In late March, Garmin announced a paid upgrade to their free health data app, Connect, which they dubbed Garmin Connect+. Hundreds of users quickly voiced their disappointment on Reddit, worried that the free software features they had come to rely on could be locked behind a paywall in the future. Though Garmin assured device owners that Connect+ features would enhance and extend the free features already available in the free version of Connect, upset owners worried that their favorite features might move behind a paywall.
A recent Garmin earnings call didn’t assuage those fears, with some in the tech press characterizing the CEO’s comments about future app features available exclusively on Connect+ as “bombshell” news. However, lest we forget, in the early days the company charged hundreds of dollars on top of the cost of expensive devices to add detailed basemap data to devices, without which it was nearly impossible to navigate roads and trails. Honestly, I’m surprised Garmin took this long to start pulling back on free software features given its history of charging extra for software.
I’ve been using Garmin Connect to track my fitness, create routes, and get insights into my health data for more than a decade, pretty much daily. (I don’t know exactly when I started using Connect; I mentioned it in this 2014 article, so at least since then.) Though I can only speculate about how the feature mix will ultimately shake out between the free version of Connect and Connect+ over time, I wanted to give the $6.99-a-month Connect+ service a shot to see if it’s worth the price.
I spent about a month and a half using Connect+, evaluating the service purely from the perspective of a consumer. As such, I don’t have any inside information from Garmin about how the service is supposed to work, and I’m only relying on public documentation and my own observations about how it appears to work.
Garmin Connect+ paid features
In a comparison table posted online, Garmin lists six main categories of features that are included with Connect+ but not the free version of Connect. (Eight feature categories are available to both free and premium accounts.) Based on my own usage, I found one or two features are useful enough to pay for, while the others are not.
Active Intelligence
As others have already noted, the “intelligence” provided to Garmin Connect+ users is completely laughable, though in fairness it is marked as a “beta” feature. Still, a five-year-old could easily provide more insight into your fitness data. For example, the Garmin app told me, “You have completed 86 intensity minutes this week toward your goal of 150 minutes. You need an additional 64 minutes to reach your target for the week.” Fortunately, this data is already available in the free app in the form of a dashboard widget that makes it quicker and easier to see this info graphically at a glance, rather than in sentence form.
As a point of comparison, I uploaded a month’s worth of MTB and running activities I logged with my Garmin devices to ChatGPT, and asked it to provide some insights and recommendations. The insights it offered were similarly obvious — my mountain bike activities provided a “high average calorie burn (893 per ride).” However, ChatGPT was able to deliver much more interesting recommendations, like, “mountain biking is your dominant training modality — consider incorporating structured intervals or longer zone 2 rides if you’re looking to improve endurance or fitness.”
My Active Intelligence verdict: Not worth the upgrade.
Enhanced LiveTrack
Garmin Live Track is a free service that’s been included with Garmin Connect for some time now. Enhanced LiveTrack offers upgraded features like automatic text messages to designated friends and family members whenever you start an activity so they know where you are. This requires a compatible Garmin device and a smartphone to deliver location data in real time.
I found this feature works seamlessly on both my years-old Edge 530 cycling computer and Forerunner 235 watch. The Live Track map looks great, and in addition to displaying where I am, it also shows a track of where I’ve been. And if I’m navigating a set course — say a GPX file loaded onto my device — it shares that with my Live Track contacts too, so they can see if I get off track.
Not everyone will find this feature useful, and if you already share your location with friends and family via Apple’s Find My or a similar app like Life360, it’s a bit redundant. Before learning about this feature, I found myself trying to use the RideWithGPS app, Find My, and text messages to coordinate sag intercepts on a recent bike trip. Enhanced LiveTrack makes this much easier.
Another cool feature included with Enhanced LiveTrack is the ability to create a public profile page where “followers and fans” can follow your activities. This appears to be similar in some ways to TrackLeaders, which delivers near real-time tracking for races like the Tour Divide. TrackLeaders relies on devices with satellite messaging capabilities, like a Spot or Garmin InReach, while LiveTrack uses your smartphone’s data connection, which does limit where the service can be used. While the TrackLeaders service is free, Spot and InReach devices require a monthly service fee that costs $12 a month or more.
My Enhanced LiveTrack verdict: Worth the upgrade if you like sharing your location during rides.
Performance dashboard
Garmin promises Connect+ users a special Performance dashboard that’s not available with the free plan, and I was excited to see what my dashboard looked like after the upgrade. Sadly, it doesn’t look any different to me, and this review of the service suggests the enhanced dashboard is only available on the Garmin Connect website (shown in the screenshot above), and not the app. There’s not a plus sign to be found anywhere to make me feel special! While there are probably some new data fields or charts that weren’t there before, nothing stands out to me as new or particularly useful.
The free dashboard is already highly customizable, with dozens of fields and charts available to track the metrics that matter to you. Honestly, if Garmin had just changed the colors and put some graphics around the dashboard that make it clear I’m using Connect+, I might be more impressed. As it is, it’s not clear what I’m gaining with my paid subscription.
My Performance dashboard verdict: Not an upgrade.
Exclusive coaching guidance for Garmin Coach training plans
Most online coaching plans are not free, and the exclusive plans that Connect+ delivers appear to be pretty good. The app asks a series of questions to customize your plan, then adds a slate of workouts for you to complete. Each workout lists specific exercises, and provides the right amount of detail to get you going. While much of this functionality is already included in the free version of Connect, the exclusive coaching guidance is said to add “educational content and videos to enhance your performance.”
I haven’t come across any of this content within the app yet, and it’s unclear how I’m supposed to access it. Here again, it would be great if the app made it easier to find and access premium features. Video content and/or workout videos like those available via the Peloton and Apple Fitness+ apps, which both charge a monthly fee well above $6.99 a month, seems like it would be worthy of an upgrade. DC Rainmaker also noted he was unable to find any of the exclusive content when he tested Connect+ in late March.
My exclusive coaching guidance verdict: Not worth it if I can’t access it. However, existing free plans and their integration with Garmin devices is excellent!
Exclusive badge challenges
I know that online badges can be motivational for some people, and Connect+ adds some exclusive badge challenges for paid subscribers. So far, the exclusive badges are pretty boring, especially compared to the free, sponsored ones like the POC Cycling 100 that at least features a familiar brand name and a 30% off coupon for POC gear.
My exclusive badge verdict: Not worth paying for.
Live activity
This feature allows you to see real-time activity data like reps and heart rate in the Garmin Connect app. This works for certain activity types like indoor cycling, high intensity interval training (HIIT), and strength training, and is only available for certain devices. My Forerunner 235 isn’t supported, and to be honest, I do few, if any indoor workouts where this would be useful anyway.
However, I do like the idea of using my smartphone for its larger screen during a workout.
Live activity verdict: Useful if you do a lot of indoor or strength training workouts.
How does it compare to other paid services?
Perhaps the most similar online service to Garmin Connect+ that I’ve used extensively is Strava. Though a few of the features overlap, clearly these are different products. I’ve used the $11.99/month paid version of Strava in the past, and to me, it feels like Strava customers are able to use about 20% of the available features for free, while the other 80% of the functionality is locked behind a paywall. And the Strava app makes it clear which features free users are missing out on.
In contrast, Garmin Connect feels like customers are currently getting 80% of the functionality for free, with the remaining 20% available for purchase. That’s not a very compelling ratio as far as freemium services go, making it unlikely many will choose to upgrade. I suspect this is why device owners are concerned; either Garmin will need to invent a lot more premium features to boost Connect+, or they will need to shift some of the free features to paid to balance the ratio. I’m hoping Garmin chooses the former path, rather than the latter, though clearly that will take time and a big investment by the company.
So what could Garmin add to make Connect+ a better value? For starters, I’d love to see a premium version of the Garmin Connect course creation mapping tool. The free tool works well and is easy to use, but it’s pretty basic compared to the route-building tools offered on RideWithGPS, which I recently started paying to use. And maybe Garmin could charge a bit more for Connect+ by including InReach service, which might even spur sales of the pricier communication devices.
Bottom line
Currently, there’s not enough value in Garmin Connect+ for me to continue paying for it, however there are plenty of new features that could be added in the future to justify the price.
Have you tried Garmin Connect+? Tell us what you think in the comments below!
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