Yoga Studio: Classes and Poses

I’ve been a long-time user of this app. As someone who makes very, very little, the one time low price made yoga accessible for me. Then came Gaiam, and I felt like, oh no. Here comes this bigger company to squeeze everything they can out of a humble little app. BUT after using this app for a while, I have been very pleased! I do get to keep what I had originally downloaded before by clicking “restore purchases”. And I do like that more and more practices keep getting added. I loath doing subscriptions, and really wish there would be a “lifetime membership” option, BUT the subscriptions are very reasonably priced for everything you get. It should not be too difficult to save up for a year’s membership, let alone a couple dollars a month. I’ve shopped around and saw other yoga apps charge 4-5 times what Yoga Studio charges, and yoga-studio is the best option! There are ads for Gaiam’s products, and I was originally put off, but really they are not intrusive, don’t mess with my practice, and I know Gaiam is a fair company with good products. I really like how inclusive they are and how accessible they have been making everything for everyone! So I’m looking forward to the journey and can’t wait to see what comes next. The changes seem genuinely good, to actually support people while still making enough to run and improve on their app. Hope more people will give it a chance! ❤️❤️❤️👍🏻👍🏻

First, I have a personal hatred of subscription apps. When your subscription ends, you have nothing. 😡I’d greatly prefer to pay for it outright, even if it’s a steep price or if I have to pay again for new content. However, I’ve been wanting to get back into yoga and was dead tired of the DVDS I bought way back when. (I also have a personal hatred of yoga classes, so that’s out.) I decided to give Yoga Studio a try. I figured I’d know within 7 days (the free trial) if I liked it. And I do! It actually only took three days to decide I love it. I love that there’s something for my years away from yoga self that makes me feel I can do it again but is challenging, too. The variety is also impressive. In over month of practicing at least three times per week I’ve only repeated classes because I particularly liked them. There is plenty of content to do a new class every day. I also like being able to create my own class “mixes” from other classes. The teachers are clear and calm and the music is not intrusive. I like that it syncs with Apple Health automatically, and I like the calendar that tracks your sessions and allows you to schedule classes for reminders. I really do love Yoga Studio. The only thing I’d change is switch from subscription to purchase.

I think I began using this app roughly 4-5 (maybe even 6)years ago. There was nothing as awesome as this for free then and even for the new price point, there is still nothing that much compares. I do look out of curiosity but I am astounded that this app still leaves a lot of other yoga apps in the dust especially when it comes to clear rich and straightforward instruction . I've started this review several times and realized, I think I have sent it and haven't. I continue to rely heavily on this app and only one other that is more pricey but is worth it. I had generally liked the direction of things until the hip hop yoga. I am a fan of hip hop but I am not sure this was the best matched instructor or best use of innovation. Despite that, I do look forward to some of the other things that are coming. We are overdue for some pranayama. So thanks! In my humble opinion, I'd hoped to see some expansion of the various essentials, like a 15-minute intermediate essential practice for balance or a deeper dive into the the different kinds of sun salutations. I am a big fan of the earth salutations(noting there are a lot of balancing poses in those practices) and earth meditations. Overall, keep coming with the great offerings. We are all growing. Donna Kiel/Compassionate Cynic

When Yoga Studio first moved to a monthly subscription model, it locked out all its previous buyers who had paid a flat fee expecting to have their purchase for keeps. After having happily used it for years, I was furious when the app automatically updated and locked me out, hence the review below. FWIW, Gaiam seems to listen to its customers: They eventually allowed previous buyers to access their purchase again via the Restore function. I am therefore changing my rating to a cautious 4/5 stars. While I am a fan of this product, to some degree I am still wary that Gaiam may try to pull the rug out from under me at some point. PREVIOUS REVIEW - 1/5 stars I paid $3.99 as a one-time purchase for this app back in January 2015 and have happily used it since. With this newest update, it has moved to a tiered subscription model that forces even existing users who have already paid for the app to select a monthly plan to continue using it. It's like charging a new monthly rental fee to someone who has already paid for a movie years ago from the iTunes store. I would like the developers to either help me downgrade my app to the previous version that I had already paid for - or to refund me my money, thank you.

I’ve been using the app everyday for the last three months. It’s one of the better yoga apps for sure. The upgrade from version 3 wasn’t that clean. I had previously purchased the “full content upgrade” early on in version 1 and that would restore all the original yoga programs through version 3. With version 4, that purchase will not restore, so I was forced to sign up for the subscription model to access the app content. I also had all my yoga sessions tracked in the calendar for the last three months, which was nice to refer to to track my consistency. That data did not make it through the upgrade from version 3 to version 4, so now I have an empty calendar view. I’m assuming that data is now lost for good. It would be nice for the developer to honor my original upgrade purchase and unlock the content, but they may be forcing everyone to the subscription model; many developers are doing that now so they have a more sustainable revenue. The new version of the app seems to work well with the exception of a few rough edges in the fit and finish department – some of the images used in parts of the app don’t look optimized for large Retinal displays like the iPad Pro 12 or the iPhone X. Given the issues with the upgrade and restoring pervious purchases, I’m lowering my rating to 3 stars (from 5)