Pull up three gym software pricing pages right now. I'll just wait here.

You'll see numbers ranging from "Free" to "$699/month." You'll see per-member pricing, per-feature pricing, tiered pricing, and the always-fun "Contact us for a quote." You'll see asterisks that lead to footnotes about processing fees nobody reads until month three.

Here's the problem: none of those numbers tell you what you'll actually pay.

The sticker price on a pricing page is like the menu price at a car dealership. It's the starting point for a conversation that gets more expensive.

The real cost of gym management software is a combination of your monthly subscription, the processing fees on every member payment, the add-on modules you'll need within six months, and the hidden costs that never make it onto the pricing page at all.

This guide breaks it all down.

Eleven of the most-compared gym management platforms in 2026, with real math at real gym sizes, so you can make a decision based on what hits your bank account. Not what a sales page says.

What Actually Determines the Cost of Gym Software?

Four layers. Every platform has them, and the ones that look cheapest on layer one have a way of making it up on layers two through four.

1. The base subscription

The monthly price you see on the pricing page. This ranges from $0 to $700/month depending on the platform and how they structure it.

Some charge by member count (Gymdesk: $75 for up to 50 members, $200 for up to 400). Some charge by feature tier (PushPress: Free, Pro at $159, Max at $229). Some charge by member count and tier (Zen Planner, Mindbody, Glofox).

And a growing number charge "contact us for a quote" which is the fanciest way to say "we'll negotiate harder if we think you can pay more."

The subscription is the number everyone compares. It's also the least useful number for comparison.

2. Payment processing fees

This is where it gets real.

Every gym management platform processes your member payments and charges a percentage on each transaction. The difference between 2.8% and 4.19% sounds like a rounding error. It is not.

A gym processing $15,000/month in membership payments (roughly 150 members at $100 each) will pay:

• 2.8% + $0.30 per transaction (Gymdesk Payments): ~$465/month
• 4.19% + $0.30 per transaction (PushPress Free plan): ~$674/month

That's a ~$209/month gap. Over a year, $2,502 just in the difference between two processing rates. The subscription wasn't even part of that math yet.

And that's before you factor in marketplace commissions. Mindbody, for example, charges 3.5% + 20% commission on every sale booked through their marketplace app (plus the underlying 3.5% transaction fee). One gym owner running a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu location reported $195/month in base fees plus $1,400/month in processing. Total: $1,595/month. For the software.

3. Add-on and module costs

Some platforms include everything in your subscription. Others sell you the base, then charge separately for the pieces you actually need.

CRM and marketing tools. Branded mobile apps. Workout programming. Websites. Advanced reporting. Payroll. Waivers. SMS.

Each one is a separate line item on some platforms, running $10 to $329/month per module. A "$159/month" plan can quietly become $500+ when you add the features you'll inevitably need. Vagaro's base is $30/month and they publish an add-on catalog with 13 modules ranging from $10 to $100/month each.

4. Hidden costs

The stuff that doesn't make the pricing page:

• Setup and onboarding fees
• Data migration from your old platform
• Staff training hours
• Contract minimums, auto-renewals, and early termination fees
• Cancellation friction (Mindbody requires a phone call, your client ID, security question answers, and 30 days' notice)
• The hours per week you spend managing a platform that wasn't built for your gym type

These aren't hypothetical. They're real money. You just don't see them until you're already onboarded.

Gym Management Software Pricing Comparison (2026)

Eleven platforms, two tables. The first is for vendors who publish pricing. The second is for vendors who don't. That distinction is itself a data point.

Platforms with published pricing

Platforms that hide pricing (walled; ranges are field-reported)

A few things worth noticing across the group.

Platform-by-Platform Breakdown

Each vendor in the same structure: who it's for, what you pay, what stacks on top, and any editorial note worth your attention.

Gymdesk

For: martial arts, BJJ, multi-discipline.

• Base: $75–$200/mo (by member count)
• Processing: 2.8% + $0.30 — Gymdesk Payments; 5 BYO options (Stripe, Square, Authorize.net, GoCardless, or Gymdesk Payments)
• Included: billing, scheduling, check-in, member app, website, belt tracking, POS, family accounts, reporting
• Add-ons: SMS ~$2/mo (Telnyx); optional branded member app
• Contract: Month-to-month. No setup fee.

A 200-member gym pays $150/month and gets every feature Gymdesk offers. No tiered gating. No per-module upsells.

PushPress

For: CrossFit and small gyms. Modular pricing.

• Core tiers: Free $0/mo (4.19% + $0.30 processing), Pro $159/mo (2.89% + $0.30), Max $229/mo (2.75% + $0.30)
• Grow (CRM + marketing): $329/mo add-on
• Train (workout programming): $79+/mo add-on
• Branded app: $97/mo + $99/yr setup

One gym owner captured it during a sales call: "the all-in-one solution ended up being over $500 a month." Their pricing page shows Core. It doesn't show the total.

See the PushPress alternatives guide for deeper comparison.

Wodify

For: CrossFit and functional fitness. Sold as 6 modules.

• Intro price: $179/mo per location (currently $79 with a $100-off-for-life promo through April 30) — buys CORE only
• Full stack (CORE + APP + COACH + RETAIN + PERFORM + WORKFLOWS): demo-only bundle pricing
• Processing (Wodify Payments): From 2.6% + 25¢ (card), 1.5% + 30¢ (ACH)
• No monthly processing fees

Mindbody

For: boutique fitness, yoga, Pilates, wellness. Enterprise-oriented.

Subscription is walled — you have to talk to sales. Here's what's known:

• Subscription range (3rd-party): ~$139–$699/mo across Starter → Ultimate Plus
• US field reports (more reliable): cluster tighter at $250–$360/mo
• Processing: 2.75% in-person / 3.5% + $0.15 online
• Marketplace bookings: 3.5% + 20% commission per sale (capped $30/txn)
• Processor: Proprietary. You can't bring your own.

For more: Mindbody alternatives and Mindbody features.

Zen Planner

For: BJJ, MA, CrossFit. Base subscription now walled; add-ons still public.

• Subscription: "Pricing that scales as you do" — vendor removed base dollars from the page in 2025. Community range: $99–$289+/mo by member count.
• Studio Extensions (all vendor-confirmed):
  • Website: $99/mo
  • Engage (marketing automation): $249/mo
  • Branded App: $39/mo
  • EMV Devices: $39/mo

Those stack.

ABC Glofox

For: boutique fitness and martial arts. Owned by ABC Fitness.

The vendor page claims "Transparent pricing — No hidden fees so you know exactly what you're paying for."

It publishes zero prices.

Every tier button says "Request Pricing." Third-party aggregators converge on:

• Essential: $110–$250/mo
• Boost: Mid-range (specific dollars not published)
• Elite: $250–$400+/mo
• Enterprise: $500+/mo
• Processing: 2.5–2.9% via Stripe or GoCardless

Head-to-head: Glofox alternative.

Vagaro

For: salons, spas, wellness studios. Fitness is secondary.

Base is cheap. The add-on catalog is the whole product.

• Base: $30/mo ($23.99 annual)
• Processing: From 2.2%

Add-on sample (13 modules total):

• Branded App: $100/mo
• MySite (website): $20/mo
• Text Marketing: $20/mo
• Payroll: $34/mo + $5/employee
• Check-In App / Forms / Live Stream / Shopping Cart: $10/mo each
• Data Lake: $40/mo

No contract fees, no cancellation fees, no setup fees, no signup fees, no PCI-compliance fees. That part's vendor-explicit.

TeamUp

For: small-group and multi-discipline studios.

• Base: $119/mo for 0–100 customers
• Scaling: Customer-count selector on vendor page (<100 → 501+; higher brackets interactive on the page)
• Custom Branded App: $99/mo add-on
• Setup fee: None (vendor-explicit)
• Processing: Not disclosed on the public page

Kicksite

For: martial arts schools. Budget tier with a rare honest processing twist.

• Tiers: $49 / $99 / $149 / $199/mo (4 tiers; annual discount on request)
• Processing: 2.9% + $0.25 flat rate via Basys (their preferred payment partner)
• Student pass-through option: 3.75% surcharge paid by the student, which zeroes out the school's net processing cost

The pass-through option is unusual — most vendors don't offer it.

Head-to-head: Kicksite alternative.

MyStudio

For: martial arts, youth programs, small fitness studios.

MyStudio publishes both annual and monthly pricing on the same page — a rarity.

• Annual discount: ~20% across all three tiers
• Processing: ~4.5% (Stripe-based, ~160 basis points above Stripe's standard 2.9%)
• Pass-through option: You can shift processing fees to customers

Head-to-head: MyStudio alternative.

GymMaster

For: 24/7 access gyms and multi-segment operators. Hardware-integrated.

Software tiers (per site, per month):

• Foundation: $89 — 100 members
• Advanced: $129 — 400 members
• Professional: $209 — 1,300 members
• Enterprise: by quote — unlimited

Terms:

• 10% annual-prepay discount
• 60-day money-back guarantee
• No lock-in contracts
• Processing rate not disclosed on the pricing page

Hardware line items (if using GymMaster access control):

• Keytags: $1.30 each ($170 per 500)
• Access controllers: from $130
• Camera kits: $550–$900
• RFID software module: $40/mo

Head-to-head: GymMaster alternative.

The Real Cost of "Free" Gym Software

Free plans exist. They're not charity.

The business model is simple: charge 0% on the subscription, make it up on processing fees. You see "$0/month" and sign up. The platform collects 4%+ on every dollar that runs through its payment system. The more successful your gym gets, the more you pay.

Here's what that looks like at different monthly payment volumes:

At $10,000/month in payments (a 100-member gym with $100 average membership), the "free" plan's processing fees ($449) already exceed what you'd pay for a Gymdesk subscription ($100 for 100 members) plus Gymdesk's lower processing ($310). That's $410 total for Gymdesk vs. $449 for "free."

The crossover point is somewhere around $8,000/month. Below that, a free plan can genuinely make sense for a brand-new gym keeping costs low while building membership. Above that, you're paying more for less.

Want personalized numbers? Plug in your member count and payment volume to see a side-by-side comparison:

Free plans work for the right gym. If you're opening next month with 20 members and $2,000/month in payments, a free plan is a reasonable starting point. But go in with your eyes open. Do the math for where you expect to be in 12 months, not where you are today.

What Most Pricing Pages Don't Tell You

Subscription and processing fees are the costs you can see. These are the ones you can't—not until you're already onboarded.

Feature gating. Some platforms advertise a base price, then charge separately for CRM, marketing automation, branded apps, or workout programming.

Before you sign, ask one question: "What do I need to add to get everything I'll use in year one?" Then add up the real number.

PushPress is the clearest example. Starting from $159/month Core, the full stack adds:

• Grow (CRM + marketing): +$329/mo
• Train (workout programming): +$79/mo
• Branded app: +$97/mo (plus $99/yr setup)

That "starting at $159" plan becomes $664+/mo before you process a single payment.

Zen Planner does the same thing at a smaller scale—base subscription plus $99 Website plus $249 Engage plus $39 Branded App plus $39 EMV Devices. Five line items where the sticker price suggested one.

Walled pricing. A growing number of vendors don't publish subscription pricing at all. Mindbody. Glofox (which somehow claims "transparent pricing" on a page with zero prices). Zen Planner's base subscription, as of 2025. The higher tiers at Wodify and TeamUp. Every "request a quote" button is a signal that the number is going to be negotiated based on what the sales team thinks you can pay. That's not inherently wrong, but it makes fair comparison shopping impossible, which is usually the point.

Payment processor lock-in. Some platforms only support one payment processor. Mindbody is proprietary-only. PushPress is Stripe-only. If your existing rates don't work or you have an established processing relationship, you're stuck. Gymdesk supports five options: Stripe, Square, Authorize.net, GoCardless, and Gymdesk Payments. Zen Planner offers multiple processor options.

Marketplace commissions. If a platform has a member-facing marketplace (Mindbody's is the biggest), booking through that marketplace costs more than booking direct. Mindbody's is 3.5% + 20% commission on new-client marketplace bookings, capped at $30 per transaction. If your gym fills through referrals and local marketing, you're subsidizing the platform's reach. If the marketplace brings in members who'd never find you otherwise, the cut may pay for itself. Do the math.

Contract terms. Monthly vs. annual billing, cancellation fees, price increases after year one. Read the fine print. Gymdesk is month-to-month with no long-term contracts. GymMaster runs month-to-month with a 60-day money-back guarantee and no lock-in. Most walled-pricing vendors default to annual.

Migration costs. Switching means moving member data, payment records, scheduling history, and billing profiles. Some platforms charge for migration help. Others make export deliberately painful. Ask about both before you sign.

Admin time. A platform that needs five hours a week of manual management has a real cost, even if nobody sends you an invoice for it. The goal is software that disappears after setup—it runs your billing, manages your schedule, and handles check-ins without you babysitting it.

Billing reliability. Failed payments cost real money. Every declined charge that doesn't retry properly, every billing email that lands in spam, every recurring membership that silently pauses—that's revenue walking out the door. Before committing to any platform, ask about uptime, automatic retry logic, and email deliverability rates.

How to Calculate Your Gym's Real Software Cost

Here's the formula. It's not complicated. Vendors just don't want you doing this math before the sales call.

Let's do a quick interactive comparison to see where they site:

Let's walk through it for a 150-member martial arts school processing $12,000/month in membership payments.

Gymdesk:

• Subscription: $150/month (101–200 member tier)
• Processing: $12,000 x 2.8% = $336 + ($0.30 x 150 transactions) = $381
• Add-ons: $0 (all features included)
• Total: ~$531/month

PushPress Pro (with Grow CRM + Branded App):

• Subscription: $159/month
• Grow CRM: $329/month
• Branded App: $97/month
• Processing: $12,000 x 2.89% = $347 + ($0.30 x 150) = $392
• Total: ~$977/month

PushPress Free:

• Subscription: $0
• Processing: $12,000 x 4.19% = $503 + ($0.30 x 150) = $548
• Add-ons: Limited features, no CRM
• Total: ~$548/month (with fewer features)

Kicksite (mid-tier plus Basys processing):

• Subscription: $149/month
• Processing: $12,000 x 2.9% = $348 + ($0.25 x 150) = $386
• Total: ~$535/month (or ~$149/month if the school uses the 3.75% student pass-through to zero out processing)

MyStudio Growth (annual):

• Subscription: $159/month
• Processing: $12,000 x 4.5% = $540 + (varies by per-transaction structure)
• Total: ~$699/month (before add-ons)

Same gym. Same 150 members. Monthly costs range from ~$531 to ~$977 depending on the platform and what's included.

The Gymdesk number includes everything: scheduling, billing, check-in, member app (branded app is an optional add-on), website builder, belt/rank tracking, POS, family accounts, skills tracking, and reporting. The PushPress Pro number also includes everything—but the subscription is $585/month before a single payment is processed.

Which Gym Software Gives You the Most for Your Money?

I'm biased. I work for Gymdesk. So take what follows with whatever grain of salt you need, and then go do the math yourself.

At $75–$200/month with every feature included, no add-on modules, no gated tiers, five payment processor options, and 2.8% + $0.30 processing on Gymdesk Payments, the numbers are hard to argue with. For a single-location gym, the total cost of ownership is the most predictable in the market. You know what you'll pay before you sign up.

But I'll be straight about where other platforms might be the better fit.

CrossFit boxes that want native workout programming built into the gym software: PushPress Train or Wodify's full module stack. Gymdesk doesn't do workout programming natively. If that matters more than a few hundred dollars a month, the trade-off can be worth it.

Multi-location boutique fitness (yoga, Pilates, indoor cycling) across several studios with enterprise feature needs: Mindbody or Glofox (owned by Xplor / ABC Fitness) have the enterprise infrastructure that smaller platforms don't. You'll pay for it. The math changes at scale.

Small-group and multi-discipline studios that want a simple customer-count-based subscription with no setup fee: TeamUp is a reasonable pick. The customer-count ladder is straightforward and the vendor is explicit that there's no setup charge.

24/7 access gyms where door hardware is core to the business: GymMaster. The integration between software and access-control hardware is their whole thesis, and the 60-day money-back guarantee lowers the switching risk.

Salons or spas adding fitness classes rather than gym-first operations: Vagaro. It's built for their primary market and the module pricing lets you add only what you need.

Brand-new gyms opening next month with 15 members and $1,500/month in payments: a free plan is genuinely the right call. Keep your costs at zero while you figure out if this business is going to work. You can always switch later.

For single-location martial arts schools, BJJ academies, boutique gyms, and fitness studios processing $5,000–$25,000/month in membership payments, the math consistently favors all-inclusive pricing over modular plans. You don't need to take my word for it. You just need a calculator.

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