OK, if you consider that feedback “clear” then……
What else would you call it? You ask your customers about an idea and then you look at the answers or to keep the lingo, their feedback. 
They do this already. I know I got a promo code with my trainer and so did a friend.
my wife and I are legacy users and the locked in legacy rate has kept us around regardless if we only use it for 1/2 the year or what or how our riding has changed over the years. An increase or change in the legacy pricing “promise” would make us rethink our annual subscription vs now we do not really think about it.
Currently do not use Zwift and I opted out of Strava once they tried their tiered structure (which was terrible). I am enjoying my first couple of months using AT; however, my opinion may change once I resume group riding in the spring/summer. I would not pay the current TR rate, and if new updates pass me by at my current pricing structure I may cancel unless those updates are critical.
For me, it (structured training) comes down to the following options:
- off the shelf plans that are plug and play, and span a defined time frame. These are typically the cheapest options, but offer no flexibility and to be used well also require some base knowledge on how/when to plug those in to your annual plan. And then you have to be disciplined enough to adjust them based on how you feel/your performances over time.
- 1-1 coaching. The most expensive option, but the most individualized. ~$1000/yr is a pretty typical price for a decent plan.
- TrainerRoad: Not as personal as 1-1 coaching, but way more personal than plug and play options. More expensive then off the shelf, way less expensive then 1-1 coaching.
So even if TR were to increase their pricing, it’s still a huge bargain for what you’re getting.
And they give the immensely useful podcast away for free. Consider everything you get out of the podcast into the cost increase.
So TR: increase the price. Be sure to make the users feel like the higher price is worth it - aka: deliver on the promise to produce useful changes in a reasonable time frame. And allow existing users to grandfather/mother in and keep your promise.
Not currently a subscriber, I joined last winter (for 3 months) but baulked at the annual cost given I had run out of winter and didnt envisage using TR much in the summer. Tbh the grandfathering of existing long term members didnt bother me, what bothered me more was that as a new member I had the potential privilege of being “grandfathered” at a price that is already the highest price app out there, the same loyalty offer didnt appear to be there for me as a new user to become a long term user going forwards
My take on costs - I paid TR $60 for 3 months last year. If it had been $100 or $120 for a year (e.g. TP has big discount for annual sub), I would have signed up for a year as in my mind I am not paying too much for the 7-8 months when I will not use it so much. As it is $189 per year is not good value compared to $60 or $80 for 3/4 months access when I would use intensively.
I’ve seen lots of comments like this here and in other similar threads. People feel like TR owes them something and IMO this is laughable.
All companies including Netflix use their customer data to make business decisions, which in turn drive revenue etc etc. TR isn’t exactly unique in this regard, but I’ve never heard anyone say Netflix or their insurer or Meta owes them a debt of gratitude for analysing their data.
Yeah but at the current rates, new users only need to use tr seasonally or 5 months a year to bring in the same money as the $99 crowd
Ok so if you dropped your annual subscription and paid monthly as you need/use it. Tr would be no better or worse off so your not really making a case for them keeping legacy pricing
+1 seriously overestimating the value of their data as a single user imo.
I have been on trainerroad since its infancy. I pay $89 annually I believe. Being a nurse with three children, I get 99% of my cycling workouts inside following trainerroads planbuilder and I gear my training towards 1 or 2 big races each year. I am grateful for what I am currently getting at what I pay. Here is my worry…I pull the plug and pay double to get a few new features thinking that I will utilize them. After one or two years, the price continues to rise and eventually it is pushed to a price point that is out of my reach. After I upgrade, I doubt I will be able to “go back” to Legacy pricing. I guess the safe bet would be to stick with the Legacy pricing and try not to get upset about the features I am missing.
not trying to make a case. TR is a service provider and as a long time customer, I am giving my feedback. If TR decides to no longer honor their legacy pricing, then I will for the first time may reconsider my annual subscription based on what those changes may be. No different than when any other service provider says it’s going to increase your rate. At the current moment, dropping my annual subscription and paying monthly would cost me more so that does not make a lot of sense. You are correct though if a user only uses TR for a few months a year, a monthly subscription doesn’t impact the customer or TR that much. That is unless (for the customer) price increases become a more common trend.
either way, thanks for your comment. Feedback is a gift.
Pure class. Sometimes we need that reminder. Kudos.
I think this cuts both ways. You are definitely correct about the downsides, and there are situations where this isn’t the right approach. Making broad promises to customers, for example, can backfire, hard. Or promising features that won’t come out for a long time.
Overall, I think TR’s corporate communication is a net positive, though: the rollout of new features, especially those building on top of AT, handled well on average. I like that it is precisely because it isn’t as anodyne and that we know whether or not they are at least working on some of the features we’d want. For TR the advantage is that (dedicated) users (like us) get to weigh in and are heard by TR before features are released.
I don’t think his promise that people are locked into their price tier was something where he shot from the hip. He has repeated that promise many times on the podcast, and my take is that it stemmed from the early and growth period of TR where you can build success on the reputation amongst a small, dedicated community. In the rapid growth period, the problem of having people locked in is also masked by the numbers: most subscribers are new subscribers, so most subscribers pay the full rate.
One plausible option is that TR’s growth is tapering off and the share of users paying the full current rate is smaller than when TR increased prices previously. This is the period where grandfathering in cuts hard: price increases are felt by ever smaller numbers of people — people who sign up. And the higher you raise the price, the harder it gets to attract new users.
Where I live, personalized coaching is much more expensive, a team mate pays $800 per month. You could subscribe to a reputable online coaching service like Fascat Coaching, they start at $174 per month currently. If you searched long enough, I am sure you can find something cheaper, but I think $1,000 per year is ambitious.
In any case, I agree with your larger point, of course. 
The way I understood Nate was that all options are on the table and he wants input from the community. He was thinking out loud and talked about several options, including creating a pro version of TR or freezing features for people who are grandfathered in (= everybody). The way I understood him, I don’t think ending legacy pricing was off the table, quite the contrary.
Getting rid of grandfathering altogether without introducing another tier or a Classic version where features are frozen in place was one of the options we discussed here. So I don’t think I was building a strawman at all.
I thought it was
“$15 for basic and $20 for all the features”,
So I couldn’t follow if you’re legacy at $89, 99, 129 or $189, what would the proposed new prices be (and totally accepting that there aren’t decided prices or anything yet).
Could be your Legacy price + $5/mth, could be just a simple “new price is 12x$15 or 12x$20”. So it’s not clear to me (at $99), if the discussion is $99 goes to $159, or to $240.
I would pay full price (and premium) if TR would do serious improvements to the Triathlon support.
Current support and plans are quite limited. There are too many features and variables that make using TR for triathlon a less than optimum choice.
I think this is quite plausible. Nate and team clearly have a vision for new features and enhanced capabilities, and from what was shared on the podcast I think they have good ideas. When it comes to “we need more money to deliver these faster”, there are limited options to get it:
- grow the subscriber base - I think at this point growth will be slower than in past year, especially as COVID likely caused an increase that is likely fading. COVID may have pulled some future growth in, and now growth is slower because of that.
- Increase prices (under current policies). This only raises revenue from new subscribers, which will now be harder to get than before due to higher prices. From the price comparisons posted here, to me it looks like TR is already at the high end of the market. Going higher does seem risky to me.
- Increase prices for all users. This may well seem like the safest bet revenue-wise, as this will increase the revenue per legacy subscriber from 50-100%. (not sure about all legacy pricing options.) This is a massive percentage increase. Some legacy users will drop the subscriptions, but you could have significant numbers cancel and still come out. Even if 1/3 of the 99/year people canceled, you would still be getting 189*2/3=126, so a 26% revenue increase from that group of people.
(As an aside, the whole ‘frozen features’ for legacy users doesn’t seem to fit with the ‘increase revenue’ goal, so I have a hard time seeing how that really solves anything in the near term.)
If the grandfathered deal is changed then in some respects i will welcome it, as it will put TR on a level playing field with other indoor training choices. I will be free to try out other options for extended periods if they fit my needs better at the time, or i simply need a change. I feel i can’t/shouldn’t do that currently due to the cost of multiple subscriptions, so limit myself to TR and Zwift.
I’d still use TR, but it is unlikely i would take out a yearly sub, instead paying for the months i need to prepare for an event where TR is the best option for me to prepare for that event, which will not always be the case. Horses for courses.
I’m gonna preface this by saying: I love TR and it honestly feels weird telling you my opinion on how you should run your business, but you asked us to chime-in on the podcast so…
I am a loyal legacy subscriber. At my current rate ($99/yr), I have never had a thought to cancel TR. At that price I’ll keep it going forever. But 2x, 3x the price would require some serious thought. Not saying I’d cancel but I’d have to trim the cost somehow. As a customer, it would be most expensive fitness subscription I own. On the other hand, I want to see TR succeed and it would be great to see you grow your product teams to achieve all your ambitious goals.
I don’t like the idea of a tiered product as a user. As a software engineer myself the constant overhead of unwinding how to roll out features to basic and premium AT users would be a drag on development, I would think. Unless gulp AT only goes to premium users.
I think with all the new ambitious features TR is rolling out they haven’t nearly hit the ceiling on subscribers. I like the idea of killing the concept of “grandfathering”, but allowing loyal, long term, old school subscribers who went through all the ups and downs of the product and the betas and crashy Mac apps, etc. to stay on.