Oura Ring Without Subscription? Don't Bother!

Looking into getting a ring rn, skipping Oura. Have to keep looking!

Oura is marketing a product but actually selling a service... this is boarderline illegal! You should be able to at the very least, access your data without their software doing independent analysis. Im really surprised no one has sued them yet.

I was a user since 2018 but no longer 😢

I have waited to be able to afford an oura ring and I was going to buy one now but after seeing that one is forced to pay a monthly fee, I'm not going to do it. I live on the margin as it is, I refuse to be forced into a monthly subscription!! But what should I then buy? Any suggestions? I heard about Odo ring, seems similar to Oura but I don't know if they have a subscription? I don't want a watch btw.

Is it morally appropriate to deny me access to my own data if I don’t pay?

Hi, here in Germany you geht only 1 Months of Free Membership If you buy. Is it the Same in America at the Moment? I Hope you are from America.😂

Thank you for letting us know.

Thank you for keeping me away from buying this ring. I was almost about to place an order. I also assume apple health app won't receive any data? like steps, HR, etc?

When I bought our gen 2 Oura rings we recommended them to all our friends. We took the lifetime gen 3 upgrade but we never recommend the Oura to people when they ask about our rings.

Do you still have option to sync with health connect in the settings menu?

Can't you see heart rate data and sleep information in Apple Health or Google Fit? Can these services not analyze the data?

I like the concept as I love wearing my mechanical watches. I don’t like when a company offers free and paid and the free is just namesake. garmin does not charge a dime but their app is so good. I won’t buy this because tomorrow they can increase the monthly any time which users will be forced to pay as they are invested in the $299 ring. Hoping other comes up with a good ring and better app

Thanks for the video. I was about to get one, but I hate getting nickel and dimed, and I will be passing on the Oura ring.

Almost bought the ring but I'm glad I watched this video

I wish i got the lifetime subscriptionss

As of April 2023, only getting 1 month free before subscription costs applied, : (

Is the data still recorded, if you don't have a membership?
Just curious if you can access the past data from the "membership free" time, if you decide to get the membership again 🤔

Thanks, help me a lot ❤.

Glad I found this out. I was just about to pluck down $400 because I thought in long run it would be worth it, being able to monitor blood pressure, heart rate, etc. But now knowing that after spending that amount of money, I must spend more every month to be able to have this information. No WAY.

In the US, it's $5.99 a month ($71.88/year), and that's just too much afaic. I'm tired of everybody having a shitty subscription and I think a $50 once a year price is a more reasonable price. It's also shitty that the matte black one is $60usd more than the polished ones, and when I asked them about it on Twitter, they gave me some bullshit answer about some process to get it matte black costing more, but wouldn't elaborate more. They also apparently got majorly butt hurt when Linus from LTT was accidentally mispronouncing it, he tried offer a fix, and they wouldn't except it. It sounds like they are just a bunch of children who just want to nickel and dime everyone and throw tantrums when they don't get their way.

I won’t buy the ring because of the membership fee. Absolutely ridiculous. Say you upgrade your ring every 3 years, paying the membership fee turns a $300 ring every 3 years into an almost $600 ring! No thanks.

Thank you so much I almost just bought an Oura ring and I missed this fine print. I don't want to get into a membership, so thank you for helping me dodge a bullet!

Let me get this straight. They're gathering very personal user data AND you gotta pay them for it in bulk plus monthly? So not only they made profit from the ring, they also can gather + sell your data, plus they get a bonus with subscription fee too? Nuts

Stopped using OURA since it does not sync correctly with Apple watch health. Different data about your health is not healthy for my mood.. So:
This is a confirmation that your Oura Membership cancellation will take effect on February 2, 2023. After this date, your in-app experience will be limited to your 3 daily scores, Explore content (with no Wellness Session Biofeedback), and other basic functionality.

We hope you’ll consider reactivating your membership at a later time. After your billing cycle ends, you can click the button below to go to My Account, where you can renew your subscription in the Membership tab.
Basicly it's just useful for measuring sleep time, temperature and hearth rate at night.

Well, I guess I will not purchase it. I do not want to be forced to purchase a subscription. Ugh. Does this only apply to Gen 3?

I agree, the whole point of oura was to pay once and forget about it. Whereas whoop was like here is a free device, but you gotta pay for membership. Honestly whoop gives me more actionable info, where oura just collects info silently and you gotta figure out what’s going on. I’ve lifetime oura subscription, but I got a ring for my partner and his is going to turn into a pumpkin really soon (he’s not getting a subscription for sure).

Wish I would've seen this video before I bought it. Loved the ring and understand the business decision, but come on! Three numbers and that's it?! At least let us see historical data and heart rate.

You need to update this. My subscription just ended, and you no longer even get the scores. Just a blank page... yup, the ring is now 100% useless without subscription.

Such a great valid review! And I agree with the subscription as a downside. But that's the reason I protect my investment with a protector from OSleeve. So the subscription is the only expense I take towards my health and wellness goals. But all that is totally a worthy investment as I want to prioritize my health while I can.

But it has Apple health, so what syncs thru Apple health? And you can get all the data from Oura web.

"If you were gonna buy an Aura ring,"

Let me stop you right there. If you have to pay money to make it work, you're not "buying" anything.

You're renting.

Alex, and everyone else who's having this problem: I've had this EXACT same problem. I and my wife have had the Oura ring since the Gen2 model. I find this sort of behaviour from companies is really NOT on! One already has to pay more for the Gen3 than the Gen2 (because of the extra features, which TBH I do not want anyway). I was HAPPY with my Gen2 (though the ring's battery life cycle is less than 2yrs before the whole ring needs replacing - which in itself isn't too impressive for something costing as much as this). Oura were good to replace my previous ring, under warranty, but again after the first year has passed, the battery starts failing, needing to be charged after only 2-3 days.

So before I decided to upgrade, especially at the now increased price, for features I didn't wish for nor really want (like having a Ferrari to go shopping, when a standard car would suffice) I was feeling miffed at being forced to pay for technology I didn't need nor wanted to use (why don't they offer Gen2 rings for those happy with existing data?). I considered whether it was really worth even paying for, and certainly I had no intention of paying each and every month on TOP of the cost of the ring, making it almost $200 (£200 in my case, being in the UK) MORE over 2 years (even if the ring last that long, which they usually don't!).

However, because we had trouble with my wife's ring when her 'membership' expired, and EVENTUALLY got it sorted out, giving ALL the data we had before, I decided to go ahead and order the Gen3 ring (with a discount because of the hassle we had and it failing before its time etc). But now, after this initial 1-month 'free membership' all of a sudden the display jumps to what you have, Alex - and I'm NOT pleased! I asked Oura, and they confirmed, that I'd still have the 3 data readings I used to, but now with just the score TITLES and NO data, I'm getting LESS than I did before! I am NOT happy at all! It feels like sleight of hand. One feels duped! Oura KNOW what I meant when I said I was happy with the 3 data groups I had, but no where did they say that it would be LESS data, so I'm going to challenge them. My wife's Gen3 is working fine and she HAS all the data as she used to, displayed in the exact same way (save a few tweaks).

Oura either has to GIVE me back my data, without further ado, or I'm going to demand a FULL refund! I'm that annoyed. I will post on many discussion boards what is actually going on and how they've WITHDRAWN data from me, despite having paid MORE for this ring in the first place. It's WHOLLY unacceptable, it really is. ANY way to boost their income, and squeeze every bit out of people as they can, by short-changing people, almost FORCING them into giving them more money. This is no way to treat someone who has been a loyal customer for a few years now. I'm NOT putting up with it! They either give me my data back, or I demand a FULL refund (and that would include the import tax I had to pay too, or I'll be out of pocket!). Shame on you Oura!

They changed the bonus length to 1 month free instead of 6

Alex thanks for the info. I was actually going to buy three of these things. One for myself and two others for family. This subscription model is a total rip-off. They could have gone with a model where they sell the device for a lot less and charge a monthly subscription fee. I am not buying this. Thanks again.

Oura mentioned that you couldn't access the data on the app without the membership, but curious if you've explored the website option. Having been a Gen2 user before, and a premium subscription member for 6 months on Gen3, you'd likely be able to give a great review on what is available on the website vs. what you experienced previously in the app while on the membership plan. Would it be a reasonable substitute to use the free version of the website vs. the paid app subscription? Do you have to sync daily for the data to be accurate on the website?

I got it as a gift and my membership just expired, I was blown away by the base app! Guess I’ll be using my Apple Watch for sleep tracking now. I can’t justify paying $84/ year for Oura ring while having an Apple Watch.

Has anyone ever told you your a dead ringer for Andrew Tate?

Thanks for the video Alex, not sure what is different now, but I just went to the shopping cart for a gen3 ring and only 1(not 6) month of membership is included with the purchase. That seems crazy.

At first : Nice Vid 👍 :)
I also thought about buying one but now I am acually frustrated .

In my opinion, this is unacceptable, especially for that much a month. I think that the subscription should only be for extra features and / or cost no more than $1 a month.

What about the google Fit App - doesn't it sync to that? I can see all my previous sleep data and heart rate and it also is also displayed in a different way that's kind of nice. Oura doesn't seem to share other data like blood oxygen or HRV though. My question there is: does it stop sharing this data at all, after the subscription ends?

This is exactly what I needed to know. Thank you so much for your candidness.

Excellent perspective from Alex Fergus on the Oura ring. There is no point in spending $300 and six months later having no access to any significant data if you decide not to pay the $7/month subscription. The company should offer lifetime memberships for a reasonable fee, with significant $ breaks for certain groups. Having to shell out $84/year is a considerable burden for those of us who don't have high incomes and lots of expendable money. That's especially true of low-income folks or seniors on fixed incomes. As with so many things, this product is really only available for folks in the higher/est economic levels—upper middle class and upper class. That speaks poorly of the people who own the Oura ring.

It highway robbery. 300 got me a year worth of data that today I can not access. No I’m not upgrading and do not recommend.

Thanks for your video. Bought a gen 3 8 months ago. In the last 2 months, I stopped checking because it became boring and pointless.
I like the idea of a ring over a watch, but my friend's watches (all brands) display good info without any membership cost.

You only get 1 month free with the ring now. I would’ve honestly bought the ring were the subscription free or like 2-3 bucks or something. Sad.

I came to your video when I searched for “is it possible to use an Oura Ring without a subscription?” and I’d like to thank you for the information you provided. I am no longer interested in an Oura ring and here’s why:
I have been somewhat intrigued by smart ring tech ever since I had heard of it but had never bought into it. I decided to look into what an Oura ring could do for me that my iPhone and Apple Watch couldn’t and quickly found that the answer was “nothing”. However, my penchant for gadgetry kept me somewhat attracted to the idea. After a bit of research, I started noticing how most Oura ring users wear their ring on their index finger. This was my first major turnoff. It simply looks strange and even a bit pretentious to me. I know why and I know it is not absolutely necessary, but nevertheless, Oura recommends the index finger for full functionality. This was turnoff number two. The third strike was a combination of the pricing and the subscription. I am fully entrenched in the very expensive Apple ecosystem and accustomed to paying the high price but I found the price of the base model Oura ring to be ludicrous.
Three hundred bucks, plus a monthly fee for a ring worn on my index finger that doesn’t do anything my Watch or iPhone does successfully closed the door on any intrigue I may have still had.