I wanted to know why there is only 1 type of subscription “membership” because Zwift should already know that there is many type of riders, and now it’s like if I would organize a bike event with only 1 choice of 150Km distance available rather than propose a (50-75-100-150Km) path so everyone from every level could participate to the event. Just like you wouldn’t bring your 10yr old kid to a 150Km Gran Fondo.
So why in 2020 there is still just 1 choice of subscription with no option for (WEEKEND ONLY) with a small discount? While I get 15$USD is still very cheap if you ride between 15-30 days, it is way too much if you just ride once per weekend (4 days). Zwift lost thousands of ex-members and potential new members with their sudden +50% price increase, because at 10$USD you just don’t think about it but at 15$ you start thinking about if you really need it. Zwift would make a ton more money if they would simply offer these 3 plans below rather than have everybody unsubscribe on March 30th or April and make 0$/Month for the rest of the year.
Plan #1: 30 Days for 15$USD/Month. Plan #2: 4 Weekends “8 Days” (Saturday 00:00 to Monday 6:00AM) at 10$/Month. Plan #3: Pre-paid 365 Days for 120$/Year so depending on the way you see it, that does 10$/Month or 15$/Month during the 4 winter months then for staying you get rewarded for getting the rest of the year at half price of 7.5$/Month.
I would only use Zwift 1 day per weekend and maybe sometime 2 so I fall into the category of “Plan #2” but given the advantageous bulk pricing of the yearly subscription, I would personally go for the “Plan #3” just in case I would choose to ride inside during summer on a rainy day. So Zwift would either make 4x10$ or 1x120$ with me rather than just 0$ for being too greedy because I can’t justify paying 60$USD “80$CAD for me” to ride once a weekend.
That’s my own personal opinion as a business guy that owns a store since over 5 years, feel free to then agree or not with my thinking.
The “and” is simply that Spotify has three types of membership. Netflix also has three different streaming plans. And internet providers have multiple plans. Zwift would be like the subscription services you thought of if they had multiple subscription plans.
A highly supported request in this forum is a subscription plan like Spotify’s family plan. Another requested model is pay as you ride. Something more flexible than Alexandre’s proposal is more attractive. $X per hour, or for some small number of hours per month. The weekends only proposal would be exactly the opposite of what I’d look for. I’d rather be doing longer rides outside on the weekends, while using the trainer for shorter sessions before or after weekday responsibilities.
Those aren’t the sort of variants being asked for here. There’s already a feature request for “family” memberships, where there’s a discount based on the number of accounts linked to the subscription.
This request is advocating more of a pay-per-use style of approach, and despite Spotify, Netflix and others having “family” or student discount plans, none of them are pay-per-use. You pay the same whether you want to use them one day a month or thirty.
Within that flat rate you already have the option of just using it at weekends.
Indeed, people could just as well argue that we only pay for weekend use, and weekday use is currently free.
Not a discounted membership for paying it all up front even if many store or buying a car, house, etc will offer you a better pricing if you pay it all up front rather than X per month/year, but the fact you buy 1x12 months should definitely be cheaper than buying individually 12x1 month where you can cancel at any time. It is of huge importance for a company to be able to forsee themselves in the future with their accounting because they know they have a firm 12 month income from this guy over there while all these other persons could leave at any time.
When you go to Costco or just about any store and you buy a huge quantity of whatever, you expect to be able to deal something with the salesman if you buy in bulk or if you have a wholesale account. Zwift’s marketing guys are deeply wrong in their mind if they didn’t even realize yet that not each months have the same value. Most people don’t give a **** about Zwift outside of Winter here in Canada so to charge the exact same rate for February or July is completely retarded to say the least.
As Steve pointed out, yes you do pay your Internet bill 30 days no matter how much you use it but they don’t offer you only ONE plan. They’ll have plans for every budget while Zwift is “everybody’s the same” from the 12yr old kid to Peter Sagan. They think both will have the same needs, therefore they need to be charged the same. I wouldn’t force a Grand-Ma that only goes on Messenger and Gmail, a 1500Mbit Internet plan.
Honestly I would much rather pay per use or more exactly per hour riden, even at 0.50$/H or 1.00$/H cause I know it would still be less than 15$USD if I do 4-6 small evening a month. Right now Zwift act like they have the monopoly and don’t give a F about all their customers. Watch them go 20$USD in the next 2 years with some bs excuses, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
Oh and there’s plenty of huge gyms where I live that offers tons of machines with unlimited use 7/7 for just 12$CAD a month instead of Zwift current’s 20$CAD/Month. You get so much more variety in a gym for almost 2x less and you don’t have to buy a 1500$ trainer plus a 5000$ bike and a freakin monthly subscription on top of that.
I would prefer a subscription that means that Zwift is always available and i can fit my sessions around my family, work and social commitments and if the weather changes suddenly. It would also be good if the ‘always on’ subscription cost less than a couple of cafe stop on a real world ride as this way riding virtually would not really cost me more per month.
The subscription cost, in my opinion, is cheap. When you look at all the elements Zwift (and the community) makes available 24/7 it is astonishing.
So how do you reconcile these two positions? On one hand you’re advocating a “pay up front for 12 months” model, and on the other a complete “pay as you go” model.
What we have at the moment is somewhere between both of those.
I don’t disagree that Zwift could offer 11 months for the price of 12 if paying for a year in advance, as the trade off makes sense. But I don’t see the attraction from a business perspective for offering loads of different plans that encourage lighter use and less income.
Right now Zwift act like they have the monopoly
Of course different businesses use different models. Different things work in different contexts. And yes, at the moment Zwift do more or less have a monopoly on this type of experience. So there’s less incentive to be flexible; once other competitors make grounds in the space, I imagine Zwift will be more likely to review their offerings in order to attract or retain more of the market share.
I think the only think that is missing is yearly subscription that is discounted. Maybe 130$-150$ for subscription. That would maybe attract people that cancel subscription in warmer months.
