Nobody likes price hikes, but Strava’s messy launch has left many customers wondering what’s going on with their subscription. Here’s what’s really happening: The company is raising prices for the first time in more than a decade, and the new price everyone pays depends on what region they live in, whether they’re a monthly or yearly subscriber, and whether they bought their subscription before. to November 23, 2022. (Customers who signed up after that date are not affected.) But Strava didn’t make this easy to understand.
As seen by a sports blogger CC Rainmaker Y r/Strava Redditors, things got confusing when customers started comparing notes about Strava’s price increase. r/Strava customers say some were sent emails, while others received updates from the App Store. Those who received emails were quoted different prices depending on the region, adding to the confusion. some saw prices almost doublewhile others saw prices increase by 67 percent either about 33 percent. To complicate matters, the relative price increase will differ depending on whether you are a monthly or yearly subscriber. And some people who received emails say they didn’t see the price change reflected on their Strava account pages.
“There are a lot of learnings here, but we chose to do it this way for very specific reasons,” says Strava spokesperson Brian Bell. the edge. “We thought it was the best thing for our business.” Bell says the company decided to alert members on a rolling basis because they opted to sign up at different times over the years. Part of the confusion, he says, is because customers see different rates of increase depending on when they joined. The group most affected, Bell says, will be the 30,000 users who started subscriptions before 2016. However, all those affected will end up paying the same new price depending on their region.
According to a Strava support blog, subscribers “will receive notice of your updated price 30 days prior to your subscription renewal date.” It also says that your updated price may not update on your account page until February 2. The affected regions are Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
As a Strava subscriber who joined before November 23 of last year, I checked my inbox for emails about the price increase or renewal notice. Nothing. There was also nothing to indicate the upcoming change on the My Account page, nor was there any information about what I’m currently paying for because I subscribed through the App Store. Instead, I had to find the new price by checking my subscriptions with my personal Apple ID. That was the only way to know that my annual subscription increased by $20 from $59.99 to $79.99. Meanwhile, it looks like monthly subscriptions in the US will increase from $7.99 to $11.99.
You’d think Strava would post a nice little table detailing the price increases for each region, but you’d be wrong. (However, you can see a useful table that DC Rainmaker put together here.) bell said the edge that given the confusion, Strava is currently “evaluating what needs to be done to provide further clarity,” but that no final decision has been made.
The price of everything goes up over time, but it’s not cool to be secretive about it. Peloton angered subscribers when it raised prices last year, but at least it made that information widely available in a press release and email to all customers. At this time, Strava subscription registration page it lists all the features that premium users get, but doesn’t offer a price breakdown other than a small bar at the bottom. And while many companies are guilty of the pricing confusion, some of Strava’s customers simply aren’t.
“I also just cancelled. I wonder if they are trusting people not to notice. It’s too big a jump. I want your workers to be fairly compensated. But life is fucking expensive right now,” Reddit user prettycheezy82 writes on a thread about rising prices.
“I have canceled mine,” writes Royal_Catepillar536 on the same thread. “It cannot be justified in the current financial climate.”
Personally speaking, that free tier of Strava looks more appealing today than it did yesterday.
