I pay $99.00 per year, if I pay monthly it costs me $12 per month
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Hmm… I wasn’t aware of that. You are totally right. Don’t know how I could have missed that:
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I don’t see TR suited for on/off again athletes - the value is the long term subscription that ties into the single best thing any athlete can do to improve, stay consistent over the long run. TR rewards that with a better pricing structure.
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I’d pay $190/year for just the podcast!
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It looks like to me TR is a success story. Not just the quality of information provided, but their use of technology and connection to the cycling community.
That said, my guess is that given the current state of affairs, TR will have a new influx of customers and hence…profit. Since currently over 1/2 the country have lost their income, it would be a nice gesture to give a “pandemic discount” for a given period of time. It may bring additional customers in the fold, and make current customers feel that they too (TR) are giving back. We’re all in this together.
Hi Arleen
I hope you and your family are well in these difficult times.
Currently, medical issues prevent me from carrying out TR plans. I’ve continued my subscription because TR is a quality product and i believe is reasonably priced. It’s not just about the wealth of information the team disseminate. It’s about the community they have fostered through their genuine compassion for their users, alongside a great sense of humour.
If you decided to join us you would be welcomed. 
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While some are keen and quick with smug replies aka good riddance and the like I think the original poster has a point and it’s also ok to bring it to the forums.
19,99 per month is steep. There’s no denying that. While the crew is a lovely crowd which we know thanks to the podcast I mostly really like and the product gets refined all the way and padded with such a nice forum we write now in right now it’s basically just this:
A software to control your smart trainer and a library of training workouts. Lots and lots of workouts. But basically only a few since - let’s be honest - is WahBlahWhathaveyou -10 to +10 really a variety of 21 different workouts or just window dressing?
All you need is a bit of structure and willingness to do the training. Doesn’t have to cost 20 bucks per month. All the more because as a beginner you literally just need to mount your bike to get faster and as a progressed rider you have to read in between the lines and adapt your training anyways. I.e. bring your own effort and time to plan and make it really work for you. Again - the guys here help us with that with their great podcast. But also: that’s not a unique selling point. Forums, good blogs and good podcasts are all around us.
For me it’s some kind of laziness and a convenience (supporting a bit the podcast crew, having podcasts, forums and a way of controlling my trainer and even build own workouts) and the fact that I can enjoy a grandfathered better price per month. Without this, as a new potential customer I would also be very reluctant to spent 20 Dollars / Euros per month for - I say it again - controlling my trainer and a few basic workouts.
I think it’s just the nature of things… as TR wants to expand its service offering, try to develop new things (like group rides) they need to hire more developers, purchase more software licenses, etc… I’m sure their costs are not static and probably increase every year. I’m also willing to bet that, from a cash flow perspective, there are many users that will subscribe only during the off-season… TR prices likely have to be set to manage their sustainability throughout the full year. As an incentive, TR (at least historically) has offered to “lock in” pricing for those who auto renew every year, which may be a good option if you want to be a long term user and you’re concerned with price increases.
There’s no question - if you don’t feel you’re getting good value for $19.99/mo. and there’s another platform out there that is better suited to your needs, jump on it! Personally, I think I’m getting my money’s worth.
Best of luck, and happy training! 
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No it’s not. I don’t understand why people complain about the cost of 19.99 a month. If you do 30 workouts in a month that’s just under 67 cents per workout. I have an coach and pay $175 per MONTH for that. I get maybe 5-10% more benefit for a whole lot more.
What do you get? A library of over 1,000 workouts to choose from, a podcast which does an amazing job of going into info, a forum, race analysis videos on YouTube, group video workouts, plan builder, etc. This isn’t worth 20 bucks a month if you do month to month?!
I used to be grandfathered in at 99 a year but unsubscribed after going back to my coach. So a year with TR is about one month of my coaching. If I wanted to go back to that route I have no problem. Things cost money and TR does a great job at what they do. It’s amazing what people will complain about but then they eat 4 SIS gels on a weekend ride not realizing that’s close to half of their month to month TR plan.
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I dont think things are as cut and dry as many are making them out to be here. I see both sides.
On the one hand - TR is very likely the best, or at least most cost effective single tool out there to progress as a cyclist. Though I would say a power meter or smart trainer offers similar value.
Now, looking at it relative to other online subscription services…what is offered in return for subscription prices at the $20/mo? As mentioned before…access to online workouts and software that controls a trainer. For me, it is worth it. Its the easiest way to set up a long term training plan.
BUT…looking at what you get vs other popular online subscriptions…you can see how people start to question the value a bit. For $80 a year, amazon will essentially do all of your shopping for you…you dont even have to leave the house. Plus they throw in free online video content. For …i think its $12 or $15 a month now…netflix has a massive online video catalog, including load of their OWN content they created from scratch. That is an awfully good value proposition vs $15 a pop at a movie theater, or even $100 a month for cable with 30%+ advertising forced on you. You could argue the value for these outstrips that you get with TR relative to a personal coach.
The tricky bit is that I assume, at least in large part, the pricing is just going to be more difficult for TR. Their possible market, people who like to sweat and torture themselves in their basement on a stationary bike, is comically minuscule compared to the “watch TV on their couch” crowd. I’m sure the math says there is just no way to do it without having a larger per person subscription price.
Bottom line, it’s a marketplace and this is the price that currently works best for TR. A data-driven company like TR has a very good idea of how many customers they’ll lose vs revenue gained by a price increase, and clearly $20/month is the sweet spot for them at the moment. They wouldn’t have upped the price if it didn’t work for them—pricing complaints will and should fall on deaf ears there assuming they did their homework before raising prices.
This is some kind of joke right
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you know it is precisely because I like TR that I am angry, it’s true I use it only a few months a year in autumn and winter and each year for two or three years each time I renew my subscription the price is increased. So yes right now I have time to do it every day for 2hrs because of the lock down in my country but let’s take an example in normal use for me ie 3 times a week between 45mn and 1h30 I find it a bit expensive to have something that controls my home trainer and I agree that there are a lot of training plans but frankly who uses them all some is so similar. too much is like not enough.
The question is always, how much do you value it?
Is TR a bunch of workouts? Is it a bunch of plans containing those workouts? Is it a tool for controlling your smart trainer (assuming you have one)? Is it a plan builder? Is it an analytic suite for analysing your training and races? Is it a replacement for a coach?
Only you can decide how much benefit you get from TR and how much that’s worth to you. Personally, the structure, and the way that the plans build and set me up for my objectives mean that they are competing against getting a coach. And they are a lot cheaper than a coach (like a year of TR is the same price as a month of a coach). Hell, price wise they are comparable to the 8 week plans you can buy from various coaching companies. And I’m on the low volume plan, so I only ever do the sort of workouts you do.
They have been up front when they increase their prices and about grandfathering people in. Last time the prices went up they reacted to complaints and had an extra week where if you weren’t grandfathered in, you could re-sign up and get the old price. I think that’s a pretty decent thing for a business to do.
All that said, if you don’t think you get enough benefit from TR to justify the cost, that’s entirely your call. Some platforms are offering free access for the duration of the lockdown, so if I were you, I’d go visit them and see if they can offer enough of what you want. Hope you find it.
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I don’t want to flame bait, but come on. That’s really an overgeneralization. If that’s really true, and you have a Tacx, you can just cancel your subscription and use the Tacx app for free and do just that.
But TR offers plans and structured trainings that - for most of us - work. And it really takes a team of people knowing what they are doing to create all these trainings.
And btw, “just controlling your trainer” is not as simple as it sounds. You need to implement ANT / Bluetooth protocls, design a user interface that everybody understands (TR is really good in that regard), and perform a host of calculations on the raw data and present it to people in an understandable manner. That is not trivial.
And TR features much more that you could get free, yes. Technically, you could just keep scores on google calendar. But TR did develop all these features, which costs time.
And TR also needs to do maintenance, bug fixing, product support etc etc.
I mean, look at Zwift. You may like virtual rides that are more “immersive”, but their structured trainings really suck IMHO.
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Everyone increases their pricing. TR, Zwift, Netflix, every single business. Business is there to provide products and services for a profit, not a charity. As the company grows, so do expenses. Imagine the hardware needed to run zwift for example now when there are 30,000+ people on at a time, compared to 2 years ago when it was rare to have 10,000 on at one time.
If you don’t see the value in something, then we can’t help you. I pay $119 a year for TR but to me it’s worth way more because I know it works and enhances my performance, and in turn makes cycling more fun. I could have saved $240 over the last two years, and still been noodling around with an FTP 50w lower
It’s interesting the direction this thread has taken. I’m grandfathered in to the $99/yr rate and just pay for the annual subscription now because it’d be more expensive than paying the current monthly rates for around half the year then suspend the rest for the nice weather time periods.
But I get being dismayed by the price increases. To me I really don’t listen to the podcast regularly (but have a couple of times) or don’t care for group workouts honestly as that is not my thing. Haven’t really tried the custom plan/race builder yet either because since becoming a parent I haven’t raced (besides random short TTs when the wife gives permission).
I wonder if a tiered plan would be more enticing to new or monthly or returning subscribers? Even streaming video services have different tiers. Neflix has higher tiers for more multiple devices streaming concurrently and for 4k content. Hulu with and without ads or the live TV add on. Then there is the streaming TV wars and channel packages. Maybe if one didn’t want or care about group workouts or the race calendar builder they could get it for cheaper.
Or you could go to a pay per workout / a la carte option. Pay per month on actual workouts tried out (more than 20% complete. Just random thoughts that came across to me while going through the replies. So maybe pay $2/workout or something on the a la carte plan. Might work great for those who only want to do a handful of them a month.
Just spitting out random ideas/options that could entice more revenue.
Oh and I wish crappy Comcast would reward loyal customers with good pricing instead of bait and switch for new customers with deals. I wish I could switch but DSL in my area isn’t even considered broadband (it’s a craptastic 3mbps…yes that’s it and no plans to go to their “fiber” in my area also or any speeds faster than that…I don’t live in a rural area either so it baffles me why it is like this). So I’m stuck with them or nothing at all (except maybe unreliable satellite or using mobile only which I think isn’t the best way to go).
Just because a service is too expensive for your purposes doesn’t mean it’s too expensive overall.
I can totally see how subscribing for a couple of months each year just to have some workouts to do would make the price seem quite steep. However, I’d take a guess that doesn’t describe the majority of TR’s userbase. Most of us are consistent users who rely on TR for a periodized, structured training plan, and i’d argue that their pricing reflects that.
Not every service is for every cyclist. that’s cool. There are plenty of other options available.
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You are welcome to do what I did for many years: I used Golden Cheetah (which is free) and either created my own workouts or downloaded them from ErgDB. (I’m assuming these features are still part of GC). I read books, followed blogs, and talked to other people to create my own training plans. I looked into coaches but they’re even more expensive. You can call me lazy but I got tired of the work involved to create my own plans and decided TR was worth the price.
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