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zwift group 1.jpgZwift users unhappy over price increase from £7.99 to £12.99 a month
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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Zwift vs TrainerRoad: which is best for you?
.@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.
Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story).
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54 comments
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.
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...
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
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.
Ceramic bearings at £50 a pop - yes please !
Small increase on something that will help you improve - outrage !
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.
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.
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'll still be subscribing after the increase but probably like many I'll be cancelling as soon as the summer bike makes an appearance.
I'll continue to use my free cycling experience, zweal roads. Hoping zweather will be kind over zweekend.
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?
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?
Who calls their customers users? Drug dealers and software companies, say no more, the first hit is free, the rest? That'll cost ya.
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.
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.
Same price as a real race. Give it a shot, you might enjoy it.
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.
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.
Well thats concreted my decision to never go back to Zwift.
I switched from Zwift to riding the real roads (Mont Ventoux, Alpe d'Huez, BoxHill etc) indoors using 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.
Coincidentally I saw this the other day. Looks good.
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.
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.
I was hoping to try this over an apple emulator. Wonder if that works or if it experiences ant+/bluetooth dropouts.
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