Users of the Zwift online training and racing app Zwift have reacted angrily to the announcement yesterday that the monthly charge for the service has increased from £7.99 to £12.99.
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.@gozwift it’s really disappointing to get a email today, saying that prices have double effective today, when you guys have been having lots of issues lately. Issues aside, that’s a HUGE jump in price. Why not a tiered pricing a la Netflix?
Sincerely, a former customer.#zwift— Carl J (@RunBikeBbq) November 16, 2017
Some customers, and now former customers, have already voiced their displeasure on social media
A letter sent out to subscribers cites a big growth in the development team, expansion of the virtual world including a Mayan jungle course launched late last month and continual research into improving Zwift as justification for the hike. CEO Eric Min says: “We have so much more that we hope to deliver to you: new gameplay features, more maps and expansions to existing maps, improved social riding experiences, better guidance in reaching your training and fitness goals. The list goes on, and on.”
…”In order to continue to make Zwift bigger, better and more beautiful, we are updating our membership price to £12.99 per month, effective today. As a way of saying thank you, however, to the awesome Zwifters who helped us get here, your pricing will not change for one year.”
@GoZwift UK price rise of 62% £8 to £12.99, must be a typo! Your users have grown and your price change isn’t justified at this level. #zwift #gozwift
— jBay (@jadby) November 16, 2017
Bad move @gozwift: first getting everybody #addicted and then a price increase of 50% #badidea #zwift @GoZwift. Not making yourselves popular.
— Luc van Santen (@lucvsan) November 16, 2017
How does Zwift’s new pricing compare with its competitors?
Zwift’s pricing before the increase was set at $10 (or £7.99) a month, which has been the same since the free beta mode ended and they began charging for subscriptions two years ago. Here’s what you pay for a selection of other popular training apps…
Sufferfest: $10 (£7.57) a month. Includes personalised performance targets, footage of major races added alongside workouts for a more immersive experience, soundtracks and huge database of structured workouts.
TrainerRoad: $12 (£9.84) a month or $99 (£75) a year. Virtual power available with a speed sensor, highly structured training plans, motivational and instructional tips on-screen.
Bkool: £8 a month. Used with Bkool’s own £349 Smart Go Trainer, this is the cheapest smart training solution currently available. Includes simulation for immersive training, specialised workouts and video classes.
Zwift’s value is justified for many when entertainment is factored in – currently none of the others mentioned have the computer game likeness that many Zwift users claim has transformed their indoor training by giving an immersive experience with a social element to it, plus your own personal avatar. If you’re a glutton for punishment who can just as well stare at a brick wall and crank the watts for a couple of hours, then the price increase may make Zwift harder to justify; but for those who are spending a grand or more on a smart trainer such as a Wahoo Kickr, Elite Direto or Tacx Neo to name but three, the extra outlay might seem negligible if it’s what you prefer.
What do Zwift users think? Will you keep subscribing regardless of the new pricing? Let us know in the comments.
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54 thoughts on “Zwift users unhappy over price increase from £7.99 to £12.99 a month”
What about Fulgaz.com – from c.£7 per month
I switched from Zwift to riding the real roads (Mont Ventoux, Alpe d’Huez, BoxHill etc) indoors using http://www.fulgaz.com on iPad and iPhone.
Much more interesting that Zwift and IMHO the best value and, more importantly, the best indor ride experience. Unlimited 14 day trial.
Disclosure – I have uploaded a few rides to Fulgaz and Mike is great as sorting out any technical issues.
gmehje1 wrote:
Coincidentally I saw this the other day. Looks good.
gmehje1 wrote:
Whatever you’ve happiest with and can afford is a good choice for you. I’m currently using Zwift, Tacx Training System, BigRingVR, RoadGrandTours and The Sufferfest, was a long time TrainerRoad user (still rate it, just a finance thing). The thing is, there’s 3 different main points of focus with those applications – racing/social, structured training and real life courses. I don’t think BigRingVR, RGT or The Sufferfest are better than Zwift, they’re just entirely different. If I want to take part in a scheduled race, I wouldn’t use TheSufferfest, TR or BigRingVR. Likewise, if I want to experience a flavour of climbing the Stelvio I wouldn’t fire up Zwift. It’s sort of like saying a Nukeproof Mega is better / more interesting than a Canyon Aeroroad. Happens everytime one of these apps comes up on here, and elsewhere, though… hey ho.
gmehje1 wrote:
They are restricting their market by only developing for Apple devices. Reading their website also points out you need a more expensive wahoo Ant+ stick as well due to Apple licencing.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
I was hoping to try this over an apple emulator. Wonder if that works or if it experiences ant+/bluetooth dropouts.
Well thats concreted my
Well thats concreted my decision to never go back to Zwift.
Zwift pricing – think about it for a second.
This is a totally reasonable increase. First up, think of the value you are getting from the whole zwift experience, organised rides, training plans, races… whatever you want.
Secondly.. and probably more importantly – stop for a second and think of how much it actually costs to provide all of that functionality for what is essentially a massively multiplayer internet game. It is not cheap.
Developer salaries are not exactly low and good developers that can work in this type of environment sure as hell don’t come for free. AWS hosting for the servers that run the whole thing is expensive as hell for something that is 24/7 and needs to perform. Never mind testing platforms, hardware, tooling… etc etc. Oh and then there’s office space, heat, light, lunches.. you know the bare minimum that is needed to actually have an office.
The platform is growing and as the company has success its going to have teething pains too – this is actually a good problem to have. Jesus, its not like the CEO is raising prices to fund a private jet and pool party for god’s sake….
And on top of that, for existing subscribers its frozen for a year. Thats pretty awesome of them to do.
If you don’t think the service is worth it, then leave. Simple as that. But at least take 5 seconds to understand and think about the simple fact that this type of thing doesn’t come for free and it costs a LOT just to keep the lights on, never mind make improvements.
martyh wrote:
Reasonable? What other service do you use from which you would accept a 62% price rise with no indication of what extra you are going to receive for your money? I suspect that if your electricity company increased their prices by 62%, you’d be up in arms!
Zwift is great, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it since Beta. But its user base has been increasing at a rate that easily pays for the extra courses and features that they’ve introduced over the last year – and the developers who made them. A 10% or 20% price rise would have been acceptable so long as it came with a road map of exactly what improvements would come as a result of that increased budget – but here we have a 62% rise with no firm promises whatsoever.
Then to announce this in a week when all mass rides have suffered with server failures (including some very high-profile charity rides) is adding insult to injury.
Zwift may be the best out there at the moment, but they just became the most expensive – and not by a small amount. Road Grand Tours are up and coming, Sufferfest is a great option (which I left for Zwift), and there are a load more alternatives bubbling under. Zwift just became vulnerable by pissing off their loyal users.
Same price as a real race.
Same price as a real race. Give it a shot, you might enjoy it.
Who calls their customers
Who calls their customers users? Drug dealers and software companies, say no more, the first hit is free, the rest? That’ll cost ya.
check12 wrote:
Funnily enough, I was having a meeting this week where the difference between Customers and Users was raised.
Customers and Users are two distinct groups, sometimes the same, sometimes different. A customer is the one who purchases the goods or service, a user is the one who uses the goods or service. They are not always one and the same, the entity that buys the software or the drugs is a customer, the end consumer is the user. A more forum specific example would be me buying a new bike from a shop for my daughter. I am the customer but certainly not the user of the item, my daughter is the user of the item but not the customer of the shop as is not paying and may not even be present at purchase.
ClubSmed wrote:
i agree with what you are saying but when you call people who pay you money users I feel you treat them differently than if you called them customers, appreciate it’s semantics but I think it affects the psychology towards them.
Zwift?
What’s Zwift? I’m off out for a proper ride in the wind and rain this evening, on a real bike, with rattling mudguards. I might even get a real puncture if I’m lucky. Does Zwift offer virtual punctures?
Zwift?
What’s Zwift? I’m off out for a proper ride in the wind and rain this evening, on a real bike, with rattling mudguards. I might even get a real puncture if I’m lucky. Does Zwift offer virtual punctures?
I’ll continue to use my free
I’ll continue to use my free cycling experience, zweal roads. Hoping zweather will be kind over zweekend.
I’ll still be subscribing
I’ll still be subscribing after the increase but probably like many I’ll be cancelling as soon as the summer bike makes an appearance.
Its rare to see a negative
Its rare to see a negative article about zwift on road.cc. Over the past few weeks I’d come to think I was the only person outside and not addicted to suffering in my pain cave or whatever people are calling turbo time nowadays.
I’m a little disappointed
I’m a little disappointed with this move. I recognise the entertainment value and find it highly immersive but I do feel the pace of new course development and the workouts in general are rather lacking (I much prefer the structure of Trainer Road for this). I will see what he next 12 months bring (with my grandfathered sub) and will make a call.
Just to echo an earlier commenter, FulGaz is great and really work people checking out. The video library is ever growing and I find it just as immersive if not more so (for me at least) than Zwift. I rode Ventoux a few weeks before heading out there. It was great familiarising with the route and type of climb. I’ve since recorded climbs myself and Mike has been really helpful in getting them on FulGaz.
Ceramic bearings at £50 a pop
Ceramic bearings at £50 a pop – yes please !
Small increase on something that will help you improve – outrage !
martyh…im not sure the word
martyh…im not sure the word awesome was meant to be used describe things such as subscription price freezes. Also, I think only the CEO and board will be deciding what they do with all the money they get from increasing fees…if they get any increases at all. I dont use it, but it does look like a pretty reasonable thing to do in the dark nights of a UK winter for road cyclist looking to keep fit and more importantly motivated. Now is when everyone will be thinking about using it so hey presto, a price hike. Good luck to them.. and remember….price is what you pay, value is what you get. For most people and extra £5 per month is not a lot of money and zwift know this.
But for current users the
But for current users the price isn’t going up for a year.
So there’s no skin off anyone’s nose spending a year at eight quid and getting any updates they throw at you. If it had been £13 to begin with I suspect a lot of people would still have signed up. It’s just that the increase looks large by comparison to the current very cheap cost.
fenix wrote:
And I will give them that year to show me that they’re not just milking the users. No, they wouldn’t have had the same response if they’d started at £13 a month; I suspect they’d have died on their feet. When Zwift started, Trainer Roads was the goto turbo app, the only real smart trainer was the Kickr (unless you could afford a Wattbike), and Sufferfest was still thinking about moving from individual video sales to a subscription model.
Maybe Zwift did underestimate their costs, but that could have been rectified in smaller steps – and perhaps could have gone along with a scaled membership which added features or courses for larger subs. basically, there are lots of better ways they could have done this. Instead, they picked for one the most unreliable weeks they’ve had and slapped on a one-size-fits-all 62% price increase before they’ve fixed the server problems.
I think they need new marketeers rather than devs…
fenix wrote:
Not sure, £8 I was being tempted,even if meant investing a fair chunk of money to get started with a trainer setup though I’m not even sure I had the right space for indoor riding, but £13…that’s another 60 quid a year, I was only interested in something to keep bike fitness up when the outside weather was pushing to me stay sat on the sofa, but the company I work for has access to a local gym & I can do 5 spin classes a month for the same cost as Zwift now
Awavey wrote:
5 spin classes a month or potentially 31 Zwift sessions.
I spin too but even I would go Zwift with the choices there. 5 sessions a month won’t improve you much.
It’s £12.99 a month, which is
It’s £12.99 a month, which is absolutely nothing these days. You could easily spend that on a couple of drinks on one night. Get a grip. It’s by far the best indoor cycling platform out there. Social, racing, training, casual rides. It has everything for those who like to train indoors
CXR94Di2 wrote:
The irony of telling people how to spend their money whilst telling them to get a grip.
Come on..get a grip.
Well it was a toss up between
Well it was a toss up between Zwift and TR. Was going to sign up to Zwift next Monday. Looks like I’ll now be checking some of the links on here. If they don’t appeal it’ll be TR. I don’t suppose Zwift will reconsider due to the loss of my cash.
TrainerRoad is cheaper and
TrainerRoad is cheaper and better
Harmanhead wrote:
It’s different.
Harmanhead wrote:
I agree its cheaper, but its also offering a different experience, one of highly structured training plan over eveything else. The graphics are simple but perfectly suited to the task of hitting a power figure for varying times. I use Trainer Road more than Zwift, but not because of cost.
Will not use Zwift
i have been in the market for such a system, but at this price will not use Zwift, Trainerroad or sufferfest instead
So with the sufferfest stuff
So with the sufferfest stuff – I’m a subscriber there as well, and for me, I think their issues are way bigger than what zwift have. when the trainer doesn’t respond as well as zwift or trainer road then there’s a serious issue with a subscription service… yet still, I wait for a fix.
62% increase is porportional – this is something that was the cost of 3 coffees a month, now going to the cost of 5 (maybe)… if you like fancy coffee. Wow. 1k+ trainer, but we’re going to bitch about the costs of an extra coffee a month….
Your statement around ‘the user base is increasing at a rate that easily pays for it’ is naive and so not accurate. You don’t have that data and you are speculating on what it takes to run an 24/7 service that is highly available.
Seriously – drop the stuff around ‘A roadmap of promised improvements…’ do you you know how much it costs to run this type of stuff? I’m in the same industry and this stuff doesn’t come cheap to build or run or respond to issues. Keeping the lights on and maintaining a service is hard enough!
Do you ask the same questions when your council tax or water rates or electric go up every year? I doubt it.
As I said – if its too much for you, then leave the platform. Otherwise take a moment to think about how much it costs to run this type of thing.
I guess what this discussion just clarifies for me is how little the average user/customer understands about the costs involved in actually producing a service of the standard of Zwift.
Zwift increase
I’m disappointed with this move. I have enjoyed the journey and find it highly immersive but I feel that doubling the fee is too much. I will see what he next 12 months bring and will make a call. Its a shame but they have just made a gap in the market. Thanks Zwift.
I’ve used Zwift since the
I’ve used Zwift since the beta and will continue to use it through the winter months but as others have said, the size of the price rise in terms of % is just plain wrong.
Currently, if you subscribe to Veloviewer Pro you can get Sufferfest free for 60 days.
I really like their training vids, they are far superior to any training programe on Zwift but Zwift’s racing is awesome, even if I am crap at it. However, the Sufferfest app is poor at controlling your trainer in comparison to Zwift.
I’m now going to check out FulGaz after reading about it on here.
‘Do you ask the same
‘Do you ask the same questions when your council tax or water rates or electric go up every year? I doubt it.’
I’m guessing yes if the % was on this scale.
It’s a business and they
It’s a business and they should have worked out how many people will cancel versus how many will stay at a range of given price rises.
The sweet spot appears to be 62%, registrations will fall, profits rise and in a couple of weeks the furure will have died downand registrations will start to build again, thusly icreasing profits even more.
Or, they’ve fucked up big time.
Bad move.
Bad move.
I’ve been on Zwift since the start and paid £8 per month every month (£96 per year) despite getting 90% of my use from it between October and March.
I still think its the best indoor training software but will let the next year run at £8 then when the £13 kicks in swap to just paying for the six months I mainly use it.
Zwifts annual income from me will fall to £78.
Really they should offer a discounted annual subscription at the same time this would keep their income and give them some budgetting certainty.
I must say I wasn’t surprised
I must say I wasn’t surprised to see the price increase. I’m a new Zwift user (one month) and love it. For base training indoor rides it’s completely replaced TR (which I’m also subscribed to). I have to admit to wondering how they funded their business with such a small subscription fee. They have 140 employees at the moment (according to the ceo on Zwift podcast), and simple maths tells you that’s a s**t load of subscriptions required to cover all those salaries. I seriously doubt that even with this price increase they’ll cover their costs.
As others have mentioned 62% is proportionately a lot, but £5 in absolute terms is not. For something you may use for hours and hours a month it still represents excellent value to the committed indoor cyclist. Still, I’m sure many will feel agrieved, will complain about features not being introduced and then drop £250 this Christmas on some aero handlebars that will do nothing to make them faster. You pays your money you make your choices.
Let’s face it no price
Let’s face it no price increase will be popular but if it went from £8 to £10 I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.
Even if it went beyond that but was reduced if say you paid a year upfront then I would’ve been fine with that also. The sheer scale of the increase all in 1 go is taking the mickey frankly.
I guess I’m fortunate in that I won’t see it raised until this time next year. Zwift then have a year to convince me (and others) that whatever developments they have in the pipeline will justify the costs.
My darling wife spends £130 a
My darling wife spends £130 a month on a Barrecore subscription for all you can eat exercise classes. £12.99 is probably still pretty good value given I get ~8 hours a week on my trainer than the 3 hours exercise classes my other half enjoys. I’m aware its an apples and pears thing but still its not rocket money is it in a month for what value you can get out of it? Ironically I pay it but ~1hr a week on Zwift, ~7hrs Sufferfest as it’s just exactly a does what it says on the tin thing, brutal fantastic focused immersive training. Zwift, I’m trying to learn to love as much as others obviously do, reckon I’ll get there but at that price summer may see me take a break, previously I’d let it run.
“BKOOL: £8 a month. Used with
“BKOOL: £8 a month. Used with Bkool’s own £349 Smart Go Trainer, this is the cheapest smart training solution currently available. Includes simulation for immersive training, specialised workouts and video classes. ”
Didn’t you correct this in a previous article?
62% rise is plain stupid.
62% rise is plain stupid. Having recently set up an indoor smart trainer zwift was on the list to try, not now. To be fair I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it anyway, prefer a real road feel than a shitty 3 or 4 virtual world courses.
As for the rise, Sky tried to put my bill up 1.5% that encouraged me to check the bill. I was paying for 3D without owning a 3D TV so that went, then I realised I barely have time for Sky Sports, that went as did the movies for my wife. The 1.5% lost them around £50 and then I moved the broadband et al elsewhere within 6 months…
alansmurphy wrote:
You might be missing a point here. The courses are restricted so you’ve always got a lot of riders around. So people to chase. Or to sit on their wheels for a rest.
If you’re just riding solo all the time then you could use trainerroad and just follow their graphs. Zwift is very different and the time flies.
Folk have been asking me to
Folk have been asking me to try Zwift but I definitely won’t be now :-/
I’ve had Zwift and Sufferfest
I’ve had Zwift and Sufferfest subscriptions since both sorted me out some decent free trials last year and I just kept them on. I have hardly used the Zwift one, and I haven’t even thought about joining a group ride or a race because not enough of my friends use it. Sufferfest does the job for me and they just upped their game with 4DP. I haven’t got a smart turbo so don’t need to worry about the app controlling my trainer, I guess if you’ve got that sort of money you aren’t worried about a few quid a month.
I was paying the monthly fee for a year or so without hardly using it so now I’m grateful as it’s given me the push I needed to cancel it!!
I guess zwift will become a more serious place. A bit like the clubs who won’t let you ride with them if you don’t have a drop bar road bike/ helmet/ club kit and won’t wait if you can’t keep up with their pace. I’m sure their group rides look great in photos and on strava, but I’m not sure it’s much fun, and definitely not inclusive. Give me a nice sociable group that goes at a reasonable speed and waits for the slower/ older/ newer riders at tops of hills.
Who needs a class system when you have cycling to weed out the rich from the poor?
Simontuck wrote:
I think it reasonably clear that you’ve not really checked what’s available. There are plenty of fast-paced group rides and races, and also plenty of no-drop group rides and socials. There’s also group workouts, charity rides, coaching sessions and bunches of mates, acquaintances from varied parts of the globe or complete strangers just arsing about. This price rise won’t really change any of that IMO. It might not be for you, which is fine, but there’s more to it than you seem to realise.
That’s just silly.
fukawitribe wrote:
Certainly is. Everything in life has price barriers, from food to housing and everything inbetween. This said, cycling is certainly one of the most overinflated activities for equipment prices if you ask me. I thought guitars where stupid prices sometimes but some of the £10k+ road bikes are beyond it. Both are also only as good as the user as well.
I don’t use Zwift, nor any
I don’t use Zwift, nor any indoor training social network, but I do wonder how many folk complaining here are the same folk how consume several pounds-worth of energy drinks and often unnecessary bars on every club ride, more on the coffee and cake at the end of it, and what does it cost to enter a sportive? £35?
It seems £13 a month for all that Zwift offers is well worth the money. The problem is, they under-valued it at £8 a month.
Possibly true they
Possibly true they undervalued. This said I spend nothing on sportives, fancy energy drinks and supplements for fuelling and still think it’s a bit much going from 8 to 13. Maybe they should sell in blocks so if you want only a few months they get £13 a month but only £8 if you do the whole year. Works well for Xbox live.
I’m a cold weather user so 4 months is my max usage.
Its still better than the mess that is bkool. I put that back on for a trial again and it’s still a nightmare interface. It also tells me my gpx routes and others I’ve downloaded have unrealistic gradients and wont load them half the time.
If you think the product is
If you think the product is worth the new price, pay the new price. If you don’t think it is worth the new price, don’t pay it. That is, roughly speaking, how the market works.
I wonder how many have done
I wonder how many have done the reverse and signed back up to lock in the £8/month fee?
I had an account but wasn’t currently subscribing as I’ve been using TrainerRoad but got sent the email that said I had till Dec 15th to lock in the old rate. Guess what, I’ve signed back up and Zwift has got £8 out of me!
It was very cheap before.
It was very cheap before.
It’s still great value.
It has transformed indoor training for me, personally.
It’s well worth it and I love it!
£13…a life changing sum!
I’ve got echo the voices here
I’ve got echo the voices here expressing dismay at the scale of the rise. The new price is equivalent to the charges MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft and EVE Online ask from their subscribers. I think that in and of itself indicates where Zwift see themselves going. Or perhaps the venture capital they’ve attracted sees things. So, for me, the question becomes does Zwift offer the same value proposition as one of those MMORPGs? As an end user I find the answer at this point is a distinct no. There’s stuff I’d expect at this price point that is entirely missing, such as the lack of an internal mail system for contacting other Zwifters offline, the ability to contact staff in game and the ability to form persistent groups of players. Other features such as racing and events seem to be coming along, though still somewhat underdeveloped.
Others have already pointed out the now lower cost of other training tools. I’m also going to add that the Chinese Onelap does much of what Zwift currently does, with reduced turbo support, for free. Don’t think Zwift have made the best descision here.
UK rip-off?
I’m more bothered by the fact that it’s gone from $10 to $15 – so should be about £11 – not £13. Sufferfest seem to manage to bill me fine for about £7.40 which is about $10 so why can’t zwift do it instead of ramping it up for UK users and stinging us for an extra couple of quid each – not much but the principle involved?