comparison

Most affordable fitness studio software in 2026 (with the real prices)

By Sharon Onyinye21 min readUpdated 4 July 2026

Short answer

As of May 2026, the cheapest standard-published entry tier for studio-shape boutique fitness software is Junocal Starter at $15/month (pick-a-spot, hybrid in-person + online classes, term courses, and Stripe Connect Standard direct all included). OfferingTree's cheapest tier is its solo Essentials plan at $35/month month-to-month ($26/month billed annually), sized for solo practitioners and carrying a 2.9% transaction fee; its Studio plan starts at $120/month. Momence Pro is $60/month but adds a 2.5% processing fee on every transaction. Walla Starter is $220/month. Mindbody Accelerate runs $259–279/month per location on a 12-month contract. Mariana Tek runs $179–285/month per location plus add-ons. The headline tier price is only part of the picture; processing markups, marketplace commissions, and feature gating change the real annual cost meaningfully.

This post is a straight price comparison of the boutique fitness studio software category. Every price below is pulled from the vendor's own current pricing page or, where the vendor does not publish pricing, from named secondary sources. Prices verified as of 2026-05-22; if the vendor has updated pricing since, the vendor's pricing page is authoritative.

The short version is in the Short answer callout at the top of this page. The full price list, with sources, is below.

Methodology and sources

This is a reference, so the method is explicit. Every headline tier price below is taken from the vendor's own current pricing page; where a vendor does not publish pricing (Mariana Tek, Zen Planner, and the higher Glofox tiers), the figure comes from a named secondary source and is marked as reported. Prices were checked as of the "updated" date on this page; a vendor's live pricing page is always authoritative if it has changed since.

"All-in cost" throughout this post means the four things that actually leave your bank account: the subscription, any platform or per-booking fee, any payment-processing markup over Stripe's published rate, and any marketplace commission — plus the contract length that turns a monthly figure into a fixed annual commitment. A cheap headline tier with three of those layers stacked on top is not a cheap platform. To cite this comparison, link to this page; it's refreshed as vendor pricing changes.

The entry-tier price list with sources

These are the lowest published standard-tier monthly prices in the boutique fitness studio software category as of May 2026. Where a vendor does not publish pricing on its own site, the figure comes from a named secondary source.

Solo and individual-shape plans (one teacher, low volume):

  • OfferingTree Essentials (Individual)$35/month month-to-month, $26/month billed annually (offeringtree.com/pricing). Single-user tier sized for solo practitioners; carries a 2.9% transaction fee that's removed on Pro and above.
  • Arketa Individual Basic$49/month when billed annually (arketa.com/pricing). Includes a 3% transaction fee on top of Stripe's standard processing rate, per the same page.
  • Momence Pro$60/month (momence.com/pricing). Adds a 2.5% per-booking platform fee on the operator side, on top of standard 3.9% + $0.30 (US) card processing. Momence's free Basic tier exists but adds a 5% operator platform fee plus a 4% client fee; the Custom tier ($199/month) drops the platform fee to 0%.

Studio-shape plans (multi-instructor, multi-staff, room-aware booking):

  • Junocal Starter$15/month (source: in-product pricing tier). One location, up to ten rooms, up to five instructor seats, digital products (gift cards + downloads), unlimited clients/classes/appointments, pick-a-spot, hybrid in-person + online classes, term-based courses, intake forms, Stripe Connect Standard direct to the studio's own Stripe account at Stripe's published rates. Monthly billing, no annual contract.
  • Junocal Studio$29/month. Up to five locations, unlimited rooms, unlimited instructor seats, full multi-location ops, front-desk role, substitute pool, Mailchimp + Klaviyo integrations, webhooks API, embed widget. The multi-instructor tier.
  • Junocal Growth$69/month. Up to ten locations, unlimited rooms, unlimited instructor seats, multi-location storefront + reporting, location-aware memberships, QuickBooks Online integration. At $69 for ten locations, the per-location cost is roughly $7/month/location — the multi-location story.
  • WellnessLiving Starter$69/month (wellnessliving.com/pricing). Limited features; the Business tier ($199/month regular, currently $39/month under a 'Save 80% for 2 months' promo) and BusinessPro tier ($349/month regular, $69/month promo) include broader functionality.
  • OfferingTree Studio Starter$120/month month-to-month, $80/month billed annually (offeringtree.com/pricing). Studio-shape tier covering up to three team members; Grow ($180/mo) and Max ($250/mo) tiers go higher. Pro/Pro Plus and all Studio tiers include 0% additional transaction fees beyond Stripe's standard rate.
  • Glofox Essential$99/month published ("Plans starting at $99/month") on its own plans page; higher tiers (Boost, Elite, Enterprise) are quote-only.
  • Walla Starter$220/month (hellowalla.com/pricing). Core tier at $320/month and Pro tier at $599/month. Walla uses Stripe direct at Stripe's standard rates per its support documentation.
  • Mindbody Starter£89/month per location as published on Mindbody's UK pricing page (mindbodyonline.com/business/pricing). Higher tiers (Accelerate, Ultimate, Enterprise) do not show specific monthly prices on the same page.
  • Mindbody Accelerate$259-279/month per location per secondary sources including Exercise.com and FitVizPro. Pick-a-spot (Client Pick-a-Spot) is on Accelerate and above. Standard 12-month contract.
  • Mariana Tek Core$179-285/month per location base (~$260-360 all-in with $80-100/month add-on modules) per Exercise.com. Mariana Tek does not publish pricing on its own pricing page and directs prospects to book a demo. Pick-a-spot is a core Mariana Tek feature.

Gym-adjacent and per-user platforms (for context):

  • Vagaroper-user pricing, not flat: roughly $30/month for one user, ~$50 for two, ~$75 for four, ~$105 for seven, with each additional staff member adding $10–$25/month (Vagaro pricing explained). Marketing, branded app, and forms are separate add-ons, and Vagaro is the merchant of record (processing 2.75% + $0.15 in person, 3.5% + $0.15 online). Month-to-month by default. Per-user pricing compounds fastest for class-based studios with several instructors.
  • Gymdeskmember-count tiers: roughly $75/month up to 50 active members, ~$100 up to 250, ~$125 up to 500, ~$150 up to 1,500 (Gymdesk pricing explained). Stripe direct with no processing markup; month-to-month by default. Built originally for martial arts and gyms rather than class-first boutiques.
  • TeamUp — reported at roughly $99/month (Beginner), rising to ~$159, ~$219, and ~$279+ on higher tiers (TeamUp pricing explained). Stripe or GoCardless; pick-a-spot support is limited and term courses run as repeating classes.
  • Zen Planner — reported at roughly $78/month (Lite), ~$117 (Studio), and ~$157+ (Pro), with per-user and per-feature pricing added on top and typically an annual contract (Zen Planner pricing explained). Owned by Daxko; oriented to gyms, CrossFit boxes, and martial arts more than boutique class studios.

Two structural observations from the list. First, the cheapest standard-published entry tier sized for studio operations (multi-instructor, room-aware) is Junocal Starter at $15/month — and it undercuts even the solo-only tiers (OfferingTree Essentials at $35/month, Arketa at $49/month), which carry solo-shape constraints and, in both those cases, a transaction fee on top of Stripe that Junocal doesn't charge. Second, every platform priced above $100/month either gates features behind higher tiers (Mindbody Starter excludes pick-a-spot) or adds extra fees on top of the subscription (Arketa's 3% transaction fee over Stripe, Momence's 2.5% per-booking platform fee), or both.

What you actually get at the cheapest tier

The headline price comparison is misleading without the feature comparison. Studios are not buying a tier; they are buying the set of features that tier includes.

Here is the feature breakdown at the lowest published tier of each major studio-shape platform as of May 2026, with the source of each pricing claim linked above.

FeatureJunocal Starter ($15)OfferingTree Studio ($120)Walla Starter ($220)Mindbody Starter (£89/loc)Mariana Tek Core ($179+/loc)
Pick-a-spot bookingIncludedNot offeredBook-a-Spot from Core up (not Starter)Not included (Accelerate and above, $259+)A core Mariana Tek feature
Hybrid in-person + onlineIncluded, mode-aware capacityIncludedHigher tierHigher tierHigher tier
Term-based coursesBuilt in, sold as a blockYesYesWorkaround over recurring classesWorkaround
Automated client emailsReminders, welcome, win-back, renewal, failed-payment recovery all includedIncludedIncludedAdd-on (Mindbody Marketing reported $80-200/month)Included on Core+Growth tier
Stripe Connect Standard directYes, your Stripe accountYes, Stripe direct (Pro/Pro Plus/Studio 0% markup)Standard Stripe rates, no markupBundled processing (Mindbody as merchant of record)Stripe, payouts direct to studio bank, no published markup
Processing markup over StripeNoneNone on Pro+ tiersNoneBundled (effective rate higher than Stripe direct)None
Marketplace commission on bookingsNoneNoneNone20% on Mindbody app-attributed bookings, capped at $30/transactionNone
Annual contract requirementNone (monthly)NoneMonthly available; annual offers ~18% saving12-month standard (auto-renew, 30-day notice)Not published, reported annual
Per-location pricingFlat single account; Growth tier ($69) covers up to 10 locationsFlat single accountFlat single accountPer locationPer location
Multi-location storefront + reportingIncluded on Growth tier ($69 for 10 locations = ~$7/location)Higher tierHigher tierEnterprise tierBuilt in, billed per location
Data exportFree CSV on demandYes, supportedYes, supportedFree reports; $500 for Subscriber Data Export at cancellationNot specifically published

Two specific comparisons make the price-per-feature gap concrete:

Pick-a-spot booking. A studio that wants pick-a-spot on Mindbody pays Accelerate ($259-279/month per location, the tier where Client Pick-a-Spot first appears) on the standard 12-month contract — annual commitment of $3,108-3,348 per location for the feature. On Junocal, the same feature is on the $15 Starter tier with no contract — $180/year. That is a 17.3–18.6× annual difference for the same feature.

Automated client email stack. A studio that wants the operational email stack (welcome, 24-hour class reminder, win-back, renewal nudge, failed-payment recovery) on Mindbody pays the base tier plus the Mindbody Marketing add-on, commonly reported at $80-200/month. On Junocal, the same emails are included on Starter at $15/month with no add-on. The Mindbody combined cost is roughly 8-16× the Junocal cost for the equivalent email automation.

What "affordable" really means: four cost layers

The headline monthly price is rarely the real annual cost. Four cost layers consistently move the actual total away from the entry-tier number.

Annual-contract multipliers. Mindbody's standard contract is 12 months with auto-renewal and 30-day notice; a $259/month Accelerate tier is a $3,108 minimum annual commitment, not $259. The annual-contract requirement is the structural feature that lets enterprise platforms charge more per month: the customer is locked in for the term, and the platform doesn't have to compete on monthly churn risk.

Marketplace and app-discovery commissions. Mindbody charges 20% on bookings attributed to its consumer app, capped at $30 per transaction, on top of standard payment processing (Mindbody support article on the marketplace). The combined fee on app-attributed transactions is roughly 23.5% (3.5% processing + 20% marketplace) on Mindbody's bundled processing rate. The attribution mechanic means the commission applies to bookings inside an attribution window after the client's first marketplace booking, not only to genuinely new app-discovered clients. See our post on the 20% marketplace commission problem for the mechanic in detail.

Processing rates and markups. Junocal, OfferingTree, Walla, and Mariana Tek use Stripe direct without operator-side markup; the studio pays Stripe's published rates (2.9% + $0.30 online in the US, 1.5% + 20p in the UK). Arketa charges 3% on top of Stripe's standard rate (arketa.com/pricing). Momence layers a per-booking platform fee on top of standard processing — 2.5% on Pro and 5% (plus a 4% client fee) on the free Basic tier, with standard card processing at 3.9% + $0.30 (US) on top, all published, not a markup over Stripe (momence.com/pricing). Mindbody routes payments through its bundled merchant arrangement at a rate commonly reported around 3.5%, higher than Stripe direct.

Feature gating. The cheapest tier on most enterprise platforms excludes features studios actually need. Mindbody Starter excludes pick-a-spot. The Mindbody Marketing add-on for email automation is separate from the base tier. Walla Starter excludes parts of the dynamic reporting and AI-dashboards bundle. The result: the headline cheap tier is functionally incomplete, and the real comparison is between the tier that includes the features a studio needs and the equivalent tier on a competing platform.

For a studio on Mindbody Starter with a 12-month contract, that does 30% of its bookings through the Mindbody app and accepts the bundled processing rate, the real blended monthly cost lands meaningfully above the headline tier price — often closer to $300-500/month for a single-location studio once the four layers are summed. The cheap-headline-tier comparison is real but partial.

What multi-location actually costs

Single-location operations only pay one subscription; multi-location operations pay differently depending on the platform's pricing model. Two pricing patterns dominate, and the cost gap between them is large.

Per-location pricing (Mindbody, Mariana Tek, Glofox, WellnessLiving Enterprise). The monthly subscription multiplies by the number of locations. Mariana Tek's $179-285/month per location becomes $358-570 for two locations, $895-1,425 for five locations. Mindbody Accelerate's $259-279/month per location becomes $518-558 for two, $1,295-1,395 for five.

Flat per-account pricing covering multiple locations (Junocal Growth tier). One subscription covers up to ten locations on Junocal Growth at $69/month — roughly $7/month per location at ten locations. Multi-location storefront, location-aware memberships, and cross-location reporting are included in the same subscription.

For a five-location studio, the per-location cost difference is meaningful:

Platform5-location annual cost
Junocal Growth$69/mo × 12 = $828/year ($14/loc/mo at 5 locations; ~$7/loc/mo at the 10-location cap)
Mariana Tek Core (entry tier)$179 × 5 × 12 = $10,740/year (+$80-100/loc/mo add-ons)
Mariana Tek next tier$285 × 5 × 12 = $17,100/year
Mindbody Accelerate$259 × 5 × 12 = $15,540/year (+ 12-month contract)

The flat-per-account pattern is the structural feature of Junocal Growth. The trade-off is the location cap (Growth covers up to ten locations; larger franchise operations need an enterprise platform whose pricing model expects them). For studios in the two-to-ten-location range, the cost difference between Junocal Growth and the per-location enterprise tiers is roughly 13-19×.

The same multi-location features that compete on Mindbody Accelerate's enterprise tier — multi-location storefront, location-aware memberships, cross-location client records, reporting that rolls up across sites — sit on Junocal Growth at one-thirteenth to one-nineteenth the cost for a five-location studio.

Why the cheap end is structurally cheap

The structural reason the cheapest options are independent platforms (Junocal, OfferingTree) is that their business models do not require the four cost layers to be profitable. The platforms in the middle and upper price tiers — Mindbody (owned by Vista Equity Partners), Mariana Tek (owned by Advent International, now Xplor), Momence (acquired by Clubessential Holdings in January 2025, with the Clubessential–Xplor merger announced September 2025), WellnessLiving (owned by McCarthy Capital and CIBC since 2022), Glofox (owned by ABC Fitness Solutions per their August 2022 acquisition announcement) — operate on financial models whose revenue targets depend on the contract, commission, and processing layers. The pricing pattern across the category is consistent with that structural difference.

For a studio that wants to minimise total cost, the practical implication is: the cheap end of the category is the part of the category structurally committed to staying cheap. The enterprise tiers can absorb feature parity over time but cannot easily abandon the revenue layers their financial model requires.

What to ask during a demo

Three questions, asked on every demo, will surface the difference between the headline cheap price and the actual annual cost.

Is the displayed tier price the monthly bill or an annualised average? Some platforms display the monthly equivalent of an annual prepayment, and the actual monthly bill is different. Get the exact monthly invoice amount, the exact contract length, and the exact cancellation terms.

What is the processing rate and is it markup-free? Ask for the platform's processing rate as it appears on a sample transaction. Compare it to Stripe's published rate at stripe.com/pricing. The difference, if any, is the platform's markup. If the rate is "negotiated" or "varies by configuration" and not transparent, the markup exists.

What feature is on the next tier up that I would actually use? The cheapest tier often excludes one or two features studios want most. Identify the next tier's price and the gated features before signing up; if the upgrade path is likely, the entry-tier price is misleading.

The bottom line

By published standard tier pricing, OfferingTree Essentials at $35/month and Junocal Starter at $15/month are the lowest entry-tier prices in the boutique studio software category. OfferingTree's Studio tier at $120/month and Junocal Starter at $15/month are the lowest studio-shape (multi-instructor) tiers. For multi-location operations, Junocal Growth at $69/month covers up to ten locations — roughly $7/location/month — versus Mariana Tek at $179-285/location/month base and Mindbody Accelerate at $259-279/location/month on Mindbody's standard 12-month contract. Walla Starter is $220/month. Glofox publishes "plans starting at $99/month" (Essential). WellnessLiving's standard Business tier is $199/month (currently discounted to $39/month under a 2-month promo). Each of these can be cross-checked at the vendor's published pricing page linked above.

Related reading: which fitness studio software has no additional fees, the 20% marketplace commission problem, payment processor lock-in: the hidden cost, the annual contract trap in studio software, why are pilates studio software prices going up, and — if you're setting your studio's own prices — what to charge for studio classes in 2026.

a few questions

FAQ

What's the cheapest studio-shape fitness software in 2026?
By published standard tier price, Junocal Starter at $15/month is the cheapest studio-shape tier that still includes pick-a-spot booking, hybrid in-person + online classes, term-based courses, automated client emails, and Stripe Connect Standard direct to the studio's own Stripe account. OfferingTree's solo Essentials plan is $35/month month-to-month ($26 billed annually) — more than Junocal Starter and sized for solo practitioners; OfferingTree's Studio tier starts at $120/month. Cheaper one-off promotional rates exist on other platforms — WellnessLiving currently lists a Business tier at $39/month as a promotional 'Save 80% for 2 months' offer that returns to $199/month after the promo — but on standard published pricing, Junocal Starter is the lowest studio-shape tier.
Is the cheapest tier always the best value?
Not automatically. Four cost layers change the real annual total: contract length (Mindbody plans are a 12-month standard commitment with auto-renewal and 30-day notice, multiplying the monthly headline into a fixed annual cost), marketplace commission (Mindbody charges 20% on bookings attributed to its consumer app, capped at $30 per transaction, on top of standard payment processing), fee model (Momence layers a per-booking platform fee — 5% on Basic, 2.5% on Pro, 0% on Custom — on top of standard 3.9% + $0.30 US processing; Arketa adds a 3% transaction fee on top of Stripe's standard rate; platforms on Stripe Connect Standard direct charge no markup), and feature gating (Mindbody's Starter tier excludes pick-a-spot, which sits on Accelerate at $259+/month per location). The cheapest tier is good value only if the tier includes the features the studio actually needs and the four layers stay close to zero.
What's Momence's actual payment processing fee?
Momence's published pricing page lists three tiers as of May 2026: Basic (free subscription) with a 5% per-booking platform fee charged to the operator plus a 4% fee charged to the client, Pro ($60/month) with a 2.5% per-booking platform fee on the operator, and Custom ($199/month) with a 0% platform fee. Those platform fees are separate from card processing: standard processing on Momence is 3.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the US (2.5% + 20p in the UK), which is the gross processing rate, not a markup over Stripe. So the correct cost model is per-tier platform fee plus processing. Operators evaluating Momence should add the platform fee and the processing rate together at their actual average ticket to see the real per-transaction cost.
How much does Mindbody actually cost per location?
Mindbody's UK pricing page publishes the Starter tier at £89/month per location as of May 2026; the higher tiers (Accelerate, Ultimate, Enterprise) do not show specific monthly prices on the published page. Secondary sources including Exercise.com and FitVizPro place Mindbody Accelerate at $259-279/month per location, with the higher Ultimate tier above that. Pick-a-spot booking (branded 'Client Pick-a-Spot') is on Accelerate and above ($259+), not Starter. Mindbody's standard contract is 12 months (auto-renew, 30-day notice), so the real annual cost on Accelerate is $3,108-3,348 per location minimum, before add-ons (native branded mobile app, gated to the top tier), marketplace commission (20% on app-attributed bookings, capped at $30 per transaction), or data-export fees ($500 for a Subscriber Data Export at cancellation, per Mindbody's own support documentation).
What does Mariana Tek cost per month?
Mariana Tek does not publish pricing on its current pricing page; the page directs prospects to book a demo for a quote. Secondary sources including Exercise.com place Mariana Tek pricing in the $179-285/month per location range, with marketing-services add-ons reported at $80-100 per location per month on top. For a single-location studio at the entry tier, that is $2,148-3,420 per year before add-ons; for a two-location studio, the per-location pricing doubles. Mariana Tek's processing is on Stripe direct without operator-side rate negotiation, per Mariana Tek's published support documentation.
What's the difference between solo plans and studio plans?
Solo and studio plans are sized for different operations and have different features. Solo plans target one-person operations: one teacher, one schedule, one staff seat, typically lower booking volume. Studio plans target multi-instructor operations: multiple staff seats, room or floor-plan support, front-desk role, broader integration support. OfferingTree's Essentials tier at $35/month is solo-shape; its Studio tier at $120/month is studio-shape. Arketa's Individual tiers ($49-124/month) are solo-shape; its Studio tiers are quoted custom. Junocal Starter at $15/month is the studio-shape tier (1 location, up to 10 rooms, up to 5 instructor seats, digital products, pick-a-spot, hybrid, term courses, intake forms) — sized between the solo and small-studio cases that other platforms split into separate plans.
What's the cheapest studio software for a multi-location studio?
Junocal Growth at $69/month covers up to ten locations with multi-location storefront, location-aware memberships, and cross-location reporting included — roughly $7/month/location at ten locations. On per-location pricing, Mariana Tek at $179-285/location/month becomes $895-1,425/month for five locations ($10,740-17,100/year), and Mindbody Accelerate at $259-279/location/month on a 12-month contract becomes $1,295-1,395/month for five locations ($15,540-16,740/year). For two-to-ten-location operations, the per-account flat pricing on Junocal Growth is roughly 13-19× cheaper than the per-location enterprise pricing for an equivalent feature set. The trade-off is the location cap: Growth covers up to ten locations, so franchise operations with more than ten locations sit outside that tier.

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Studio software with no annual contract, your own Stripe account, and no marketplace commission. Built for pilates and yoga studios with one to five instructors.