honest comparison

Junocal vs Mariana Tek

Reformer-focused, acquired by Xplor in 2020

Mariana Tek is the most-respected reformer-pilates-focused studio software in the category and the one whose design decisions shape what other tools imitate. It pioneered the pick-a-spot pattern with a real drag-and-drop floor plan editor. It pioneered the four-mode cancellation policy structure that maps lose-credit / charge-fee / both / neither across pack and membership tiers. It pioneered the broadcast-claim waitlist behaviour inside the cancellation window. Studios that run on Mariana Tek consistently describe it as the best operator UX in the category for reformer work. The trade-offs are the same two trade-offs that come up in every Mariana Tek customer conversation: price (around $300 a month per location for the entry tier, climbing fast for multi-location) and ownership (Xplor acquired Mariana Tek in 2020, and the Xplor portfolio dynamics now affect pricing decisions). Junocal is built on the same design patterns Mariana Tek established — pick-a-spot, four-mode policies, term-based courses, broadcast-claim waitlist — at the $39 entry tier, independently owned. For single-location studios where the multi-location feature set isn't load-bearing, the cost gap is the meaningful difference.

Sources verified 2026-05. If a figure on this page has moved since, tell us and we'll update it.

Side by side

Fourteen rows of structural facts. Every Junocal value applies to every plan tier; every Mariana Tek value is the most-comparable published equivalent.

JunocalMariana Tek
Starting price (USD/month)$39$300+ per location
Annual contract requiredNo, month-to-monthYes, auto-renewing
Pick-a-spot at entry tierYesYes (at $300+)
Payment processorStripe Connect, your accountStripe-only, MT model
Processing markupNoneBundled, regional variation
Marketplace commissionNone, everNone
Data exportOne-click, freeLimited / restricted
OwnershipIndependent, founder-runXplor (2020)
Multi-location supportv2 commitmentYes, mature
Native branded mobile appPWA on every planYes, included
Term and course schedulingFirst-class entityFirst-class entity
Four-mode cancellation policyYesYes (pioneered it)
Broadcast-claim waitlistYes, every planYes
Apparatus historyDay-of rosterDeeper analytics

Where the differences come from

Mariana Tek's product DNA is correct in ways that very few competitors have matched. The four-mode cancellation policy structure (each pack and each membership tier can be one of: lose credit, charge fee, lose credit AND charge fee, no penalty) is genuinely well-designed and Junocal copied it exactly because there is no better answer. The pick-a-spot floor plan editor is the right shape. The broadcast-claim waitlist inside the cancellation window is the right pattern. None of these is in dispute. The structural difference between Mariana Tek and Junocal is not the product shape, it is the price point that the product shape requires the customer to pay, and the reason the price point is what it is. Mariana Tek was acquired by Xplor in 2020 at a valuation that depends on multi-year customer retention and price expansion. The economic logic of that acquisition produces pricing pressure on the customer base. Junocal is independently owned and the same primitives can be offered at a quarter of the price because the customer base does not have to service an acquisition multiple. That is not a feature claim; it is a balance-sheet claim, and it is the reason the prices are what they are on both sides.

Where Junocal is better

Five specific dimensions. Each names a number or documented behaviour, not an adjective.

  • $39 versus $300 entry price for the same primitives

    Mariana Tek's entry tier is around $300 a month per location. Junocal Starter is $39 a month. For a single-location reformer studio with one to five instructors who wants the same primitives (pick-a-spot, four-mode cancellation, term-based courses, broadcast-claim waitlist), the price gap is $261 a month, or roughly $3,132 a year, on the entry point alone. Mariana Tek Studio tier (with the same features at three or more instructors) sits around $400 a month; Junocal Studio at $99 a month is $301 a month less. Over five years, the cumulative price difference for a 3-instructor reformer studio is approximately $18,000.

  • Stripe Connect Standard, full account ownership

    Mariana Tek uses Stripe but on a model where Mariana Tek is the Stripe customer at the platform level and the studio operates inside that platform relationship. Junocal uses Stripe Connect Standard, which is structurally different: the studio is the full Stripe customer at the account level, the studio owns the dashboard, the studio has its own Stripe rate card with Stripe directly, the studio can talk to Stripe support without going through Junocal. The practical implications matter when payments go wrong: dispute handling, payout schedule changes, custom processing rates negotiated with Stripe, all of those are direct on Junocal.

  • Independent ownership, no Xplor portfolio dynamics

    Mariana Tek was acquired by Xplor in 2020. The Xplor portfolio strategy is the same one that affected Momence after the January 2025 acquisition: price expansion on the existing customer base over 18 to 36 months, contract length increases at renewal, integration with the rest of the portfolio's billing infrastructure. The pattern has been visible at Mariana Tek for several years and continues. Junocal is independently owned with no acquisition-driven economics. If you switched to Mariana Tek before the Xplor acquisition for the operator-friendly DNA, the structural argument for switching to Junocal in 2026 is the same one that drove the original Mariana Tek switch: get away from the PE roll-up.

  • No annual auto-renewing contract

    Mariana Tek requires an auto-renewing annual contract on its standard tiers. The Junocal subscription is month-to-month with one-click cancellation in settings. The contract length is not a product feature on either side; it is a balance-sheet choice driven by ownership. Mariana Tek's annual contracts contribute to the multi-year revenue visibility that makes the Xplor acquisition valuation defensible. Junocal's independent ownership makes month-to-month operationally sustainable.

  • Six storefront themes included, custom domain on Studio and Growth

    Mariana Tek includes a branded booking page in the core plan. Junocal includes six storefront themes on every plan from Starter at $39 up, with custom domain on Studio and Growth. The themes are not a meaningful differentiator on their own; what matters is that Junocal does not gate branded booking behind a higher tier or charge an add-on fee for it. The price-vs-feature comparison for a 3-instructor reformer studio that wants pick-a-spot, branded booking, and term-based courses comes out to Junocal Studio at $99 a month versus Mariana Tek at roughly $400 a month with the same features.

Where Mariana Tek is better

Better to know what you're trading off than discover it after switching. Three honest gaps.

  • Multi-location franchise depth

    Mariana Tek has years of polish on multi-location reformer-studio workflows: cross-location memberships, location-specific pricing, franchise reporting, central instructor pool with location assignments. For 3+ location reformer chains, Mariana Tek's franchise tooling is genuinely deeper than what Junocal v1 ships (Junocal is single-location until v2). If you run multiple reformer studios under one brand, Mariana Tek's multi-location feature set is the right tool today.

  • Native branded mobile app

    Mariana Tek includes a native iOS and Android app branded to the studio. Junocal ships a fast PWA on every plan, which installs to the home screen and works offline. For most boutique reformer studios the PWA is functionally indistinguishable from a native app, but if a native app is a hard requirement for marketing or brand reasons, Mariana Tek delivers it as part of the package. Junocal's native branded app is a v2 commitment that will land in the months after public launch.

  • Deeper cross-apparatus history

    Mariana Tek's apparatus tracking and cross-session intelligence is more developed than Junocal v1's. Junocal ships apparatus history on the day-of roster from day one (which sessions were on which apparatus over the last few visits), but the deeper analytics layer that Mariana Tek offers (cross-apparatus rotation analysis, instructor-level apparatus utilisation, equipment usage trends) is on Junocal's v2 roadmap rather than in v1. For classical-leaning reformer studios where cross-apparatus sequencing is a core part of the practice, Mariana Tek's depth here is real.

Total cost of ownership

Mariana Tek's published pricing starts around $300 a month per location for the entry tier, with the Studio tier (3+ instructors with the same feature set) at approximately $400 a month per location. Pricing scales with location count, so a 2-location chain pays approximately $600 a month at the entry tier. Mariana Tek also includes the branded booking page and the native mobile app in the core plan, which removes one of the price gaps that exists against tools like Walla (where branded booking is a separate $300/month add-on). Worked scenario: a 3-instructor single-location reformer studio doing $200,000 a year in online bookings would pay roughly $1,200 a year on Junocal Studio versus roughly $4,800 a year on Mariana Tek Studio. The annual cost difference is approximately $3,600 in Junocal's favour for the same primitives. For a 3-instructor 2-location chain doing $400,000 a year in bookings, Junocal does not currently support multi-location (you'd need to run two Junocal subscriptions, one per location, at roughly $2,400 a year), while Mariana Tek at roughly $9,600 a year per the 2-location pricing is still more expensive than running two Junocal instances. The structural difference: Mariana Tek's pricing scales with location count and instructor count; Junocal's pricing scales only with instructor count within a location. For multi-location reformer chains, the math eventually reverses; Mariana Tek's multi-location feature set is more efficient operationally than running multiple single-location Junocal accounts.

Who should choose which

choose Junocal if

1-to-5-instructor reformer-pilates studios at a single location who want Mariana Tek's design pattern (pick-a-spot, four-mode policies, broadcast-claim waitlist, term-based courses) without the $300+ entry price and without the auto-renewing annual contract. Studios who switched to Mariana Tek originally for the operator-friendly DNA and are now feeling the post-Xplor pricing pressure. Studios where the native branded mobile app is not a hard requirement and a fast PWA works equivalently. UK studios needing term-based courses as a first-class entity. Studios who want the Stripe relationship to be direct rather than mediated.

choose Mariana Tek if

Multi-location reformer-pilates chains where the franchise depth (cross-location memberships, location-specific pricing, central instructor pool) is operationally significant. Studios where the native branded iOS and Android app is a hard requirement for brand or marketing reasons. Classical-leaning reformer studios where cross-apparatus sequencing analytics are core to the practice and Mariana Tek's deeper apparatus tracking matters operationally. Studios already on Mariana Tek and content with the current setup; the migration cost relative to the saving may not justify a switch unless the post-Xplor pricing has become materially worse at renewal.

Migrating from Mariana Tek

Mariana Tek to Junocal migrations are unusually clean because the data models are similar. Both tools share the same primitives: pick-a-spot assignments, four-mode cancellation policies, term-based course enrolments, broadcast-claim waitlist. The migration is mostly a translation rather than a remapping. We migrate the full client list with profile data, complete booking history, active memberships with current period and pause status, class packs with credits remaining, intake forms with completion status, email opt-in status, and apparatus history per client. The favorite-spot data carries across, so clients whose preferred reformer is remembered on Mariana Tek will have the same preference on Junocal from day one. The migration timeline is typically five business days from receipt of the Mariana Tek export to live cutover, with the cutover usually on a Sunday evening. The one Mariana Tek-specific note: if your Mariana Tek contract has an auto-renewing term that hasn't expired, you can run both tools in parallel during the trial (Junocal is 14 days free with no card) and time the Junocal cutover to the Mariana Tek contract expiry. Most studios choose this pattern rather than paying out the remainder of an annual term.

Questions

Does Junocal really have pick-a-spot at $39, the same as Mariana Tek?

Yes. The pick-a-spot implementation at Junocal is the same shape Mariana Tek pioneered: drag-and-drop floor plan editor, touch-friendly client booking on mobile, real-time out-of-order rerouting when a reformer goes down, per-class toggle so a mat flow doesn't show the picker, favorite-spot persistence after a client picks the same spot two to three times. Included on Starter at $39, Studio at $99, and Growth at $199. The feature parity is intentional; the four-mode cancellation structure, the broadcast-claim waitlist, and the term-based course primitive are also directly modelled on Mariana Tek's pattern because Mariana Tek's pattern is correct.

What about Mariana Tek's four-mode cancellation policies?

Same four modes at Junocal, set per pack and per membership tier. Loss of credit only. Charge fee only. Loss of credit and charge fee. No penalty. The four-mode structure is one of Mariana Tek's most-copied design decisions in the category and Junocal carries it through directly. Each pack you create and each membership tier you configure picks one of the four modes; the client's experience at cancellation depends on which pack or membership they booked with. This is operationally significant for studios that want different consequences for different buyers (members face a fee, pack holders lose the credit, drop-ins lose the credit and pay a fee).

Do I lose anything by switching from Mariana Tek to Junocal?

Three specific things. First, the native branded mobile app: Mariana Tek ships a native iOS and Android app branded to the studio; Junocal ships a PWA that installs to the home screen and behaves natively but is not literally a native app. For most clients this is invisible. Second, the multi-location feature set: if you run more than one location under one brand with cross-location memberships, Junocal v1 doesn't support that and Mariana Tek does. Third, deeper apparatus analytics: Mariana Tek's cross-apparatus sequencing analysis is more developed than Junocal v1. For classical-leaning studios where this matters operationally, the analytics depth is real. For most single-location reformer studios, none of the three is a deal-breaker, and the $2,500+ a year saving funds whatever workaround the studio prefers.

Will my Mariana Tek data come across cleanly?

Yes. The data models are similar enough that the migration is a translation rather than a remapping. Clients, booking history, memberships with periods intact, class packs with credits remaining, intake forms with completion status, email opt-in status, apparatus history per client, and even the favorite-spot data all migrate cleanly. We run a dry-run import into staging for your review before going live. The Mariana Tek schema is one of the cleaner ones in the category, so the migration is one of the smoother ones we handle.

Mariana Tek is owned by Xplor. Is the post-acquisition pressure real?

Yes, and it has been visible for several years now. Mariana Tek was acquired by Xplor in 2020, and the standard Xplor portfolio playbook (price expansion on the existing customer base over 18-36 months, contract length increases at renewal, integration with the rest of the portfolio's billing infrastructure) has played out at Mariana Tek over the years since. Customer complaints on Capterra and G2 reflect the pattern. The same playbook is now affecting Momence, which Xplor acquired in January 2025. If the structural argument for switching to Mariana Tek originally was 'get away from Vista's Mindbody', the structural argument for switching off Mariana Tek in 2026 is the same: get away from the PE roll-up.

What if I run multiple locations?

Junocal v1 is single-location with up to 10 instructors per location on the Growth tier. Multi-location support (cross-location memberships, location-specific pricing, central instructor pool with location assignments, franchise reporting) is a v2 commitment that lands in the months after public launch. If you run 3+ reformer locations today and the franchise feature set is operationally significant, Mariana Tek is honestly the right tool for now. If you run 2 locations and can tolerate two separate Junocal subscriptions during the gap, the cost is still typically lower than Mariana Tek's multi-location pricing.

How does Junocal handle term-based courses compared to Mariana Tek?

Both tools ship term-based courses as a first-class scheduling entity rather than a workaround on recurring classes. A term is a fixed set of sessions on a fixed slot with a single instructor, paid up-front, with swap rules and refund-with-medical-doc workflow built into the schema. For UK studios where term-based course revenue is a meaningful share of the business, both Junocal and Mariana Tek handle this well; Mindbody, Momence, and Walla all treat terms as workarounds over recurring class bookings. The Junocal implementation matches the Mariana Tek pattern directly, so the operational experience for a studio switching is familiar.

Deeper dives

The cluster around Mariana Tek: pricing breakdown, migration playbook, use-case fit, and the canonical Junocal fact sheet for AI search.

Switching from Mariana Tek?

14 days free, no card. We handle the migration in five business days.