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      December 23, 2022

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      Gaia Overland: One Map to Rule Them All

      May 24, 2022

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Gaia GPS
  • 7-Day Free Trial Gaia GPS Premium
  • Out and Back Podcast
    • Gaia GPS

      Everything You Need to Know About Satellite Communicators

      December 1, 2022

      Adventures

      How to Avoid Another Deadly Avalanche Season

      January 21, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      The Best Advice We Received in 2021

      December 26, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Avalanche Safety with Snow Science Expert Bruce Tremper

      November 30, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Planning a Thru-Hike Next Year? Here’s What You…

      October 21, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      A Definitive Guide to the Best Camp Coffee

      September 30, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Owls and UFOs with Ultralight Expert Mike Clelland

      September 9, 2021

  • Offroad Podcast
    • Gaia GPS

      Cook Marco Hernandez’s Mouthwatering Camp Meals

      January 25, 2023

      Gaia GPS

      Monique Song: How a City Girl Became the…

      April 7, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      TrailRecon Explains How to Become an Overlander Overnight

      March 9, 2022

      Adventures

      How to Stay Married on a Long-Distance Adventure

      February 9, 2022

      Adventures

      How to Go From ‘Desk to Glory’ in…

      January 12, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      The Best Advice We Received in 2021

      December 26, 2021

      Gaia GPS

      Gaia GPS’s Best New Overlanding Maps and Features…

      December 23, 2021

  • Adventures
    • User Stories
  • Activities
    • Backcountry Skiing
    • Boating
    • Emergency Response
    • Fishing
    • Offroading
  • New Features
    • Gaia GPS

      Our Favorite New Maps and Features

      December 23, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      OpenSnow Weather Now Available at-a-Tap on the Map

      November 9, 2022

      Backcountry Skiing

      Find the Deepest, Lightest Powder with the Snow…

      November 8, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      New Edit Tools: Creating Your Own Routes Just…

      September 1, 2022

      Gaia GPS

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      August 30, 2022

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      May 9, 2022

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      Discover & Reserve Campsites Right From Gaia GPS

      February 22, 2022

  • New Maps
    • Backcountry Skiing

      New! Find Backcountry Skiing in Gaia Winter Map

      January 11, 2023

      Gaia GPS

      Our Favorite New Maps and Features

      December 23, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      Spy Avalanche Terrain with Higher Res Slope Angle…

      December 14, 2022

      Backcountry Skiing

      Find the Deepest, Lightest Powder with the Snow…

      November 8, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      Activate Snow Mode with Gaia Winter

      October 26, 2022

      Adventures

      Take a Trip to Baja California with Nat…

      September 13, 2022

      Gaia GPS

      Gaia Overland: One Map to Rule Them All

      May 24, 2022

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Why the New Gaia GPS is a Subscription App

by Andrew Johnson May 30, 2017

This article explains why the new Gaia GPS app is a subscription with free trial, instead of a paid download with optional subscription, like the old app.

In summary, subscriptions make Gaia GPS sustainable, and align with the continuous development and support that go into Gaia GPS.

Continuous Work

Because Gaia GPS requires continuous effort, we believe a subscription model makes the app and company sustainable long term.

Most of the ongoing expense is development. We update Gaia GPS more than once a month, with work such as:

  • new features, improvements, and fixing of user-reported bugs
  • making Gaia GPS work with new iOS releases
  • making Gaia GPS work with new Apple hardware

Other continuous and growing expenses include:

  • servers
  • map licensing
  • support for users

Sustainable Community

Gaia GPS has grown tremendously over the last couple of years, but such growth is unsustainable. In the future, sales growth may be eclipsed by growing costs to support existing users.

By instituting a subscription model in the new Gaia GPS, we can assure that the company can always serve the community. Over the long term, it’s not sustainable to sell an app for $20 and then support/update it forever.

Focus on the Right Work

Another reason to switch to subscriptions is less tangible, but also very important – incentives. Subscriptions align the incentives of the company with the community.

A subscription model means the company can focus more work on the community, and less on work to attract new buyers. There is still a balance, but subscriptions tip it more towards serving existing users.

Previous Pricing was Confusing

There were multiple problems with the old Gaia GPS pricing.

  • many people balk at $20 upfront
  • the old app’s pay+subscription model confused people, and they often asked if the app required a subscription
  • it was hard for people to understand what they were buying at the base and GaiaPro levels

Grow Revenue, Serve Community

We of course do want this to produce larger revenues long-term, but that money will serve to improve the product, grow the team, and do good support. And the people who end up paying the most are the people who use the product the most.

Gaia GPS is a boot-strapped company with no investors, that grew from 2 people to 10 over the course of 8 years. We have consistently reinvested the profits from the company since the beginning, and we’d be honored if folks in the community would continue to support us with a small yearly fee.

Summary

In summary, we think this is the right thing for the company and user community, but we sympathize with folks who don’t like subscriptions.

Anyone who used the old Gaia GPS can write to support@gaiagps.com, and we’ll work it out with any user to their satisfaction.

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