The Sufferfest Increases Their Subscription Prices

The next app to raise prices (after TR’s double the last year or so).

And They SUF is raising it on all subscribers, old & new (no grandfather like TR).

This seems to follow Ray Maker’s prediction that the entire indoor cycling market is likely to see increases. Will we see Zwift, Rouvy and others follow suit this season?

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They must need to sponsor more GCN videos :joy:

I’m just kidding, seems like they’re all converging on a price point. Maybe the upper limit might be close to what people spend monthly on their gym memberships or more. I don’t have the sufferfest, but as long as there is value there, I don’t see this as a problem.

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Only have TR in my bucket and those increases does not bother me at all.

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Well, perhaps they are just searching for the highest price point a cyclist will pay for “indoor nirvana”, and maybe we’re not there yet. Good ole capitalism. “It’s worth whatever people are willing to pay for it”. And many cyclist I know…(the guy in the mirror included, lol)…are willing to pay for almost anything if they believe it will deliver results.

Makes me grateful to be grandfathered into TR’s program which, personally, I enjoy more and believe to be the superior product, IMO, and for the results I’m looking for. Based on my experience using both, TR’s structure and and comprehensive package of resources delivers better fitness and racing success and results.

That’s all…

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Seems like every second GCN video is a Sufferfest promotion these days.

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(GCN tangent inc.) I know Ollie’s Hour of Power is technically a Sufferfest ad, and Dan Lloyd’s 10-week training program from last year, but I’ve really enjoyed both segments. Watching them improve with training is encouraging, even though they’re on a different platform, and I’m always interested to hear about different training paradigms.

The GCN nutrition videos that double as ads for a single nutrition brand are the ones that bother me.

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The 20 €/month I am paying now is my upper limit and I already was shocked a little bit when I first saw the TR price.
When I compare the price with a gym membership I simply cannot see how they justify the price in the first place. For me, there is no room to continue a subscription with further price increase no matter how feature rich they become.

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I won’t be renewing Sufferfest. They had novelty value for a while but I found the videos a bit irritating since they were not reflective of much of what I was doing on my bike. I also didn’t find their workouts as comprehensive as TrainerRoad.

My first love was TrainerRoad, then I tried Sufferfest but it didn’t work for me, then I tried Zwift which is fantastic for group rides, a few races and just long rides through weird and wonderful worlds, but their workouts were limited and did not make me feel I was getting anywhere, plus they were inflexible.

So, I returned to TrainerRoad for workouts which have always resulted in very noticeable improvement for me without under or over training me. I will now maintain both TrainerRoad and Zwift subscriptions. They keep me healthy in body and sane in mind.

Long live TrainerRoad!

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Ahh man, he’s gonna have to redo his whole video now :roll_eyes:

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The one that bothered me the most was this one:

Which is kind of ironic given my team is sponsored by Cannondale and I ride a system six that I absolutely love - but that video…gross

That’s the model Peloton uses - and it is indeed a pretty good comparison. In pricing a product or service, one of the key questions is positioning vs alternatives. What are the alternatives to training indoors? Training outside does not count, your choice won’t be price-driven, it will be driven by conditions (weather, your acceptance of traffic, time constraints). This leaves spinning classes. So you have the gym with spinning on one side, and a group of training apps + smart trainers on the other. Why kill yourself being the cheapest indoor training app, when the alternative is an expensive gym subscription?

When I do, I see the gym is expensive, the spinning classes offer zero progression over time or adaptation to my needs, the timing is inflexible, I have to drive to and back from the classes, and the bikes suck.

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Doesn’t look like that’s a GCN video, did it get rebranded?

Ah fair enough, I thought it was Matt before he left them, looks like it wasn’t

I use neither of those things you mentioned, I only use it for lifting weights and do my endurance training on my bike at home or outdoors.

Yeah, it’s for Sigma Sports – an online retailer :smiley:

Then surely its the gym membership that’s lacking not TR fee when you get the plans and the expertise to get better?

Plus you are grandfathered in so any changes in price aren’t getting passed on to you. Personally when I add on the forum, the plan builder and the programme what I get from TR is better than what I was paying £70 a month for a coach for and that was on the light side.

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That’s after Matt left GCN. It’s a bit from Sigma sports. It’s obviously and ad, but I still liked the dry humor.

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Yeah a forum that is run to 95% by it’s (paying) users is not a meaningful expense, no matter how much value this holds.

I just see the side of (potential) costs and the user base on the other hand. Not talking in the value on the other hand, I am happy to be here and stay here.

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You can’t compare prices of services that are not interchangeable. In your case, you don’t have a choice between a gym membership or TR (or Sufferfest, or…).

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