[Xydadx3]

Well I've been reading all about the price increase Strava is rolling out. (I thought I had read something here but couldn't find the thread...)
I was finally notified via email from both Strava and from Apple for the subscription my price is increasing from $7.99 to $11.99/mo. $4/mo isn't exactly going to break the bank. Netflix and other services have been doing this for years so its really no surprise either. I've read the price structure is all over the place. What has everyone else seen?

But wait, Strava's newly padded bank account is being put to good use!

Strava acquires Fatmap, a 3D mapping platform for the great outdoors

Activity tracking platform Strava has acquired Fatmap, a company building a high-resolution 3D global map platform for the great outdoors.

techcrunch.com

I can't wait! 😑

 

[Lombard]

Well you have to fund all the free users like me.

 

[cxwrench]

"Reading all about the price increase..."? It's really that big of a deal somewhere?

 

[tlg]

Well I've been reading all about the price increase Strava is rolling out. (I thought I had read something here but couldn't find the thread...)

I don't think it was discussed here.
DCRainmaker did a story on it.

Well you have to fund all the free users like me.

^^^ THIS

Seriously though.... I don't / didn't mind the free users. But I think they took their business model the wrong way. There's just simply WAY too many free users to justify a $4 price increase on paid members.
IMO they need to have tiered price levels. The free level should be SUPER basic.
Then $1-$2 for what's now the free membership.
And keep the current full membership the same price.

 

[velodog]

Well you have to fund all the free users like me.

Socialist.

 

[Lombard]

I don't think it was discussed here.
DCRainmaker did a story on it.

^^^ THIS

Seriously though.... I don't / didn't mind the free users. But I think they took their business model the wrong way. There's just simply WAY too many free users to justify a $4 price increase on paid members.
IMO they need to have tiered price levels. The free level should be SUPER basic.
Then $1-$2 for what's now the free membership.
And keep the current full membership the same price.

Well TBO, there aren't any paid features I care about. The free version has more than I need or want.

 

[tlg]

Well TBO, there aren't any paid features I care about. The free version has more than I need or want.

That's the problem. They put too many features in the free version.

And there's way too many features in the paid version for most paying members.

 

[Lombard]

That's the problem. They put too many features in the free version.

And there's way too many features in the paid version for most paying members.

Exactly. I get all those stupid challenges in my feed that I couldn't give a rat's arse about.

My initial attraction to Strava was that unlike others, it was a KISS app. Hit start, hit stop, and it tracks your ride with a few statistics. Then came segments and PR's which is fun for awhile, but I don't really need it. Now it has more fluff than I could ever want.

 

[tlg]

Exactly. I get all those stupid challenges in my feed that I couldn't give a rat's arse about.

My initial attraction to Strava was that unlike others, it was a KISS app. Hit start, hit stop, and it tracks your ride with a few statistics. Then came segments and PR's which is fun for awhile, but I don't really need it. Now it has more fluff than I could ever want.

Curious if it had less features but the basic ones you use,
What price point would you pay for it?

 

[Lombard]

Curious if it had less features but the basic ones you use,
What price point would you pay for it?

Hard to say. Maybe $5/month?

 

[tlg]

Hard to say. Maybe $5/month?

That's exactly why I think if they had a basic plan for $2 they could convert millions of free members to paid.

I've been a paid member for a long time. I use quite a bit of the features and don't mind paying for them.
But I'd gladly pay a lower rate for less features.
This 50% pay jump is a bitter pill to swallow when they're not asking millions of others to pitch in a bit.
I'm assessing if I'll switch to free. I imagine there's millions of others who will do the same.

 

[Lombard]

That's exactly why I think if they had a basic plan for $2 they could convert millions of free members to paid.

I've been a paid member for a long time. I use quite a bit of the features and don't mind paying for them.
But I'd gladly pay a lower rate for less features.
This 50% pay jump is a bitter pill to swallow when they're not asking millions of others to pitch in a bit.
I'm assessing if I'll switch to free. I imagine there's millions of others who will do the same.

Come over to our side.

 

[Grog McCog]

If you use it to record rides (eg with your phone while on the bike), presumably you are doing that instead of paying multiple hundreds of dollars for a Garmin. Paying a small fee for that functionality seems reasonable, since you are still saving a lot compared to having to buy a Garmin.

If you just upload rides from your Garmin (or whatever) and look at them, that is, and should be free.

Right now if you want to do any significant analytics, you pay. That seems reasonable.

RideWithGPS is an excellent alternative. I personally like it better, but everyone else seems to prefer Strava, so I upload to both.

 

[Lombard]

RideWithGPS is an excellent alternative. I personally like it better, but everyone else seems to prefer Strava, so I upload to both.

I tried using RideWithGPS for awhile, but it kept losing my events, so I ditched the app. I still use it on my laptop to come up with routes and make cue sheets.

 

[One Wheel]

I've tried the free premium trial a couple of times, but ultimately there's just not enough there to make it worth money. If they took much away from the free version then that wouldn't be worth it either. I would be fine with a free, ad-supported version. There are other programs that handle all the really important aspects. The numbers geek in me appreciates the analysis from Runalyze, and with a cheap secondhand Garmin watch and free app I can make my own Garmin segments to track my own progress.

 

[tlg]

Follow up by DC Rainmaker on the pricing debacle.

 

[DaveG]

That's the problem. They put too many features in the free version.

And there's way too many features in the paid version for most paying members.

Strava supposedly has 100 million members. Without a free version I imagine that number would drop way down and part of the appeal of Strava is that there are lots of users some of which are your friends or riding partners. I use the free version partly because I'm cheap but also because there is not much of the premium version that I would use. Sure ~$10 a month is not that big a deal but many of us have lots of those $10 a month subscriptions and they add up. For cycling I have RideWithGPS and Zwift. And then there the litany of streaming services

 

[Lombard]

At the end of the day, I belive what will end up happening is Strava will have ads to support the free version and the pay version will be ad-free.

 

[Finx]

At the end of the day, I belive what will end up happening is Strava will have ads to support the free version and the pay version will be ad-free.

They are already 'ad supported' for both free and paid users. Their "Challenges" now are nothing but spam trying to harvest data and sell product to anyone who records an activity more than 15 minutes long.

My relationship with Strava was already tenuous at best. I cancelled by subscription, am very close to stopping use of it altogether. i might upload rides just to have them archived for posterity, but my days of logging in every day to see what my 'Strava friends' are up to are surely coming to an end.

 

[Xydadx3]

They are already 'ad supported' for both free and paid users. Their "Challenges" now are nothing but spam trying to harvest data and sell product to anyone who records an activity more than 15 minutes long.

I only remember a couple of those challenges being worthwhile. Red Bull sent me and my son, who also completed it, a free can of Red Bull. The Trek Challenge was worth a couple free water bottles. And I used the coupon from the Le Col challenge to acquire a head/ ear cover and gloves for cold weather, both of which I’m about to wear when I head out at 7am. It’s a balmy 30° here — not too cold but chilly enough to be a no-go without the cold weather gear.
None of the above were actually challenging and I would easily consider them all to be ads, especially Le Col.