Strava Family Plan – All the details
Strava has just formally announced the introduction of its family plan after trailing the idea a few weeks ago.
TL;DR – 4 friends, teammates or family members in the same country can share a family membership for a total of £100. As a broad rule of thumb, it’s 4 for the price of 2 in all countries
Sounds Too Good To Be True?
I’m one of the world’s biggest sceptics but this is a great idea at a great price.
The price is good as it’s discounted by about 50% and I’ll cover some less obvious reasons below on why this is a cunningly clever move by Strava.
There are some trivial catches but, as you can see from this chart the headline features of an individual and family plans are identical.
What Are the Catches
The two major ‘catches’ are quite reasonable ones. Firstly all four members must be in the same country, I don’t know the rationale for this especially when it would probably only affect a tiny number of people.
The second catch comes when you come to set up the family plan only to realise that one person is already a Strava subscriber. That person has to cancel their existing subscription and then wait for it to expire, I think expiration happens at either the month’s end or in 30 days. #Shrug. That’s no biggie IMHO, if anything it will work against Strava as some people forget to set up the family plan after cancelling.
Other Technicalities
There are a few logistical hurdles that Strava have had to deal with. They’ve done a fair job resolving them.
Q: Where exactly do I create a family plan?
A: If you aren’t a subscriber, click here to see the plan cost in your country. If you are already a subscriber, visit your My Account page.
Q: What happens if someone joins an active Family Plan?
A: They just join. the family plan still expires/renews at the same time. Effectively their cost per day will be a bit higher.
Q: What if one of the 3 members wants to leave the Family Plan?
A: They leave. Simple. That creates an extra slot which someone else can join for free. The exception is that the Family Plan creator/owner cannot leave or transfer ownership. They can cancel to avoid the plan renewing and them being charged for the renewal.
Q: If I join, cancel, create or leave a Family Plan, will it affect my data?
A: No
Q: I can’t see a family plan option. Where is it?
A: Check which country you are physically in (!) and check the country you say you live in your profile. Family plans are only available in 32 selected countries, rolling out from July 2024 onwards. Click here to be notified.
Q: How many people must I initially add to a family plan?
A: One…you! You can add other people whenever you want
Other Benefits
Other than the financial and motivational benefits there was no announcement of other benefits like Family leaderboards and, for example, default sharing of routes to family members (family members appearing first on a list of people you want to share a route with).
I hope a Family/Team is listed as a club that you’ve already joined here – if not…it should do! (Family? Team? Group? Club?…there are a lot of confusingly similar words here!)
Take Out
Everyone loves a bargain. Well, I do.
The great thing about generic group plans is that they create inertia against the people leaving. You or I could not renew our Strava subscription and no one other than Strava accountants would be any the wiser. When you are in a team, that’s much more difficult. It’s psychologically harder to leave as you know your family/team members will be notified. (Note – to strava: don’t forget to notify someone who leaves a family that all members will be informed 😉 )
I’m not sure that the number of half-price family memberships will counteract the number of people who stop their subscriptions. As the family plan is such a financially good deal, it implies that Strava previously had a problem with lapsing memberships.
In this world of ever more annoying subscriptions, this is one subscription I welcome.
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was waiting on the price!! i am going to add my sister with me and maybe 1 of my buddies. Solid