How much is the Peloton Row subscription?
The All-Access Membership is $49.99 per month — $599.88 a year — and it covers everyone in the household using the same machine.
Can I watch Netflix on my Peloton Row?
Not through Peloton's own software, which keeps the screen locked to Peloton content. A FitSwitch adapter turns the display into a standard Android screen running Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video, and other apps, with your rowing metrics overlaid on top.
Can I record my rows without a Peloton membership?
Yes, with FitSwitch. It broadcasts your Row over standard Bluetooth and ANT+ as an FTMS rower, so a Garmin watch or a compatible training app captures stroke rate, output, and distance and syncs it to Garmin Connect, Strava, or Apple Health. Peloton's own history ends with the membership, but the data does not have to.
Does FitSwitch show rowing metrics or bike metrics on the Row?
Rowing metrics. It detects the machine automatically and displays stroke rate, split, and output rather than the cadence, power, and resistance it shows on a Bike.
Does cancelling damage the Row?
No. Cancelling removes access to Peloton's class software only. The rail, seat, handle, resistance, sensors, and screen all keep working, and you can resubscribe at any time.
Do I need a computer or developer mode?
No. FitSwitch plugs into the USB port and needs neither. Manual sideloading requires both, which is the main reason most people choose the adapter.
Is the FitSwitch for the Row different from the Bike or Tread one?
No — it is the same unit. Choose the Peloton Row option on the product page so you get the correct fit and matching instructions.
Row Your Way
A Peloton Row without a subscription is still an excellent rowing machine, and Just Row proves it for free.
But the screen is a large part of what you paid for, and so is the data the machine produces and then throws away. FitSwitch is $139.99 once, with a 30-day money-back guarantee — it turns the screen into something worth looking at, and makes sure every split you pull ends up somewhere you can see it again.
No membership. No monthly fee. No computer required.
Last updated: October 2026