I cancelled my subscription now that I’ve gotten better at creating smart segments in WKO5. Being able to see my results on segments was the only thing I used in the paid version.
The route creation functionality is still pretty poor and hasn’t advanced in years
I give Strava money to give them money because I like that they’re there. Now my choice looks be to give them $60/yr → $80/year for features I don’t really use. On top of that, they’ve started injecting “give a thumbs up to some random person who lives an hour away” into my notifications. I, like others, need to rethink this.
They’re raising prices 20%, causing a lot of customer rethinks. The price should be going down for more volume, not up. Maybe test a price tier for “thanks Strava” that comes with a bottle/T-shirt.
They need to start getting money out of the brand partners. 10% commission for all new GPS devices activated on Strava. 1% commission on Bike/PM if you want the make model to show in peoples profile. Put bike shops, services, tour guides, vrbos, and coffee stops on the map
Agree and thought the same. Nate and TR are providing options and notifications. Strava appears to just be increasing and for what. I have not seen much in the way of “new” features. For the most part it has been pay for the subscription to get the features we did get in the past. Some flashy stuff that is not really a benefit. 3D map wow! activities I will never use. Still reviewing but pretty sure in July Strava will see another small loss in revenue. Would love to see the numbers at the end of this year. Sure seems like they are shooting themselves in the foot.
For me, a classic example of Strava missing the boat is Veloviewer. Why didn’t Strava create this itself? Or once it saw the popularity/ usefulness, why didn’t Strava buy Veloviewer and integrate this into the service fully?
Having Veloviewer like functionality as part of route creation would be cool and incredibly useful when creating routes wheee you aren’t familiar with the climbs.
But then TrainerRoad: I have an invoice dated January 17 2023 saying I renew at $129.00, and the app says I renew in March at $189.99.
$60.99 jump. Not happy, and I supposedly can change to a different price, but it’s a hassle factor…
On desktop, the “Strava Sauce” Chrome extension helps filter out the cruft a little bit, eg.
Responsive/Mobile Layout (recommended)
Hide subscription upsells
Hide Sauce Bonus Features
Hide virtual activities (e.g. Zwift)
Hide commutes
Hide challenges
Hide promotions
No use on the mobile app, though, so I try to avoid looking at that!
So if I cancel I miss Goals, Heatmaps, Training Log, Training Plans, Power Curve, Fitness & Freshness, Create A Route, and Subscriber Perks.
I think the only thing I use is the Training Log occasionally, and Power Curve but only to see if I’m slacking too much, and right now I’m dead on for the previous 3 years. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a use for the $60.00. I primarily subscribed out of a now apparently misplaced sense of guilt. Well, and a Subscriber Perk. So I guess I’m out. Especially since I don’t know what I might be paying in the very near future; no idea if the $59.99 is THE price.
If it’s true that Vulture capitalists own Strava, it’s a damn good clue that the ‘market’ is down (no thanks to them) and they need some cash so SQUEEZE THE BIKERS is Plan A, or Plan B? (Look at what they pay for bikes! We can get money out of them for sure! Easy picking!)
And people rip on Garmin Connect, but in the beginning I saw them as incredibly similar in that they aggregate my data, my telemetry and can show me pretty graphs. Strava is a little more ‘social’, sure, but at my age who cares. Most people are faster than me, many people ride more than I do. BAH!! Save money. Who knows what the ‘Chaos Caucus’ is going to do to the US national economy.
–EDIT–
Just checked their Perks. A lot of subscription stuff. Like why does anyone need a subscription for deliveries of yoga attire, unless they are throwing the stuff out after they use it?
Another boat the missed was that the free version should have ads. They also could have a “market place” and a way to message people. Should have been the Facebook of sports.
I’m not sure on adds. I can think of lots of ways they could have monetized the service: registration for events; parts longevity back to manufacturers - either the OEM or competitors.
Putting together a list of ways to spend Strava’s $100 on better / add-on services:
And to ‘fix’ Strava’s desktop interface to remove the upsells / challenges / goals etc
Only two? Must be a slow month.
Couldn’t be more diverse in approaches in how to handle price increases:
Very good - Trainerroad vs.
Very bad - Strava
As for me, something weird - no change in price, so I have no reason to cancel (or resubscribe for that matter):
I cannot mute “john doe joined challenge xyz” from my feed. Nor can I mute event that are (for example) less that 90 minutes duration. Yes, there are browser extensions that do this kind of filtering, but those don’t work in the Strava app (that I know of).
Now, I do have a paid membership because I enjoy Strava as a social platform (don’t do FB etc, only Strava) and use it to feed Veloviewer (Pro+ membership). Keeping a platform like Strava operating costs money, as a software engineer I’m acutely aware of that. Money they can get by serving ads, selling my data (making me the product, the Facebook model) or getting users to pay for it. Of the three a subscription is my preference, as long as the price is reasonable.
I get this argument, but I don’t understand the need to attack people for requesting functionality from an app they use. I’m not just pointing at you, but commenting on how frequently we see this. For example, “I’d like a trainer road plan that does x” and someone replies, “ you don’t need this. You can already do that. Just pick plan A, delete all the rides on day B, add a different ride on day C, and then manually reduce the percentage by D%”.
Google maps in bike mode works great for this as well. I’ve had to use it in DC a few times and it will take you on bike trails, bike lanes, and bike friendly roads to your destination as long as one is available. You can’t create a custom route, but it works great if you find yourself in an unfamiliar area.
Thanks to @dcrainmaker and all social media voices, VeloNews also piping in on the the price debacle.
I may have read too quickly, but there seems to be nothing notable to take from that article?
That was my take as well. Felt like VeloNews felt like they needed to say on this topic for clicks
Exactly. I’m sure they will regret this decision and the way they are handling it.
That would require actual journalists and journalistic ethics……none of which are currently espoused by Outside Media.
