Since there's a thread going on about whether Strava's latest pricing structure will save the world or cause WW3, I thought it would be interesting to make a poll. I always thought Strava is the segment leaderboards and everything else was fluff, but that's because I hang out here. So do you, which means the changes probably affect you more than your neighbor who thinks doing five miles on a bike is an amazing feat of endurance.

Also because it's on topic, here are some other training log book and analysis options:

• Training Peaks
• Sports Tracks
• Ride with GPS
• Garmin Connect
• Golden Cheetah (desktop only)

Golden Cheetah is the most in depth, and free, but has the steepest learning curve. Garmin's Connect is free whether you use their hardware or not, and pretty feature rich but much less social than Strava. It's not convenient to use without their hardware though. I haven't used RwGPS as a log book, and the other two charge $, like Strava.

Been paying for a long time and will continue to do so.

What he said.

"Summit Member since July 19, 2015."

I've probably eaten more money in Clif bars than I've spent on Strava.

i always liked the paid features so I paid from the getgo. Will continue to pay as there is no change in my enjoyment of the app. I have to say though, i pay for ridewithgps because of the route creation feature which i find superb over strava.

I use Strava to get times on segments of routes such as lap times on Fiesta Island and will continue to use the free version. I use other software for performance analysis and pay for that service.

I don't really care about the changes to their free service, but I've been wanting to try out live segments, so I signed up for the free two month trial. Gonna check out some of the training stuff and see if it's worth paying for after that. Mostly I just like having a place to track my mileage and gear, and seeing friends rides/runs.

I will continue to pay.

I don't care about leaderboards and segments but when I'm out on longer rides my wife likes that I use the "Beacon" feature to see where I'm at. So I will continue to pay for that.

I've always considered switching over to RidewithGPS for everything (I use it exclusively for route planning) but I have so much legacy info on Strava that I don't really want to start fresh again.

Been on it since August 2015, free for a couple of years and happy to pay since then. I love Strava but just hate the muppets who have vehicle assisted KOM's and think it's funny to leave them there.

I haven't really paid any attention to it in 2 years, so I'll continue to not use it.

I've always used Connect. People in here act like it's the red headed stepchild of the training log world, but I've never found it very lacking. Tells me my avg and normalized power from a ride, has all the charts and ability to overlay them or look at one in isolation, there's a power curve overall and for each ride, and training load based on HR. The performance management chart (CTL, ATL) is the one thing that's really missing. There are even segments, not very competitive, but I've always found the lap button more useful.

I'm going to continue using Strava's global heat map to find rides away from home, and I'll continue uploading rides I do that will affect the map. Otherwise, I've never really seen the point.

My wife is wanting me to sign up for the pay version for that reason. She worries about me when I ride. All the other stuff is nothing to me as I use it to keep track of the mileage on my different bikes. Is it real time and how accurate is it? Joe

I use Strava to plan a route, and share it with another rider, but not much else.

Have you tried the location sharing feature in Google Maps?

No interest in Strava. Not competitive at this stage in life. More interested in exploring new areas than finding out how I did against total strangers.

+1. Will continue using the free version. I'm fine with its features. But against friends, that's nice.

I want to pay and in fact would really like to pay, but I won't until BT HRM works with the iPhone app again.

That is what would be the reason to pay if I could not use it with my HRM? Before they dropped HRM I paid for years, now I use the Wahoo app, but would much prefer to go back to Strava app so I could use Beacon and the other paid features. $5/mo is nothing, but is worthless if I can't use it.

I’ve only used it as a secondary place to upload my rides in case somehow I lost them from garmin connect, and never was interested in segments/beacon purposes, so didn't make much sense to pay. I’ll probably stop from uploading anything now, so that I’m not a “freeloader” (tongue firmly in cheek)

I started using Strava years ago when Garmin connect went under a major redesign that I hated,
over time Garmin connect got better to the point where I don't even really look at Strava much anymore. I find stravas constantly asking me to start a "free" trial very annoying.

Garmin tracks mileage on my gear (and does it better than Strava now IMO)
Real miles vs zwift miles
Livetrack shares my location with family when I'm out riding

I do use the Strava heatmap to find places to exercise when I'm traveling, I probably shouldn't say that or they'll start charging for that too.....

I just started using a Garmin 530, and it has a feature that emails someone when you start a ride with a link that has your constant position on a map. It (along with my Apple Watch) has a fall detection feature that will automatically call your emergency contact. This works for me and it's all for free.

Where do you get a Garmin 530 for free?

Check out the Road ID app.

In general, how many people who have Strava, actually run strava (on their phone) while they ride?

I appreciate the hard work and faith in community of:
Strava
TrainingPeaks
RidewithGPS
and I will continue to pay them for said work as I have done for years.
Things you like on the internet and don't pay for tend to either become corrupt or vanish. I think that's an entirely predictable result.

I used Beacon as a convenience, not primarily as a safety tracking feature. What is did is allow my wife to see where I was so she had an estimate of when I'd be home which was very helpful in coordinating that there would be someone there with our young son. This was mainly practical for my daily commute home from work so instead of having text her I was on the way, or had a flat, etc. she could see I was in the neighborhood and she could leave home to get to her job and I'd be there in a couple minutes. Now that my son is older it is less useful, but overall it eliminated texting or calling if I was late, etc. Another rare minor benefit was if I had a mechanical and called for a pickup she already knew where I was. It is mostly real time, but there were times it was off by ~1/4mi.

Now that I am doing a lot more solo riding (not just my daily commutes, but long weekend rides) I think it would be good to have - there are times I say I'm going for a 2hr ride to the hills, but then change my mind and ride the other direction. I don't call to say I am doing a different ride, but if I had Beacon she would know.

My wife worries about me too. If you have a smartphone, google maps and many other apps already let you share your location with selected contacts. When I had my crash on a bike path last year, she had just checked my location and saw I wasn't moving in a location I normally wouldn't stop in. The persons that found me called her using the ICE contacts I'd set up on my phone and told her what they knew and that help was already on the way. So she didn't have to call 911, though she was about to. Location sharing with Google Maps gives gps coordinates so you can inform any emergency response people that need to know. As well it gives a link that sets up a route that will take someone directly to that location if needed.

Since my wreck, I use a helmet with Specialized's ANGI, haven't had any false alerts yet, hopefully I won't have to find out if it works for real crashes. One in sixty-one years is enough for me.


As for the poll, there wasn't a place to say I've used both, but like RWGPS better.

The "casuals" outnumber the enthusiasts by a large margin. There was a big freak out when the phone app stopped working with Bluetooth sensors