If I could only have one I would choose a smart trainer. I love my Tacx Neo. I love my power meter too but I tend to go more by RPE feel on race day and don't stare much at my power numbers.

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power meter hands down.

Then you have power if you do ride outside and for races.

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I would go with a power meter since you can use it both on the trainer and on the road. Plus, it helps you pace in a race and you can analyze your performance metrics afterwards. Can't do that with a smart trainer.

Power meter for sure. It works on the trainer and outdoors.

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Ed O'Malley
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Power meter. No brainer. But this assumes that you have some form of indoor trainer already.

With a PM, you can train just as effectively, but you will know your power everywhere, including your races. With a smart trainer, you can train effectively and know your power. However, you cannot use any of that power information in a race.

I would go with powermeter...

+1

This is an absolute no-brainer. A smart trainer will give you data, but what the heck will you do on race day? I have a 'dumb' trainer, but it doesn't keep me from training well and having fast bike splits in races.

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I just got a Tacx Neo (had computrainer for like 10 years) and do majority of my bike training indoors (I'd say 80%+!). If you are doing a majority of your training indoors, I might go for a trainer instead of PM. When I trained with my CT, I never raced with a PM and had good results with pacing, etc...If you know your pacing well, I think you should be fine on race day without a PM. I have a Stages PM as well and not convinced I'll race with it.

The Neo is pretty awesome. With Traineroad it's so seamless, quiet, and easy to do workouts. It's even better if you can leave a bike on there. I have to move it around and it's annoying and heavy. We actually have a Wattbike at my office gym too and I notice it reads higher than my Neo, but I love the indoor sessions. Just so effective and time efficient.

Both.

I'd get the 4iiii Precision for 400 bucks and the Tacx Vortex Smart for 500 and then you've still spent less than a Neo.

In fact that's what I did and it's great.

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Power meter. No question about it. You can use it to pace your races and any outdoor rides you do. The smart trainer is a neat toy but all I find it does for me is eliminate the need to shift my bike while on the trainer. It's a pretty expensive bit of equipment to save me the "inconvenience" of having to shift. As it is I find I can't let my attention waver off the effort since if I do the thing just makes it worse. So even that particular feature of the smart trainer just isn't that useful to me. More and more I find that having both a smart trainer and a power meter is redundant, and the power meter is the superior piece of equipment to have.

If you only have budget for one, then PM so you can use indoors and outdoor. That is what I did initially. Used powertap wheel + KK Road was a great setup before I got a Powerbeam.

I'll say it depends a lot on what your bike training will be like.

If it's all indoors or mostly indoors - the smart trainer is the way to go.

If it's only occasionally indoors, the powermeter.

I've had both the fluid trainer+powermeter (powertap rear wheel) then upgraded to a Kickr, and at least for me, the Kickr is just so much better in terms of hitting your Trainerroad or other workout goals. I have found that I actually end up pacing the bike by HR or even RPE even though I have a powermeter, as conditions like heat can definitely alter your race day power targets and you can run into trouble if you just blindly follow them.

Powermeter + Kurt Kinetic is like 90% of what you need. Honestly, the budget could be as low as

used PT hub + a decent wheel - $300
Kurt Kinetic used with a flywheel in good condition - $100

You will be mostly set.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

I bought power meter and smart trainer within a few months of each other, which was a lot of $, but well worth it. I'm using TR with powermatch and loving it. Erg mode is great. It's also nice to know that my power readers should translate accurately to outdoor riding as my Powertap P1 pedals are measuring my power both indoors and outdoors.

Power meter. You can train to power without erg mode. You might even argue that it's a better representation of riding outdoors.

Life circumstances have kept me indoor riding for the last 4 months. Maybe only 2-3 rides outside

A Neo / Zwift racing has made this type of training a blast

Before having to do 99% of indoor training, I would've said PM hands down. But now, i would probably stop riding if I still had my dumb trainer.

How will you train / race?