In today’s video we’re talking all things Strava and whether or not their subscription service is worth paying for so follow along as we go through all the features of the free and premium versions, the newly increased prices and ultimately find out if it’s worth the upgrade.
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Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:49 Free features
1:22 Subscription pricing
2:30 Subscription features
14:24 Is it worth it?
Ways to help
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What features would you like to see on Strava on either the free or paid version? cough cough dark mode
I thought about subscribing to Strava this year but decided to hold off. This video offered some good advice and all the benefits I really use — GarminConnect already offers. Also Strava analyzes your fitness by mostly looking at your Heart Rate monitor. My Garmin does a terrible job (in my opinion) of recording my heart rate so the fitness analysis Strava would give me would be off. I have a pretty good self-coaching sense, so I decided to save my money and I pretty much run the same route nearly every day (I live next to a 40+ mile bike trail). As always, great video / advice Ben.
Pound a week.. love Strava… on it every day
£7 a month plus you get the ‘recover’ app with loads of different workouts, you can create your own routes on strava plus all the extra progress data I personally think it’s worth it if you train 3-4 times a week minimum 👍🏼
I've been a subscription user for a few years now but I may ditch it. For making and discovering new routes I tend to use Komoot. Unlike Strava Komoot has always offered me a discount on their premium package after cancellation, it's usually £59 a year which I feel is a tad expensive.
Now that I have an Apple Watch ultra, the Apple Fitness app shows more info than the premium Strava data. Plus I have a lot of issues with the Strava App and Strava Apple Watch integration. In short, it’s lack of customization that frustrates me. Can’t customize data screens on the Apple Watch, no dark mode, can’t customize data screens on the activities section of the app, no flybys on the app. There is cool stuff online but I have no interest in going to their website to view anything, it should be entirely on the app.
So I’m paying 80 bucks a year for segments basically, pretty stupid. I’ve turned off auto renew.
Cheers Ben. Thanks for that. My experience is that for 3 years i subscribed to strava. Each year I requested that they add the ability to add a shoe via the app. Support compeletely ignored the request. Instead they focused on fine grain segment stuff, rather than getting the basics right. This forced me to go into their website to add a shoe. Really? Really. That's what drove me to go to the free version. I've used the free one for 2 years now and the only feature i find useful that I miss is the training calendar overview. Really don't find strava useful for anything other than the social. Garmin does metrics better for the few times a year in actually interested
New hat style Ben? Looks good….. coming soon?
I've paid for Strava in the past but stopped after they started moving previously free features behind the paywall while long existing bugs were ignored. Route creation is the only feature I'd use and I've switched that to Komoot which surpasses Strava in my experience. For deep data analysis TrainingPeaks offers a lot more (at a higher price) or I use the free Elevate extension.
Don't use it, never mind considering paying for it. For 99% of people all this generates is data fog. It's just more trouble than its worth.
Great video as always, Ben. Personally, I stopped Strava on 31st December 2021 to see if I would miss it. As a Garmin user, I quickly realised that Garmin Connect had everything I needed in terms of data to track my runs and swims.
I do miss the social side, for sure, but not enough to re-download and subscribe to Strava.
They say if you didn't record on Strava you didn't do it! Personally, I like the features that it has. I sync it with my Garmin and Vdot coach also. I like to keep up with other runners and bikers on Strava and I follow you.
i pay RM1++
Interesting video. East African runners generally don’t use it and do fairly well without. Personally never used it even though do a reasonable mileage, typically 2700 miles per year, I suppose never missed what I never had.
Strava has never had at much data as Garmin Connect. Strava is a social media app and frankly I don't pay for Facebook so I don't pay for Strava. If i wanted a second rate Garmin Connect I'd subscribe.
I stopped subscribing to Strava a couple of months ago because I became a father. It was handy for some stats and the training plans. I felt I didn't need this for the time being because I'm running when I can rather than training to a goal. I've come to realise that a lot of the features are in other free apps or the ones that come with your running watch.
It does frustrate me when apps give you a function for free, like the route creator during the pandemic, then puts it behind a pay wall. It seems to be a business strategy with some apps. Duolingo did this where the free version was great and then they put a lot of features behind a pay wall and made the free app almost unusable.
I think different levels of membership would be a better scenario than a full price increase. Maybe a social premium membership for a lower annual fee which includes free strava plus flybys and segments and then full premium which adds all the training and route planning for the more elite.
Garmin connect is enough for me, I only use Strava to share my runs.
Great breakdowns though, thanks Ben 👍🏃♂️
My subscription renewed in January, just outside the window of the new rates. I’ll be canceling next January; the pay features aren’t worth it to me.
Love Strava, have been a subscriber for years and will likely continue, though it’s good to revisit your subscriptions some times so will look at the new prices. What irks me is that I have had to learn about the price increase via YouTube and not a word from Strava. Another recent source of irritation is these constant notifications along the lines of ‘Yay, you’re well on the way towards your weekly goal’ when I have just run 6 miles on Monday to start my week off. What’s that all about? I am well aware of my weekly goal, am not a new runner, it’s just annoying. Do they send the same notifications to the elite? ‘Well done Eliud, you are smashing it this week’ 🤣🤣
Love Strava – thanks for the video.
Currently pay for it and use for jogging and cycling.
Don't see it as good value and may cancel at renewal pending how much they increase it by.
Key use is the social aspect. I'm amazed Apple / Microsoft / Google hasn't knocked up a rival.
But it's terrible for looking at efforts by sport, month on month, year on year etc.
And I'd like ability to export my support stats for all activity without having the micro detail, so I could add to excel for better [for me] time and activity based reporting.
Mapping using heat map is pretty much it – I love exploring new routes and it’s brilliant for that… I’m weighing up of its going to be the price hike ( it that they’re telling us what that price hike is going to be..)
I plan my routes with komoot, world package for Euro 20 once. I use strava only for the abaility create segments and check my rides this way.
Well, honestly I find it more useful to spend some money in an activity platform like Strava that gives you a kind of value than to spend money to a Netflix subscription which only kills your time and is way more expensive. Priorities shall be made.
Thanks. I use the social aspect more than anything and do like that it’s not overrun with advertising so willing to pay something to keep it that way but it is getting quite pricey.
I have a Huawei watch and it uses Huawei health app, totally free and with plenty of data, if you run it is super complete, with cadence, stride, speed, you name it, and it's free.
Just think, Netflix is £10.99, strava is £8.99. Now you are thinking you are comparing apples to pears, and you are right. One charges you for films and series that costs millions and needs to keep all the servers running 24/7. The other, ok, I think you get it by now.
I cancelled. I found I used few of the premium features and the price increase reinforced my decision.
Wow. Well… I just canceled my membership. I love Strava and have been using it since 2017. After watching this video and @DCRainmaker 's, I checked out my account, and Strava did in fact raise my subscription from 59.99USD to 79.99USD! It doesn't seem like that big of jump when you look at it from a monthly cost standpoint (5 USD to 6.70 USD) – about the same price increase lattes and coffee have undergone at your local coffee shop in the past few years (I should know, I work at one). -but for me, it's that Strava seems to care more about profit margins than customer preferences. Sure, Strava's features are great and I'm happy to be part of the Strava community, but to expect that their customer base will ignore and naively accept grandfather clauses and underhanded price increases…. no thanks.
Just use a watch and Smashrun. Strava is WILDLY overpriced.
Weirdly my subscription says it'll renew for 39.99 GBP. So less than yours? I've been a subscriber for 6 years tho so maybe a loyalty 'bonus'?
Classic underwritten business model . Start off free or cheap to ward off competitors and garner monopoly of the market until a certain aspired metric of users is accrued and implement price hikes . Assured that any potential alienation’s are covered by the remaining localities which are usually born out of convenience or habit .
I’m a subscriber, but nearly all the benefits you highlight I use from Garmin Connect. I do check routes when travelling, and I do like the post run analytics. With beacon (Garmin has equivalent) you do need to carry your phone.
Well I'n gonna be poor if trainingpeaks decides to raise their prices as well 😒
Hello Ben, thank you for all your work and ideas. I personally like only the "social" aspect of Strava. Stay in contacts with friends and interesting people (like professional runner and cyclist and see how theý train). Personally i get the segments which I want from Garmin connect to my watch and bike computer (free), create routes in Garmin connect, like you suggested. For analysis I use now since a couple of month intervals.icu (great platform Training, Power duration, HRV analysis, etc. etc. (free) and for more sophisticated analysis (bike powermeter data) I use WKO5 from TrainingPeaks (not freem but you buy the software only once). In the past I paid for TrainingPeaks but now I get my Fitness, Fatique, etc. very nice in Intervals.icu and dont need TP anymore. I create my workouts (Zwift and Outside) as well in interals.icu and I am very happy with my entire setup.
Note: You can support (free, not mandatory) intervals.icu with EUR 4 per month which is great value for money. Kind regards, Peter
I don’t think the paid for Strava features are worth paying for. Any Garmin watch can do almost all the same and certainly everything you need.
I have a free Strava account for the social aspect of it. For analysis purposes I have a TrainingPeaks subscription, which in my opinion is far superior to Strava for this purpose.