Over the past 5 years, Strava has aquired the reputation of not fixing any bugs and not adding any useful features. Instead there was just a little bit of churn in the UI, annoying most users.
A better way forward might have been to keep existing features for everyone, but add a number of useful new features for paying subscribers.
Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
31–40 of 113 posts
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#32This is a great example of why it’s important to charge money for things up front, rather than later on. If they’d charged for these features from day 1, this could have been a glowing article about how their revenue model has helped them support feature development and build a third-party app ecosystem. They should have charged for it sooner.
But i don’t think they’d be as popular without being free. I have a Garmin watch which has an app, iPhone has fitness tracking built in. Nike has a free app. The list of competitors goes on and on.
Now that they have network effects and switching costs (all my historical data), time to squeeze and monetize.
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#33Giving zero days notice to your 3rd-party developers is one way to anger a relatively powerful bunch of your users. Many people will find today that their hobby/side-project is now dead in the water. I hope nobody was relying on any income from software using these APIs. But the 'best' bit: "We realize these changes could be especially challenging for some of you, so they’ll be non-breaking for 30 days, returning emp…
I am not sure the current state, but they were looking for a CTO in ~2019 for what seemed like a very long time. Current CTO specializes in ML, so maybe current team isn't really aware of working in the real universe of large applications w/ partners and partner communication. (Conjecture)
BC ML background is mostly data driven, internally focused
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#34I think the route builder is better in https://ridewithgps.com/ - and it seems to work better with my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt
There was a topic/thread in the Strava support forum about routes exported from Strava to Wahoo Elemnt missing all turn directions (for both paying and free users). The thread kept going for years with over 1000 responses. Every one of them said "I need turn directions, it works for Garmin but not Wahoo, please fix". Strava ignored it completely, no response.
As a long time Strava it's obvious they have a tiny engineering team. They do a good job of keeping the lights on but have little ability to ship new features other than paid partner integrations.
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#35Cyclists are going to revolt, everyone wants to beat their friends on their favorite hill. It was one of the features I loved most about the app as I could see myself improving compared to people I have a good reference to.
I'm a "cyclist" who absolutely loves Strava and I couldn't care any less about segments or leaderboards or beating my friends on their favorite hill. I just like to track my bike rides. I know there's a core group of hardcore cyclists who use the app like you do, but I wonder if there isn't a much wider group of people who think it's cool to track their rides and that's it.
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#36Over the past 5 years, Strava has aquired the reputation of not fixing any bugs and not adding any useful features. Instead there was just a little bit of churn in the UI, annoying most users. A better way forward might have been to keep existing features for everyone, but add a number of useful new features for paying subscribers.
I can attest to this. A HealthKit duplication bug (all your rides got duplicated in Apple Health app) was lingering with Strava for over 2 years. A large group of people interacted with their support/engineering to fix it, nothing came out of it, people left.
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#37Over the past 5 years, Strava has aquired the reputation of not fixing any bugs and not adding any useful features. Instead there was just a little bit of churn in the UI, annoying most users. A better way forward might have been to keep existing features for everyone, but add a number of useful new features for paying subscribers.
I would be happy to subscribe if Strava would just add support for triathlon activities. They've been promising that literally for years with zero progress.
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#38Well, I started using Strava last week as a free user. Any good alternatives for bikers?
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#39I think this is fair. Strava summit is a cheap subscription, and running a very cheap sport to participate in. Segments in my experience appeal to spreadsheet heads who get a kick out of meaningless drilling down into data[0]. I imagine most casual runners are not that. In many ways I can see this making Strava more appealing to casual runners, as for people starting out on a fitness journey, the last thing you want…
Afaik Strava is more used by cyclists which is a more expensive sport. Everyone who is sort of serious uses it.
it definitely started out cycling-focused, and i'd say a higher portion of cyclists use strava. but i'd be willing to bet there are more runners than cyclists using it as an absolute number - the running market is huge compared to just about any other sport, so even a relatively small portion of runners can account for more users than every single sort-of-serious cyclist.
Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps
#40I don't much care about these changes one way or another, but it would be very sad if they went away. For better or worse, they created far and away the best fitness platform for cyclists, if only because of the mindshare and network effects. Their analyses are also quite good. It would be a real pity if they went away, and I hope they stay solvent. I've been a paying subscriber since I first joined in Aug 2018 and a…
Strava does pretty well as a social network. But their analytics are generally weaker than TrainingPeaks or Garmin Connect.