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Comment by snug | Hacker News Reader

These workout subscription cost seem insane to me. Why are these apps costing the price of a gym, with none of the access to equipment. I know it's the price of a drop in class or two, but given that these apps/coaches could do many x more people in one group should drive prices much lower imo.

edit: to be honest though, it does sound like a fun app and good idea. Especially after I've gotten back into running this new year, after being out for the last 2 years from an injury I got during a half marathon, and had a hard time getting back into running. I do want to give it a try, but i have trust issues with free trials if I have to put my card in.

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I'm a runner, and I love it. Two things from my POV.

1) Gyms are no competition for my money because I have no interest in going.

2) I am continually relieved at how cheap running is relative to most hobbies - I just pay for shoes, some clothes (don't need many), and race fees. Personally I feel like I have plenty of headroom to give on what I'd be willing to spend on what is easily my favorite hobby, and would really consider paying for something like this (I just had a kid so I'm not doing a lot of training right now).

For comparison, I have paid ~$100 for 3-month training programs and would gladly do it again. So these prices are in line with what I'd expect to pay for a dedicated running training program.

> Gyms are no competition for my money because I have no interest in going.

Sure but at a gym you also get unlimited access to coach led group training _in person_, as well as unlimited access to large and expensive facilities, so it doesn't really make sense that this costs as much as a gym membership.

most gyms won't have coaching geared towards distance runners, though. Competitive distance runners are specialized enough that most fitness classes won't really give them what they're looking for.

If you're somebody who goes for a couple runs a week to supplement their main forms of exercise I agree that this is a pretty steep price to pay.

Great feedback. I completely understand that the price point may not be for everybody. We've done our best to keep the pricing competitive while still being able to pay our coaches fair wages. We've also tried to look at it from both our costs, and value added.

We do offer 20 different classes each and every day. Users who purchase an annual subscription can get an entire year of content, thousands of runs for less than a pair of competition running shoes.

Even for a runner that only uses our application once a week, they pay under $5 a class for a live certified coach, curated playlists (that cost a decent amount for copyright), live streaming data and other costs.

At scale these things may become more economical, and we may be able to offer a lower price.

How do you guarantee the coach is going to give me value? As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem like a cap on the number of people in any group, there could be a dozen or a few hundred. What is the coaches value to me if I'm one of the few hundred people in a group?

From a company perspective, that's our main goal. If we don't give you value, you don't say subscribed. If we do give value, we have runners that stay with us for years.

While class sizes may differ, right now they're definitely smaller, allowing for a lot of time per coach. That will change with time, but it's our mission to provide as much value as humanly possible to our users.

That’s not really an answer at all. And it’s not even true. At least when it comes to gyms they have huge numbers of people that keep paying without going.

My apologies, let me clarify. We guarantee that we will provide value by offering a money-back guarantee in the first 7 days. If you don't find value, you don't need to pay.

Many gyms work really hard to lock you into long-term contracts, where you need to provide adequate reason to unsubscribe. With Charge, you're not locked into something long-term, and it's much easier for you to leave. From a business perspective, this requires us to continue to provide value for our customers, which is exactly what we're trying to do.

Don't take me at my word though, I'd love to hear your feedback. Would you be willing to try it out and let me know if you found value in the coaching?

I haven't been running regularly for ages, but the gyms in Denmark are closed now so I suppose there's no time like the present to pick it up again!

Do it! I started running again at the beginning of the year, after 2 years of trying to get back into it. The first few weeks really sucked, but now I can't wait for my run days. I really wanna run on more days but don't want to turn myself again.

I started 1 1/2 miles 2 days per week.

I'm up to 3 miles 3 days per week.

Again, I do like your concept, so I'm only being critical because I'd like to try, but there are two things holding me back

1. I have to enter my credit card for a 7 day trial

2. then I have to email you to cancel it within 7 days. I should be able to hit a button

There should be a free trial, no credit card.

I'm usually one to get the annual subscription on services, so I would get that here, but like a gym, i can't cancel after 7 days if I don't think I'm getting value, and I think this type of service would take more than a week to know if it's valuable. $10 more per month for monthly seems steep.

I'm putting this in the perspective of Gym membership costs, idk if other people think the same way.

Yea I’m not saying that a running freak would get very much out of joining a gym, I’m just comparing what a gym rat gets for his 30 bucks with what their customers get, and he seems to get a helluva lot more. So it just makes me wonder if people will be happy to pay.

Maybe they will, people pay for peloton. Then again that’s essentially a cult, and the contents seems richer.

Nice idea though, I wish I had thought of it!

Although, given that the coaching isn’t personal, and not even done in a local group, how much can a competitive runner really get out of it?

I've also gotten back into running and love, I look forward to my runs, but gyms offer much more in the sense that you get access to equipment.

Running is cheap, and I happily pay for the nice things I use to run. $200 shoes every few months, no problem. $60/year for strava to track my goals, runs, best time, and be competitive with my friends, gladly pay that.

Paying $100 for a 3 months training program in person is different than a large group virtual training program for about the same price. IMO the economy at scales should make this app much cheaper.

I guess I also just don't understand how this works as there's not really any good videos, or demos on what exactly a session looks like. On the flip side of that, to cancel the trial you have to email them

>Why are these apps costing the price of a gym, with none of the access to equipment.

At least in tech, the biggest cost center is employee wages, it's possible that this is what's happening here, the cost of employees (coaches) is probably their biggest cost.

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