Got the email today advising zwift will move to a pay monthly model, completely understand the need to earn and pay for zwift.
however there seems to be no basic free offering? Limited courses, no configure on bikes, kit etc, even with advertising.
I hope there is something put in place between free / premium like strava does? If strava was only a pay option it would not have the traction, market leader as a lot less people would use it.
You do get 50km free, but I agree that Zwift only works because of mass participation, so having a short (perhaps Zwift Island?) course, no configuration of your character, wattage limit etc would make sense just to get people going and persuade them to get the full version.
I also noticed that UK members will be paying more. £8 instead of the $10 conversion: £6.50. Surely the price should be the same everywhere!
I welcome the paid membership as it will hopefully not only provide an income for the many people that work at Zwift but also provide funding for further development. I thank the Zwift team for their generosity in allowing thousands of riders like me to have accress to such wonderful, entertaining and YES !! challenging beautiful cycling virtual enviroment.
As per freebies, I respect those who ask as I see a point in “luring” people into paying for the full version but also respect Zwift’s Team decision on this matter as they need to make an income after thousands of hours and money invested in this project.
I just got a new computer to be used for riding so even though I have been a long time member, until now all I could do was simply watch and although my chance to finally ride !! will be concurrent with the start of paid membership (in other words, I never actually got to ride for free !!!) I welcome this new chapter of Zwift’s “life”.
Once again, regardless of my lack of proper equipment to use the app, I would like to say thank you to the entire team for this revolutionizing app for all of us who love cycling !!!
Looking forward to making that first payment to support you !!!
Alejandro
Jason,
Although Zwift is mostly based in California they are also a UK registered company therefore they are subject to VAT according to UK law. Unfortunate perhaps but also unavoidable.
I’m more then happy to see Zwift go paid, it’s been a wonderful tool for the 9 weeks I was out with a clavicle injury and it’s well worth a Winter subscription from Oct to March/April in my opinion.
Saying that it is disappointing no annual subscription is available, I’m unlikely to subscribe during the summer months when I may use it for a couple of times in a month which would likely be an FTP test or if the weather turns bad with high winds etc, is this worth £8 … hmmm not so sure, I’d more likely subscribe for an annual sub when you get a couple of months free for the commitment, pay once up front and then use as you like. May to September is likely to be light use months, so that’s 5 months where you may do a handful of rides on the Turbo … if that, £40 for a handful of rides isn’t really value for money, an annual saver subscription would balance this out, allow use as and when, likely to get more riders etc etc.
Saying ‘We currently do not have that option available.’ is a little short sighted and very surprising for it not to be considered.
Agreed, while I don’t mind the £8 my wife will be looking at our bank account and questioning why the £8 is coming out when I haven’t done a turbo ride for 2 months, and she’d have a good point.
Sure I could suspend for a while but I’d like the option to do Zwift on that Sunday morning where it’s lashing it down with rain.
At least with an annual sub it’s paid and I don’t have to give it any thought until next year.
I trini the free/premium model Strava has been using has been pretty successful, it takes a while for people to understand the value of a tool and decide to pay for it. And also allows beginners to try and eventually become paying members. A 14 day trial has limited value if you ride say 2 times a week.
Referral programs are also great, I think I got over one year of free membership out of Strava for inviting people that eventually joined and subscribed to premium. Cyclists tend to know cyclists.
Would be nice to see a thank you gift for beta testers who tirelessly worked to improve Zwift and helped sorting out the bugs, maybe a couple free months eh? 
For less frequent users it might be nice to have a Pay per Ride option. For example pay 3 usd per ride or 0,10 usd/km. If you don’t go that often, a monthly subscription will keep those people away from Zwift.
I’ve seen lots of people saying that if they have to pay then they have to stop. So a balance needs to be sought.
Perhaps bringing back Zwift island - or even a shorter version of it - and allow unlimited riding of that for free would be a good idea. As said people often don’t get a lot of time to try things out so just allowing people to ride a short course for free would eventually mean they subscribe to get something more substantial.
Some basic functionality for free always makes sense, you get a bigger user base and people can be tempted into the full paid version.
Basic could be ride one specific course for a limited period of time, allows newbs to try it properly too.
It’s the limited time / distance that’s the issue, people take a while to make up their minds, perhaps they need a while to get the money together to get a smart trainer / power meter, etc, so limiting the time and distance is a bad plan. I know personally going from learning about Zwift to rearranging the spare bedroom, to getting a PC, getting a big fan, getting a smart trainer took the best part of six months to get sorted, during which time I was able to try Zwift at each stage and see what worked.
Under the current plans I would be locked out after 14 days / 50km and then I’d probably stop bothering. Whereas if there was a short tester course I could keep riding on then my interest would be kept up.
ok so where and how do we sign up for this full version, I can’t even work out or see where we can do this. HELP!
You can’t sign up yet, it’s still beta for another week.
In case anyone missed the announcement, click here to get started on your Free Trial :)
Firsts, my trainer is not fully supported - Tacx non-smart model. Second, on a rainy day I would want to use something to motivate me ride on a trainer. However, to pay 15 euros just to ride 2 times in May is not going to happen.