No, this isn’t a joke. Anova is seriously going to try to charge new users a monthly fee to use the app for looking up recipes, adjusting temp and time, and getting remote doneness notifications.
Below is the full text of the email:
Since 2014, we’ve been committed to providing you with high-quality connected cooking through the Anova Culinary app.
It’s been thrilling to bring sous vide cooking into your kitchens and see the #anovafoodnerd community grow. We love being part of the journey, from your first sous vide cook to your latest culinary experiment.
As our community has grown, so have the demands on our resources. Our community has literally cooked 100s of millions of times with our app. Unfortunately, each connected cook costs us money. So, to continue delivering the exceptional service and innovative recipes you’ve come to expect, we’re introducing a small subscription fee for our app. The new Anova Sous Vide Subscription will allow us to maintain and enhance the app, ensuring it remains a valuable resource for all of our users.
Here are the details:
Who will this impact?
Only new customers will have to pay for a subscription. Existing customers who have an account with us before August 21st, 2024, will not be charged a subscription fee. To be an existing user, you must have downloaded our app AND made an account in the app before August 21st, 2024. In the event you are an existing user, you will be grandfathered in to free usage of the app. You helped us build Anova and our intent is that you will be grandfathered in forever.
What does it cost and what do customers get?
The subscription will cost $1.99 per month or $9.99 per year USD. What you get with a subscription will vary from product to product, but in general, here’s what it includes:
Anova Sous Vide Guides: Learn the basics with guides created by our experts. Choose your preferred level of doneness and press start to get cooking.
Manual Control: Customize cook settings like time and temperature.
Cook Notifications: Remote updates on your cook status.
Recipe Discovery: Find recipes from award-winning chefs, #anovafoodnerds, and more.
Recipe Saving: Bookmark your favorites and share your recipes with friends directly on the app.
When will this go into effect?
This subscription will go into effect on August 21st, 2024. Again, if you already have an account with us and purchased a product prior to August, 21 2024, there will be no change in our service for you.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support. Our mission is to change the way the world cooks and this subscription will help us to continue on with this mission. We are excited to keep cooking with you and can’t wait to see what you create next!
Stephen Svajian
Co-Founder and CEO
by daleness
39 Comments
I just got the same email… first abandoning older units, now this. Enshittification in full effect, I’m so done with Anova
Bold words from a company with as many competitors as they do.
https://anovaculinary.com/blogs/blog/update-existing-users-grandfathered-in-new-users-will-pay-a-small-app-subscription-fee
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They get bought by private equity or something?
What a garbage company now
I guess they forget the lessons learned when they went to app only. The internet crush-back was huge since you don’t really need an app at all. Are people now so addicted to notifications that they (Anova) think they can press something like this.
I’ve always refused to use the app on principle because I’m cranky, but now I’m going to be extra cranky about it because seriously what the hell
Yeah fuck that.
Just checked my app, all my recipes I saved under Private are gone. I have the OG model and don’t use Bluetooth. I’m over this brand and don’t care for their 50% off new model that breaks.
i’m really glad they are stopping support for my unit. gave me a great excuse to switch to joule.
What a total shitshow that company has become haha. Rather than work on this, how about going back to making quality products that don’t break in 8 minutes? Used to be top dog… will be gone in months at this rate.
This is bullshit.
I just ditched my Joule for an Anova because of the app dependance issue, and now this.
What’s everyone’s best rec for a machine?
Sure its free today for existing users, but 3 years from now they are going to upgrade the app and start charging us all.
Best alternatives?
I didn’t even suspect anybody would pull this crap when I made sure I got a circulator that didn’t require a phone app. I just didn’t like having to use my phone. The Meater app wouldn’t just let me know what the temperature was, it would be guiding me all the way, and was always wrong about when it was time to pull the steak. I replaced it with a minimally intrusive unit that had its own separate interface module.
Gonna nope right away from a product that forces me into a subscription.
I admittedly never use the app so I really don’t give a shit 🤷♂️
It’s weird because for the first several years I had it, I used the app every time I used the unit, and then I finally realized that I had no need to use it at all, and I posted here about it, and a bunch of people were basically “no shit Sherlock” because they never use the app either 🤷♂️
Sell my Anova, got it.
/r/TheInternetOfShit
I’m just over here feeling smug with my Breville Joule lol.
Did you notice the message that old model cookers won’t be able to talk to the app any more after September?
So not only do they want to charge new users for the app, they want to force old users to upgrade their perfectly functional hardware.
Nope. Was considering getting a replacement for my non app connecting sous vide, but say no to useless subscription fees for features that don’t need to live app side.
Honestly after my experience with anova charging for the app is the least of my concern. The units don’t seem to last long. I warrantied one after breaking within a year, the replacement is a shotty refurb that probably will do the same after a year. I wish my joule had onboard controls but at least it works.
I have an anova with either bluetooth/wifi, those functions stopped working after a month. I have just been using it with the manual controls. Is this change going to somehow brick my anova?
Another reason to not buy them. Geez.
So where are we going for our new sous vide now? I’ve had 2 joules break and I was thinking about getting an anova, but I’m not supporting this. So now what?
How to guarantee that I will never buy their brand….. pull sh*t like this.
This will age like milk
This is exactly why I buy as little smart and cloud technology as possible. My yedi may have awkward control placement and need a few button presses to set but it will never make me pay a subscription to use it.
Tell me you don’t want to sell any more of your product without telling me you don’t want sell any more of your product.
If I can pirate movies I can pirate sous vide. You done fucked up Anova
Welp, no more Anova for me!
Icing on the cake: Right now, there is no way to create an account on the app or website!
This is one of those pivotal moments in a company’s life where they will look back and ask themselves “what were we thinking?” as they get relegated to the dustbin of corporate failures.
lol so there goes that company.
Guess what company I’m never buying from again…
So who is the new Anova? I always got Anova because it worked well and I never had problems with them. Who makes competing units that are quality these days? I have a few Anovas to replace.
Exciting news! We’re giving you innovative new features like <checks notes>….. a new subscription billing system for the same features that every other brand offers. That’s what we’ve been working on, and it’ll be $2/month.
What a joke. My first and last Anova device.
The Anova App is worth exactly what I currently pay for it.