Honest assessment: how much time do you anticipate your bike being on your trainer? Do you plan on taking it off every weekend? Every couple of days? Once every few months? If your bike is going to sit on the trainer for extended periods of time I'd pony up for a direct drive trainer that way you don't have to fiddle with tire pressure and spin down calibrations every time you want to get a session in. I have a computrainer (wheel on trainer) and I'm starting to get really tired of having to check my tire pressure, warm up, do a spin down, adjust the tension on the roller, do another spin down.... it's invariably 10-15 minutes of warming up and calibrating before I can get to the real "work" of my workout and that will be the same for any wheel on trainer.

If you do decide to wait for a direct drive trainer, I'd wait for this one: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/...trainerhands-on.html

I use a (wheel on) Kickr Snap and leave my bike on there for weeks at a time. It's pretty fool proof. I pump the rear tyre back up to 100psi every few days to keep it consistent and calibrate it (which takes about a minute) every time i have taken the bike off for an outdoor ride, or just every few days if i can be bothered. I use Trainer Road and Zwift and it works great. Wouldn't swap it for anything.

I second this, I use the Kickr Snap as well, and while I can only compare it to a 'dumb' trainer, so far it hasnt been an issue and my bike lives on the trainer.

I even went so far as to get a refurbished one from Wahoo, was $100 cheaper with the same warranty.

SNAP > Magnus - SNAP has a bigger flywheel and better ride feel. Unless the Magnus is a lot cheaper than the SNAP, go the SNAP.

Kickr / Hammer - Very similar units in regard to ride feel. The Kickr is a little quicker (at this point) with transitions in SIM mode. This could change with firmware/software.... maybe.

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Shane Miller - GPLama
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If your bike has horizontal dropouts, I would get a wheel-on trainer. Otherwise, go for the direct drive.

I used a Kinetic Road Machine and loved it. No issues, and it was dumb. I am now on a Kickr, and it is pretty cool. But, hassling with the horizontal dropouts is a world-class buzz kill. If I had it to do again, I would probably get a Cycleops Magnus.

I just bought a used Kickr and couldn't be happier. The huge flywheel provides a great inertial 'feel' that I just couldn't seem to get with more traditional trainers (tacx vortex smart, KK fluid, cyclops fluid, tacx satori).

I would also love to try the Tacx Neo (quiter than the kickr) and Elite Drivo if they ever come up on the market.

(n=1) I'd say the kickr is worth the money!

Kickr or Hammer are really neck and neck in terms of quality and performance, you really get into the minutia when looking at the differences...If I have a Wahoo computer, I'm going with the Kickr hand's down.

The Hammer may be a better option if you have a thru-axle bike, but most haven't gone that way yet so I'm assuming you don't have one.

For a wheel on trainer, SNAP hand's down, recent update to the SNAP improved it's accuracy as well.