Oura CEO Tom Hale says the company has no plans to abandon its subscription model, even as rivals experiment with cheaper hardware and no recurring fees
Oura Health Oy, the popular smart ring maker, has no plans to abandon its subscription-based business model even as rivals experiment with cheaper hardware and no recurring fees.
Context & Ripple Effects
Oura’s decision preserves the commercial model behind a company that had already reached profitability and roughly $500M in 2024 revenue, rather than treating the ring as a one-time hardware sale. Its health-focused positioning was central to its earlier growth story, as described in a profile of Oura’s focus on overall health.
The stance arrives as Oura was projecting about $1B in 2025 revenue and potentially close to $2B in 2026, making recurring revenue a consequential choice as it scales. It also follows reports of a sharply higher private valuation, with a $10.9B Series E valuation reported in September 2025.
First-order effects
- Oura will continue to pair its ring sales with a recurring subscription rather than matching rivals’ no-fee hardware approach.
- Prospective buyers must evaluate Oura’s product as an ongoing-cost purchase, while Oura retains a model intended to generate revenue beyond the initial device sale.
Second-order effects
- Rivals using lower-priced, no-subscription offerings gain a clearer ownership-cost contrast; Oura must defend why its subscription adds enough value to sustain that gap.
- Oura’s sales growth targets become more dependent on keeping subscribers engaged, not only on continuing the hardware volumes cited in its 2025 and 2026 revenue outlook.
Third-order effects
- The smart-ring category may split between recurring-service products and hardware-first alternatives, with customer retention becoming as important a competitive measure as device sales.
- If subscription resistance grows, established wearable brands will face a durable trade-off between predictable recurring revenue and a simpler upfront price proposition.
The trend: Smart-ring makers are testing whether health wearables can support software-like recurring revenue while lower-cost competitors use fee-free hardware to reduce buying friction.