Awesome - thanks Nate. Appreciated.
I subscribed for one month to try it before I moved houses. I let that month lapse while I moved, and then I jumped in with both feet when they announced the annual subscription after Iād settled into the new house.
Truth be told, the impetus for my subscription was the calendar and planning functionality. I canceled my Training Peaks premium subscription and used that money to pay for TR and Iāve never looked back. (That was easier because Iām not racing tris this year, just riding).
I had previously played around with Zwift and Sufferfest. TrainerRoad - for me - is a better product and as mentioned a tremendous value in terms of coaching platforms. You can plan, analyze, assess and conduct structured training all in one and those features are all very good and getting better.
Some users will find Zwift better for their uses - I like the distraction for boring rides. But I believe TrainerRoad has their mission statement right up front - āGet faster.ā If thatās not what youāre interested in primarily, then other options do exist and those options are pretty good. Yes, you can get faster with Zwift too, but I donāt believe thatās their primary aim. If anything Zwift is trying to do everything, and frankly it all suffers because of it. TR is trying to do one thing, and it does it better than the rest of them right now, IMO.
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Increasing price is a mistake because it will reduce the new subscription rate?! 
TR being on the expensive side (as compared to Zwift) with little outside money makes sense to me. From what I can tell TR is not targeting the casual cyclist. There is plenty of free content for them and they are made to feel welcome in the forum but the core value producing engine is definitely focused on serious enthusiast and above. If you consider the price of TR in this context, I think it is not a mistake.
We are often complaining about businesses making decisions based purely on the bottom line and short-term gains. Well here we are with a business deciding to do something that might hurt their bottom line but allow them to focus their development exactly where they want. I know what it feels like to have a significant number of users with needs/desires that do not match well with where you want to go. It feels bad to disappoint these users and saps energy from the development efforts.
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I will throw my 2Ā¢ in that all I can say is I am glad that I am grandfathered in because they way I use it the price increase is more than I am willing to pay because of a few factors. First I donāt race so I use it as a means to structure a cycling fitness routine and I donāt use it year round, pretty much off season stuff. At the current annual pricing, I am ok with an annual membership for the handful of times I may use it but really the bulk of the usage is over 5 or 6 months Oct to April. New pricing I would go with monthly and cut it to those months only. I also donāt use the calendar for anything but training plans so all the extra value add is not of great value. Outdoor workouts, never going to use them, even if I had a compatible head unit, which I donāt nor plan to invest in one.
My opinion is TR is becoming increasingly specialized but I think that is at risk of losing a segment of the market that wants structured fitness but not necessarily a complete training immersion. Thereās another thread started about going to a tiered model, which would be something I would be more interested in.
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Will I be able to switch to an annual rate discounted from the original beta monthly pricing? 
In the last year my $7 a month rate is looking better and better!
Iām curious, would it be sharing too much to note how many original beta pricing members are still around? If I canāt be on the pointy end of the wkg curve maybe I can be all alone in TR membership longevity?
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Itās totally worth it. Iām stingy, but when I take a look at how much this sport costs and even alternatives like a personal coach cost, you guys are fantastic.
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Probably not because of competitors reading the thread, sorry :(.
What is more, the price hike is quite steep (+46 % for the yearly subscription) and came as a surprise. I donāt remember a mention during the last few podcasts, for example. I think it would have been smarter to
- announce this well in advance and
- do incremental hikes over a longer period of time ($130 ā> $150 ā> $170 ā> $190 or $130 ā> $160 ā> $190), i. e. boil the frog slowly.
Now that TrainerRoad is at the top end of the price range compared to the competition, expectations will rise, too. I am still keeping Training Peaks around because its in-app analysis (of races and workouts), (in-app) calendaring features and compatibility with non-cycling workouts are still superior in many regards to TrainerRoad. New users will expect more from TrainerRoad.
Lastly, regarding the comparison with competitors, Zwift in particular: I find that for many people (including most of my team mates) they have a Zwift subscription for sure and a TR subscription would be optional and in addition to a Zwift membership. (I am one of the few outliers, I donāt have a smart trainer and I am concerned that Zwift would mess up my training schedule.)
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Competitors reading the thread is that really the answer? Itās ok to tell people to fāoff as itās private company information. Myself included. Just keep it real.
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Huh. Iām not sure I even did the maths when I shifted from monthly to annual. Oops! 
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Iām pretty sure Lamaās comment had an Aussie sensibility to it that didnāt quite come across right.
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I mean you could always switch to a personal coach for $250 - 300 per month /s
TR is a significantly cost effective training product for the price.
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As a relatively new user to TR, you hit the nail on the head here. My first criteria was the different organisations and what they stood for (ie. getting faster vs immersive experience), then the second was cost which was a biggie for me. I didnāt know which one I preferred so started out with TR and Zwift which were roughly the same $ in Australia and I personally didnāt like Zwift, I found it quite boring but my son (13) enjoys it, so in essence it came down to TR and Sufferfest, both platforms attempting to achieve the same goal - make you faster. All of the riders that I ride with use Sufferfest primarily because of the price but I chose TR purely because of this forum and the podcasts and the great information that TR consistently provide. I figured that the small uptick in costs is my way of giving back a few $ for an organisation that is keeping it real. Now that there is quite a significant cost gap between the two I am not sure that my choice would be the same not knowing the benefits that can be had from TR. With that said, I am happy with my grandfathering particularly now that I have used the platform for 2 months
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Arh, yes. I forget that standard Aussie terms/use we use casually donāt translate well in text/across borders.
(My edit roll for videos would have me thrown off YouTubeā¦ again)
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I love TR, think itās a fantastic product, fantastic company with amazing people that really work at interacting with the client base. If the price hike means theyāre able to speed up development of functions and features theyāve indicated are on the horizon - basically making TrainingPeaks Premium irrelevant, for starters; no doubt more features are in the works - it will be be more than worth it.
I donāt mind that the price increase comes āless than a yearā after the last one - TR has added a lot of functions and features, and given the competitive landscape, Iām fine with wanting to keep the foot on the development pedal. Should also admit, of course that since Iām grandfathered in, the current price increase doesnāt impact me.
But I still think the way the price increase was handled this time around was a bad idea. The idea that announcing the price increase before hand was a ādisservice to our other users who are supporting us and staying subscribedā doesnāt make any sense to me. I mean, itās just silly - āPrice increase announced, but someone that renews or signs up in the next week can get the current priceā¦ā - why in the world would anyone already subscribed be upset at that? āno, dammit, they should pay moreā¦ā??
Can any current subscriber post here that theyād be upset if TR pre-announced the price increase??
And because it makes no sense - Iām left thinking that the only reason it wasnāt pre-announced is that TR wanted more people to sign up at the higher price. Which would be unfortunate, since it seems to go against the entire ethos of the company and everything theyāve said and done over the years.
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Working in an international office Iāve realised thereās things I can and canāt get away with. Almost constant sarcasm is NOT one of them.
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I do think the challenge is what is the product trying to be and who is it trying to appeal to. Price bump for features you dont use or see value in just makes you debate what you need. For a casual rider who just wants an indoor riding program with some structure TR has it and I like it. I am not sure if I started today if I wouldnt be scared off by the price.
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My biggest concern about stealth price changes here is my credit card was hacked earlier this year. Turns out that card is in my TR account, and boy would I be pissed if I lost my grandfathered plan because of that. Itās not easy to keep track of yearly subscriptions that need to be updated when you get a new card. Iām not sure if thereās an early email that the card didnāt go through where you still have enough time to update it and keep the account āactiveā.
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Youād get multiple emails about it. And if you didnāt and your access was turned off just drop support an email as soon as you know.
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Value is the total cost of ownership compared to the next likely alternative. TrainerRoad is an amazing value. Over the past several years, Iāve tried subcribed and dropped Zwift and Sufferfest and over the past six months, I have simultaneously held subscriptions to TrainerRoad, TrainingPeaks, Xert and paid a coach. Monthly total was about $320.
I was trying out Xert, but. the in ride dashboard is horrible. I prefer the TR in ride experience. TrainingPeaks gives me a performance management chart and allows me to work with a coach who uses TP as their platform w/ WKO integration. Taking on a coach for a few month to help set direction of outdoor workouts was useful and helped immensely, but, not required for my year-round training requirements.
Now that my road season is coming to a close in about five weeks and Iāll be returning to base, Iāve dropped Xert, dropped the coach and wonāt be renewing TrainingPeaks. I will be renewing my TrainerRoad subscription because, even at $200 a year, itās an insane value compared to the cost of a PMC and personal coach. You literally get 90% of the value of a $200 a month coach + a PMC for less than 1/10th of the price.
On top of that, the FREE podcast that TR produces (with a back catalogue) is worth the $200 a year subscription price alone. Add to that a forum where the founder and several company employees give personal coaching advice and 1:1 consulting, youāve got a product/price that canāt be beat.
As for handling this specific situation, if I were OP, I would have contacted customer service via phone or chat and tried to explain your unique situation and tried to get an exception. Customer service reps understand that credit card numbers change, renewal emails get lost and shit happens.
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