The cost of Strava's subscription service has gone up from $7.99 to $11.99 in the US and £6.99 to £8.99 in the UK for monthly users. With annual subscribers facing increases from $59.99 to $79.99 and £47.99 to £54.99.
With a membership, users have access to additional services not available in the free version, that includes route planning, a training dashboard and the popular segment competition feature.
Depending on where you are and how you pay, the revised pricing structure could be an increase of up to 50 percent, and current subscribers will be hit by the price increase in their next payment. Strava, at the time of writing hasn't added any new functionality to justify the increased cost.
Strava is up there as one of the best cycling apps and with the annual payment option rising steeply, users may be looking for other options to track their riding.
Users can still access Strava for free, which allows them to track and share activities with rides being recorded via a mobile phone, compatible smartwatch or the best bike computer with the free version only offering live-tracking beacon service on mobile phones. It'll be seen as a big disappointment to loyal users to drop down to the free version or pay the extra.
Strava is certainly not the only subscription service bumping up prices with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime pushing prices up with the cost of living crisis, inflation, Covid-19 and, (in the UK) Brexit all said to be contributing factors.
Time will tell if regular users suck up the increase, move to the free version or look for another option. For me, it's frustrating to pay more, but Strava is an app I use regularly and there are features I don't want to lose.
