Why are studios leaving Momence in 2026?

Three reasons that have grown louder since the Clubessential Holdings acquisition in January 2025. First, pricing — the platform fee on bookings and the premium-tier subscription have both moved upward, with the all-in cost compounding faster than studios expected. Second, contract terms — the Premium tier (the no-platform-fee option) has moved toward annual commitment with auto-renewal. Third, the Xplor merger announced in September 2025 means Momence and Mariana Tek will share a corporate parent, which has accelerated the operator-experience questions for some studios.

What's the cheapest Momence alternative?

For solo teachers and very small studios (under fifty active clients), OfferingTree at around £35/month is the cheapest yoga-friendly option. For studios with more meaningful scale, Junocal Starter at £29/month covers the same operational shape as Momence Pro without the per-booking platform fee. For a studio doing £150K/year in bookings, Junocal Studio at £79/month all-in is approximately £950/year versus Momence Pro at around £2,500-£3,000/year (subscription + platform fees + processing markup).

What about my on-demand video library?

This is the single biggest planning question for a Momence migration. Momence's native video files don't export cleanly through the standard CSV — operator reports describe video content as not-retrievable through the export. Studios typically need to download videos individually through the admin UI and re-upload to a video host (Vimeo OTT, Uscreen, or Mighty Networks) during the transition. For libraries over fifty videos, this adds roughly one week to the migration timeline. For studios where on-demand video is a meaningful share of revenue (20%+), Junocal pairs cleanly with a dedicated video host for the video side while running the booking, payments, and intake on a tool sized for that work.

Will my Momence client data transfer cleanly to other platforms?

Yes, with the video caveat above. Client list, booking history, active memberships with current period and pause status, class packs with credits remaining, intake forms with completion status, and email opt-in status all migrate cleanly from Momence to Junocal. Spot assignments and favourite-spot data carry across for studios that used Momence's pick-a-spot. The dry-run review on the receiving platform is where to verify everything before going live.

What's the Momence-to-Junocal migration timeline?

Five business days for studios without significant video libraries. Seven to ten days for studios with libraries over fifty videos that need re-hosting. The actual data import takes a few hours on Junocal's side; the rest is sign-off, video re-upload work, and the Sunday cutover. Junocal handles the migration directly through the founder for the first months of public availability, free in the first 30 days.

What if I want to stay on the operator-friendly half of the market?

Junocal, OfferingTree, and Arketa are the three operator-friendly platforms in 2026. All three offer month-to-month pricing, transparent rates, no marketplace commission, Stripe Connect Standard direct to the studio's account, and free CSV export at any time. Junocal at £29-£159/month covers the one-to-ten-instructor wedge with the deepest feature set. OfferingTree at £35-£100/month is yoga-first and built for solo and small studios. Arketa is venture-backed but has a smaller installed base and is less mature on edge cases.

comparison

Best Momence alternative for studio owners

By Sharon Onyinye16 April 202610 min read

Short answer

For studios leaving Momence in 2026, the right alternative depends on whether on-demand video is load-bearing for your business. For non-video-primary studios, Junocal is the structural fit — same core scheduling primitives at a meaningfully lower all-in cost, with month-to-month contracts and no platform fee on bookings. For video-primary studios (subscriptions are 20%+ of revenue), the operational truth is that no other category platform yet matches Momence's native video integration; in those cases, pairing Junocal with Vimeo OTT or Uscreen is the realistic alternative. The video library migration is the single biggest planning question.

If you've watched the Momence pricing letters arrive over the last 12 months and the contract terms shift in the direction PE-backed platforms shift, you've probably started looking at alternatives. The good news: most Momence-to-alternative migrations are straightforward. The complication: the on-demand video library, which doesn't always export cleanly.

The short version is in the Short answer callout above. The long version, with the per-platform notes and the video migration planning, is below.

What's changed since the Clubessential acquisition

The structural ownership story matters because it explains why prices have moved.

Clubessential Holdings acquired Momence on January 29, 2025. Clubessential is backed by Battery Ventures and Silver Lake. In September 2025, Clubessential and Xplor Technologies (majority-backed by Advent International) announced a merger expected to close by year end. The combined entity will serve over 130,000 customers across more than $47 billion in annual payments volume, with Momence sitting alongside Mariana Tek inside the new corporate parent.

The operational implications:

Pricing pressure — PE-acquisition multiples require ARPU growth on the existing customer base; renewal-time pricing increases are the standard lever.
Longer contracts on premium tiers — the no-platform-fee Premium tier has moved toward annual commitment with auto-renewal.
Platform-fee compounding — the per-booking platform fee on Basic and Pro tiers continues to apply at the stated rates, but the volume of bookings inside studios with growing client bases compounds the absolute cost.

None of this makes Momence a bad product. The product is roughly the same one operators chose for. The economics of being a Momence customer have shifted.

The video question is the planning question

The single biggest decision in a Momence migration is what to do about your on-demand video library.

If video is a primary product (20%+ of revenue): Honest answer — no other category platform yet matches Momence's native video integration with subscription billing tied to library access. If your studio is built around hybrid live + on-demand video, you might be better staying on Momence and absorbing the pricing trajectory, or building a parallel video product on Vimeo OTT / Uscreen separate from your scheduling platform. The migration math for video-primary studios is harder than the general case.

If video is complementary (recorded versions of in-person classes that members access at no extra cost): Pair the new scheduling platform with Vimeo (free tier works for small libraries; Vimeo OTT for subscription models) or Uscreen. Junocal handles this pattern cleanly via deep links in booking confirmations and member account dashboards. The migration involves re-uploading your video library to the chosen host, which adds roughly one week for libraries of 50-100 videos.

If you don't really run video and just use Momence's video feature occasionally: Skip the re-hosting entirely. Move to whichever scheduling platform fits the rest of your operation and treat video as an optional feature you can add back via Vimeo or Uscreen if needed.

The honest test: look at your last 12 months of Momence revenue and trace what percentage came through video subscriptions versus in-person class bookings. If video is under 10%, the video question doesn't really constrain the migration.

The platform alternatives, in order of fit

Junocal is the operator-friendly direct alternative for non-video-primary studios. Same core scheduling primitives (pick-a-spot, four-mode cancellation policies, broadcast-claim waitlist, term-based courses, staff PWA) at £29-£159/month. Stripe Connect Standard direct to your own account — no processing markup. Month-to-month contracts. No marketplace commission. No platform fee on bookings.

The cost comparison for a studio doing £150K/year in bookings:

Momence Pro (subscription + platform fees + processing markup): ~£2,500-£3,000/year all-in
Junocal Studio: ~£950/year all-in
Annual difference: ~£1,500-£1,800

Mariana Tek is the multi-location reformer-specific option. Same scheduling primitives as Junocal but built for multi-location chains with cross-location memberships and franchise reporting. Premium pricing at £350+/month per location. The Mariana Tek/Momence/Xplor merger means staying on Momence or moving to Mariana Tek puts you in the same corporate ecosystem.

Walla is the polished premium option. Same scheduling primitives at higher cost (~£500/month all-in with branded booking add-on). Independent (venture-backed). Best fit for premium-positioned brand-led studios where the customer-facing polish is part of the value proposition.

Mindbody is the marketplace-dependent option. If your studio depends meaningfully on the Mindbody marketplace for new-client discovery (more relevant in dense US urban markets), the marketplace commission may be justifiable. For most UK and most non-urban-US studios, the marketplace commission doesn't pay back versus the operator-friendly alternatives.

OfferingTree is the solo-and-small option. Yoga-first, built for solo teachers and very small studios. £35/month entry tier. Pairs cleanly with Vimeo for video.

Arketa is the newer venture-backed entrant. Operator-friendly business model, modern product. Smaller installed base. Worth evaluating but less mature on edge cases.

How the all-in cost compares

For a studio doing £150,000/year in bookings on Momence Pro (with the 2.5% platform fee on bookings + processing markup):

Subscription: £60/month × 12 = £720
Platform fee on bookings: £150K × 2.5% = £3,750
Processing markup over direct Stripe: ~£400-£900
Total all-in: £4,870-£5,370

Same studio on Momence Premium ($199/month, 0% platform fee):

Subscription: ~£160 × 12 = £1,920
Processing markup: ~£400-£900
Total all-in: £2,320-£2,820

Same studio on Junocal Studio (£79/month all-in, Stripe direct):

Subscription: £79 × 12 = £948
Processing markup: £0 (Stripe Connect Standard direct)
Total all-in: £948

Junocal Studio is roughly half the Momence Premium cost and a quarter of Momence Pro cost on bookings volume.

The migration mechanics

The Momence-to-Junocal migration follows the standard 5-day pattern with one variant for studios with video libraries:

Pull Momence exports — Admin → Settings → Data Export. Client list, bookings, memberships, packs, intake. Standard CSVs, free. 20-30 minutes.
Plan the video migration if applicable — Vimeo OTT or Uscreen account setup, video download/re-upload schedule. Adds 1 week to timeline for 50+ video libraries.
Send the exports to Junocal — secure upload, person reviews.
Dry-run review in staging — verify membership pause dates, pack credits, opt-in status.
Sunday cutover — final data sync, Stripe Connect Standard activation.
Cancel Momence — at the end of the current billing period.

Junocal handles Momence migrations directly through the founder for the first months of public availability. Free in the first 30 days.

Related reading: the state of pilates studio software in 2026 for the broader category context, Junocal vs Momence for studio owners for the deeper one-on-one comparison, Momence pricing explained for the full tier breakdown. The migration page /migrate/from-momence walks through the per-step playbook including the video library decision. If you want to talk through your specific Momence situation, hello@junocal.com gets a real reply.

a few questions

FAQ

Why are studios leaving Momence in 2026?: Three reasons that have grown louder since the Clubessential Holdings acquisition in January 2025. First, pricing — the platform fee on bookings and the premium-tier subscription have both moved upward, with the all-in cost compounding faster than studios expected. Second, contract terms — the Premium tier (the no-platform-fee option) has moved toward annual commitment with auto-renewal. Third, the Xplor merger announced in September 2025 means Momence and Mariana Tek will share a corporate parent, which has accelerated the operator-experience questions for some studios.
What's the cheapest Momence alternative?: For solo teachers and very small studios (under fifty active clients), OfferingTree at around £35/month is the cheapest yoga-friendly option. For studios with more meaningful scale, Junocal Starter at £29/month covers the same operational shape as Momence Pro without the per-booking platform fee. For a studio doing £150K/year in bookings, Junocal Studio at £79/month all-in is approximately £950/year versus Momence Pro at around £2,500-£3,000/year (subscription + platform fees + processing markup).
What about my on-demand video library?: This is the single biggest planning question for a Momence migration. Momence's native video files don't export cleanly through the standard CSV — operator reports describe video content as not-retrievable through the export. Studios typically need to download videos individually through the admin UI and re-upload to a video host (Vimeo OTT, Uscreen, or Mighty Networks) during the transition. For libraries over fifty videos, this adds roughly one week to the migration timeline. For studios where on-demand video is a meaningful share of revenue (20%+), Junocal pairs cleanly with a dedicated video host for the video side while running the booking, payments, and intake on a tool sized for that work.
Will my Momence client data transfer cleanly to other platforms?: Yes, with the video caveat above. Client list, booking history, active memberships with current period and pause status, class packs with credits remaining, intake forms with completion status, and email opt-in status all migrate cleanly from Momence to Junocal. Spot assignments and favourite-spot data carry across for studios that used Momence's pick-a-spot. The dry-run review on the receiving platform is where to verify everything before going live.
What's the Momence-to-Junocal migration timeline?: Five business days for studios without significant video libraries. Seven to ten days for studios with libraries over fifty videos that need re-hosting. The actual data import takes a few hours on Junocal's side; the rest is sign-off, video re-upload work, and the Sunday cutover. Junocal handles the migration directly through the founder for the first months of public availability, free in the first 30 days.
What if I want to stay on the operator-friendly half of the market?: Junocal, OfferingTree, and Arketa are the three operator-friendly platforms in 2026. All three offer month-to-month pricing, transparent rates, no marketplace commission, Stripe Connect Standard direct to the studio's account, and free CSV export at any time. Junocal at £29-£159/month covers the one-to-ten-instructor wedge with the deepest feature set. OfferingTree at £35-£100/month is yoga-first and built for solo and small studios. Arketa is venture-backed but has a smaller installed base and is less mature on edge cases.

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