TR Price Increase to $189.95/year ($19.95/month)

TrainerRoad Software
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As a dumb trainer / roller user, for me TR today is a solid interval timer with a nice interface. I’m a year-round user as a lot of my training is inside and 12 months of structured.

I very much like the workout interface and I use the workout creator. I use the calendar as well and like that feature. Also like the TR crew and social environment they have created (this forum and the podcasts).

Cost: At $100 a year its a good value. At $200 a year I’d think about it but stay on board. Any higher though and I’ll probably just return to using a stopwatch and cardboard cards with my workouts on them.

That said, and reason for posting – What would keep me at a higher price are two, maybe three things:

  1. Proper analytics. TR doesn’t have analytics right now. A TSS chart is not analytics and even the workout analysis tools are clunky.

  2. Non-SST training programs. TR programs need to evolve with training theory / data and have options. The SST - Build - Specialty is stale. Works great for new folks to structured training but not for the guys who have been working hard for years. Look at the number of folks here going off piste creating their own stuff.

  3. ML based AI for personalization of training. Easy to say, less easy to do. But if TR can crack this nut then the “coaching” and individualized aspects of what is possible adds tremendous value. Users may need to provide certain data and do certain tests outside of ramp or 8-min, et al, but this is a big opportunity to differentiate.

Good luck guys. I hope you are in for the long haul on this. If you are I think there are a lot of motivated TR devotees who will stick with you on the journey and pay for the value created.

Best,

Mark

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150

Read most of the thread, but pretty quickly - realize I’m probably posting similar thoughts to others but it’s 2019 and everyone needs their voice to be heard, right?

Grandfathered users, particularly annual subscription ones, won’t be impacted by this and will stay - no real revenue change for TrainerRoad from their existing user base - either up or down

So - new money in comes from their ability to attract new users (or bring back prior but non-current users) at this price. I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that the rate of new user adoption will be lower at a high price - the only question is, how much lower? Obviously @Nate_Pearson and the finance team at TrainerRoad have done the math and believe that they will get more total revenue despite the lower growth rate.

I’m not sure I agree with their math, but I think for any of us to pretend we have access to the same user information and market research is a bit disingenuous. So, from my (and really all of our) informed but non-expert position, it seems like a bad idea - but I’m sure they didn’t just pick this number out of a hat with no prior thought

As for whether the value is there or not - I clearly think it is, but I’m not sure that’s the valid question. These new or returning users will be evaluating the software vs. its competitors and that will often come down to the highly visible surface based features. Videos on Sufferfest, the virtual world of Zwift, etc. I, and I think many others, feel that TrainerRoad’s approach on this stuff is superior, but for the new or naive user that is a harder sell.

Thus, perhaps, their focus in the onboarding experience. I do think there is a need to catch up on family memberships as a way to catch more new users. I don’t think there is particular value in the tiered approach I see others pitching here, part of why Strava premium seems to strange to me (full disclosure: never paid for Strava under any permutation of their billing model) is the split into three different areas - they just seem to have fragmented too much.

All this to say - I hope this works out, I really want TrainerRoad to continue growing and like the development path they are on - particularly the often hinted but never committed to functionality around predictive workout changes based on multiple metrics such as history, recovery, and others

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Agreed. This talk that TR can replace TP is nonsense as far as triathletes may be concerned. It is simply not true.

So what I started paying TR for (plans and workouts basically) is still what I am paying them for,.
Outdoor workouts, calendar and analytics are either unsuitable or not of interest. So whatever platform I choose for my indoor training, and I am pretty agnostic, I would still be paying for TP in addition.

I would also note that I regularly change the platforms I use - I like all 3 main software options and over the course of a year will change up at times. The price that TR is getting to will discourage people who take that approach, and this “grandfathering” is irrelevant to them - in a way it could be perceived as actually a bit unfair as people are paying different prices for the same product. As a fully priced payer why should I subsidise the development for those paying less?

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True, that is a difference. Though in that scenario it’s just as useful for a prospective customer to know, as they can then sign up for a year before the increase date and at least postpone the inevitable.

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Sounds like an AAPL tactic. :wink:

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Taking a wild guess but thinking another feature release is in the near term and the value new users will have to decide on over other competitors is folded into this price increase as well…

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:smile: That’s not for me! It’s for the mI have no butt hurt. I am willing to pay for quality stuff. If I don’t find value in something, I go elsewhere. Simple as that!

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158

Tiered pricing, as has been proposed, would be a good way to address the needs of different customer needs/segments. Especially in light of lower competitor prices like Zwift which may be more attractive to the entry level user.

Given the churn analysis Nate referenced, sounds like they have a good handle on customer lifetime value.

I’d bet the appropriate tiered model is all-in more valuable than a single higher priced product.

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I guess I’m confused. I’m a currently active monthly subscriber at $15 per month. Is Nate saying they will be allowing after they address the issue, existing monthly members to convert to an annual subscription at the grandfathered annual rate?

Also, any thoughts on how long this grandfathered rate will last? Seems inevitable that it will expire.

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  • Yes, the future programming will make the conversion between active accounts possible.

  • You can do it now, if you contact support@trainerroad.com directly (as a few have done and acknowledged above).

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#firstworldproblems :roll_eyes:

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  • One consideration: Those earlier subscribers allowed TR to exist and continue forward as a live option. Without them, the app/service may have ceased to exist.

You could easily get picky and say that you don’t want your subscription money to add features you don’t plan to use.

  • How many of us may never use the outside workout feature?
    • I might not ever do it, but welcome the option as it has already proved popular and useful to many since it’s introduction. It is one of many bullet points that will appeal to some and serve no benefit to the rest.
  • This analysis could be done on any other feature of interest, but I see it as a mistake that leans towards an a la carte approach that is not present here or in any other training software that I know.
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Early adopters live through development pains while platforms become stable and while they help with troubleshooting and bugs. They also take a risk of going in on something which might go away with no notice and supported a start up with their time and money. So early adopters may be rewarded for being in early, taking risk and participating in platform development.

Later adopters get a more mature platform which arguably has increased value of being more stable with more features and backed by a hopefully more robust organization with staying power.

At a certain point its probably best to not have public discussions on pricing with different cohorts. It leads to these types of conversations which doesn’t help the company perform or riders to get faster. At some point the number of grandfathered early adopters is so small it doesn’t matter from a revenue perspective. But long term users can often be great advocates and sources of information so keeping them on board is a benefit to the company.

Suspect TR is an inflection point in its growth so dealing with a transition from start-up to proper business. Maturing communication is always part of growing pain.

No offense meant with phrasing. Its not a formal memo.

-Mark

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Moderator hat on:

  • I want to point out that posts being critical of anyone posting in this thread (directly or indirectly) are not welcome.

  • I am currently addressing a few that I see as flirting with the goals of this forum in general and thread specifically.

  • Please, keep posts directed to the topic… not the individual or people posting their thoughts and opinions in this thread.

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Totally! When TR announced that outdoor workouts were coming I upgraded to an annual subscription because I knew that a price increase wouldn’t be far behind.

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As far as I know I’m still going to be CEO for the foreseeable future. I can extend this guarantee and say that if/when my kids are CEO that they will honor it too. Unless I’m dead, then I can’t control them :smiley:.

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Contact support and we’ll fix this right away. support@trainerroad.com

Sorry about that. We have an engineer fixing it in the code this week.

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@mcneese.chad @DarthShivious

Yeah I get the early adopter argument. I suppose I feel like I have been onboard with TR since pretty much day 1, I just let my subscription lapse and then restart from time to time depending on my needs/wants. So I do fall into the early adopter kind of category, I’m just not a continuous subscriber.

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169

A little late to reply here but the indoor cycling industry is growing, and growing really fast. We are seeing more people cycling indoors on their smart trainers than any other year. The days of $10/month subscription are over and I think $20/month is more in line with today’s market.

I think we will see more price hikes from other companies as we head into the 2019-20 indoor training season.

Now, many are not happy with the way TrainerRoad increased their prices this time without any notice which I totally understand but giving that they just increased their prices last October, I think giving notice and prolonging the bad news would have probably been a PR nightmare. At some point, you just pull off the “Band-Aid” , it hurts, but then it’s over and you move on.

I don’t like it, but raising prices is part of running a successful company.

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Yes, but please email support@trainerroad.com and they will fix it today for you. That way you won’t get billed at the wrong price at all.

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