OK, thanks for confirming. I had added it to the OP at the top, but nuked it after realizing it was essentially a puff piece with no real value. I won’t aid in their (VN/Outside) poor practices.
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I’ve now taken a really close look at what Strava offers, that I value and will happily pay for. Since I’m a heavy user of Garmin Connect for activity tracking, Training Peaks for planning and analysis, Intervals.icu for power curves and data, and TrainerRoad for cycling plans, really Strava to me boils down to:
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A social connection, which I can get from them for free
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A good route generator, which I use quite a bit to plan actual outings as well as a fun “what-if” activity to take a break from work. I wonder if I can reach X place from home? What’s the distance, elevation, etc?
Not sure that is worth $80 (the new price) to me. Maybe I need to try out a RWGPS paid tier for a year to compare the two. But I do run and ride. Does anyone know of a really good, in-depth comparison article somewhere that puts RWGPS and Strava route creation against each other to point out pros/cons of each?
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I’ve been using RWGPS since 2016. And Strava for a year or two. And Garmin Connect.
Practically speaking, route creation is about the same and they each have quirks and differences. Some other thoughts here: Alternatives to Strava Routing - #7 by WindWarrior
The big difference is I follow people on Strava and creating a route and downloading to my Garmin, that only requires a couple of clicks. Here in California I find it easier to discover interesting routes on Strava, by looking at key segments.
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I debated waiting till closer to my subscription expiring but decided Strava has worn out their welcome with me. I’m not going to reward this kind of behavior toward their customer base.
Whether I’d been willing to pay $80 a year for their service if they treated us with the respect due paying customers is a question I’ll never be able to answer.
But I’ve canceled and have plenty of time to find other free replacements or send my money to a different company that I believe will try and deserve it.
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Disappointing to see… I don’t mind price increases, but Strava has handled this poorly so far. I am coming up to my renewal, and I will be going to the free version. I will stick with my TrainerRoad and Dialed Health subscriptions, and let the others go
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Yes. This is a pillar of free enterprise. If people don’t like your product, you should take that as feedback to change your product. You shouldn’t pout and tell the people that don’t like your product that they’re all wrong.
Uh oh they must be feeling the burn if they are looking for direct feedback by sending random survey emails…
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Horse… meet cart…
They got that order a bit off 
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Here’s the real crux of strava stupidity…they’ve given you a costless option. There’s no benefit to continuing with your subscription (ie. savings) vs. cancelling and seeing how it goes, before you sign up again if you find you really NEED it.
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Meanwhile the folks at TrainingPeaks continue to do nothing with their software and pocket $119usd/yr. That’s despite a lot more competition in the last few years. Guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
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Because of @dcrainmaker’s youtube, I took a look at my account.
Ray’s comment about the differences between his wife’s account (created in the NL and in €) versus his (created in the US and US$) was interesting.
Since Strava needs to place a user for billing purposes, at the very least for what currency to use, it needs a data point. As Ray noted, Strava makes that decision at the time of registration, but it doesn’t allow a change. That a US credit card pays both doesn’t seem to be a factor, which makes sense, but this got me thinking about my account.
In September 2014, I created a Strava account while living in the UK. I upgraded to a paid account in February 2016 while still living in the UK. A few months later, I moved to Switzerland, which now has a closer relationship with the EU than does UK. From Feb 2016 through May 2017, I paid £3.99 / mo (or, ‘pcm’). In June 2017, I switched to an annual and have paid £39.99 since then, and will pay that rate – based on the declaration by Strava seen above: “will renew on June 14, 2023 for £39.99” – when my renewal comes up in June.
My location is set to Switzerland, but clearly, Strava doesn’t care. I pay with a Swiss credit card, but that doesn’t matter to Strava as they continue to pretend I’m in the UK and bill me in GBP with no option to change the country of domicile, which Ray also noted was not available. Will anything change when I move back to the US in July 2023 and start paying with a US credit card? The current situation is certainly in my favor considering the £’s descent. At the present conversion, I’m paying about US$49.30 / year for Strava, so I shouldn’t complain, right?
Will EU – and Swiss – laws on billing transparency come into play with this fiasco? Was the UK first up because it’s not in the EU? I don’t know, and it’s way outside my expertise. It seems this is a massive charlie foxtrot by Strava that was completely avoidable and likely to cause EU, at the very least, inquiries.
The different tiers for different countries is interesting, particularly within the EU. How did they come up with those numbers? Cost of living doesn’t seem like it. Maybe what their marketing said a sweet spot will pay. How about Strava playing that game in the US with different states getting different prices?
Will I drop Strava? No. Right now, I’m getting a great deal on it, better than I realized since I now know what others pay. Like @windwarrior, I like seeing what others (like him) are doing, sharing pics, comparative times, sometimes discovering new routes, and connecting with and staying connected with folks across disciplines and locations on an “agnostic” platform. But I can see why others will want to drop.
Seems like there’s a story developing on disruption from unforced errors, like at Twitter and now possibly Strava (though it’s too early to tell)…
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Agreed. People keep posting what their page says it costs currently, but Ray’s post was clear that this number will change closer to the renewal date.
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That may vary by payment method. I pay through the Apple app store in the US. When I looked last week at the start of this debacle, I could see my receipts for the past few years at $59.99 and the renewal in July was already listed at $79.99.
Last week when I looked at my annual subscription renewal price on the Subscriptions page (iPhone settings), the renewal price for November 2023 was listed as “$89.99.” However, I noticed today when I looked again, it is listed as “$79.99.” (I am in U.S.) Anybody else notice anything similar?
Yeah, I’m genuinely surprised they haven’t sent out any communications at this point. It’s 7 days later. My only assumption is the EU thing has blown-up a bit more than they realized.
While some have argued that it’s illegal to have different prices in different countries, that’s actually not true. You can do that just fine. However, what you DO have to do is offer the ability for any customer to get the price from any other EU country. Which today, Strava doesn’t do (mainly, cause you can’t actually change your billing country at all, even if you wanted to pay more or for very legit reasons…at least online yourself).
(More in this long comment thread, direct linked, on the EU rules: Strava Raises Prices But Can’t Tell You How Much It Costs Anymore | DC Rainmaker)
So, I could see a scenario where at the moment they may be trying to untangle that spaghetti mess of a CF, before communicating next steps.
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I’m sure they are rethinking things after so many people canceled the automatic payments.
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If Strava started charging for basic social media functionality, the masses would started sharing on Garmin et al overnight.
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