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 two open source alternatives:
I was a paying customer for over 10 years and it just got worse and worse. I quit several years ago and haven’t looked back.
As it turns out, I love and I have always loved cycling and don’t need anyone else to see that.
I’m not saying that anyone else should behave the same way, you do you, but it was so freeing to just ride for the love of riding. No more “600m of circles” to make it to 200k, no more kudos to every workday commute, just the open road (or trails) and the freedom it provides.
Yes, I no longer race, but I do privately keep a record of my efforts and rides, but they’re now a side effect of the thing I love - not part of the focus.
Eh the social aspect never was the point for me. It was more tracking progress. That said this was a good reminder to cancel my sub as I haven’t used it enough in the last year to justify it. If anyone has self hosted options I’d love to see those.
Yeah, I recently got Strava, but I’m about at the point of ditching it. I run alone. Garmin keeps any stats just fine, and doesn’t inject any social media into it. I have a couple friends on Garmin, but I have to actively look for their stuff, and they for mine, which is exactly how I like it. Otherwise, I run, and then I can go see how things look, and it gets added to the archive.
Well said
Yeah, I mean, that was inevitable.
I just saw an AP alternative launched a couple days ago: https://fitpub.social/
How does this compare to Endurain? Endurain isn’t ActivityPub, however curious about other features.
Definitely a +1 to FitPub that they’re on codeberg vs GitHub 🤣Endurain migrated to Codeberg and I’m just blind. Github is just a mirrorI mean there’s zero information about Endurain on their site so…I have no idea.
Hey guys, just so you know. In the future
If private company = company will fuck you over to your and their own detriment.
Public companies are almost more likely to do this, no? They have shareholders to appease instead of just private interests.
Pretty sure he meant something like “not a nonprofit or government entity.”
Nonprofits and government entities are just as happy to fuck you over, in my and relatives’ experience.
“Just as” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, IMO. Can they be subverted against the people they are supposed to serve? Of course. Is it as likely as a for-profit corporation doing it? Hell no, I’d say.
EN SHI TTI FI CA TION
It says all apps will have automatic access to the standard tier. How is that killing anything? It sounds more like they’re removing an approval process.
Edit: ok but further down it also says “subscription required”. I’m confused.
next sentence
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
Yeah that’s why I’m confused. It says it’s automatic, then later says a subscription is required.
“10 athletes” seems to be the bit you’re missing.
I guess the automatic has the 10 user limit. and the subscription is needed for a proper app that people use.
How many people are personally operating more than 10 athletes? Are there that many enormous super-athlete families that all rely on Strava?
It’s for the API, meaning when you code an app and use strava you have a maximun of 10 users, everything else is just gone.
10 users using your app isn’t much.
So each person gets their own API key when installing some custom app. This is normal procedure. I’m not seeing an issue with that part.
That is absolutely not normal procedure. Apps generally use one universal API key per API surface, not unique keys per user.
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.
There are lots of alternatives. Apple has one Garmin has one. Google has one. etc.
Garmin requires Garmin devices to be if any real use. Same probably goes for apple. The reason strava is popular is everyone can use it, no matter their phone/device.
Edit: not advocating for Strava or saying it’s good. I don’t like it, don’t use it anymore.
I think Strava is just popular due to cultural inertia more than anything. Garmin, Coros, Fitbit, Apple, even phone apps. Not really hard to export data and move. 90% of what I saw on Strava before closing the account was Zwift garbage anyway.
It seems watches like Garmin Watches are not affected by this:
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 .
Yeah, until they need to squeeze more blood from the stone
I use endurain since day one and it’s growing fast and good. Dev is very dedicated and progress is significant and solid.
Said so, I always despised Strava and never used it. But I use Garmin platform since I own many garmin devices for run bike and more … And after all these years Garmin stuff, also on software side, keeps being non enshittified
It will be even better once gadgetbridge finishes support for sending to endurain. Then we won’t even need Garmin!
Sorry to say that most sport devices are not supported by gadget bridge
Its FOSS. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Well, due to hardware encryption keys and such, it’s not that easy… Also many devices supported only works after sniffing the keys from the official apps. Which is not a viable approach in my opinion…
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Garmin is still one of the most open brands, you can always copy activities from USB cable if you don’t want to use the proprietary Garmin app.
once gadgetbridge finishes support
You do realize gadgetbridge is entirely volunteer-driven, right?
Yeah that’s true. However it is being worked on, with a PR open from one of the core devs. https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/pulls/5809
Looks like it might get merged soon? Since the WIP tag got removed 5d ago.
Once this goes in and hits nightly, I’m immediately setting up Endurain.
As is most FOSS software. I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. GadgetBridge is actively working on the feature and I’m genuinely excited about it.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters AP WiFi Access Point CA (SSL) Certificate Authority SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption
2 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 14 acronyms.
[Thread #332 for this comm, first seen 3rd Jun 2026, 14:10] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Wait so is this going to affect my Garmin sending info to Strava?
deleted by creator
I think that’s an April fools article. Check the update in the first paragraph.
Yeah my bad, I didn’t properly verify that.
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 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.
I’ve got an IFTTT applet that works with Strava. Crossing my fingers.
