Recently Strava raised its subscription fees in a rather odd and confusing way (see the forum thread at the end of this story for details).
Essentially, the increases were different in different countries and different depending on when your subscription started. And, somewhat bizarrely, the exact amount of the price hikes were not revealed. Until now.
We may never get the full story as to why they implemented things in this way (the relative strength of the UK pound may or may not be a factor) but there is finally a bit of clarity to some of it. Basically, they want people to be on the annual subscription rather than the monthly subscription.
People who subscribed before 23rd November 2022 will see the updated pricing (starting from 2n2 February 2023). Those who subscribed after 23rd November won’t experience a price hike at all.
For UK users, the new price will be £8.99 monthly (up from £6.99), or £54.99 annually (up from £47.99).
Strava Press Release:
Clarifying Subscription Pricing Confusion
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 apologize 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.
At Strava, we’re constantly working to innovate and improve the experience for all active people. Over the past 13 years we have added significant value to the Strava subscription, including features and experiences for route discovery and planning, tracking progress over time, improved privacy controls, more activity types and even prehab and mobility. We will remain committed to future investments to provide even more value to subscribers.
Since launching Strava in 2009, this is our first time increasing prices for all-access subscribers. As Strava has grown to include over 100 million people with over 8 billion uploads, the cost of supporting our active community at scale has also grown. In addition to continuously releasing and improving features our community relies on, going forward, we will periodically assess our prices. As a result, they could change in the future to better reflect the work it takes to build the best experience.
We sincerely hope that every member of our community can feel the value our team has added to Strava over the years to make your experience better. We are incredibly grateful for the support of our subscribers, and we thank you for being part of the Strava community.
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Even more complicated than I was aware of, just looking at the UK, where they were recently offering new customers a discount to make it ~£41 for the first year! 😆
Less than 30 days before my renewal date, so looks like I will stay at £47.99 for the year, if I uncancel.
Just don’t know, loads of stuff I’m not bothered about and I was much happier on the old “analysis pack” that was less than £20.
But my fitness is in absolute tatters after Covid almost 4 months ago, no way can I see myself challenging segment PBs this year and I’m not sure paying ~£4 a month to see crap for me power stats is a good deal this coming year, when inflation is biting in many directions.
😆 at number of screens you have to press “cancel sub” button to finally confirm you have cancelled, worse than I thought Amazon Prime was!
Mine is due at the end of January and has gone up to £54.99 a year. I’ve cancelled mine this year – going to cut back generally on subscriptions to save some cash.
My Strava premium allegedly expired last January but is still working. It appears as I used a voucher code to pay for it the first time it’s on a recurring charge of £0.
Can someone distill DCRs video into a simple flow chart for me???
(Monthly) Strava premium member due for renewal on Jan 24 and still showing old rate (which I’ve been paying since Sept 2014).
Only two premium features I’m interested in are
(1) personal heatmaps
(2) classification of segment times (particularly “Today” as that’s a good indication whether a trail is open ie not snowed in or closed due to downed trees)
I had a cheaper price from a while back (and it even honoured it when switching from monthly to annual)
But my renewal in the app is showing as the higher price, and no email to tell me it’s gone up. I’ll probably let it go to free now as I’m not really using any of the premium features, and I presume those using the route planner is only for road riding as I find it completely useless for off-road (doesn’t know the difference between footpaths and bridleways, and kept trying to direct me down footpaths that have been lost and are essentially in people’s back gardens so the popularity routing wasn’t working either!)
I used to subscribe to Strava until my credit card expired, then didn’t bother sticking the new number in. I do sort of miss the heat map and the complete segment information, but not enough to pay for it. Garmin Connect has more than enough to make up for the rest of it.
Is there any way to access the desktop version of Strava from an Android mobile? To manage your subscription it says to go to Strava.com, but in doing so on a mobile, even with desktop site toggled, you don’t actually get the desktop version and therefore can’t manage your account. Infuriating
I think I might wait till spring to sign up that “last chance” 60 day trial that was on offer before Christmas is still being dangled there’s still going to be one come April/May I reckon, and I might still go monthly to have it for the peak of summer then cancel before September. they’ll get maybe £25 out of me and I don’t get stuck with an annual sub I forget to cancel and don’t really use much during the depths of winter.
I reckon that’s what plenty of people probably do isn’t it, drop back on the free account for their less active periods.
I already bung a tenner to veloviewer each year as I find that a useful tool (reminds me I need to log in and update VV)…
Yeah. I still use VeloViewer, though I wish they’d change the layout a bit as I don’t need to have so much of the page taken up with blank fields that are only generated if you have a Strava Premium account. They’d be better having such data on a separate tab. I also wish they’d expand their input sources a bit – like using Garmin Connect instead of Strava. That way I could dump Strava altogether.
The other one I’ve been looking at occasionally is intervals.icu. It’s “nagware” at the moment, with a request for $4 per month that is easily dismissed. If it was half that I’d likely subscribe but as a non-racer, much of the information doesn’t really offer me much so it also is above my cost:benefit threshold. I might find if there’s a payment option to through some dosh their way though.
I think last time I was away from home and trying to get on the desktop site, desktop mode toggled and at the point it keeps trying to switch to the app, click and hold the link instead and open in incognito mode or open in new tab (I can’t remember which)
DC Rainmaker’s voice makes my head hurt but this was useful, if crazy!! I like the Live Segments thing but probably not worth subscribing just for that. If only Garmin Connect wasn’t such an utter POS the choice would be easier.
I hope the free side of it doesn’t disappear, it could do given the way things are going. Used to subscribe but don’t miss the added features. Its a good training aid to be free as you have to up your fitness until you appear in the top-ten of any local segments you’re interested in, if you want to see the position… Any history of segment times otherwise is easily achieved by keeping a log in notepad on the desktop. Its not the sort of thing I’d pay to use these days, but then I’m tight as a gnats rs.
@dougd I’m on android and I get a message pop up to ask if I want to open in the app or chrome. Chose chrome. That assumes you use chrome, but I’d assume it asks for whatever browser you use.
I use to pay a few years ago but other than logging the ride I never used any of the other features so canceled back then when they increased the price.
I never minded paying a couple of quid to support the site but I refuse to pay over the odds for something I didn’t really use. I have thought several times if they would ever cancel the free side and make it a pay-only site.
I used to use Garmin Connect years ago but found it clunky to use, might have to have another look at it.
I reckon they’ll lose my money when I come up again; don’t really use much of the premium stuff so it’s not worth much to me. This’ll either crash them or push them to full-subs model (or rather, I bet that’s where they’re heading – 2 levels of sub rather than free & sub)
I’ve had a Garmin account for years but only really started using it in the last year since getting my Garmin watch. Used it last week to plan some gravel rides and it was fairly quick and painless. Lot more data with it compared to the free version of Strava. I’m no longer interested in Strava segments, I think the trails would be better of if it had never existed, so all I really got from Strava was keeping track of how much I’ve been getting out.
Renews in Nov for £47.99. TBH I have no idea how much it is now, I’ve been a subscriber for a long time, it just comes out my account like so many other things I waste money on! This is not to say I can afford it, I need to get a grip on it!
I started paying for the beacon feature primarily, but I might sack it off when it’s time to renew, I’m not getting vfm.
What disadvantage is there to testing the free version? Just a few ad’s?
Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil.
I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld.
Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.
