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

I would even say that the promise to grandfather in everyone permanently is problematic: the 46 % price hike may not translate to a large increase in revenue (as only new members would have to pay for the higher price, coupling that to TrainerRoad’s user base growth). If everyone had had to pay more, a more moderate increase could lead to the same, and more predictable growth in revenue, since the revenue increase is shouldered by a broader base.

Plus, now @Nate_Pearson has boxed himself in, and if he changes his mind (perhaps because he is forced to business-wise), that’ll cause an outrage. For the record, I think it is perfectly fine to increase prices within reason every year. I don’t expect to pay the same for things in 5 years that I pay now.

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TR Figuring out a way to test FTP without having to do 8x2 or 20x1 is worth the TR annual fee for me :slight_smile:

All kidding aside, this thread honestly makes me sick. If you don’t see the value, then stop paying, read a book, and build your own plans. Its that simple.

Demanding to know what the vision is?, Why you weren’t alerted about a private business’s pricing strategy, Asking how many people are grandfathered in, if/when Nate is selling, telling them they are missing the mark, complaining that they are getting too rich (Tesla, new bikes, sauna). It’s none of any of our business what they do with their company. This is a US company, we are a capitalist society, we are (or should be) all out to make money. This isn’t a non-profit. If they can raise their prices, they should…to the point where the marginal new sub growth * new price > old sub growth rate * old price.

Personally, I’m happy to support TR and happy to see and hear the company employees have lucrative jobs (new bikes, trips, Chad buying house) from their creation. Its the American dream and they have created a good product. If you don’t think so, move on to something else to criticize.

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I’m confused by the reaction to grandfathering prices. Maybe it’s my age and location, but this is a really common practice for me.
It’s really common with gym memberships in Aus for example. I have loads of friends who have gym memberships from over a decade ago that are still on the same price.
It’s not uncommon for someone in that position to take whole years off and keep up the membership. That’s a win for the business as they don’t cost the gym any more than basic admin.

Even my credit card is on a fixed yearly fee which was 1/4 of the full cost at the time. That was a decade ago and I’m still getting loads of perks every year.

I understand how it can seem unfair. To me it’s always been a loyalty perk. Not expected, but nice when it happens.
All too often new customers receive discounted introductory pricing while the loyal customers pick up the tab.
Roundabouts…

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Certainly we can agree to disagree. At the cost of a few dollars a month, you don’t have to worry about app partner integration and running workouts from your head unit in resistance mode. It is what it is… One other thing that I think is overlooked a little bit is the workout creator, which I haven’t used a whole lot because I’m running Chad’s plans right now, but even at the tail end of last season I made several key sessions for myself that I wanted to do on the trainer, and executed them well. It took me less than five minutes to take the workouts I’d programmed for myself (in TrainingPeaks) and make them work on my smart trainer.

Maybe someone else has that capability too, but that’s a marked improvement over running workouts off your head unit IMO. I admit I could be overestimating that.

I cannot think of a single service I subscribe to that grandfather’s prices — apart from TrainerRoad. A few have allowed to grandfather some conditions, though. Overall, I think the promise to grandfather plans in perpetuity is not a good idea business-wise. Inflation is a thing and you will have a harder and harder time to raise more money if you need to. Especially if the services offered expand, I think it is fair to raise prices on existing members. Right now I am paying for TR and TP, so once TR’s more advanced analytics features come online, I will hopefully be able to cancel my TP subscription.

You could still reward loyalty one way or another, e. g. keep long-time subscribers at the previous price level (in this case $130 instead of $190).

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We’re going to let users lock in to the old price for one week like we’ve done before.

More details on that here: Lock into old pricing for one week

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Strava has me on a similar pricing structure. I signed up to Premium to try out live segments and the beacon feature.
If I decide to upgrade to the new Summit next renewal and chose all three packs to get the same features I’d be paying around $10 USD more per year.

If it isn’t on Strava it never happened. Right? ;).

Edit: It wasn’t easy to find out the difference in price in the above example as the pricing structure isn’t very transparent. It turns out Strava is overcharging me for my loyalty as the local pricing has come down. Nice. I’ll just shoot the CEO a PM and ask them to sort it out.

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So I stand corrected (as a Strava Premium subscriber who just couldn’t decide between the new “packages”). Nevertheless, I would say that the situation there is slightly different: we are grandfathered in an old “plan” that has different terms than the new one.

As someone who wants services and products he loves to thrive (to ensure that the business side is healthy), I don’t think grandfathering to the current degree is wise or warranted. I certainly don’t have that expectation.

:joy:
Strava, you never cease to amaze me. I’m always tempted to go back to a non-premium account. I really dislike the way Strava handles its community and the lack of new features. Even simple things (like changing defaults to enable existing features to e. g. ensure the privacy of its members) are not implemented. Ugh.

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I am glad I get to be grandfathered in, and I read the forums and found out about the price increase. From someone who has had multiple coaches over the past 5 years, and will still have 1-1 coaching when leading to a Nationals event. TR has provided me structure at home on the trainer and a new way of looking at training. Plus we get SOOOO much information in a Podcast. I listed to @Nate_Pearson @chad when I’m on the trainer, not only for the training information, but tactics and nutrition. For the price you get more information and access than you would through a coach at a similar price point. I feel if your using TR, this is a generalisation, you want to compete and be fast, or be the best cyclist you can be. There is a lot more to TR than Zwift, I feel they are two different platforms for differing users.

FYI, I am NOT Coach Chad Timmerman. His tag on here is @ chad (without the space, because I didn’t want to tag him unnecessarily).

I’m just the resident forum ratt (non-TR employee) that helps in forum maintenance.

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Edited thanks bud.

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You should read this - Why Strava Is Getting More Social than Ever - Outside Online

I would easily accept that price - 1 scheme. Over the years I stopped my subscription and came back with a higher price until I’ve decided to pay for the yearly fee and it does feel like a steal.

The product has greatly improved in the last year with calendar and now the whole effort of making the outdoor rides available. I’d much rather support that, making sure I will have a constantly evolving platform than being stuck with the old version I paid for.

@Nate_Pearson, if you ever solve the grandfathering by splitting to a “Classic vs New” model, count me in the new platform. Good job!

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Honest question, where are you getting shelled with ads on Strava? I don’t really see any on mine via a web browser or the app. I looked and I just don’t see any.

The rest I would agree with you about. Paying for Strava adds a pretty minimal amount of features right now.

TLDR; I have not read the entire thread because it is at 367 posts when I first jumped in.

To the OP’s problem of a 3 day lapse doubling his price I am with him. I have accidentally let subscriptions lapse due to mistakes or a credit card having expired. If someone has spent at least a year with you a little lenience would be nice. You have the data on how long a subscription was lapsed.

Personally I jumped in the annual pricing before there was a price hike because it was announced. I would only be a few-months-a-year subscriber at the higher rate. To be honest I subscribed just to support the podcast. It is my favorite part of TR. For me the app is just a nice perk to the podcast but I would not subscribe yearly for the current prices.

I don’t normally double post, but I want to make sure this is seen with respect to this whole topic:

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I wonder if that post by Nate should be pinned until the deadline is up.

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It will also vary each month if you subscribe monthly, depending on exchange rate. And depending on how you pay for it and your credit card you’ll have to probably tack on another 3.5% foreign transaction fee :slightly_frowning_face:–of course this is not a TR specific issue. One nice thing with Zwift is at least it’s charged in CDN so while we’re still paying $4/mo more than our American friends, it’s a consistent hit at least :joy:.

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… and you get the email from the car emitter about a foreign transaction - same as if a Nigerian prince somehow got hold of your card info.