Maybe Zwift Needs to Take Out Strava?

"There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to plan, track, and interact socially within the Zwift app and web portal. The time has come."

I have been a long time Zwift and Strava Premium subscriber, and I admit...I hate paying for them both. Last year, I dropped my paid TrainingPeaks account because I felt that $60 a year for Strava Premium was a better choice if I had only one tracking software.

TrainingPeaks is $19 a month or $9.98 a month if you pay for 12 months ($119.76) all in one shot.

I use Zwift for my indoor rides, and my Wahoo Bolt or Garmin watch uploads to Strava for everything else. My Zwift use is significant, and I log rides in every month, not just in the winter. It's great for rainy days, intervals, and a quickie anytime. I have even used it when it's too hot or the UV index is too high outside.

The Zwift companion app is getting better and better, but I never feel compelled to look too hard at my Zwift app after I ride because I look at it in Strava after it exports. Why? In Strava, I can track my fitness over time because Zwift and everything else I do is in there. It's ridiculous to want to look at Zwift stats but NOT in the Zwift app.

The question was posed on the latest Zwiftcast as to whether the new Zwift Companion app shouldn't just allow importing of outside activities. If they did this and added a fitness over time tracker like Strava or TrainingPeaks, it could essentially make the Zwift Companion app your one-stop app for fitness tracking. I have thought this was a great idea for some time now, and I was certain that Shane Miller was reading my mind as he went on about this.

With the monthly Zwift subscription at $16 and change, it's time to allow the importing of outside activities into the Zwift environment. While I am sure that there are some lovable oddballs who only ride Zwift, most of us ride and workout outside. We ride road bikes, mountain bikes, and cyclocross bikes; and we run, hike, swim, snowshoe, and skate.

I think the time has come for Zwift to do more. There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to plan, track, and interact socially within the Zwift app and web portal. The time has come. I know that $60 annually for Strava is not even a month worth of coffees, but in an age where everyone has a hand out and subscriptions are so rampant that we forget to cancel them when we aren't using them or the free trial ends, this is getting to be too much.

Strava cannot do what Zwift does, but Zwift could surely add a little more functionality and take Strava out.

I'm sorry, Strava. It's not you. It's me.