Playing With Strava Premium for a Free Month

Years ago, when Strava was newer, and more appealing I eventually decided to pay for Strava because I wanted to support the project. I wanted to help make them sustainable. The same is true with Zwift. When both of them got VC funding I ended my subscriptions rather than renewing for another year. This was years ago.

For me, it’s simple. If we are paying for a site like Strava, be patient, and use our money to improve things incrementaly. Never forget that a paying customer is providing more value than a VC. A VC Investor usually wants to extract value, rather than inject it. A paying customer is an investor. The paying customer should be king.

Strava and Runna

Recently I saw articles discussing the combination of Strava and Runna for 149 CHF. I see that Strava is 79 CHF per year, and Runna is 100 CHF per year. Strava features have been removed, to encourage people to move either to combine Strava and Runna or to buy Runna individually.

If the past is an indicator then Strava will eventually absorb and kill off the Runna app. We have seen this over, and over, for decades.

Suunto and Apps

Strava bought Sportstracker, and that became Movescount, which then became the Suunto app, which is where it currently sits. Sportstracker still works in tandem with the Suunto App.

Absorption

It’s interesting to see Strava remove running coaching features, given that it would make more sense to merge Runna within Strava and provide people with a single app, rather than two apps. It also signals the Americanisation of yet another European app. If you were using Runna to avoid US companies, due to the current climate, then you’re out of luck.

Garmin Connect, Suunto and Komoot

Features that we pay for with Strava are free with others. With Suunto you get a weekly and monthly heatmap by default. You also get AI feedback as an integral part, as long as you’re using a Suunto or Xiaomi fitness tracker. With Garmin you get running coaching plans for free, you can draw maps and more. You can pay for Connect+ but so far I have not identified the niche it fills.

With the Komoot app you can draw tracks according to a specific sport with ease, and then share that activity either with contacts within the app or with the hyperlink to a public workout, or a private one with a specific link to make it “public”.

And Finally

Strava has a healthy community of sports enthusiasts, so you don’t need to use premium features for it to be worthwhile. Most people are cyclists, hikers, runners, swimmers and more. With patience you will find local communities of like minded individuals. Last year I started to use Strava socially and this year that is all the more true. I can cycle with people three or more times a week.

This morning I realised that when I was hiking I was living for the weekend, but with the cycling community I am cycling on week days and weekends so I am being social on a more regular basis. This is in part due to the free features of Strava.