Nate has repeatedly stated that as long as he is in charge, and a subscriber remains subscribed, their price will not go up.

He also stated it other ways as well. But he is adamant that current users will not see their prices increase.

I have thought about switching platforms. But paying past prices just makes trainee road so much more valuable that even when I think about paying I can’t justify the price difference.

So keeping pricing that way has stopped me from trying other platforms. If it was the same price I prob would switch it up just to see.

Same here. I'm still on 2013 pricing. Maybe it's non-TR users that are whining about the price. TR users know the value. I'm really impressed by the new user interface, the podcast is pretty good and the new outdoor stuff is semi useful to me.....but I'm mostly an indoor creature. If the app was able to show/load run and swim workouts straight from the app's calendar (instead of 'view activity online'), then I really don't think I would have any suggestions for them.

patentattorney makes a good point. I have been most curious about Sufferfest's platform and would like to try that. The post ride stretching looks appealing. I was a Zwift user a couple times, but it wasn't for me.

Hey Dangle. David from The Sufferfest here -- if you'd like to give us a try, just head over to our site. The stretching sessions in our app are great (they've particularly helped me with some hip mobility issues). We have a free 7-day trial, and that will give you time to try out our 4DP, 30+ yoga for cyclist videos, 22 strength training videos, 20+ mental toughness modules and, of course, hundreds of video-based and NoVid workouts. If you stick around awhile, you can also try one of our more than 100 training plans (the only ones where you can also add yoga, strength training and mental toughness tracks to the cycling or multi-sport tracks).

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David McQuillen
Founder & CEO of The Sufferfest

I think the real issue about the price increase is that tr is competing with zwift and others. Tr is good stuff but as a current user of both, I am much more impressed with zwift and would be hard pressed to pay more for tr which is essentially watching a line graph compared to the awesome 3d world and social racing and training in zwift.

I will also add that id change my tune probably if the TR plans were game.changers for me but they unfortunately were not for me. Got about 6 watts on my ftp after olympic base and the much harder build, was actually bummed it was so small a bump.

At 20 per month tr costs more than zwift which doesn't make sense for me.

If you give in to every subscription service that justifies its price hike as only one giving up one cup of coffer per month then you won't be getting any coffee.

Other than utilities/cable/phone, how many subscriptions do you have? I am hard pressed thinking any others besides TR and T26

It is a stand-up move by them to not increase pricing for existing customers. Just for reference, Zwift is at $15, Sufferfest at $13. All of the smart trainer apps are going to increase over time, gradually. Nice that TR locks you in at a price.

Anyone know if TR has an option to put your subscription on a temporary hold/freeze?

Man I hate subscriptions but the list keeps on growing....

Netflix
Trainerroad (annual)
Zwift (love it, plan on canceling TR once the year is up)
NYT News
Amazon Prime
Chesstempo
Wife has two cooking subscriptions
Not even including utlities/cable/phone/insurances
The list goes on and on...

Forgot about Amazon.
I don’t have cable anymore so I count Netflix/Hulu as a need for tv.

And probably Office 365 for a lot of people… When you really think about it, and add up what a lot of middle class families could be spending on monthly subscriptions, on top of our training hobby stuff, it is mind-blowing. Here is my quick-and-dirty pass. This is $5K/year on just a quick pass, and I bet most people here have a bunch more subscriptions in their households. I bet most of us are dropping north of $6K/year on subscriptions. That is a crapton of Lattes.

• $1,800 – Cable & broadband
• $1,920 – Mobile phone
• $100 – Office 365 Home
• $120 – Amazon Prime
• $150 – TiVo (for a lot of folks, or some other premium media)
• $160 – Netflix
• $140 – Hulu
• $380 – SiriusXM (for 2 people)
• $240 – TrainerRoad or Zwift
• $60 – Strava Summit

I love my TrainerRoad subscription, and it has given me huge benefits. But, it is also sobering to see that it is one of my largest individual subscription expenses in my household.

I still am def of the view that if either Zwift or TR motivates you to either workout more or get significantly higher quality workouts or significantly more enjoyable workouts several times a month compared to as going without it, it's totally worth it. For me, Zwift hits both, and is def worth what I pay for it.

I'm an off/on again TR user. I think TrainerRoad has two key advantages over their competitors...customer service and workout library. I've always received top support from TrainerRoad and while competitors has been decent, TrainerRoad always won hands down. Once I prepaid for a year, got injured 1 month in and they were kind enough to refund the prepaid and freeze my account when they didn't need too. I think any way they handled the new price increase announcement was likely just a rare, miscommunication on their end.

With that said, yes, price increases are annoying but necessary. I'm very curious to see how they use the new revenue increase to further development to stay competitive. An increase likely won't drive new users and may cost them some who use numerous services by making them choose (like myself), but they'll need to further develop and differentiate to really carve their niche deeper in a fast growing and competitive industry. While it's a small price increase, it adds up on top of other subscriptions, coaching, service, etc.

Agreed. Also, who is buying $5 coffees? I pay $5 a month for the coffee club at work. I'm estimating about 15 cents per cup.

In the grand scheme of things not everyone makes $90k a year. Not everyone makes $60K per year. Some people make $20K per year. Everyone's budget is different. Some people have a lot of subscription services and need to make cuts when there is no more money left.

All that said, I do not have trainer road or have a dog in this fight, I just agree with the statement that you can't simply say "Oh boo hoo, one less coffee for you this month" every time there is a price increase to something. I never liked that take personally.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

Damn, you guys spend a ton between your internet and phones. For my wife and I the yearly cost of our monthly ‘optionals’

Gym Membership $1080
Internet $660
Cell phones/plans $ 1000
Costco $120
Amazon Prime $120 (but we’ll likely not renew it when the current year is up)
Netflix $160 (I’d ditch this but the wife likes it)
TrainerRoad $99
Strava Analysis Pack $24 (I probably don’t need this, I just think the live segments are fun)

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Matt

In the grand scheme of things $20 isn't much but two price increases within a span of a year is hard to swallow.

Thank god I'm still on the old pricing... if I were a new subscriber I don't think I'd pay that much.

This is probably the same guy that starts the "why aren't younger people interested in triathlons" thread.

This is me as well. I willing pay the annual subscription for the ready made plans, but can draw up my own just as easy. Trainerroad workouts are my Netflix/Prime watching time.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

PerfPro Studio is still a one time fee as I recall. So there are non-subscription options out there.

Not to anyone in particular, but a thought about legacy pricing... If the cost of doing business is really increasing as justified by the fee increase, allowing the base users to 'underpay' implies that the new users are 'overpaying '. Well, who would do that? So this policy cannibleizes growth to maintain a past user base. Is that sustainable in the long run? Sort of the inverse of a club with rising costs. Users leave due to escalating costs, making the remaining users absorb ever higher fees ( dividing a fixed cost among fewer members). Soon enough, one person is left paying the entire costs. The 'one price for life' is a somewhat slower approach to the same failure mode.

As a potential customer it does turn me off. I don't like feeling like a sucker.

Me or RoostBooster?
You may have to walk me through this one....

As a current customer it does keep me subscribed. I'm not sure I'd come back at $190 a year if I left. At this point, even if I take a year off, it's better for me to pay and not use it for a year than to dump it.

I agree, I am a daily user of TR, and once they figure out how to load in runs and swims, it will be even better.
That said. if I had to pay 20/month. My loyalty would likely not be as strong. Maybe I would do Zwift or SF or nothing at all for a couple months.But I know I am locked in a a better rate now. so I will keep going with it.
Also I think TR is smart to realize that a lot of people have multiple subscriptions, and if they increased the cost to all users, they would likely lose several of those to people who will decide to keep one of the other.

TR knows that if they jacked up the prices for the existing users, they would most likely lose a material amount of users to Zwift.

I'm guessing the vast majority of users who subscribe to both would choose Zwift over TR if they had to choose.