Ryan Haines / Android Authority
At this point, I’m not sure I could tell you how much time and money I’ve put into Strava. Yes, I paid for a membership for several years, and yes, it’s spent time as my number one form of social media, but I don’t really want to think about any of that right now. Why not? Well, I can’t shake the feeling that Strava has changed. It’s become like that friend from high school who became just a little too popular and was no longer fun to hang out with.
Strava being Strava pushed me to cancel my membership, and here’s why I don’t see myself going back any time soon.
Do you pay for Strava? 58 votes Yes 21 % No 79 %
It’s my data, why can’t I have it?
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
The first thing I’ll say about Strava is that, honestly, I forgot just how much of the platform is tied to its premium subscription. I’d grown so accustomed to having access to everything that I didn’t realize how much would be lost once I switched back to the free version. And, among all of the things that I lost, the one that surprised me most was my own data.
Yeah, when you take a step back from your Strava subscription, you lose a lot of your history. And no, I don’t just mean you lose Strava’s AI-generated breakdowns of your workouts — you do, but they were rocky at best. Instead, I mean that you can no longer see your own personal bests. You can’t go back and check on your fastest mile, fastest 5K, or fastest half-marathon. Strava has them, you just can’t see them.
I'm not asking for a free training plan, just access to my own data.
Also considered off-limits are your weekly goals, your training log, and most of your monthly recap. If you’re sticking with the free Strava experience, it also means you’re sticking to your hours of activity and monthly miles as your go-to metrics, and that’s it. Oh, and that includes the Year in Sport — you know, that record of all the data you’ve given Strava since the start of the year.
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