https://communityhub.strava.com/insider-journal-9/an-update-to-our-developer-program-13428
The gist of it is that Strava just killed its free API, and will now require developers to have a subscription.
At Strava, we care deeply about developers, and the health of the developer ecosystem. There are now 241,000 Strava API developers, up from 185,000 last year. Starting today, all current and future applications will automatically receive access to the Standard developer tier. This allows you to serve up to 10 athletes and start building immediately, completely eliminating the previous queue.
This essentially kills thousands of tools people build using the free API.
If you’re looking to move away from Strava, so far I’ve found four open source alternatives:
- CubeTrek - Open-source GPS track manager with 3D topography visualization for outdoor activities.
- Endurain - Self-hosted fitness tracking service for running, cycling, and more with full data control.
- RunnerUp - An open source run tracker for Android.
- Geo Activity Playground - Data analysis and visualization based on GPS tracked outdoor activities.
- OpenTracks - A privacy-focused sport tracking application for Android that records GPS tracks and supports Bluetooth sensors without any internet access or ads.
Hey guys, just so you know. In the future
If private company = company will fuck you over to your and their own detriment.
Build a product -> make it free or very affordable -> create dependency -> collect user data to improve product resulting in more dependency -> create a near market monopoly if possible -> make it paid only or make the free version a lot worse so users have to pay -> cross fingers that no alternative emerges or just buy it and shut it down if you can.
Always the same pattern.
Because of investor pressure to generate actual meaningful revenue, Strava is going to rapidly enshittify leading up to their IPO and after it. The unfortunate thing is that they’ll largely get away with it, because there’s really no alternative for users to move to.
The alternative is stop using. Like every other platform that enshitified, once you know you can live outside the ecosystem, you can live free.
I switched to CubeTrek 2 years ago and have been generally happy with it. I sometimes miss the social aspects, but then I just text my friends and we ride bikes together anyway.
Wait so is this going to affect my Garmin sending info to Strava?
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Oh so they want me to pay a Garmin sub and a Strava sub? Fucking hell. The enshitifacation contimues
From the linked article:
Two things that aren’t changing: every Strava athlete can still access and download their data for free, at any time – and wearable and device integrations are not affected.
I missed this one. Was it like Heroku used to be or something?
RunnerUp is an app ive been using for a while and it does the basic gps tracking for your activities and even has an option to tell you if your pace is slower or faster than you set. You can connect it to your Strava account to upload data to if you want, but otherwise the data is on your device. I don’t know about smartwatch compatibility, but I use the phone app and just put my phone in my Nathan’s Belt.
