Whoop whoop: the excellent Whoop fitness tracker got more affordable

Whoop is hoping everyone will give a whoop that it’s lowering subscription prices — an admittedly rare thing to see from companies in the current economy. Annual subscription prices will drop from $300 to $239, while 24-month subscriptions will decrease from $480 to $399. That’s a $61 and $81 decrease, respectively. However, the monthly membership will remain at $30 with a 12-month commitment.

“We’re a premium product but we would never want price alone to be a reason someone can’t sign up for WHOOP,” Whoop CEO and founder Will Ahmed told The Verge in an email. “We see a lot of other companies raising prices right now and given the economic climate and pressure on household budgets we just don’t think it’s the right call. Our bet is that consumers will remember we’ve done right by them with this change.”

For now, Ahmed says that this is Whoop’s pricing structure for the foreseeable future, though as always with businesses, pricing is subject to change in the future. Ahmed told The Verge that anyone who has recently bought a membership will have it extended by one to three months, depending on which tier they initially bought. Whoop declined to comment on whether this is limited to new signups or if existing users will see any benefit.

It’s unlikely that Whoop’s discount is fueled by purely altruistic reasons. As you can see in the embedded tweet above, Whoop was — and still is — one of the most expensive fitness platforms out there. In this economy? It’s far more likely that its pricey memberships didn’t play well with current users and prospective customers.

That said, the company is dangling some upcoming features to entice users who may still be on the fence. That includes a new lifetime warranty policy, a weightlifting feature to track reps and muscular strain, a new homescreen, more recovery insights, and a new stress monitor with Andrew Huberman, who hosts the hugely popular Huberman Lab podcast. Fitness trackers and smartwatches still struggle to accurately track weightlifting reps, while we’ve seen an uptick in recovery and stress features since the pandemic. Meanwhile, avoiding muscular strain is key to injury prevention, but no one’s quite figured out an elegant way to track it. While I can’t say these are good updates until I test them, they are promising ones.

It’s hard to get too upset at lower prices, especially at a time when most connected fitness companies — and other consumer tech brands — are doing the opposite. Peloton raised its membership prices last June, while Strava recently announced it was raising its membership fees last month. On the hardware front, Oura introduced a new monthly membership with its Gen 3 ring in 2021, while bigger players like Fitbit and Apple have also introduced subscription services related to their devices in recent years.

What’s really notable here is that Whoop is lowering prices. It was a pioneer in wearable subscriptions and helped kick off a growing trend in the category (to the consternation of consumers). Whoop isn’t completely reversing course here, but its decision does hint at the flaws of relying entirely on a subscription in hard economic times.