Gym Class Scheduling Software: An Honest 2026 Comparison

It's 5:40 on a Tuesday, and your 6 p.m. class is full. Three people are texting you for a spot. Your waitlist is a sticky note on the front desk, or it's in your head, and your head doesn't have a backup.

If that sounds familiar, you're shopping for gym class scheduling software, whether you've admitted it yet or not. This guide compares the tools you're most likely to shortlist on the booking details you'll feel every week: waitlists, late cancels, standing spots, and what your bill looks like once you add an app.

One thing before you read the comparison: I run content at Gymdesk. Gymdesk is on this list, and it's listed first, so read it the way you'd read any vendor's comparison.

I also don't run a gym, so the gym-floor advice you'll read here comes from owners who do, with their names on it.

Every tool gets judged on the same six booking features, with prices from the vendor's own pages. You'll also see each competitor's real strength, including a few spots where it beats Gymdesk outright.

What Gym Class Scheduling Software Actually Has to Do

Gym class scheduling software is where your members book, cancel, wait, and check in, and where you set the rules for all four. Everything else on your feature checklist is extra.

The first thing you should check is where the scheduler sits. Does it share one system with your memberships and billing, or does it sit next to them and leave you to keep the two in sync? Your answer sorts the market into three kinds of tool.

If you want the full-platform view, billing and CRM included, the best gym management software comparison covers it, while this post sticks to booking.

Booking-only apps

Setmore, Appointy, and SuperSaaS cost you little or nothing, and they're good at slots and reminders. None of them runs recurring membership billing, so you take payment per booking or per package.

That works if you're a solo trainer selling sessions. The day you start selling monthly memberships, you'll need automated billing somewhere else, and now you're running two systems.

Class-booking studio platforms

Mindbody, WellnessLiving, TeamUp, Punchpass, and ABC Glofox put booking at the middle of the product, and you'll find their booking features run deep. Mindbody and WellnessLiving also add a consumer directory that can send new people to your schedule.

All-in-one gym platforms

Gymdesk, PushPress, Wodify, Zen Planner, and GymMaster keep your scheduling, memberships, billing, and attendance on one member record. When a member books, cancels, or no-shows, the system that bills them already knows, so you don't reconcile anything.

The trade-off: some of these go less deep on appointments or discovery than the studio platforms, and you'll see exactly where below.

The Six Scheduling Features That Separate Good From Frustrating

You'll find automatic waitlist promotion on most of the pages I read for this post. That makes it about as useful for picking your software as cup holders are for picking a car.

So judge the details, the spots where one tool quietly handles a late cancel and another hands the job back to you.

Recurring classes and standing reservations

Your regulars want the same Tuesday spot forever, and good software lets them keep it. Look for standing reservations, where your member subscribes once and the system books them ahead each week.

The flip side is that software makes a new class free to add, so you can add too many. Konrad at Carlson Gracie Hackney will tell you bluntly:

"Sometimes gyms have, oh, I have so many classes where I have no students 'cause you have 20 members and 50 classes, what do you want?"

—Konrad, Carlson Gracie Hackney

Build your timetable around who actually shows up. If you're redoing yours, here's how to schedule gym classes efficiently.

Capacity limits and waitlists that fill themselves

Here's a test you can run in any free trial. Fill a class from two of your test accounts, and put a third on the waitlist.

Then cancel one of your bookings, and check whether your waitlisted account got the spot with nobody touching anything.

After that, raise the class capacity by one and see whether your waitlist fills that spot too. You'll find tools handle those two moments differently.

If you teach on mats, your capacity is a real number tied to floor space, and BJJ class scheduling walks through that math.

Cancellation windows and no-show rules

You know the member who books every 6 a.m. class and makes about a third of them. You probably pictured yours just now.

You've got two fair ways to handle that: charge a late-cancel fee, or count the no-show as a used session against their membership. Both are legit, so pick one and let your software apply it every time. That way you're never the bad guy at the front desk.

Also look for a cancellation window you can set in hours. A 5:45 cancel on a 6 p.m. class leaves you far less time to fill the spot than one the night before.

Appointments and private lessons

If you sell privates, those 1:1 slots should share a calendar with your classes. Otherwise you can end up with a coach booked for a private in the middle of the class they're teaching.

If appointments are the bulk of your week, the appointment-first tools (TeamUp and the booking-only apps) are strongest here. If privates are a few hours of your week, most all-in-ones handle them fine.

Member self-booking: app, website, and kiosk

Pull up your own booking page on your phone right now. Count the taps it takes you to book tomorrow's class.

Your members are doing that count too, at whatever hour suits them. Zenoti's 2026 fitness consumer survey of 1,393 current and lapsed US gym members found 41% want bookings handled any time of day (and the Health & Fitness Association counted a record 81 million Americans with a fitness facility membership in 2025). Zenoti sells booking software, so weigh the source, but that 41% shouldn't surprise you.

Look for a check-in kiosk at your front door, a booking widget on your website, and a member app.

Multiple schedules, locations, and instructors

If you run kids and adult programs, pay attention here. At TEAMS MMA, Danny Felix runs kids and adult classes at 5:30 on two mats at the same time, so parents train while their kids do:

For your software, that means two schedules running side by side, each with its own instructor. It also means you need family accounts, so one parent can book both classes from one login.

If you add a second location, check whether your members can book across both from the same account.

The Best Gym Class Scheduling Software Compared

Before you read a single entry, here's how this list was built, so you can decide how much to trust it.

When you run those trials, use this scorecard to put two tools through the six features and the waitlist test above.

When you see "Not stated" in the matrix, the vendor's pages didn't say, and the feature may well exist, so ask about it in your demo.

Gymdesk goes first because I work there, which you already knew.

Gymdesk

Gymdesk keeps your schedule, memberships, billing, and attendance on one member record. It was built for martial arts first and runs gyms, studios, and boxes now. It rates 4.8/5 on G2 (21 reviews).

Your waitlist promotes the next person when someone cancels, and standing reservations book each member a week ahead. You can count no-shows against a membership's session limit and set a cancellation window with optional auto-refunds. One class can also carry several pricing tiers, each with its own capacity.

You'll pay $75 a month for up to 50 active members, and you get every core feature on every plan, with the branded app, extra locations, and door access as paid add-ons.

The catch, measured against the waitlist test above: raising capacity doesn't pull from your waitlist, and you can't add someone to it by hand. Private lessons work, but by default your staff books them.

PushPress

You can start PushPress at $0 a month, and if you coach CrossFit or strength and conditioning, it's probably on your list already. It's a fast-improving product with well-regarded support, and its belt and rank content for martial arts runs deep. It rates 4.8/5 on G2 (198 reviews).

You get recurring class templates, a "self-managing waitlist," automated no-show and late-cancel rules, PT appointments, coach substitutions, and a kiosk mode.

Watch the stack you build on top. Plans run $0 (Free), $159 (Pro), and $229 (Max) a month, Grow (the CRM) adds $329, and a branded app adds $81 to $97. PushPress's own FAQ puts the full stack at about $559 a month.

If you're weighing it, here are some PushPress alternatives.

Mindbody

Mindbody is the one to beat if you run a boutique studio and want new clients to find you. Its consumer app has "3M+ active users," and it takes 20%, capped at $30, of a new client's first purchase only. It rates 3.8/5 on G2 (586 reviews), and if you're already thinking about leaving, here are some Mindbody alternatives.

You also get the deepest booking rules on this list: separate online and total capacity, an auto-promoting waitlist, late-cancel and no-show fees or visit deductions, and an automatic no-show 10 minutes after start. Appointments come with buffer times, plus Pick-a-Spot and a check-in kiosk.

Mindbody's weak spot is price visibility. It starts at $79 a month per location, but its Starter, Accelerate, and Ultimate tiers all say "Let's talk," so you'll get your real number on a sales call.

ABC Glofox

A branded app sits at the center of Glofox. You can schedule recurring classes, courses, camps, and appointments, with capacity, booking windows, and cancellation policies set per class. It rates 4.5/5 on G2 (147 reviews).

Waitlists fill automatically, and no-show and late-cancel fees are built in. Your members can also book a friend or family member and pick a spot from a room map.

Glofox publishes no prices, so you'll need a quote before you can compare it.

Wodify

At $199 a month per location, month-to-month, Wodify's Essentials plan is built for CrossFit and functional fitness gyms. It rates 4.7/5 on G2 (205 reviews).

You get class and appointment scheduling, automated waitlist management, and Kiosk+, and the Accelerate plan and up add belt tracking and an on-demand media library.

Expect a small onboarding fee with no number attached. Higher tiers aren't published, and the branded app costs extra at every tier.

Late-cancel rules didn't come up anywhere I looked on Wodify's site, so ask about them in your demo.

WellnessLiving

If you want livestreamed classes without a workaround, WellnessLiving has them built in. FitLIVE handles your livestream and on-demand video, and the Explorer directory plus Reserve with Google can send you new people. It rates 4.5/5 on G2 (198 reviews).

Your waitlist auto-promotes up to a cutoff you set, and you can charge late-cancel fees. You also get appointments and private sessions, and Book-a-Spot lets members reserve equipment or rooms.

You'll pay $69, $199, or $349 a month at list price, with Enterprise by call and free setup and data migration. Your white-label app only comes on BusinessPro, the $349 tier.

TeamUp

Even Gymdesk's internal competitor notes say TeamUp is built around appointments. You get appointments with instructor availability, recurring reservations, waitlists with messaging, no-show rules with reminders, Zoom classes, and booking through Facebook.

You pay by active customers, and the page shows $189 a month for 101 to 200 of them, with the other bands inside a slider. It's month-to-month with no setup fee, and you get unlimited locations.

A branded app is a $99 add-on. TeamUp rates 4.5/5 on G2 (329 reviews).

Zen Planner

You've probably met a martial arts school owner who has used Zen Planner for years. It has a long run in martial arts and a loyal user base, and it covers class booking, appointments, staff schedules, and app check-in. It rates 4.2/5 on G2 (104 reviews).

Plans are $99 (Studio), $198 (Essentials), and $348 (Ultimate) a month, month-to-month, and you pay only for active members. Add-ons include the Engage CRM ($249), a website ($99), and a branded app ($39).

Its pricing and feature pages don't explain how the waitlist or late cancels work, so ask before you assume either way. If you're down to these two, here's the full Gymdesk vs Zen Planner breakdown.

GymMaster

Door access comes built into GymMaster, with no third party for you to wire up, and that's its big strength if you run a 24/7 gym. Its booking chart covers classes, pools, saunas, and PT, and billing is built in too.

You pay per site: Foundation is $89 a month software-only for up to 100 members, or $129 with door access. Advanced is $129 or $169 for up to 400, and Professional is $209 or $249 for up to 1,300.

You get a 60-day money-back guarantee, no lock-in, and 10% off yearly. A branded app is $150 a month plus $450 for setup. Waitlist and cancellation details are a question for your demo.

If you want to compare, here are some GymMaster alternatives. It rates 4.7/5 on G2 (20 reviews) and 4.7/5 on Capterra (172 reviews).

Punchpass

If you run a yoga or small studio and want simple and cheap, Punchpass fits. You get waitlists, standing reservations, no-show and late-cancel support, private sessions, self check-in, live online classes, and a video library.

Plans are $59 (Grow), $99 (Flow), and $149 (Pro) a month, month-to-month, with free import. Recurring memberships start at Flow, though, so the $59 plan won't bill your monthly members.

Its app is a web app your members save to their home screen, with no native branded version.

Booking-only apps: Setmore, Appointy, and SuperSaaS

All three of these apps have free plans, and they suit a solo trainer who mostly sells sessions. None of them runs recurring membership billing, so you take payment per booking.

• Setmore (4.5/5 on G2, 270 reviews): free for up to four users, or Pro at $5 per user a month billed annually ($12 monthly). Recurring appointments are Pro only, and the free plan sends one email reminder and no SMS.
• Appointy (4.5/5 on G2, 23 reviews): free for 100 appointments a month and one staff member. Growth, Professional, and Enterprise cost $19.99, $49.99, and $79.99 a month billed annually ($29.99, $59.99, and $99.99 monthly). Recurring bookings aren't on the free plan, and Appointy's branding only comes off on Enterprise.
• SuperSaaS (4.6/5 on G2, 82 reviews): free for 50 future appointments with ads, then $9 to $180 a month by booking volume, with every feature and unlimited staff on every tier. You get a waitlist with notifications, recurring appointments, a cancellation policy, and QR attendance, but no native app.

Once you sell memberships, all three leave you shopping for a second system to bill them.

How to choose in about a minute

Find the line closest to your gym and start there:

• You run a martial arts school. Start with Gymdesk, then look at PushPress or Zen Planner.
• You run a CrossFit box. Start with PushPress or Wodify, then Gymdesk.
• You run a boutique or yoga studio and want discovery. Look at Mindbody or WellnessLiving.
• You run a small yoga studio on a tight budget. Try Punchpass.
• Your business is mostly appointments. Start with TeamUp.
• You're a solo trainer on a budget. Pick from Setmore, Appointy, or SuperSaaS.
• You run a 24/7 gym. Look at GymMaster, or Gymdesk with its door access add-on.

Where Gymdesk Fits (and Where It Doesn't)

Remember that 6 p.m. class with three people texting you for a spot? Here's what Gymdesk does with your Tuesday.

When someone cancels, the next person on your waitlist gets the spot, matched to their pricing tier, and nobody has to text anybody. Your regulars subscribe to their Tuesday class once, and the system books them a week ahead.

If a member no-shows, you can count it against their session limit. That's your no-show rule, applied the same way every time, without a staff member stepping in.

Your new people book trials through online class booking forms that collect signed waivers in the same step.

You can run kids and adults on separate schedules. Members can book across your locations once cross-location check-in is on and your locations use compatible payment processors. Each instructor can also sync their sessions to Google Calendar.

All of that comes on every plan, from $75 to $200 a month, and each extra location adds $50.

Here's where Gymdesk may not be your best pick:

• You want marketplace traffic. Your Gymdesk app and widget only show your gym. That's deliberate, but Mindbody and WellnessLiving can send you discovery traffic, and Gymdesk can't.
• You want native livestreaming. Online classes run through the Zoom integration, which creates the meeting and sends your members the link. If you want it built in, WellnessLiving has it.
• You move classes around a lot. If you change a session's date or time, your members aren't notified automatically yet. You message them from the bookings list.
• Appointments are most of your business. One-on-one and personal-training booking works, but by default your staff does the booking. TeamUp is built around appointments, so start there.

Gymdesk started in martial arts, built by people who train, and it runs gyms, studios, and CrossFit boxes now. If you run a school, the martial arts software page goes deeper on that side.

What Gym Scheduling Software Really Costs

Say you have 150 active members and you want a branded app with your gym's name on it. Here's your monthly bill on a few tools that publish their prices:

• Gymdesk: $150 plus $100 for the app, so $250 a month.
• PushPress Pro: $159 plus $81 to $97 for the app, so $240 to $256.
• GymMaster Advanced: $129 plus $150 for the app, so $279, plus $450 once for setup.
• TeamUp: $189 plus $99 for the app, so $288.

In that exact setup, PushPress Pro lands about even with Gymdesk—a little under or a little over depending on its app price—as long as Pro covers what you need. For Mindbody and Glofox, you'd have to call.

Your gym won't match my example exactly, so the gym software cost calculator will run the numbers for yours.

Over time, your pricing model moves your bill more than the sticker price does. Here's how each one grows with you:

On Gymdesk, you pay $75 for up to 50 active members, $100 for 51 to 100, $150 for 101 to 200, and $200 for 201 to 400. An extra location adds $50 a month, and the full breakdown is on the Gymdesk pricing page.

Pick the Scheduler Your Members Will Actually Use

The best gym class scheduling software is the one your members open on a Tuesday night without thinking about it. Set up right, a 5:45 cancel fills from the waitlist before you've finished warming up the class, and your regulars keep their Tuesday spot without asking.

So pick two tools from the matrix and run a real week of your gym through each. Book a class as a member, then cancel it late and see what happens. That week will teach you more than any comparison, this one included.

If Gymdesk makes your shortlist, the 30-day trial doesn't need a credit card, and every core feature is on from day one.

Your head can finally stop being the waitlist.