Recently, we made significant changes in our operations here at Commit Swimming. We launched our team management platform publicly in July 2022. We switched from a 100% self-serve, free trial model to a more collaborative onboarding approach. And we’ve grown from being a 2 person company to 7 in just a few months.
As part of these changes, we updated our pricing and offerings for the first time in over 4 years (early 2019). Since early February, new customers have seen the new pricing. Existing customers (prior to February 2023) will not experience any changes until July 2023.
The change in pricing is intended to better align our business with the success of our customers. Read on to understand when, why, and how the changes will take place.
In 2015, we launched Commit Swimming as a workout management tool for coaches. Coaches found our software easy to use but had lots of feedback on how we could improve. We implemented lots of changes to our product and customer support process over the years. We added all sorts of minor features and some larger ones too.
By 2020, Commit had become a completely different product than it was originally. With our season planning tool, custom formatting options for writing workouts, our coach/ athlete/ parent mobile app, results and performance analytics, Commit was becoming a more comprehensive tool for swim teams.
In 2021, we decided to continue down the path of becoming a more all-in-one solution for swim teams around the world. We created team management features that not only helped coaches write workouts, take attendance, plan their seasons, and understand swimmer performance, but also allowed teams to manage their billing, communication, website, etc. all within Commit.
As we worked with a handful of teams using the team management features of our product, we improved those features too. By 2022, we were ready to launch the team management pieces of Commit more publicly. As we have grown as a business over the last 6 months, we realized our product(s) had become disjointed, with confusing pricing and offerings.
So, we set out to simplify our plans and pricing model to better represent what Commit has to offer swim teams. Exactly what we are changing is outlined below…
Today we're publicly announcing the following changes:
We made these decisions from two lenses:
For us, we have found the most success with teams thriving with our software with a more hands on sales and onboarding approach. This change in pricing and process allows us to build our software and our team in a way that provides swim teams with the highest level of service possible. The closer we are to you as customers, the more fulfilling it makes our job and the better we can serve and understand your needs. We used to turn down live demos for teams because our pricing model did not support that level of in-person guidance. With these price changes, we are able to welcome live Q&A and discussion. We are able to help manually onboard customers who are “all-in” on Commit. This aligns us with you, so we can both be “all-in” on the success of one another.
The history of swim software has shown time and again that it is very difficult for companies to continually improve their software products given the low price point in the sport. Industries where small companies pay 5k-20k/ year for software that does less than what software in swimming does are able to continually innovate. In swimming, companies that have failed to evolve their pricing and sales process, have also failed to continue to deliver quality product improvements and innovation. Our goal at Commit is to be able to continue to invest in our product and build the best software in the sport. These changes allow us to do just that.
All the changes here at Commit are intended to make you (our Commit swim teams), and our business, more successful.
These changes are also a big risk for us. We’ve had a ton of success in the self-serve model of software. In swimming, our free trial numbers and conversion rates to paying customers are unheard of. But, we understand that to further grow in the sport of swimming together, we need to shift our focus to providing an all-in-one solution that is more collaborative in nature.
We firmly believe Commit Swimming is the best workout management software in swimming AND now the best team management software in swimming. These pricing and process changes are intended to make sure that you continue to get the quality (simple and powerful) software you deserve.
We are incredibly grateful to and for our customers. We love helping them manage their workouts and their team with our software. And, we would be nowhere without you. Thank you.
In considering how these changes would affect existing customers, it was extremely important to us to both give many months of notice and make a special offer that is only available to existing customers. That's why pricing won't change for them until July 2023 and there will be 2 special offers available for them.
Special Offer #1
If you migrate to the new pricing prior to Jul 1, 2023 (more on how to do that to follow), you will be given 20% off for the first 12 months.
Special Offer #2
If you are currently on the Solo-loyal plan, you will be placed on the new “Commit Solo” plan with a $10/ month or $100/ year off coupon, making your new price $19/ month or $190/ month. This does not include the 20% off offer above. If you take advantage of switching prior to July 1, you will pay $15.20/ month or $152 for the first year and then $19/ month or $190/ year thereafter.
We understand that depending on your current plan, your price may increase. For the majority of our customers, these increases are modest. We hope that with the offers available to existing customers, we can help make this transition as financially viable as possible. If you feel like the changes cause an increase in price that is not possible for you, please email us so we can make sure to help in the best possible way.
Over the past 4 years and throughout 2023, we hope that we have and will continue to earn it. We know we need to provide enough value to you through our product and service to justify our prices, or eventually, you'll walk—and rightfully so.
We are excited for the continued challenge, and we're planning to do the following:
We're grateful for all past, present, and future Commit Swimming customers. And we're dedicated to providing the best product and service possible.
If you have questions about any of these changes, please reach out to our team (team@commitswimming.com). We're standing by to help.
We appreciate you,
Dan Dingman
Founder and CEO at Commit Swimming