Zwift Annouces An Increases Monthly Fees
Zwift Announces An Increase Monthly Fees and in doing so aggravates a lot of their base. For those that don’t know, Zwift is one of many software companies who caters to cyclists and indoor training. Since the days of the Computrainer, cyclists have been looking for and training on various software platforms to improve their cycling performance and help alleviate boredom while training indoors.
One of the most widely used platforms right now is Zwift, which has created a rather cool interactive cycling experience. Cyclists from around the globe are immersed in Zwift’s virtual world known as Watopia, competing for KOMs, racing, group riding, training and those looking for a leisurely spin without going outdoors.
Zwift Announces An Increase Monthly Fees
Over the last 3 years Zwift has provided fun way to cycle indoors. Zwift initially started out as a free beta platform and eventually implemented a $9.99 a month pricing structure, which for many cyclists seemed reasonable for what they got. On November 16th, 2017, Zwift announced an increase to $14.99 a month. Doing the math this is a $5 dollar increase or a 50% jump in price. Many die hard Zwift fans were rather put off by this increase. The only good news about the new price increase is current Zwift users aren’t effected for a year and are grandfathered in to the old pricing structure. Going forward any new subscribers to Zwift are now are going to have to pay a $14.99 a month fee.
Some Zwifters justify the rate hike saying something along the lines of “it’s no more than an extra cup of coffee each month”, but those cups of coffees start adding up and depending on how much software you use, can creep into the hundreds of dollars a year. As a SEO guru I am paying between $300 to $500 in monthly software fees. Add to that cable, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Microsoft…. You do eventually reach a breaking point with $5 here and $5 there. At some point it adds up to real money.
From my perspective it would have been nice for Zwift to have announced that the price was going to change and allow people who were on the fence to join prior to the change going into effect. That didn’t happen and as a result Zwift will probably lose a few folks who will opt for other software like Trainer Road or Sufferfest that are less expensive.
Zwift Price Increase Email
“Three years ago, when we founded Zwift, a lot of people told us we were nuts. There are simply not enough cyclists to build a long term business, they said. But being cyclists ourselves, we knew they were wrong. We knew that there is not a more vibrant, dedicated, passionate group of people in the world than the global community of cyclists. Moreover, we knew that this community was being woefully underserved when it came to riding indoors—remember how boring indoor training used to be? Your continuous feedback and awe-inspiring 147 million miles (237 million km) of riding—that’s 650 roundtrips to the moon—have helped us to shape the product as it stands today and what it will become tomorrow. Thank you.
We have come a long way with Zwift since the beta release, and we have some exciting things planned for the upcoming season. We just rolled out our lush new Mayan Ruins expansion of Watopia—currently my favorite stretch of road on Zwift—and we recently began piloting Group Workouts, which marry the social fun and motivation of group rides with the targeted training benefits of workouts—try one and let us know what you think. You’ll see even more events to choose from and new training plans are being added to our library. But 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.
The team too has grown. Every day we work at building the team that can bring you an awesome and constantly improving experience to help you improve your cycling performance and achieve your fitness goals. From a scrappy little team that could all fit around a table and share a meal, Zwift’s staff has grown to over a hundred people including programmers, artists, designers, testers, community managers, coaches, marketers, and an awesome support staff working to help Zwifters when they have questions.
In order to continue to make Zwift bigger, better and more beautiful, we are updating our membership price to $14.99 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. If you happen to suspend your membership during this period and come back, you can still enjoy your current pricing level. (Visit our FAQ for all the details.)
At Zwift, we take seriously our mission to help more and more Zwifters achieve their fitness goals by making training fun, rewarding, and effective — and we take great pleasure doing it. We are grateful to all of you, and we look forward to seeing you on Zwift!”
Slowtwitch had a pretty active thread on the price increase and is a good read to see what all the controversy is about.
Ray over at DCRainmaker also has an interesting take on the subject and his comment section is full of cyclist’s opinions about Zwift price increase.
