[HN Gopher] Strava hikes monthly subscription price
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       Strava hikes monthly subscription price
        
       Author : alistairSH
       Score  : 59 points
       Date   : 2023-01-13 16:38 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bikeradar.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bikeradar.com)
        
       | stephencoyner wrote:
       | I'm shocked they still have such bad route management on desktop
       | and mobile.
       | 
       | As a cyclist who likes to use many different routes in different
       | areas, I have accumulated 100+ routes.
       | 
       | Yet there is no filtering or grouping system. Why can't I filter
       | by geography? Or make folders of routes.
       | 
       | Edit: I did see on desktop they recently added filter cycling
       | routes by distance or elevation, but that isn't my problem at
       | all. And the max distance filter is 50 miles which doesn't filter
       | down the list very much.
        
         | __derek__ wrote:
         | It always amuses me when Strava suggests shortest-path routes
         | with a dozen turns rather than biasing towards paths revealed
         | by its own heat-maps.
        
           | Gigachad wrote:
           | I've found sometimes the OSM data is to blame. The Strava
           | route planner refused to take the rail underpass because
           | someone had marked it as bike access: no. Rather than access:
           | dismount. So since I was route planning a bike trip, it just
           | wouldn't use that path.
        
       | mbesto wrote:
       | Not surprised. My take - Strava was founded over 13 years ago,
       | which is a dinosaur in startup land. They've raised $150m+ from
       | investors and they want a return, so the company is scrambling to
       | make decisions which can make the company more money. So I
       | wouldn't be surprised if the specification for pricing was made
       | by a committee and implemented by engineers with little
       | direction. And since no one has conviction on what will work,
       | this is your result (throwing stuff at the wall).
       | 
       | Note - if you follow Strava's history, this isn't the first time
       | they've been screwy with their commercial model. They had this
       | funky "Training, Safety and Analysis" pack pricing program[0]
       | that was confusing and they ultimately reverted back to the
       | simple pricing model.
       | 
       | Ultimately the unit economics just don't work out in this space -
       | 100 million people don't want to pay to hold their training data
       | in a prettier interface when they can just get it for free with
       | Garmin (Strava does more than that btw, but the people who are
       | fanatical about that info are a miniority). Likewise, if they
       | don't IPO, there are too few players in the space that would make
       | a $1b+ acquisition.
       | 
       | [0] - https://www.bikeradar.com/news/strava-is-making-a-huge-
       | chang...
        
         | nradov wrote:
         | The endurance athletes who care about _data_ use Garmin
         | Connect, TrainingPeaks, and WKO for tracking and analytics.
         | Strava 's analytics and workout planning features are basically
         | useless.
         | 
         | Where Strava adds value is as a social network. It's fun to
         | share your activities and pictures with friends, and see what
         | they have been doing. I've gotten good ideas for routes to try
         | or races to enter.
         | 
         | As a long time Strava user it is frustrating to see how it has
         | been stagnant for many years and they almost never add useful
         | improvements. They still don't support triathlons (or any other
         | multisport activities). Many of the segment and challenge
         | leaderboards are full of obvious cheaters.
        
         | scoofy wrote:
         | Yea, I "left" the app when they started forcing me to pay.
         | After a year of paying for it, I just couldn't justify paying
         | that much money just to compete, racing along the inherently
         | flawed timed segments.
         | 
         | It's an amazing app, and I'd love to pay them for it, but
         | unless they were to start releasing hardware that allowed me to
         | see and meet up with my friends while riding, it's hard to
         | justify hundreds of dollars just for something that my garmin
         | or google maps/ridewithgps already does by default.
        
         | prhn wrote:
         | I think you're mostly correct here, but Strava's main selling
         | point isn't the data store and interface (which in my opinion
         | is not great). It's the social feature.
         | 
         | I've met a massive community of cyclists: rode with cycling
         | "celebs," trained with really strong amateurs, met a ton of
         | people, learned about weekly group rides, learned about the
         | best rides in the area, and made some very good friends.
         | 
         | Most of this was facilitated by Strava. I'm glad it hasn't
         | devolved into just another shitty social media app, but I do
         | feel like they are not capitalizing on what makes them unique.
         | Right now that is being the de facto cycling social media
         | network.
        
           | mbesto wrote:
           | > It's the social feature.
           | 
           | Agreed. But this is a feature that only works on a free
           | model. I'm not aware of any major social network makes money
           | on 100% of its user community.
        
             | kaesar14 wrote:
             | You're not wrong but "no one's done it so no one should
             | ever even try" isn't a good reason
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | > I've ... made some very good friends.
           | 
           | This is my experience. Strava is the only social network
           | where I've made friends. It is a net positive in life. Every
           | other social network I tried to use caused me to fire some
           | friends eventually.
        
             | jq-r wrote:
             | Funnily enough, it pretty much broke apart our weekend
             | riding group. That was a mountain bike group, and in my
             | city there were about 20 of us on those rides depending on
             | a season. It didn't matter who was the fastest uphill or
             | downhill, or who was the bravest to go on some scary drops
             | and jumps. It was always just about having fun whatever
             | your abilities are. It was always damned fun on those group
             | rides. Ride a lot, talk a lot, enjoy the greenery and fresh
             | air, beer at the end, what's not to like?
             | 
             | But little by little, and then all of the sudden, everyone
             | had Strava, nobody wanted to rest on a nice place to stop,
             | it was always segments, segments, and more segments. People
             | didn't want session some nice jump or a section, it was
             | always a white knuckle ride top to bottom with no
             | technique, or fun, and just furious time comparisons on the
             | end of segments. People would even heatedly argue about
             | them too, and some riders I know don't talk to each other
             | anymore because of it. Forget about chatting while riding,
             | how you can chat if your heart is pounding and you're
             | chasing that elusive KOM?
             | 
             | So with time, that diverse group fractured because the
             | slower guys couldn't keep up with the "I only ride
             | segments" guys, and smaller groups formed, but those were
             | actually quite short lived. Some of those still ride, but
             | mostly solos or in very small groups which is quite sad to
             | me.
             | 
             | I guess Strava can definitely help you out if you're riding
             | a road bike to find a group which suits your ability. I
             | guess in every city you can have plenty to choose from. But
             | that just doesn't work if your area has say 50 riders in
             | total. Segments in the mountain are great, but only if you
             | ride alone like a training, just don't drag a mountain bike
             | group into it.
             | 
             | Just to make it clear, I don't blame Strava here at all, it
             | is just people who get obssessed by numbers and see rivalry
             | when none exist. Or as the saying goes: comparison is a
             | thief of joy.
        
           | Alex3917 wrote:
           | And that would be a great value at $3-4 a month, but at
           | double that, meh.
        
           | jwineinger wrote:
           | What features of Strava have helped with that? Did you find a
           | local cycling group on Strava and met up with people via
           | that? I seem to be a cycling (or at least group riding) dead
           | zone, because there don't seem to be any active groups near
           | me.
           | 
           | I get kudos from friends afar but the only person that Strava
           | helped me connect with was someone that I chatted briefly at
           | a stoplight with, who then found me via Strava flyover. But
           | even then, we've never ridden together since.
        
             | rday wrote:
             | Flyover also helped me connect with groups that I would see
             | riding in other directions. Since flyover was made opt-in,
             | I haven't gotten any use out of it.
             | 
             | Opt-in is probably a really good idea, even though it
             | killed the feature. I really liked that feature. But yea,
             | it was too easy to abuse.
             | 
             | Are you able to see any frequent routes using the global
             | heat map?
        
             | nradov wrote:
             | Use the flyover feature and segment leaderboards to
             | identify users active in your area, then check which clubs
             | they have joined. Some of those clubs might have a weekly
             | group ride either listed as a Strava event, or on a linked
             | web site or Facebook group.
             | 
             | Many bike shops also organize a weekly group ride as a
             | marketing strategy. If you're already coming there to ride
             | then there's a good chance you'll buy something or use
             | their mechanic service.
        
         | jlarocco wrote:
         | I think the bigger problem is that their users all have
         | accounts on competing services by this point.
         | 
         | By the time they got serious about adding features, everybody
         | who wanted them had already signed up for alternative services
         | that had them. Now Strava is playing catch up with a bunch of
         | newer companies, and each one them is focused on a subset of
         | Strava's users.
         | 
         | For me, I signed up for RideWithGPS ages before Strava had a
         | good route planner. Now Strava has one, but now I'm happy with
         | RWGPS and don't have any reason to switch back.
         | 
         | Other people wanted better training tools, and they found
         | services that helped with that.
         | 
         | Meanwhile, we've all kept our Strava accounts, because that's
         | where the leaderboards and groups are.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | What do they sell?
        
         | operatingthetan wrote:
         | Status anxiety for endurance athletes. Half /s.
        
           | justinator wrote:
           | Ha. Not disagreeing with you, but it's a social network for
           | athletes. What's my favorite athlete up to? How can I emulate
           | her? Strava tells me.
        
         | cheeze wrote:
         | Premium features. Heart rate tracking, the ability to map
         | rides, the ability to compare prior segments.
         | 
         | For most people, it makes all of zero sense. For someone who
         | spends 500h+ a year on their bike, it's an easy purchase.
         | 
         | Strava kinda sucks but it blows the competition out the water.
        
           | loeg wrote:
           | I spend 500h+ on the bike but don't find much value in
           | Strava's paid offering relative to the free version.
        
           | InCityDreams wrote:
           | Iook up https://intervals.icu and scroll down - i would say
           | strava got blown out of the water!
        
       | korroziya wrote:
       | Good time to plug the latest episode of "How Money works" which
       | goes into detail on everything becoming a subscription:
       | 
       | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-34rDklImXY
        
       | etrautmann wrote:
       | Seems like they haven't improved and still lack incredibly basic
       | features like providing a current pace estimate for runners. I
       | gave up after years of wanting it to improve and much prefer
       | Workoudoors as a one time fair priced alternative that crushes
       | strava on features and posts everything to strava automatically
       | if you want the social side.
        
         | 762236 wrote:
         | Yeah, their development progress feels like old Twitter: they
         | have lots of developers and hardly ship new features.
        
           | PascLeRasc wrote:
           | Old Twitter was and current Strava are about as good as they
           | can be. You can't complain about no new features when you
           | haven't articulated what's missing.
        
             | nradov wrote:
             | Triathlon activities are missing. Automatic flagging of
             | obvious cheaters on segment and challenge leaderboards is
             | missing.
        
             | 762236 wrote:
             | Even if that were true, both have pathetic performance
             | (although Elon is improving Twitter's).
        
           | ilikehurdles wrote:
           | They're closer to old Twitter than you think. From what I
           | hear, it's a Ruby-on-Rails stack with some Scala lately.
        
         | mrcwinn wrote:
         | Yikes! As a starting point, I'd love for Workoutdoors to add a
         | valid SSL and not index their HTTP site to Google. I tried this
         | once on my Apple Watch Ultra and found it a maddening
         | experience. I'm hopeful though that investment in these space
         | improves because, to your point, Strava has not been
         | contributing all that much.
        
           | mikestew wrote:
           | Like sibling, I'm a little confused about the issue with no
           | HTTPS. I rarely even view the site, and no user data is on
           | there AFAICT. And do the data even leave the watch/phone? I
           | don't see any traffic that isn't just synching iCloud data.
           | 
           | Anyway, don't want to get hung up on that, but more to agree
           | with your point about the usability of swipe
           | left/right/double-tap here, there, everywhere. I understand
           | the dev is working with they have been given, but I'm just
           | trying to run not be pre-occupied with my watch. And kudos to
           | the dev for outstanding work, and for making an app I _want_
           | to use. But it just doesn 't fit me.
           | 
           | So with latest updates in WatchOS 9, I just use the built-in
           | workout app. If I need maps of some sort, I use an app called
           | Footpath (which I discovered here on HN a few years back when
           | the dev posted). Now, I think the $25/year is a little pricey
           | for what you get. On the other hand, I continue to pay it
           | because it's so damned handy. Scrawl on a map with your meat
           | stick, using a phone or tablet, and it snaps it to
           | trails/roads and gives you the mileage. When you're happy
           | with your route, sync it to your watch, sorted. And unlike
           | Workoutdoors, it will then proceed to read you directions (if
           | you so choose). The directions are so good, I've done a 15
           | mile run on single track in community forests around
           | Anacortes, WA without looking at my watch. Imagine a forest
           | with trails everywhere, intersecting each other, running
           | parallel to each other, making for confusing navigation. But
           | with enough "in 50 meters, turn left on Trail 239", "go past
           | the bridge, then turn right onto Trail 123", "you are off
           | course. The course is 150 feet to your left." It is truly
           | impressive and very helpful when I'm in an unfamiliar area.
           | Garmin can do the same, but it doesn't talk to you, the buzz
           | on your wrist is easy to miss, and all you get is a little
           | arrow at the bottom of the watch screen.
           | 
           | didn't mean to ramble on about Footpath. No relationship,
           | just a satisfied customer (mostly; drop that subscription
           | $5-10).
        
           | etrautmann wrote:
           | I'm a little confused, are the concerns with SSL and indexing
           | related to your experience using it? I use it on Apple watch
           | ultra, and was not aware of security issues, but the find the
           | usability to be excellent in most cases.
        
       | bluecalm wrote:
       | I love Strava. It's a shitty app. It's missing many simple
       | features. It doesn't even do GPS reading right (segments are
       | often cut out extended at the end/beginning of the activity). It
       | does segment matching incorrectly (matches to the first recorded
       | activity of the segment creator instead of matching to averaged
       | matched runs). Route creator is terrible. You can't even change
       | the place the circular route starts at. There are many more
       | little quirks, some straight up terrible programming and failure
       | to implement obvious cool features.
       | 
       | It's great only because of massive community. Heatmaps (the
       | killer feature besides segments), ability to see what routes
       | other people ride, segments. Those are simple uses of content the
       | users provide which makes it great and let you discover routes,
       | meet people and have a little competition.
       | 
       | If we had some kind of way to export the data to another project
       | and wouldn't need to go through the minefield of patents then a
       | leaner start up could easily take its place. Maybe it's not a
       | billion dollar niche yet but a few hundred million market for a
       | team of a few good programmers could be good enough to give it a
       | shot.
        
       | folli wrote:
       | Shameless plug: I'm working on a Strava like web app and I'm
       | looking for Beta testers: https://cubetrek.com/static/join.html
       | 
       | It's a hobby project of mine, because I wanted to build an app to
       | track my hiking and skiing activities in a way I like it,
       | including 3D visualization (I live in Switzerland, so it's
       | usually always either up or down and that's hard to visualize on
       | a 2D map) and easy comparison of past efforts on the same track.
       | 
       | You're more than welcome to try it out!
        
         | Cyclenerd wrote:
         | Shameless plug also: I am the developers and operators of the
         | free and vendor independent training log >>
         | https://www.velohero.com
         | 
         | Like you, I run this training platform as side project. I have
         | been doing this since 2008. No price increase since then
         | (always 19EUR). I come from your neighboring country - Germany.
         | If you see the change that we join forces, feel free to contact
         | me via LinkedIn or email >> https://www.nkn-it.de
        
           | folli wrote:
           | Sure, interested to talk. Conceptually, I'm shying away from
           | both route planning and training management, there are dozens
           | of better apps out there.
           | 
           | I see CubeTrek more of a diary for your adventures and a
           | progress tracker for outdoor sports.
        
         | groggo wrote:
         | I've got a plug too - http://hilly.run
         | 
         | Summit tracker for Strava. Updates your activity with the
         | summited peak name. Go to the web app to see your full list of
         | summits and a map.
         | 
         | Working on some big upgrades, like summit lists and way more
         | stats.
         | 
         | http://hilly.run
        
           | folli wrote:
           | Nice, where do you get the data from? I'm using OpenStreetMap
           | (OSM features annotated as 'Peak'), and check with PostGIS
           | for peaks that are close to the GPS track.
           | 
           | Generating a list of all summits is a nice idea!
        
             | groggo wrote:
             | Yes, I use the same (OSM features annotated as 'Peak').
             | I've found a few edge cases, like volcanoes, which I also
             | want to count as peaks.
             | 
             | Thanks for sharing your project, I'll have to check it out!
             | It was definitely a huge product gap for Strava, but it's
             | gotten a little better since they've added the 3d maps.
        
         | operatingthetan wrote:
         | Posting the money shot of your app directly:
         | https://cubetrek.com/view/6338
         | 
         | Wow this is freaking cool. Please do bikes!
        
           | mikestew wrote:
           | "Money shot" is right; let me just close that office door...
           | 
           | Crude humor aside, that's enough to get me to go poke around
           | later. Well done. I don't live in the Alps, but the hills
           | around the Seattle Eastside area are enough to make good use
           | of such a tool.
        
             | folli wrote:
             | Yes, give it a try! The steeper the terrain, the nicer the
             | model looks (in my opinion).
             | 
             | Here's another one: https://cubetrek.com/view/5813
        
           | folli wrote:
           | Thanks man!
           | 
           | I mean you can do bikes, it just takes a GPS track file (GPX
           | or FIT) and plots the route. You can also try it out without
           | creating an account (drag and drop your file on the front
           | page: https://cubetrek.com)
        
         | prhn wrote:
         | This is really cool!
         | 
         | Any of the code open source?
        
           | folli wrote:
           | Nope, perhaps one day...
           | 
           | For technical details, there's a techstack rundown at the
           | very bottom of the homepage (https://cubetrek.com)
        
         | ljf wrote:
         | That is amazing! A totally deserved plug - love it. I don't
         | live in a very hilly area, but I was frustrated my strava jig
         | tracks looked so 'slow' as I was going up and down my local
         | coast hills on my run. Hope it can work in my area.
        
           | folli wrote:
           | It should, the elevation data comes from the NASA SRTM
           | dataset, so unless you live somewhere above the arctic
           | circle, it should work. Try it out, you can drag and drop a
           | GPX/FIT file on the homepage (http://cubetrek.com) without
           | setting up an account.
        
         | pleb_nz wrote:
         | I couldn't find much information, but does that app have
         | integrations with Garmin for Garmin users?
        
           | mikestew wrote:
           | I just tried a quick experiment, and it will import GPX files
           | that are exported from Garmin. Whether it will directly pull
           | data from Garmin Connect is a question for the dev, but a
           | quick test drive did not reveal that functionality.
        
             | folli wrote:
             | See above. GPX and FIT files work ( FIT preferred)
        
           | folli wrote:
           | Yes! But only Garmin so far (working on Polar now). You need
           | to set up an account and than link your Garmin account in the
           | profile.
           | 
           | Here's the catch: Garmin only allows syncing of future
           | activities. I can't access your past activities from your
           | Garmin account. There's a way around it though:
           | https://cubetrek.com/static/bulkdownload.html
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | post_break wrote:
       | If someone is going to shit on your company, and you're in the
       | same sports category as him, you do not want it to be Ray. This
       | is going to blow up in their faces. To me he's kind of like the
       | face of running, Strava, Wahoo, etc. Yikes.
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | I can't see this having a huge impact; if you're a cyclist/runner
       | who cares about leaderboards and blasting out your
       | accomplishments, you'll continue to pay; if you don't you
       | probably don't have Strava premium. As I cyclist I find
       | RideWithGPS or Komoot much better for actual route planning /
       | navigation (though I use a Wahoo bike computer instead of the app
       | for the latter anyway).
        
       | stephencoyner wrote:
       | I had to check the app and my subscription in the App Store to
       | confirm, but my annual subscription is jumping from $59.99 to
       | $79.99. I'm set to renew at the end of this month.
        
       | francisofascii wrote:
       | Kinda was waiting for this to happen. Overall I have been happy
       | being a Strava subscriber, but great web app experiences never
       | last. Eventually quality suffers, Ads get crazy, or prices go way
       | up.
        
       | knaik94 wrote:
       | @Dang I am confused, was this merged? The Dcrainmaker article is
       | more informative and discusses more nuances.
       | 
       | https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/01/strava-raises-prices-dou...
        
       | tschellenbach wrote:
       | They also sign contracts and don't pay bills. Not the most
       | ethical company
        
       | operatingthetan wrote:
       | It's a classic story of a startup with a loyal userbase paying a
       | reasonable fee for stagnating features for years, misjudges
       | customer loyalty, doubles the price, then makes some PR mistakes,
       | and comes out behind in the end.
        
         | tablespoon wrote:
         | > It's a classic story of a startup with a loyal userbase
         | paying a reasonable fee for stagnating features for years,
         | misjudges customer loyalty, doubles the price, then makes some
         | PR mistakes, and comes out behind in the end.
         | 
         | Is private equity involved here?
         | 
         | Someone in my family was recently looking for a calorie tracker
         | app. All the ones I was familiar with (and liked) from years
         | ago had been acquired by private equity, which only crippled
         | the free tier and make subscriptions ridiculously expensive.
         | 
         | Seems like the private equity playbook is to cut development to
         | the bare bones, increase prices, and let the app rot while they
         | burn the goodwill to turn it into short/medium term cashflow.
        
           | mbesto wrote:
           | > Is private equity involved here?
           | 
           | Nope. But VCs are involved.
           | 
           | > Seems like the private equity playbook is to cut
           | development to the bare bones, increase prices, and let the
           | app rot while they burn the goodwill to turn it into
           | short/medium term cashflow.
           | 
           | Quite the opposite. Most PE does not do this btw, unless it's
           | large cap ($1b+ valuation or higher). This is VC backed, and
           | they are actually aggressively investing in growth (at all
           | costs).
        
         | abadger9 wrote:
         | > and comes out behind in the end.
         | 
         | As someone in the tri community in vc funded silicon valley, I
         | haven't heard of a better alternative to strava? would
         | genuinely be interested in trying something better but all my
         | running clubs still seem to be using strava
        
           | stefan_ wrote:
           | TrainingPeaks, Xert, ... there are a number of sites that
           | cater to professional training analysis. It's a niche they
           | tend to do much better at than Strava since they don't have
           | the social thing to go with it. Meanwhile, if all you want is
           | the social part, why are you paying for Strava.
        
           | alistairSH wrote:
           | Depends on the features you want.
           | 
           | For social stuff? They're the gorilla in the room. But, the
           | pure social stuff isn't gated (comments/posts/groups).
           | 
           | For training analysis? TrainingPeaks, TrainerRoad, Wahoo
           | Systm, intervals.icu, and others. Of course, some of those
           | rely on Strava APIs to get data to/from devices.
        
           | 0xf8 wrote:
           | [dead]
        
           | mbesto wrote:
           | https://intervals.icu/ - just no social features.
           | 
           | https://app.trainingpeaks.com/ - if you have a coach
        
           | californical wrote:
           | I mean for me, just.. not using strava. I'm also in a
           | triathlon club in my area, and some people use strava
           | together, but a bunch of people don't, and you aren't really
           | missing out on much by not having it.
           | 
           | I use intervals.icu for planning my training - it has one
           | main developer and he's great. And it's completely free
           | unless you want to donate (which I do)
        
             | operatingthetan wrote:
             | >I use intervals.icu for planning my training
             | 
             | That's the crazy thing about Strava's situation, so many
             | companies have integrated with their API, or built Chrome
             | extentions on top of Strava that replicate their
             | functionality but better and for free. People have been
             | begging for improvments like that for premium and I'd bet
             | by now most have settled on something like intervals.icu
             | and wouldn't miss premium anyway.
        
               | iamacyborg wrote:
               | Runalyze is another great one.
        
           | frankhhhhhhhhh wrote:
           | Garmin Connect actually has all the useful (to me) features
           | Strava has.
           | 
           | If all your buddies have Garmins and post public rides/runs,
           | you get segment leaderboards, friends news feed, popularity
           | routing, kudos, a training calendar that connects to
           | TrainingPeaks and all the stats you could want.
           | 
           | Plus Garmin has very capable sports watches and smart body
           | weight scales to consolidate all your fitness indicators in
           | one place. Also, it's completely free.
           | 
           | The downside is the user base is much smaller so less
           | segments and who knows if your KOM is the fastest time. You
           | also won't get randos on the internet kudo'ing your
           | rides/runs and boosting your ego. Also, no cool extensions
           | like Elevate, StravaSauce, etc.
        
             | iamacyborg wrote:
             | > smart body weight scales
             | 
             | My experience with their index scale is that it's garbage
             | for anything other than weight.
             | 
             | Agree with everything else you say though.
        
               | frankhhhhhhhhh wrote:
               | I had a similar experience until I learned about the
               | importance of setting a correct Activity Class. Don't
               | think that's actually even in the manual.
               | https://support.garmin.com/en-
               | US/?faq=DJEru6ns626MZTh2kvUXZA
        
               | iamacyborg wrote:
               | Yeah I've done that, I've had the scale for a couple
               | years and the issue was never resolved. If you check the
               | garmin forums for the 7% body fat bug you'll see it's an
               | ongoing issue for a lot of folks.
        
           | milkytron wrote:
           | What features are you looking for with a running app?
           | 
           | I haven't used Strava, but Garmin seems to have a decent
           | enough app and their devices are pretty popular amongst the
           | running and cycling communities. I've been using Garmin's app
           | and a watch for about 6 months now and couldn't be happier
           | with my experience.
        
           | tcmb wrote:
           | For route planning (one of Strava's paid features), there's
           | Komoot.com or bikemap.net.
        
           | ilikehurdles wrote:
           | The tri people I know pay for TrainingPeaks and TrainerRoad,
           | not strava.
        
           | SarikayaKomzin wrote:
           | I quite like https://smashrun.com/, but, to be transparent, I
           | pair it with Strava.
        
           | mgl wrote:
           | You may want to try Runalyze, gives way more running-related
           | analytics than Strava
        
           | scott_w wrote:
           | If you want a tool for training then TrainingPeaks is the
           | standard. Most other services don't really come close, to be
           | honest.
        
       | mattwest wrote:
       | Strava has turned into a social media and comparison platform.
       | Ironically some of the highest performing endurance athletes I
       | know don't even use it anymore. TrainingPeaks + Garmin is where
       | it's at.
        
         | 762236 wrote:
         | "Turned into"? It is a social platform with large networking
         | effects. It also supports decent analysis of your performance
         | for self-coached athletes.
        
         | iamacyborg wrote:
         | It sounds more like Garmin are eating their lunch in terms of
         | training features for the general public.
         | 
         | TP is obviously even better as a product if you're working with
         | a coach hence why so many triathletes favour it.
         | 
         | Strava's a fantastic social platform but I don't use it for
         | anything more than that.
        
           | __derek__ wrote:
           | I'm in the same boat: Strava is just for cheering on friends
           | (and occasionally looking at segment PRs). My only gripe with
           | Garmin Connect is that it unfairly negs some runs, e.g.,
           | calling my slower runs after recent snow/ice storms
           | Unproductive.
        
           | 762236 wrote:
           | I haven't used Garmin in two years. How does it sound like
           | Garmin is eating Strava's lunch? Back then, Garmin didn't
           | offer me anything for cycling that Strava didn't have. Has
           | this changed?
        
             | iamacyborg wrote:
             | I guess the question I have is what features did Strava
             | have for cycling which Garmin didn't? My main sport is
             | running so I'm coming at it from that angle.
             | 
             | I suspect the new training status stuff that's been rolled
             | out would likely be a good fit for cyclists, even those who
             | haven't purchased a power meter.
        
         | hello_moto wrote:
         | > Strava has turned into a social media and comparison platform
         | 
         | Always has been that way; that's the whole idea of Strava (or
         | Komoot, RideWithGPS, etc). These platforms are for casuals.
         | 
         | > Ironically some of the highest performing endurance athletes
         | I know don't even use it anymore. TrainingPeaks + Garmin is
         | where it's
         | 
         | Always been this way as well (TrainingPeaks/TrainerRoads).
         | These platforms are for training and improving performance.
         | Garmin is Garmin... majority of endurance athletes wear Garmin
         | devices (or Suntoo).
         | 
         | Having said that, it's easy to upload to multiple platforms so
         | they all treat Strava or other social media as brand awareness.
        
           | dkislyuk wrote:
           | > These platforms are for casuals.
           | 
           | At least in road and trail running, this doesn't line up with
           | my observation. There are plenty of elite athletes, at least
           | in the US, who are posting their training on Strava (Jim
           | Walmsley, CJ Albertson, Molly Seidel, etc.) At the fast
           | amateur level (e.g. those chasing the Olympic Trials
           | Qualifier time), Strava adoption is pretty ubiquitous.
           | 
           | Out of the the athletes who are active on social media in the
           | first place, those who don't post on Strava are usually doing
           | it either for privacy reasons, or because they do not want to
           | share their training plans for their competitors to copy.
        
             | hello_moto wrote:
             | > At least in road and trail running, this doesn't line up
             | with my observation. There are plenty of elite athletes, at
             | least in the US, who are posting their training on Strava
             | 
             | Yup, (personal) brand awareness. Strava is for casuals but
             | the training results will be posted there regardless who
             | you are (except as you mentioned, for privacy). As I stated
             | above: Strava is for casuals, those Amateur->Pro level
             | posted there "just because" it's easy to do it not because
             | they rely Strava for Data Analysis.
             | 
             | Those athletes will rely on other platforms to analyze
             | their training data (Garmin offers more insight for
             | example).
             | 
             | Setting up Strava to link with Garmin is easy right? Things
             | will sync from that point onward.
        
           | iamacyborg wrote:
           | > These platforms are for casuals.
           | 
           | For training, sure, but a significant proportion of Olympic
           | calibre athletes use the social elements of these tools.
        
             | hello_moto wrote:
             | That's what I stated: the "amateur -> pros" level athletes
             | are using the social elements to build their brands (aside
             | from TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, etc)
        
       | truthwhisperer wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | unglaublich wrote:
       | They want ROI for their recent $150M raise...
        
       | moneywoes wrote:
       | Could be have an acquisition coming up and are looking to boost
       | TTM revenues?
        
         | stephencoyner wrote:
         | Who would buy them? Please not Nike or some other brand that
         | wants to lock them in
        
       | aliqot wrote:
       | Considering the cost of tubes, tires, etc these days.. So what?
       | Maybe a runner sees it differently, but for a cyclist the value
       | is there, and the cost is justified. I can't think about needing
       | an inflation adjustment in salary and get mad when merchants do
       | also.
       | 
       | Good on them. If people will pay it, it's the right move. Can't
       | spend internet points anyway so hit me.
        
         | operatingthetan wrote:
         | I assume Strava thinks about it like you: we have an affluent
         | base who spends thousands a year on their sports, they can
         | afford it.
         | 
         | On the other hand, I think most every consumer looks at it like
         | they look at every other recurring service: is what I'm getting
         | for my money worth it versus the competitors? The problem with
         | Strava is that their premium features have been stagnant for
         | years, and the feature set is provided by other companies and
         | services for free or cheaper.
         | 
         | I think a good percentage of people are like myself and pay for
         | Strava because I want to support them, and rarely use the
         | premium features. Treating customers badly and not
         | communicating about a price increase breaks the spell and
         | causes the feature comparison and questions from customers.
        
           | ak217 wrote:
           | > their premium features have been stagnant for years
           | 
           | Not my experience. They overhauled their route builder and
           | made it subscription-only in 2021 - and kept improving it
           | since. The route builder with the built-in heatmaps has no
           | competition, and is a killer feature for many. Also there's
           | the whole network effects thing where there Strava dominates
           | social networking for recreational cyclists/runners
        
             | operatingthetan wrote:
             | They definitely did that to compete with Komoot and
             | Ridewithgps. Compare the platform with piggy-back app
             | intervals.icu which adds so many more useful technical
             | training features and you'll see what I mean.
             | 
             | >Also there's the whole network effects thing where there
             | isn't really another social network for recreational
             | athletes
             | 
             | Most of those features are in the free version. Many keep
             | the free acccount, and utilize more serious tools for the
             | rest.
        
               | ak217 wrote:
               | Again not my experience. The heatmap is essential and
               | frankly all the other apps suck for route planning
               | (including the ones you listed as well as others that
               | have come and gone over the years). Strava's route
               | planner has no competition, their main concern is not
               | some upstart app that computes obscure workout details,
               | but getting disintermediated by Apple or Garmin bundling
               | apps with their wearables.
               | 
               | I agree that doesn't excuse poor PR around price
               | increases though.
        
               | andor wrote:
               | _" Strava's route planner has no competition"_
               | 
               | That's an absurd statement.
               | 
               | All of the route planning tools have their advantages and
               | disadvantages. I frequently create routes for cycling and
               | a couple of times I used Strava, Komoot and Garmin
               | Connect for the same route. Garmin Connect always works
               | because it can ignore map data if necessary. Strava and
               | Komoot were not always able to create the route I want
               | (looks like Strava have added a "manual mode" as well).
               | 
               | Most of the people around me use Komoot, it's also my
               | preferred tool now. The information density on the map is
               | great, the POIs shown on the map can be customized and
               | editing works well enough.
               | 
               | Strava is okay. It definitely looks sleek. The biggest
               | issue is that routes cannot be edited in the mobile app,
               | only created. Editing is possible in the browser but
               | really awkward. Try rerouting parts of an existing route.
               | 
               | Heatmaps are useful sometimes, e.g. when I'm abroad and I
               | don't know if a road can be cycled on at all. But the
               | most used roads are not necessarily the best ones. Komoot
               | doesn't have a heatmap visualization but there are
               | comments, ratings and photos of segments.
        
               | operatingthetan wrote:
               | Not your experience, but it's definitely the prevailing
               | sentinment by users in the threads I've read about this.
               | If I read a lot of people saying "I can't cancel because
               | I need the route builder" then maybe you would have a
               | point.
               | 
               | Overhauling one feature that only a few care about isn't
               | a persuasive argument that they've kept up with their
               | competitors.
        
             | plorkyeran wrote:
             | The heatmap integration really is the killer feature for
             | me. I otherwise don't like Strava's route planner, but the
             | heatmap is better data for deciding what road to take than
             | anything available elsewhere.
        
           | alistairSH wrote:
           | _I think most every consumer looks at it like they look at
           | every other recurring service: is what I 'm getting for my
           | money worth it versus the competitors?_
           | 
           | This is me. With the proliferation of subscription services
           | for just about anything software-related, I'm reassess all of
           | my services a few times each year. I regularly
           | unsubscribe/resubscribe to TV services and do the same with
           | Zwift for indoor cycling.
        
             | zbrozek wrote:
             | I've had a handful of subscription services that I've
             | canceled when they raise their prices. I stopped
             | subscribing to Strava and Netflix quite a long while ago. I
             | dropped Prime last year. Currently I subscribe to water,
             | gas, electricity, fixed-line internet, cellular, Costco,
             | landscaper, mortgage, and government.
             | 
             | Any software that was once a one-time-buy and which becomes
             | subscription, I simply get stuck on the last version that I
             | actually bought.
        
           | aliqot wrote:
           | > I think most every consumer looks at it like they look at
           | every other recurring service
           | 
           | This may not address your comment directly, but I can feel a
           | strawman forming that I'd like to get ahead of for others.
           | 
           | Fitness and entertainment are not comparable. If you're into
           | fitness, you're in 100%, especially so at the competitive
           | level. If you're an entertainment person, don't compare it to
           | your Netflix bill, compare it to your grocery bill. Suddenly
           | it makes sense.
        
             | operatingthetan wrote:
             | Nobody considers Strava's training tools 'serious.' It's a
             | social network for training. The premium tools all have
             | better versions on other platforms like Training Peaks,
             | Xert, TrainerRoad etc. that literally every athelete uses
             | instead. No athlete is sharing their training data with
             | their coach on Strava, so given that I think comparisons to
             | entertainment are fair.
             | 
             | >but I can feel a strawman forming
             | 
             | Let's address fallacies as they happen instead of before
             | they do, okay? I find this uncharitable.
        
               | kmonsen wrote:
               | Or even Garmin connect, I was looking for a coach and
               | most wanted to use some sort of training peaks/garmin
               | combo.
               | 
               | They were actually, please don't use Strava. You will not
               | follow the training plan and just exhaust yourself to set
               | a PR when I want you to be slow and consistent instead.
        
               | operatingthetan wrote:
               | I had a friend who did that exact thing. Was a decent cat
               | 2 or 3 at that point but was constantly chasing KOMs and
               | burned themselves out hard.
        
             | Fordec wrote:
             | Well my Netflix and UberEats bills are $0 and if a
             | subscription service is to be compared to a basic human
             | need as food itself, that's a bit of a complete
             | misunderstanding of a general humans hierarchy of needs.
             | That applies to _any_ entertainment service.
        
         | 6LLvveMx2koXfwn wrote:
         | From my current account page:
         | 
         | > Your annual membership will automatically renew on 22 August
         | 2023 for PS47.99
         | 
         | Hard to get excited about. Maybe it goes up to PS54.99 as per
         | the article, also hard to get excited about.
        
       | Dachande663 wrote:
       | I started supporting smashrun.com a few years ago. Tiny team,
       | passionate updates, and it feels good to support people living
       | the life they want vs giving some VC a 10x return.
        
       | PragmaticPulp wrote:
       | > For some people, prices will double overnight. For others,
       | it'll be nothing. Others still yet will split the difference on a
       | wide-ranging scale in between those points. The determining
       | factor? Theoretically a combination of which country you're in,
       | when exactly you signed up, whether you're on annual or monthly
       | plans, and finally, exactly what today's date is, relative to the
       | date of your subscription renewal. I'm not kidding, you can't
       | make this up.
       | 
       | This sounds like the over-complicated scheme you get after too
       | many product managers spend 6 months holding meetings where
       | nobody wants to back down, so instead they continue to add
       | complexity until every last piece of the decision is a
       | compromise.
        
         | adrr wrote:
         | When you get too many MBAs into a room. Pricing and features
         | are based on an excel model optimizing for revenue with some
         | magic numbers someone picked out of a hat that determines price
         | sensitivity by region. Don't let your CFO drive. They are a
         | support role only.
        
           | bunsenhoneydew wrote:
           | I couldn't agree more with "Don't let your CFO drive". I've
           | worked at several companies that turned to absolute shit as a
           | result of exactly this.
        
         | yieldcrv wrote:
         | To me it sounds more like they have key clients already paying
         | wildly different arrangements, who are going to want to get out
         | of the contract if they learn the new pricing
         | 
         | Its going to burn alot of bridges and there's no way out of the
         | quagmire
         | 
         | Its just a case study of when the means (always be closing)
         | stop justifying the end
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | seneca wrote:
         | I think you hit it dead on. This is design by committee and
         | organizational dysfunction.
         | 
         | Strava has been flailing for years now, dropping much used
         | features and just generally antagonizing its customer base.
         | It's a wonder they're still around and as widely used as they
         | are. Just goes to show how many bad decisions you can absorb as
         | a market leader, I suppose.
        
           | stephencoyner wrote:
           | Agreed it would seem there is a lack of product vision at
           | this point
        
           | chairmanwow1 wrote:
           | What is a good alternative? I want some analytics / tools for
           | training specific distances.
        
             | ohyoutravel wrote:
             | SmashRun https://smashrun.com/ if you do only running
             | activities. It's great. Though while I pay for that, I also
             | pay for strava since 2012 and will continue to do so.
             | Disagree with grandparent post, I think strava has become
             | better and better over time and I find it more engaging and
             | useful than before.
        
             | camel_gopher wrote:
             | TrainerRoad is outstanding for structured training. Doesn't
             | have the social aspect.
        
             | oezi wrote:
             | Intervals.icu
        
               | mbesto wrote:
               | https://intervals.icu/ - for the lazy
               | 
               | The app is incredible if you're a data junky and very
               | serious about performance. Strava is more sexy about maps
               | and sharing though.
        
               | InCityDreams wrote:
               | Intervals has maps and can be shared. I'm already in a
               | couple of groups. Getting more people to jump across may
               | be easier, now. Thanks strava.
        
             | amateurdev wrote:
             | If you're a Garmin device user, the app is pretty good! I
             | only recently started using their app more often and
             | barring the social aspects, I dont think Strava offers me
             | anything more. HR zones, recovery etc are all already in
             | the Garmin app whereas its paid on Strava.
             | 
             | I guess for those who want routes/segments might gravitate
             | towards Strava but I use a fairly standard set of routes so
             | I dont value in that either.
        
         | walrus01 wrote:
         | Eventually taken to its logical conclusion, you end up with
         | something that looks like the terms and conditions and contract
         | clauses seen when signing up for a "promotional" offer price on
         | a 24 or 36-month service term with a famously consumer abusive
         | Canadian cellular carrier like Bell, Telus or Rogers or one of
         | their sub-brands wholly owned MVNOs.
         | 
         | Or for "landline" Telus fiber based last mile ISP service
         | bundled with TV.
        
       | alistairSH wrote:
       | Follow-up video...
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3szJ67iM1E&t=1s
       | 
       | Apparently, Strava rolled out these increases with no explanation
       | or notice to users. And oddly, they refuse to tell journalists
       | what the official subscription fees will be, leaving it to the
       | journalists to dig around and figure it out on their own.
       | 
       | I understand prices have to go up to pay for hosting and
       | development, but this is a weird one. Massive increase, no new
       | features announced, and next to zero communication from the
       | company.
        
         | prepend wrote:
         | Prices should not go up for hosting and development. Prices
         | should go down per user as there are fixed costs. Same with
         | development.
         | 
         | Unless strava is losing users their costs aren't going up,
         | especially not 30%.
         | 
         | It's easy to argue that costs go up but that's not due to
         | development, but due to corporate overhead.
         | 
         | Unless they are doing something really wacky with saas costs,
         | they should have low marginal costs so as long as they have a
         | decent growth, costs go down.
        
           | iamacyborg wrote:
           | I suspect their costs are going up because more and more
           | people are buying fitness and sports watches and integrating
           | those services with Strava.
           | 
           | Not only are they simply storing the received data but they
           | do a lot with it like calculating segments.
        
           | notyourwork wrote:
           | > Prices should not go up for hosting and development. Prices
           | should go down per user as there are fixed costs. Same with
           | development.
           | 
           | That's the naive in theory world. In practice, it is not
           | always the case that economies of scale lend to reduced
           | hosting/infra costs. They can in fact balloon, especially for
           | a small population or a small niche use case.
        
         | klabb3 wrote:
         | > And oddly, they refuse to tell journalists what the official
         | subscription fees will be
         | 
         | Probably because there is no one price, but rather determined
         | from a formula. Individual price setting is a wet dream of any
         | business with low marginal cost. This is, to my understanding,
         | the force behind DVD region locking (which later transitioned
         | into digital services) - the optimal price depends on the
         | consumer purchasing power, which varies significantly by
         | region. Now region [?] individual, but the more cohorts and
         | factors you have, the closer fit you can theoretically achieve.
         | 
         | In other words, Strava would probably love to charge premium
         | from Bay Area power users on FAANG compensation. At the same
         | time, they'd love to acquire and retain paying users in the
         | lower brackets, rather than none at all.
         | 
         | I'm not sure of the legal risks, but in the court of public
         | opinion this is akin to scalping your own product. If I get a
         | different price than my friend, I'll feel ripped off.
         | 
         | To me, it's surprising that this isn't happening more. This is
         | an almost inevitable consequence of the surveillance capitalism
         | paradigm of the digital landscape. The incentives are there,
         | and most importantly, the data needed for individual prices is
         | there.
        
         | bochoh wrote:
         | They just needed to show 20% growth in revenue to IPO, and like
         | magic it happened
        
           | operatingthetan wrote:
           | If you go on /r/strava there have been threads about it all
           | week and a large percentage of posters say they are
           | cancelling. It seems like this is blowing up in their faces a
           | bit.
        
             | beardedetim wrote:
             | I definitely cancelled mine. I decided to switch to using
             | Garmin Connect fulltime instead of that and Strava.
        
             | alistairSH wrote:
             | I'm in the "still shows original price" boat for now.
             | If/when my annual renewal comes due and the price is $80
             | instead of $50, I'll probably cancel as well.
        
       | oezi wrote:
       | Strava is being massively greedy here without showing innovation
       | over the last years.
       | 
       | Worse the app is still plagued with import issues and
       | inaccuracies such as the famous Strava tax where it always rounds
       | down distances so people stop for instance a race when their
       | running watch shows a 10.0 km run only to find out that it was
       | just 9.995 km and Strava shows it as 9.99 km.
        
         | rday wrote:
         | Is Strava really being greedy here? Last year at this time,
         | software developers were jumping ship in every company to get
         | huge raises at other companies. Salaries went through the roof.
         | Now many tech companies are laying folks off.
         | 
         | What other options are there when you staff demands huge raises
         | or leaves for greener pastures?
        
         | nequo wrote:
         | > when their running watch shows a 10.0 km run only to find out
         | that it was just 9.995 km and Strava shows it as 9.99 km.
         | 
         | That is a 10 meter difference between what Strava and the
         | running watch report. That does not sound that atrocious?
        
           | jwineinger wrote:
           | I think the point is that effort is not tracked as a 10k, so
           | you don't see that in your PR history, etc. Plus it is just
           | annoying to do something big for yourself and have a tool
           | publicly shortchange you.
        
           | goguy wrote:
           | Definitely not. Everyone knows these things are super
           | accurate, considering that it's pretty darn good.
        
         | ohyoutravel wrote:
         | Somewhat small complaint, but this bit me. Did a half marathon
         | and got a PR, stopped when my watch hit 13.1. Strava didn't
         | record this as a HM because it had the mileage at 13.09 or
         | something. Very annoying and still irks me.
        
           | johnmaguire wrote:
           | Hah - I did a Strava challenge once where that happened on a
           | 102 mile ride.
           | 
           | I always ride a little extra now.
        
         | PascLeRasc wrote:
         | They don't need to show innovation when the product is
         | complete. Twitter with the new innovative "For You" tab is much
         | worse than when it was coasting with nothing new. Same with
         | electron 1Password 8.
        
           | merb wrote:
           | electron 1password 8 would be ok. if it worked as before or
           | better, I mean enthusiast would've cared, but most people
           | not. I mean they did not have a linux app before which they
           | now have. but what is so stupid about 1password 8 is the new
           | search, its just stupid.
        
       | ilamont wrote:
       | _Strava's increase also follows rises from other subscription
       | services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime._
       | 
       | And Adobe - I was just told my $14.99 plan was rising to $19.99.
       | 
       | Quickbooks online - a similar rise last November.
        
         | latchkey wrote:
         | YouTube Premium too...
         | https://9to5google.com/2022/10/20/youtube-premium-price-hike...
        
       | Wonnk13 wrote:
       | WOW. Ray / DCRainmaker is a huge voice in the endurance sports
       | world, you don't want this kind of publicity from him.
       | 
       | I've had a Strava since, forever? Over a decade at this point.
       | It's the de facto app for cycling and running and is one social
       | media app I get real value from.
       | 
       | I will say- as someone who pays for Strava Premium their product
       | strategy has been a mess for ages. Feature requests go
       | unacknowledged for years and they keep adding silly features no
       | one wants.
       | 
       | I'll keep using it because my friends are all on it, but it does
       | feel like they are slowly dying of self inflicted wounds.
        
         | Gigachad wrote:
         | I wonder if their infrastructure costs are getting too much.
         | Having all that backlog of data that has to be processed to do
         | the high score boards and such must cost a fortune.
        
       | notyourwork wrote:
       | percent? or per cent? Perhaps a minor correction in title.
        
         | dr_petes wrote:
         | I'm mildly annoyed that the headline doesn't know the
         | difference between the two.
        
           | xboxnolifes wrote:
           | There's a difference?
        
         | __derek__ wrote:
         | The article is from a British publication.
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | Not seeing a lot of rational discourse here in the thread. The
       | price of Strava has been in continual monotonic decline in real
       | dollar terms. A 35% price increase across the board, if that is
       | the weighted average, would just bring them up to 2009-2023
       | chained inflation.
        
       | ilikehurdles wrote:
       | As it stands, paying for Strava feels like paying for Twitter in
       | terms of the cost/benefit trade off.
       | 
       | I was a subscriber for a long time but canceled about 2 or so
       | years ago when they went big in on sponsored content. For me it
       | provided no value over Garmin's tools, which are free (with a
       | device purchase?) and IMO superior for deep fitness tracking, and
       | respecting of my data privacy. I seldom run into an athlete who
       | doesn't use a Garmin device. Similarly, the Peloton folks have
       | their own fitness data dashboard, and I assume the Wahoo folks
       | do, too.
       | 
       | Strava's competitive advantage should come from its vast data
       | moat, but I feel like they're struggling to monetize that
       | effectively. Their social feed is its primary attraction today,
       | but putting that behind a paywall would harm the revenue they get
       | from offering sponsored content (challenges and posts) and
       | analytics products for city planners.
       | 
       | Segments was their original big feature, but that has seemingly
       | fallen to abandonment.
       | 
       | I _want_ an effective, low-frustration, high trust way to find
       | and follow popular user-created maps (and segments I guess.)
       | Every map search service, from Garmin to Run/RideWithGPS to
       | Strava feels close to something great, but each lacking that wow-
       | factor. If anything, AllTrails is closest to a polished and
       | powerful UX that could swallow that entire market if they had the
       | interest in going multi-modal (beyond the heavy focus on
       | destination trail running/walking/hiking).
        
       | scott_w wrote:
       | I'm not a Strava subscriber (I prefer TrainingPeaks for that) but
       | wow, this is a poor way to communicate price increases. Most
       | people can deal with prices increasing. What they can't deal with
       | is a total lack of communication about that increase.
       | 
       | If Strava don't know what they're going to charge then they
       | shouldn't communicate until they can put that number in front of
       | customers. The alternative is... this!
        
       | iamacyborg wrote:
       | No wonder they've been so aggressively pushing popups and emails
       | to upgrade to a subscription service over the last few weeks.
       | 
       | My favourite was the bait and switch email with this subject
       | line:
       | 
       | "Your _complete_ personalised 2022 stats recap is here"
       | 
       | Which was actually just an email telling me to upgrade to see my
       | recap.
        
         | mikestew wrote:
         | If one has Garmin Connect, go to Reports/Progress Summary,
         | choose date range (including "last year") from dropdown: more
         | stats than you'll know what to do with.
         | 
         | And, yeah, I understand getting the stats isn't the point, but
         | perhaps someone finds it helpful if Strava won't give up the
         | data.
        
         | voisin wrote:
         | In previous years that recap was included in the free tier.
        
           | iamacyborg wrote:
           | Yeah, it's such a weird thing to gate behind a paid
           | subscription too. It's not like I get anything useful beyond
           | minor feel good fuzzies from yearly recaps of that nature.
        
           | ilikehurdles wrote:
           | So were most of their mapping features. And their
           | leaderboards. Their approach to monetization of late has been
           | to sprinkle a little glitter on existing features and then
           | put the entire feature behind a paywall and raise the price
           | later.
        
       | jcdavis wrote:
       | The messaging here is absolutely terrible, but I suspect most
       | premium users will keep their subscription.
       | 
       | There was a similar uproar last time when they gated a bunch of
       | popular features behind premium, but anecdotally it _massively_
       | increased the subscribers among serious users (myself included).
       | As long as they have a defacto monopoly in the social fitness
       | space, serious users will pay.
        
       | james_pm wrote:
       | It's going from $9.99 to $14.99/month in Canada. I'm out. Even at
       | $10 I was considering whether it was worth it. At $15 it's not
       | even close. I turned off auto-renew this morning when I saw the
       | DC Rainmaker video.
        
       | tonymet wrote:
       | Stravas security breaches have remained off the radar. Private
       | runs and maps are exposed . There have been cases of harassment,
       | doxxing and assault via these breaches.
       | 
       | I finally quit Strava when I got an Apple Watch and they added
       | friction to Apple health sync. As a paid subscriber it was
       | received as deliberately hostile UX to pump daily engagement
       | numbers
       | 
       | They have a great network of amateur athletes but it's not worth
       | the risk
        
         | folli wrote:
         | I'm also looking in integrating Apple Health sync data into an
         | app I'm currently working on. However, to be honest, Apple is
         | also being a PITA. Pretty much every other fitness tracker
         | (Garmin, Polar, Suunto) offers some kind of Web API to access
         | and sync data. But of course Apple does not do that, you need
         | to build some kind of app on iOS which the user needs to
         | install on his/her device, which of course adds extra friction.
        
           | tonymet wrote:
           | The industry is moving toward on-device APIs for privacy
           | protection. that way the data can remain encrypted & private
           | on the device and there's less risk of a breach.
           | 
           | In Strava's case they already have the integration complete
           | and the hostile UX is them forcing you to open the app and
           | manually trigger the sync rather than running the sync as a
           | listener or during background refresh . They could even add a
           | "sync all" button but instead they force you to sync dozens
           | of activities (my activities tend to be short + mixed).
           | 
           | I recommend getting ready for on device for your app - all
           | apps are heading toward on-device for data & even model
           | training.
        
             | folli wrote:
             | I find that a bit hard to believe for the more established
             | device makers (e.g. Garmin, Polar, Suunto). Their device is
             | a watch, if I want to look at analytics, I will need to
             | move the data off to the cloud, I don't want to look at
             | graphs and maps on a half-inch watchface.
             | 
             | Apple is a special case, because they offer a tightly
             | closed ecosystem with watches, phones, laptops...
        
       | marcocampana wrote:
       | mmm so entry https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34373206 was
       | merged into this one because it was a duplicate. Thing is
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34373206 was #1 on the
       | homepage and the merge with this made it disappear from the HN
       | homepage. Was this intentional?
        
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