Strava killed its free api, so i built my own fitness platform with endurain and fitpub

At a glance:

• Strava removed its free API tier, breaking many personal fitness workflows.
• Endurain offers a self‑hosted dashboard that stores all activity, health, and gear data on a personal NAS.
• FitPub uses the ActivityPub protocol to create a decentralized social network for sharing workouts.

Why the api change matters

Strava’s decision to discontinue the free API tier has forced many hobbyists and power users to rethink how they sync data from devices such as the Apple Watch, Garmin watches, and a host of other wearables. The move effectively cut off the easy bridge that many relied on to aggregate GPX, TCX, and health metrics in a single place. For users who value continuity and long‑term trend analysis, losing that bridge can mean fragmented records, manual imports, and the risk of data loss if a commercial platform changes its pricing or terms.

The impact is not limited to casual runners; developers who built personal dashboards, research projects that depended on bulk export, and even small businesses offering coaching services have all felt the pinch. In response, a growing community is turning to self‑hosted solutions that guarantee data ownership and avoid reliance on any single corporate API.

Endurain: a self‑hosted fitness hub

Endurain is a self‑hosted fitness dashboard that runs entirely on a network‑attached storage (NAS) device. Unlike cloud‑first services, it never uploads workouts, routes, or health metrics to a third‑party server. Users can import activities from standard file formats such as GPX or TCX, keeping the workflow manufacturer‑agnostic. The platform also supports direct pulls from Garmin Connect and Strava for those who still retain API access, ensuring a smooth migration path.

Beyond basic activity tracking, Endurain includes gear management—allowing users to log mileage on shoes or bikes—and health tracking features like weight and sleep monitoring. The dashboard presents training stats, routes, pace, and other performance metrics without a social feed, catering to users who prefer pure data over leaderboard bragging rights. By keeping everything on a personal NAS, Endurain guarantees long‑term accessibility and the ability to run custom analyses on years of accumulated data.

Fitpub: decentralized social fitness

FitPub builds on the open‑source ActivityPub protocol—the same federation layer that powers Mastodon—to create a decentralized network for sharing workouts. Rather than locking community interactions behind a proprietary platform, FitPub lets users follow friends, comment on activities, and discover new routes across any server that implements the protocol.

The key advantage is mobility: if you switch devices or even move to a different host, your social graph travels with you. This solves a common pain point for athletes who migrate between services; while the raw data can be exported, the community connections often get left behind. FitPub is still maturing and does not yet match Strava’s full feature set, but its existing tools are sufficient for most power users who value openness and data portability.

Putting it all together

For the author, the workflow now consists of Endurain as the long‑term repository for all raw and processed fitness data, while FitPub provides a lightweight, federated social layer for occasional sharing. The combination addresses both the data‑ownership concerns raised by Strava’s API shutdown and the desire to stay connected with a fitness community without surrendering control to a single corporation.

Setting up the stack involves installing Endurain on a NAS (Docker images are available), configuring automatic imports from Garmin Connect, and optionally linking a Strava account that still has API privileges. FitPub can be self‑hosted or joined on an existing public instance; users simply register with an ActivityPub‑compatible server and start following friends. Over time, the author expects a gradual migration away from Strava, leveraging the self‑hosted tools for analysis and the decentralized network for social interaction.

What to watch next

The fitness‑tech landscape is likely to see more moves toward decentralization as users become wary of platform lock‑in. Watch for additional ActivityPub‑based fitness apps and broader support for open data formats in mainstream wearables. Strava may eventually re‑introduce a tiered API for developers, but the momentum toward self‑hosted solutions suggests a lasting shift in how athletes manage and share their data.