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news
2021 Strava app"Our intention was not to hide these changes": Strava apologises for price hike controversy
Strava has apologised to its users for "not providing enough information directly to our community" about the controversial subscription price rise of almost 30 per cent and insisted the "intention was not to hide these pricing changes".
In a statement released on the brand's website, Strava admitted its messaging had been "very confusing", saying everything "just moved too fast" and it was "unacceptable" that subscribers learnt of changes through news reports such as the one published on this website.
We updated our subscription pricing. Our messaging was very confusing. So we're providing more clarity.
In an effort to roll out pricing updates for our subscription, we made a mistake by not providing enough information directly to our community. We sincerely apologise for the confusion and concern this has caused many of our valued subscribers.
Our intention was not to hide these pricing changes, we just moved too fast. We also missed the opportunity to inform long-standing monthly subscribers that, by shifting from paying monthly to annual, they can avoid a significant price increase altogether.
Strava is fully committed to our community. This commitment means not allowing our subscribers to receive an automated email about changing subscription costs, or to read or hear about price change confusion elsewhere as that's unacceptable.
We hear and understand your frustration, and we aim here to make subscription rates clear to our community.
The price of the company's subscription service, which provides users with additional features unavailable on the app's free version, such as route planning, segment competition, effort analysis, and a training dashboard, has now increased for monthly subscribers from £6.99 to £8.99 for 2023 – a jump of over 28 per cent – while the annual subscription has risen from £47.99 to £54.99.
The changes are already in place for new subscribers and will be seen in existing users' next bill. It came less than a month after Strava, which claims to have the world's largest sports community of more than 100 million users, reportedly let go at least 40 employees, including product designers and product managers.
> REVIEW: Strava Premium (annual subscription)
Strava has not made a public statement about the layoffs, believed to be around 14 per cent of staff, but did tell road.cc the subscription price increase was made to "reflect the growing subscription features, as well as local market changes".
"The last pricing release for annual subscriptions took place about a decade ago while monthly subscriptions have seldom fluctuated," Strava said. "We are consistently investing in the value of our subscription experience to deliver a best-in-class digital experience."
Strava also today announced the acquisition of FATMAP – a mobile app for discovering, planning and navigating outdoor adventures and confirmed Strava subscribers will have access to the full FATMAP offering.
Will you be keeping your subscription? Does the price hike make it less likely you'll be picking one up? And are the subscriber features worth the increase? Let us know your thoughts in the comments...
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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16 comments
I cancelled my Strava subscription a couple of weeks ago. Not because of the price rise, but because they posted an offer over the Christmas period which would give new subscribers 25% discount. At the bottom it said not applicable to existing subscribers. They shot themselves in the foot by posting it to everyone on the platform, including all the subscribers. Now, the one thing that I hate with a passion is when loyalty means nothing, and companies don't give a fuck once they've got you, and are only interested in getting more signed up.
I suspect there will be plenty more cancellations for the same reason.
The DC Rainmaker take-down of all this is indeed hilarious.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/01/strava-raises-prices-doubling.html
That's a major fail from Strava. Okay, they might not be deliberately hiding their prices, but to not be able to answer such a simple question about their product doesn't inspire confidence. Maybe they don't understand that DCRainmaker is one of the most trusted reviewers out there?
I've just logged into my free account to see what the fuss is about.
60 day Free trial, £4.58 /month after that (if billed annually; if you pay monthly it's £8.99)
£4.58 is 15p/day. Perhaps DC Rainmaker just needs more clicks.
The same thing is happening elsewhere. A techradar article published yesterday says that Spotify intend to cut 6% of staff (around 600 employees). The article contines to say that Apple Music went up £1 to £10.99 in October and Amazon Music Unlimited did the same. Spotify's CEO was quoted saying that “in 2022, the growth of Spotify’s operating expenses outpaced our revenue growth by two times,” and that the situation was “unsustainable long-term in any climate.” so a price rise is imminent there too.
Just a reminder: not all of us gets 28% increase in salary this year.
also consider this 28% is AFTER the taxes, etc, etc and how many subscriptions you have, etc, etc...
so yeah, the increase is not big in the absolute numbers but the way it was handled is big
I'd happily apply Hanlon's razor in this case.
Strava have always had a complicated relationship with subscriptions. I think the fundamental issue is that the success of Strava is built on the fact the "everyone is on it" which relies on a good, free option. And yet they rely on people paying for the premium option to bring in revenue.
Take away the free option, or take away too many features, and you lose that "community". But the better the free option is, the less motivation people have to upgrade to premium.
And of course there is constant competition and innovation. A particular limitation of Strava is it only captures "workouts", where as more and more people have devices on 24/7 recording things like heart rate and steps, and want that information to be integrated too (as done by e.g. Garmin Connect).
I was on Premium, then all of a sudden 2 years ago ish when the last rise in price, the subscription stopped. Strava blamed Google and Google said it was Strava who cancelled it. Strava would not restore the previous lower subscription rate but did "in good faith" give a 1 year subscription. During that year I swapped to a new Bryton 750 (excellent and underated kit btw) and it's app/web site does all the analysis that Strava does. So I opted to go free and just link the rides to those who follow me on Strava that is all......as for routes.... I use Plotaroute and pay the £16 premium for the OS overlays and other features (it has a free version) , I use it as we Gravel bike as well as road bike so easy to plan with OS and also my ride pals can download in whatever format they like plus it can be double checked with a google earth fly by....... Whatever.... there is no right choice.
It's really not that expensive though is it? Either pay up or shut up
or pay up and shut up, right?
Its fair to say that most people who subscribe to Strava ride regularly and probably spend a fortune on all manner of bike related things. The cost of £2 a month more is less than I pay for a coffee on a longish ride of which I probably do more than 3-4 times a in that time frame. I doubt many will notice that much of a change for what you get.
I still maintain that Strava needs to streamline a lot of its service. Its database must be enormous now and thats probably costing them more to maintain and keep running. They could do a lot to keep costs down ie remove all rides from over 5 years (or so) keeping KOM records only. Get rid of the pointless local legend. it serves zero purpose. They could also do more to improve the AI on dodgy KOMs removal and flagging any obviously done in vehicles or on e-bikes. If strava is anything, its a leaderboard for egos. If that single USP data isnt reliable in that area than what is Strava for?
Maybe redux the data kept available on rides for free users to under 5 years. I mean I cant say I trawl specific historic rides but I do compare data points on segments across time and wouldnt want to lose that, especially as I'm a subscriber. And I wonder what that data redux would do to suggested mapped routes, as its surely based on all ride data to begin with.
Local legends are about the only leaderboards I'm ever going to trouble so I wouldn't want to lose them.
Maybe they could introduce a downloadable offline means of keeping your own data to pour over if thats somethng thats valid to you. I know some people use this but its probably a very small percentage of overall subscribers. I just personally feel there are certain elements that are probably not used enough by the majority of users to keep them valid if it means higher costs and maintainance. I see things that need addressing that money should be pushed towards - the checking of fake rides etc, it is Stravas USP. Its the only thing it does better than any other app and its the cornerstone of its popularity. If that data is awash with fraudulant rides then why bother at all?
I've concluded that I don't really need premium as all the data I really need is on Garmin Connect anyway.
I really only used it for route planning and RWGPS does that just as well for free.
"Our intention was not to hide these pricing changes............"
Is Nadim Zahawi a director?
That was their intention. At least until an almighty kerfuffle and a hilarious (not in a good way) DC Rainmaker story. As Off The Back says, the increase for me isn't a lot but for that Strava need to fix some existing issues and think about preparing for future ones.
But did they threaten investigating journalists with prosecution for libel, like Mr Zahawi?