'I'll switch to another brand': I polled over 1,000 Garmin users to see what they thought of Garmin's Connect+ premium tier, one year after its launch

Date:
Thu, 26 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Description:
One year later, Garmin users still aren't subscribing to Garmin Connect+, according to our survey.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from
us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was
successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter One year ago, users of the best Garmin watches were very angry indeed. They took to platforms like Reddit in droves and filled comment sections (and my inbox) with their fury.

Why? Garmin had announced its then-new premium tier, Garmin Connect+, which asked users to pay $6.99 / 6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / 69.99 / AU$120 annually in exchange for exclusive access to new AI features like Garmin's Active Intelligence commentary, along with an improved LiveTrack service, Performance dashboard, and other bits. Garmin users were worried about this. While none of the vast swathe of comprehensive features they enjoyed in the base app were going away, many feared this was only the beginning of the process of dropping new features behind the Connect+ paywall. In this scenario, subscribing to Connect+ would eventually become all-but-compulsory, even after shelling out for an expensive watch. Article continues below You may like One year after Garmin's divisive Connect+ launch, how do you feel about it? A Garmin Connect update is causing havoc on iOS here are some
fixes 'Garmin actually want their devices to break in these labs' I went to Garmin's closely guarded Kansas HQ to find out why its watches are so expensive We've seen it happen before: free services get so valuable that,
due to shareholder profit demands, the companies begin charging for a once-free service or tanking the performance of the free version to drive up valuable subscriptions. It's a well-documented process that happens to online services, one blogger and internet rights activist, Cory Doctorow, dubbed 'enshittification'. Garmin users threatened to switch watch brands, there
were calls of boycotts, and we covered it all in a live blog , but Garmin stuck to its guns and continued the Connect+ rollout. So one year on, now the furor has calmed down, we decided to ask 1,325 Garmin users what they thought of the service . Had they tried it? Did it meet expectations? Had they sold their watches and bought a rival from Samsung or Apple ? The results As you can see, most users still aren't happy about Connect+. Out of 1,325 Garmin users, 80% of respondents (1,061) 'never bothered' to sign up to Connect+. Just 12% of respondents tried Connect+, but returned to the free tier, not continuing with the service. A paltry 5% of respondents, 67 people overall, ticked 'yes, I use it, and it's good'. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Our smallest group of respondents was reserved for those people who were so mad about the change that they actually switched watch brands, with 36 people out of the original 1,325 leaving Garmin entirely in favor of an alternative.

We had some comments and emails, too, from people telling us why they voted the way they did and how they felt about Connect+.

One commenter said: "Garmin's enshittified app won't ever be getting my hard-earned money on top of the high cost for the hardware. The hardware is excellent, their software is poor. I'll be moving on to another brand with my next purchase." What to read next Garmin Forerunner 970 review: Testing Garmin's top-flight running watch over nine months I just traded in my Polar running watch for a Garmin after learning a rather expensive lesson I stopped using Garmin Connect's easily-forgotten gear tracking feature but I've just fallen back in love with it

Meanwhile, Max said, "I stick to the free tier. If they'll push any more,
I'll switch to another brand." This approach seems to reflect the majority of Garmin users, based on our poll.

Via email, Linda said that as a decade-long Garmin user, she would "take the hit and move to Withings" if Garmin put her favorite features behind a paywall. The best Garmin watches for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

Read our full guide to the best Garmin watches 1. Best overall: Garmin Venu
4 2. Best premium: Garmin Fenix 8 3. Best budget: Garmin Vivoactive 6 Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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