Strava should enable gift subscriptions again

Unsure. I may be wrong. I've done some research and it's possible you can offer gift cards if it's for a digital subscription (like Netflix and Spotify do), which Strava Premium is. But unless they tell us the reason, which they don't appear to want to do, unfortunately we may never know!

No that's not right, you are not allowed to offer it via the app or advertise the option inside the app. You can still offer it on your website which is what Strava used to do and what Spotify does still.

If I remember you can't apply a gift card/voucher if you subscribed from IOS which is another rule. I think you can from Android. 

The best way to support Strava is to subscribe from the website, they get more revenue that way.

Seems like an odd way to do business, so am guessing something else is going on. It is unfortunate you have made this business decision, as it means I can't renew my daughter's annual birthday present (and she won't buy it for herself), and I will let my own subscription lapse when it runs its term. The freebie version is good enough for my daughter and me to stay connected.  Guess that means you lose two subscriptions?

Why not buy her an Apple or Google Play Gift Card that can be used for Strava? 😊

Could absolutely do this, and I could also Venmo or Paypal her money, give her my credit card number, or give her a gift card from Visa for the amount so she could renew the subscription herself. The whole point of a gift subscription is the receiver has to do virtually nothing and it is obvious the gifter's intent: a subscription to Strava, a running app. Just seems more thoughtful to make it direct, and I am clueless as to why Strava wouldn't do this.  Ah well.

I posted the likely reason in another comment on this post - Google and Apple probably restrict them from being able to offer direct gift cards, as it bypasses their usual 20% commission.

I don't think the App/Play Store gift card idea works. There isn't a free version of the app and a paid version of the app. There's just a single Strava app, and you pay Strava directly for a subscription. 

It works. You gift the gift card, and the recipient adds it to their balance. In the Strava app, when they select to subscribe, it will use the App/Play Store credit.

Just discovered the gifting option is gone too. I've gifted Strava multiple times and wanted to do so today. Guess I won't. I'm sure they have their reasons for not offering gifting anymore. But it would appear, correcting that, accepting more revenue, should be a priority heading in to the 2023 holiday. Weird choice. Any news @Soren?

If you gift a Google Play Store (or Apple App Store) gift card for $80 to the recipient and write "For Strava" on it, that seems to be a workable solution because when they upgrade their subscription, there's an option to pay for it with a gift card balance from the Play/App Store. It's not the most elegant solution though. 

Hello,
We appreciate your interest in this; unfortunately we are not bringing gifting back this year; it's on the back burner for now. You can continue to add your feedback and kudos to this thread; this will be reviewed by our product team. 

You’d think for the increasing subscription rates you’d be able to fund the ability to keep gifting, along with better overall service. 

This is the biggest reason why I cancelled my subscription. 

?

Please can Strava explain the reasons for this? The gift subscription system worked well, it seems difficult for many people to comprehend why it was withdrawn, and seemingly no plans to reintroduce?

Nope, this doesn't work anymore either. There's no longer an option to pay with the Play store gift card balance. ☹

This must only work in the Strava app for iOS. If you try to subscribe from the Android Strava app, your only payment options are by credit card, Google Pay (which doesn't have access to Google Play credit), or PayPal. There's no way to pay with the Play store credit.

For a company that apparently needs my money to remove this feature when it was already present is very strange. I am guessing there is some kind of technical reason for this but without a clear explanation I guess we're all in the dark.

I don't understand why Strava gifting isn't available anymore? They want to charge more for subscriptions, but don't want the money? Even Steam still has this feature still available. I really wanted to gift my cycling friend a month or more of Strava as a New Year present for extra feature motivation and so she can see her "Year in Sport 2023". The one good thing I want to do in my life I cannot even do. Ridiculous.

Oh no! I was really looking forward to purchasing a year-long gift subscription for someone. I hope the option becomes available again in the future. Fingers crossed!

I would really appreciate if a workaround for gifting premium subscription was availvle

I work in tech sector for a SaaS company. You’re literally throwing money out the window. Why wouldn’t you optimize every potential revenue stream? This is extremely shortsighted. 

I would have given a gift subscription for mother's day tomorrow and was also going to give one to a friend of mine for staying at his place but instead have to give them the money to get their own subscription where all the sentiment and goodwill is lost... Can we open up the gift subscription again? I much prefer to give online subscriptions than 'things' there is a wonderful element to doing this and getting more people running, riding and active... Why is it not possible? Does it cost the company more than it would make from subscriptions? Thanks for the community you build but unsure why you would build it further with this feature...

I wanted to give my son a year's subscription for his birthday.

Is there any update on this? Soren said they hoped to have this going in 2023?