Coach's Eye alternatives for running form in 2026
Coach's Eye was retired in September 2022. The real replacements for coaches who draw on video, and the option for runners who want a verdict with no coach.
There is no direct replacement for Coach's Eye, and the people who used it say so. If you are a coach who draws lines and talks over slow-motion video, the closest options are Onform, Dartfish Express, CoachView and VisualEyes on iPhone, or Kinovea on a Windows desktop. Each one is missing something Coach's Eye had. If you are a runner with no coach who wants to know what is wrong with your form and what to do about it, a different kind of tool fits better. Caden tracks your joints for you, scores your form and builds a 4 or 8 week plan. It does not have drawing or voice-over tools, so it is not a Coach's Eye clone. It answers a different question.
What Coach's Eye did well
TechSmith retired Coach's Eye in September 2022. Three years on, it is still the benchmark in reviews of every app that tried to take its place.
Users loved four things. It was simple. It was fast. Slow motion worked. And you could draw on the video and record a voice-over at the same time, then send that clip to an athlete. That last one is the feature people miss most.
"It's missing one of the best things about coaches eye and that is that you can screen record while drawing and doing a voice over at the same time." App Store review of VisualEyes, 1 star, US
It was also cheap. Most of the replacements moved to a subscription. That change shows up in almost every complaint below.
Where people get stuck with the replacements
The orphaned Coach's Eye users are now spread across Onform, Dartfish, CoachView and VisualEyes. They are not happy. In our review corpus, 11 separate reviews of those apps mention Coach's Eye or Hudl Technique by name, and all of them are asking for the old tool back.
"Deleted after 5 minutes. Slow, choppy, glitchy. I miss Coaches Eye…" App Store review of Onform, 1 star, US
"Not an acceptable replacement for coaches eye as I thought it might be" Google Play review of Onform, 1 star
"with that discontinued I have been testing Dartfish Express." Google Play review of Dartfish, 3 star
The complaints cluster into three groups. First, price. Coach's Eye was a small one-off buy. Onform is a subscription, and one App Store review put it at "$30 a month" at the time of writing. Dartfish Express is an annual subscription after a 15-day trial, and reviewers quoted "$100/year" at the time of writing. Second, speed and stability. Freezing, choppy playback and slow uploads come up again and again. Third, the workflow. Coach's Eye let you draw and talk at once. Several replacements make you do one, then the other.
The replacements for coaches, one by one
Onform on iPhone is the most complete. It records at 240 frames per second, has frame-by-frame scrubbing, drawing, side-by-side compare, voice-over, chat with athletes, and it absorbed Hudl Technique. It has a 4.79 rating from 8,616 iOS ratings. The trade-offs: it is built for a paying coach with invited athletes, the trial locks the tools when it ends, uploads are a common complaint, and the Android version is rated 3.0 with reviewers saying the camera only works on iOS. See Hudl Technique alternatives for the takeover story.
Dartfish Express is the consumer app of a pro analysis brand that clinics and university courses trust. The trade-offs: the trial needs a card and bills annually, reviewers say you cannot draw and voice-over at the same time, the tutorials are old, and the Android app is rated 1.6.
CoachView is a slow-motion video player with a frame dial. It is rated 4.55 from 611 iOS ratings. The trade-offs: Google Play reviewers report the video freezes while scrubbing, that it does not record true slow motion itself, and one App Store reviewer could not export because of an iCloud error.
VisualEyes is a video coaching app rated 4.78 from 395 iOS ratings. The trade-off is the one quoted above. No draw and talk at the same time, and a paying coach reported freezes and crashes.
Kinovea is free and open source, with precise manual angle and distance tools. It runs on Windows desktop only. No mobile port is planned and its own forum has crash reports. If you coach from a laptop, it is the best free option. If you coach from a phone, it is not an option. See Kinovea alternative for iPhone.
The option for runners without a coach
All five tools above give you a video and a pen. You still have to know what to look for. That is fine for a coach. It is not much use to a runner alone at the track.
Caden does the looking for you. You film 5 to 20 seconds from the side on your iPhone. The audio is removed and the clip uploads to private storage under your account for the pose estimation. You get a form score out of 100, six dials for where your foot lands, knee bend on landing, knee bend at push-off, upper body lean, arm bend and head position, plus cadence. You get freeze frames at foot strike, midstance and toe-off with a skeleton overlay. You get a coach's tip in plain words and a 4 or 8 week plan of drills and strength work. At the end you film again and compare.
What Caden does not do: draw, voice-over, share annotated clips to a coach, or record at 240 frames per second. It is a 2D measurement from video. It cannot see force or pronation.
Comparison table
| Coach's Eye | Onform | Dartfish Express | CoachView | VisualEyes | Kinovea | Caden | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Retired | iPhone, weak Android | iOS, Android | iOS, Android | iOS | Windows desktop | iPhone |
| Draw on video | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Voice-over while drawing | Yes | Yes | No, per reviews | No | No, per reviews | No | No |
| Automatic joint tracking | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Form score and plan | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Needs a coach to be useful | No | Mostly | No | No | No | No | No |
| Cost model | One-off, retired | Subscription | Annual subscription | Paid | Paid | Free | Free download, Pro subscription |
Who should pick which
- You coach several athletes from an iPhone and want chat and compare: Onform.
- You work in a clinic or teach a course and need a known brand: Dartfish Express.
- You want a cheap slow-motion player with a frame dial: CoachView.
- You want free and precise and you have a Windows laptop: Kinovea.
- You are a runner with no coach and you want a verdict and a plan: Caden.
- You want both a coach's eye and a number: use Caden for the baseline, then send the same clip to a coach.
How to switch or try
If you still have Coach's Eye clips, export them from your camera roll now. Reviewers of Hudl learned that lesson the hard way when old lesson videos disappeared.
For the coach tools, check the trial terms before you tap. Several of these apps need a card on file and bill in full when the trial ends. Set a reminder on day 10.
For Caden, download it free, film one side-view clip, and read the score. You can do that before you decide anything. The full analysis, plan and comparison need the Pro subscription.
How to do it in Caden
- Tap Run a new analysis. Film 10 to 20 seconds from the side at your easy pace.
- Read the form score and the six dials. Tap the lowest dial for its cue.
- Open Breakpoints and check the Foot strike frame. This is the frame a coach would have paused on.
- Read the coach's tip. One cue per metric, in plain words.
- Start a 4 or 8 week plan from the result.
- Re-film at the end of the plan and open Before and after in Stats.
FAQ
Is Coach's Eye still available?
No. TechSmith retired it in September 2022. It is not in the App Store and there is no successor app from TechSmith.
What is the closest app to Coach's Eye?
For a coach, Onform on iPhone has the most overlapping features, including voice-over while drawing. Users still complain that it is slower and more expensive than Coach's Eye was.
Is there a free Coach's Eye alternative?
Kinovea is free and open source, but it runs on Windows desktop only. On a phone, Caden is free to download, with the full analysis and plan on the Pro subscription.
Can Caden draw on my video like Coach's Eye?
No. Caden has no drawing or voice-over tools. It measures the joints for you and shows annotated freeze frames instead.
Does Caden work for a coach?
Yes, as a fast first pass. Film the athlete from the side, read the dials and breakpoints, then use your own tools for the detailed video work. See our page for running coaches.
Coach's Eye, Onform, Dartfish, CoachView, VisualEyes, Kinovea and Hudl are names that belong to their owners.