For me, a classic example of Strava missing the boat is Veloviewer. Why didn’t Strava create this itself? Or once it saw the popularity/ usefulness, why didn’t Strava buy Veloviewer and integrate this into the service fully?
Having Veloviewer like functionality as part of route creation would be cool and incredibly useful when creating routes wheee you aren’t familiar with the climbs.
But then TrainerRoad: I have an invoice dated January 17 2023 saying I renew at $129.00, and the app says I renew in March at $189.99.
$60.99 jump. Not happy, and I supposedly can change to a different price, but it’s a hassle factor…
On desktop, the “Strava Sauce” Chrome extension helps filter out the cruft a little bit, eg.
Responsive/Mobile Layout (recommended)
Hide subscription upsells
Hide Sauce Bonus Features
Hide virtual activities (e.g. Zwift)
Hide commutes
Hide challenges
Hide promotions
No use on the mobile app, though, so I try to avoid looking at that!
So if I cancel I miss Goals, Heatmaps, Training Log, Training Plans, Power Curve, Fitness & Freshness, Create A Route, and Subscriber Perks.
I think the only thing I use is the Training Log occasionally, and Power Curve but only to see if I’m slacking too much, and right now I’m dead on for the previous 3 years. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a use for the $60.00. I primarily subscribed out of a now apparently misplaced sense of guilt. Well, and a Subscriber Perk. So I guess I’m out. Especially since I don’t know what I might be paying in the very near future; no idea if the $59.99 is THE price.
If it’s true that Vulture capitalists own Strava, it’s a damn good clue that the ‘market’ is down (no thanks to them) and they need some cash so SQUEEZE THE BIKERS is Plan A, or Plan B? (Look at what they pay for bikes! We can get money out of them for sure! Easy picking!)
And people rip on Garmin Connect, but in the beginning I saw them as incredibly similar in that they aggregate my data, my telemetry and can show me pretty graphs. Strava is a little more ‘social’, sure, but at my age who cares. Most people are faster than me, many people ride more than I do. BAH!! Save money. Who knows what the ‘Chaos Caucus’ is going to do to the US national economy.
–EDIT–
Just checked their Perks. A lot of subscription stuff. Like why does anyone need a subscription for deliveries of yoga attire, unless they are throwing the stuff out after they use it?
Another boat the missed was that the free version should have ads. They also could have a “market place” and a way to message people. Should have been the Facebook of sports.
I’m not sure on adds. I can think of lots of ways they could have monetized the service: registration for events; parts longevity back to manufacturers - either the OEM or competitors.
Putting together a list of ways to spend Strava’s $100 on better / add-on services:
And to ‘fix’ Strava’s desktop interface to remove the upsells / challenges / goals etc
Only two? Must be a slow month.
I cannot mute “john doe joined challenge xyz” from my feed. Nor can I mute event that are (for example) less that 90 minutes duration. Yes, there are browser extensions that do this kind of filtering, but those don’t work in the Strava app (that I know of).
Now, I do have a paid membership because I enjoy Strava as a social platform (don’t do FB etc, only Strava) and use it to feed Veloviewer (Pro+ membership). Keeping a platform like Strava operating costs money, as a software engineer I’m acutely aware of that. Money they can get by serving ads, selling my data (making me the product, the Facebook model) or getting users to pay for it. Of the three a subscription is my preference, as long as the price is reasonable.
I get this argument, but I don’t understand the need to attack people for requesting functionality from an app they use. I’m not just pointing at you, but commenting on how frequently we see this. For example, “I’d like a trainer road plan that does x” and someone replies, “ you don’t need this. You can already do that. Just pick plan A, delete all the rides on day B, add a different ride on day C, and then manually reduce the percentage by D%”.
Google maps in bike mode works great for this as well. I’ve had to use it in DC a few times and it will take you on bike trails, bike lanes, and bike friendly roads to your destination as long as one is available. You can’t create a custom route, but it works great if you find yourself in an unfamiliar area.
Thanks to @dcrainmaker and all social media voices, VeloNews also piping in on the the price debacle.
I may have read too quickly, but there seems to be nothing notable to take from that article?
That was my take as well. Felt like VeloNews felt like they needed to say on this topic for clicks
Exactly. I’m sure they will regret this decision and the way they are handling it.
That would require actual journalists and journalistic ethics……none of which are currently espoused by Outside Media.
OK, thanks for confirming. I had added it to the OP at the top, but nuked it after realizing it was essentially a puff piece with no real value. I won’t aid in their (VN/Outside) poor practices.
I’ve now taken a really close look at what Strava offers, that I value and will happily pay for. Since I’m a heavy user of Garmin Connect for activity tracking, Training Peaks for planning and analysis, Intervals.icu for power curves and data, and TrainerRoad for cycling plans, really Strava to me boils down to:
A social connection, which I can get from them for free
A good route generator, which I use quite a bit to plan actual outings as well as a fun “what-if” activity to take a break from work. I wonder if I can reach X place from home? What’s the distance, elevation, etc?
Not sure that is worth $80 (the new price) to me. Maybe I need to try out a RWGPS paid tier for a year to compare the two. But I do run and ride. Does anyone know of a really good, in-depth comparison article somewhere that puts RWGPS and Strava route creation against each other to point out pros/cons of each?
I’ve been using RWGPS since 2016. And Strava for a year or two. And Garmin Connect.
Practically speaking, route creation is about the same and they each have quirks and differences. Some other thoughts here: Alternatives to Strava Routing - #7 by WindWarrior
The big difference is I follow people on Strava and creating a route and downloading to my Garmin, that only requires a couple of clicks. Here in California I find it easier to discover interesting routes on Strava, by looking at key segments.
