TR is great because it caters to its core demographic of people who treat indoor structured training as a year-round lifestyle.
The product is what it is today - a very refined platform that continues to improve - thanks to constant feedback and nearly a decade of real data and subscription fees from serious cyclists of all fitness levels.
The casual rider canāt suddenly hop on and say, āI like what Iām seeing, but since Iām not a serious cyclist, I should be able to pay less money for the same product.ā
Xert is 10 USD/mo on a monthly subscription basis; Rouvy is the same price, and Tacx is at 10 EUR (but only works with Tacx trainers, not sure what youāre using). Sufferfest and Zwift are both 15 USD, same as TrainerRoad. They all have advantages and inconvenients when compared with TrainerRoad.
Your best bet is to compare features, eliminate the ones that donāt fit you needs and/or budget, do a free trial on the ones left, and pick the one you prefer.
Servers and data storage is not free.
Actually, permanent data storage like TR does can be very expensive over time.
You also need to pay software developers and office space and other.
Just because you dont see it, doesnt mean there are no costs.
Same here (never paid for Strava). But it was just to add to the logic of the āhelp me select the best $2000 wheel setā threads followed by the miles-long rants about $5 for Strava.
You are conflating free to use with free to make. And yes, you are paying for it if you have subscription. I reckon the people you call free loaders TR considers potential customers, though.
Services like TrainerRoad do scale differently than brick-and-mortar-businesses, and I reckon the largest expense are salaries. While they need far fewer employees per customer than a fitness studio, in the end, they need revenue to pay them.
I was hoping to let go of TP, but its analysis tools are still way better than TRās. And just as I was about to cancel my Strava Peaks-or-whatever-it-was-called subscription, one of the founders returned to the helm and started adding features again.
i understand all your answers and most of you are unhappy with my idea in the starting post, but what you are think of an Trainer Road Light version (monthly & yearly) of course time limited for low level users in addition to the existing ones?
Trainerroad in this sense is definitely the best platform on the market.
But for me there are a few things missing, even from the competition!
I am over 50 and train duathlon (long distance), the plans offered can not be used 1: 1
Since I run with Stryd, I have to create my running workouts in Training Peaks and send them to my watch.
In other words, my bike training indoors is relatively low, because I also ride a lot outdoors, but do not actually use Trainerroadās outdoor workouts.
I donāt see the upside. It will introduce a lot of problems, because some people will want to save a few euros per month. There will be complaints why feature X is just available in the Pro version ā no matter where you set the cutoff. Do you keep your grandfathered price when you upgrade/downgrade? Plus, thereāll be more confusion amongst people what version they should choose from. And at present, I donāt even see features that are suited to be āproā only.
At the end, functionality will be used less, there may be instances where customers wanting to save a few bucks will interfere with their training goals. Itāll be a customer support head ache. I just donāt see the upside.
The vibe I get is that you are not sure whether you think you get your moneyās worth. And I think this is alright, it need not be the right tool for everyone. If you have specialized needs and know how to create a training calendar yourself, you perhaps donāt need it.
Currently, none of the standard products in that market cover the whole gamut. I have a TR subscription in addition to TrainingPeaks and Strava. Currently, I donāt want to get rid of any of them. If you made me choose, Iād go for Training Peaks first, because I donāt use their training feature at all, I just use it for ride analysis. TrainerRoad could gain this functionality in the future, but at least right now, I have the impression their focus lies elsewhere (which is fine, itās not as if I am racing at the moment anyway).
yes, thats it, atm you havenāt one software for all, i kicked Strava Premium, when the Training Plan Thing in TR will be better, then itās possible to kick Training Peaks Premium, but first Stryd have to release the option to send workouts power based to the Garmin watches, hopefully this summer
and of course it is very time-consuming and expensive to use different platforms!
