Mindbody is the largest purveyor of fitness business software used by gym and fitness studio owners. The company was one of the first to provide the industry with a software platform designed to manage the (time consuming) administrative back-end that comes with running a fitness studio or gym.
Because Mindbody had a near monopoly on the fitness business software market for many years, it remains ubiquitous amongst fitness businesses, despite having a reputation for having a steep learning and use curve.
With robust features, however, comes a hefty price tag.
A quick Google search for alternative options will prove that fitness business owners want to avoid the platform’s ever increasing prices, which are the most expensive in the fitness industry.
Additionally, many of Mindbody’s features, like multi-location studio management, access to on-demand and livestream video classes, and marketing tools are only available at an added cost. Mindbody’s pricing ranges from $139 a month for its Basic plan to $699 a month for its Premium Plus package.
What you may not know, is that a host of Mindbody competitors have (more) recently emerged, and some have bested Mindbody’s user experience and cost a lot less.
Savvy fitness studio owners are finding that by switching to a Mindbody alternative, they can not only save hundreds of dollars a month for comparable – or better – features, but that they are able to provide a substantially improved experience for their staff and customers AND grow their fitness businesses.
So, how do fitness business owners choose a Mindbody alternative?
There’s not one quick and easy answer, but by knowing the key features every fitness studio needs to succeed and grow, and the core differences between the top Mindbody competitors, fitness business owners can go smart when choosing their software platform, and ideally find a fitness business software platform that will serve them for years to come.
Key features to look for when comparing fitness business software are:
Online and In-Studio Payment System
- How does the fitness business software platform allow your business to take payments?
- Do you have to purchase additional equipment or sign up with an outside billing platform?
- How much are the credit card processing fees?
- Are you able to select what forms of payment your business will accept?
- Is it easy for your customers to go online and purchase class passes, memberships, workshops and special programs?
Sales and Performance Tracking
- How does the fitness business software help you track daily, monthly and yearly sales?
- Does it have easily downloadable sheets for bookkeeping or tax software integrations?
- Can you easily measure key performance indicators like introductory offer conversions, monthly membership growth, and retail sales?
Online Group Fitness Class Schedule & Private Training Session Booking
- Does the software offer you the ability to post online your 1) group fitness class schedule and 2) allow clients to book private fitness sessions?
- Is the software’s booking process user friendly for you as well as your clients?
Registration for Multi-Session Programs and Workshops
- Multi-week programs and multi-day workshops can be a big revenue booster for many fitness businesses, so make sure that your fitness business software offers you the ability to set these up and take registrations on-line and in-studio.
On-Demand and Livestream Video Fitness Classes
- In a post-pandemic world it’s essential for your fitness business to be able to offer live and on-demand video classes and training sessions.
- Does the fitness business software that offer options for gating your video library (so that you can set up per-session pricing, monthly memberships and free promotional videos)?
Customer Experience
- Does the software platform include in its core package features that are designed to enhance your customers’ experience?
- What core features do you need to best run your business? These can include automatic waitlist management, reminders about expiring passes or low class counts, automated billing for ongoing memberships, systems for quickly and easily emailing contacts, touchless check-in and automated reminders.
Customer Service
- What system does the fitness business software company have in place for supporting you when you need help, fast?
- Do you have to call a 1-800 number and wait on hold?
- Can you schedule a time that works for you to speak with a representative?
- Is the company able to respond to you within 24 hours?
- Are their customer service representatives familiar with the fitness industry and common issues fitness business owners encounter?
Support for Multiple Locations
- Does the platform support management of multiple fitness studio locations and offer a combined dashboard?
Online and In-Store Retail Sales
- Does the fitness business software allow you to sell retail products like clothing and props on your website as well as in your gym or fitness studio?
- Is it easy to enter items, track inventory and process sales?
- Does the platform allow you to take multiple forms of payment with favorable credit card processing fees?
Here are 6 Top Mindbody Alternatives to Consider:
After combing through reviews and customer feedback, here are some of the best options to look through if you need a Mindbody replacement.
First, let’s start with a humble brag… because we love what we do and strongly believe in both our fitness software and how we support our clients.
Punchpass
Overview: Punchpass is business software for fitness, dance, yoga studios and independent instructors. It allows you to manage your customers, class attendance, passes and membership sales. Publish your schedule, accept class, workshop and special event reservations and sell passes online too. Host live and on-demand video classes. Punchpass is easy to use for you, your team and your customers. It’s simple, flexible, and offers all the features you need, at an affordable price.
Punchpass provides some of the most innovative features and competitive price points among the Mindbody alternatives on the market today. The company provides top-tier customer service and gets high marks from its thousands of satisfied customers worldwide.
Starting price: $39/mo. $89 for top-tier plan
Features:
- Unlimited classes, passes, and instructors
- Online class schedule
- Customer self-check-in
- Custom email creation and delivery
- Automated & custom email communications
- Full reporting
- Progressive web app (PWA) that doesn’t take a 30% cut of your business like app store options
- Accept customer reservations
- Waitlists for full classes
- Multi-day class series
- Private 1-on-1 sessions
- Recurring memberships
- Sell passes, memberships, and classes online with Stripe
- Collect online waivers
- Customer logins and accounts
- Live online classes via Zoom integration
- Content library for on-demand videos and documents
- Sell tickets for one-click book & pay
- POS credit card processing with Square integration
- Email marketing with Mailchimp integration
Who this software is best for: Small, independent fitness studios, instructors and personal trainers who teach group classes. Group fitness studios that offer classes, workshops, special events and personal training.
What this software is doing right: Punchpass packs more key features – from live and on-demand video classes to digital liability waivers and automated wait list management – into one of the most user-friendly interfaces, than virtually any other fitness business software, for one of the lowest monthly prices on the market. The company consistently gets high marks for its attentive customer service.
Where the software can improve: It’s instructor pay rate and payroll feature is somewhat limited. While the software includes an integration with Mailchimp for email communications, Punchpass doesn’t really offer a lot in the area of specific marketing support.
Notable Reviews:
“I found it much less intimidating than going to a bigger software program like MindBody. I found it much more comfortable to me — being so small — going to Punchpass. It felt much more personal.”
– Marquita L. Found, Vibe Dance Fitness
“The software does not have all the bells and whistles, but they answer your questions, they are open to new ideas and they don’t have all the bloat of some of the other applications we looked at in the market. Additionally, the price is right.”
– Brian K. Director of IT, Non-profit Management
Wellness Living
Overview: WellnessLiving features appointment scheduling, email marketing, robust reporting, rewards programs, client progress logs, reputation management, merchant processing and payroll among other features. There are no pricey add-on fees to embed your schedule into your site, generate reviews, send emails/SMS notifications, utilize a rewards program or automate marketing.
Starting price: $59/mo – $259 Premium, Enterprise (Call for Pricing)
Features: WellnessLiving’s Basic plan comes with the following features. WellnessLiving offers three additional plans at higher price points as well as a la carte add-ons that include more advanced features like a custom website, Zoom video livestreaming, on-demand video, monthly contest leaderboard, ClassPass marketing, and customer progress tracking:
- A customized web landing page that features your fitness studio’s online class schedule, staff bio’s and a photo gallery. The page comes with a URL tied to WellnessLiving to drive traffic to client sites.
- A client app for customers
- A staff app that allows instructors to make class changes and sell passes and memberships from their mobile devices,
- POS credit card processing at a 20% discount over its competitors, which allows fitness businesses to save big on credit card processing fees (1.99%)
- Appointment bookings (group fitness class bookings are part of Premium plan only)
- Client CRM
- Basic business performance reporting, including staff payroll tracking
- Email and text notifications
- Customer review collection and display
- Mailchimp email marketing integration
- Gift cards
- Website widgets
- Talk about the starting price and features that come with the base membership.
Unique features: Client fitness progress tracking, fitness challenge leaderboard, Google local search integration allows customers to find and book directly from search results.
Where does the software/service offering really shine? What is their unique value proposition? WellnessLiving distinguishes itself with new tools that differentiate it’s fitness business customers and help them attract and retain new business though health performance tracking and gaming. It’s well-known in the fitness industry that if you can help your customers see the progress they are making, keep them in the gym or studio regularly and make it fun, you are going to grow your book of business. WellnessLiving also saves fitness business owners up to 20% on credit card processing fees with its unique POS system.
Who this software is ideal for: Personal trainers, smaller gyms and boutique fitness businesses that are starting up, or in early-stage growth who want to a simple business management software and to emphasize the health benefits of working out, make it convenient and easy for their customers and staff to book classes and buy and sell passes and memberships through a mobile app interface.
What this software is doing right: Wellness Living focuses its features on the core growth areas of a fitness business – like making it easy for customers to find and book classes, and client retention with it’s client progress and fitness challenge leaderboard offerings. The company offers marketing tools like websites, Google local search integration, email and SMS text plus a branded app.
Where this software can improve: Features such as live and on-demand video class capabilities, some marketing features, online customer liability waivers, group fitness class booking, waitlists and event and workshop bookings are only available for its premium level plans and cost more than twice what the basic plan does.
Also, customers complain that the reports are limited and lack detail. The onboarding process and training is poor and not comprehensive. Clients and employees of customer studios find that the interface and functionality is not user-friendly.
Notable reviews:
“I’ve been with WellnessLiving for about 2 ½ years now. I’ve used multiple softwares at my gym in the past including EZ Facility, Zen Planner, and MindBody. I’ve definitely had experience with other options. I must tell you, I have no intention of ever going back. WellnessLiving has outperformed every other service I’ve ever used on every level.”
– Justin L. Owner, ProCore Fitness
“It is full of bugs and programming shortcomings. Servers are slow. Staff App is buggy and often inoperable. Credit card swiping feature on mobile devices is virtually non-functional. Sensitivity of the software on the “wrong” browser, wrong device, after updates, etc is frustrating. At least once a day I encounter a major function that isn’t working. Returning clients have difficulty updating log-ins, staff has trouble navigating the schedules and filters and limitations, notification settings are so convoluted that clients and staff get spammed with useless auto-emails they don’t need.”
– Neely H., Owner/Massage Therapist
Vagaro
Overview: Boost your productivity and free up time with Vagaro Salon, Spa & Fitness Appointment Scheduling Software. Schedule appointments from a desktop or use our App to manage clients on the go. Get booked on our marketplace, your booking page, Facebook, Yelp, Instagram or on your own website via our booking widget. Send automated reminders and emails. Securely process payments. Vagaro Pro is the most downloaded/reviewed Apple & Android App. Pricing starts @ $25/month. Sign up for a Free 1 Month Trial.
Starting Price: 1 user: $25 /month. Price increases with the number of users: 2 users: $35 /month 3 users: $45 /month 4 users: $55 /month 5 users: $65 /month 6 users: $75 /month 7+ users: $85 /month.
Features: Every plan includes the following features. Pay for and see only what you need. Software modules can be switched on and off when you need. Vagaro includes additional features such as a custom website, online forms, livestream video classes, automated text marketing, a branded app, online shopping cart, listings in its consumer app and website and daily deals at an additional cost.
- Online calendar with drag and drop appointment booking availability
- Online booking through website, social media and Yelp
- Automatic and push notifications through email, SMS text and in-app
- Customer CRM
- Class pass and membership sales
- Gift certificates
- Retail product sales
- Invoicing
- Marketing – email
- Reports and business performance dashboard
- POS and credit card processing at low rates (2.75%)
- Credit card reader
- Customer app
- Business app
Unique Features: Vagaro Online Payroll Services for Your Small Business allows fitness businesses to choose the best online payroll services for their business, no matter which structure they use to pay employees. Run payroll in minutes and simplify business payroll tax filings. It allows you to set custom commission rates for employees. Vagaro promotes its customers by listing their services on its own app and on Vagaro.com, its online marketplace. The company also offers a fully integrated dual screen point of sale system that offers customers a touchless, safe, transparent, and secure check-in experience.
Who software is ideal for: Personal trainers, salons, spa’s, small fitness studios and gyms
What software is doing right: Vagaro’s point of sale system, including the hardware which supports touchless, instant sign in for customers, a dual screen for business security and credit card processing is spot on for small fitness and beauty brands that don’t have a large front desk staff, and who want to provide a safe, clean post-pandemic experience. The dual screen also includes software that enables businesses to run a daily deal that scrolls on the screen.
Where software can improve: Vagaro gets dinged a lot in customer reviews for poor customer service, and for not being sophisticated enough for larger salons and gyms.
Notable reviews:
“Super easy and on the go with the app on phone. When transferring accounts , reps were very helpful with getting all information and calendar moved over successfully.”
“If you’ve used any other salon software that is in a high performance category as far as reporting and/or user experience this will not suit your needs . It is very rudimentary in its performance . It does not allow for any customization in reports or in applications . Many features are archaic and need updating. The feature to logout users after a certain amount of time can’t recognize the difference between idle and not idle so it will log you out and lose your work in the middle of a session . The “marketing” section is mediocre at best . IF you’ve already been running a computerized operation for 5 yrs or more, you will find the software completely inefficient . It does not save your work if you’re in the middle of procedures when it logs out . It cannot tell the difference between tasks in progress and idleness . If you leave the program wide-open and it doesn’t log anybody out automatically, then your separate users have no recognition within the system, Unless they individually and manually log themselves in-and-out every time . SO MANY SILLY TIME WASTING things that MUST be done manually every session. Yuck.”
Zen Planner
Zen Planner’s fitness studio software provides gyms and boutique fitness businesses with a package of tools for running a successful business. The software suite features payment processing, auto-billing, staff & member apps, scheduling, retail, gift cards, automations, detailed reports & more. The company highlights its lead-generating integrated websites, which are specifically designed to help grow its client’s fitness businesses and integrate with its marketing programs.
Starting price: $177/mo. Prices are based on number of active members and top out at around $227/mo.
Features:
- Attendance Management
- Attendance Tracking
- Belt Ranking Classification
- Billing & Invoicing
- Class Management
- Class Scheduling
- Contract/License Management
- Custom Websites for Lead-gen
- Dues Management
- Email Marketing
- Employee Management
- Event Management
- Facility Scheduling
- Inventory Management
- Marketing Automation
Unique Features:
Zen Planner offers customized, branded websites that are designed to generate leads for it’s fitness studio customers, and hosts and manages the sites. What’s more, the company offers a full suite of digital marketing tools including managed advertising campaigns, SEO, and directory listing optimization.
Who is it best for: Fitness business owners who want to spend their time doing what they love & sharing their passion, rather than sitting behind a desk handling the administrative work required with running a business.
What this software is doing right: Zen Planner has a strong focus on supporting its customers to build their businesses and improve their bottom line. They have launched features that are specifically designed to bring more members in the door and keep them there.
Where the software can improve: Fitness studio owners complain about the software interface and apps being complicated and hard to figure out. The gym customer experience also gets low marks for lack of user-friendliness. The apps can be buggy. Zen Planner could do a better job of integrating its products into its customers’ existing websites, when they don’t want to use the company’s custom-built website offering.
Notable Reviews:
“Very Helpful Customer Service!!! Zen Planner software has enabled our company to introduce a program to our customers in a seamless fashion. Their customer service was vital in helping us with this process.”
– Jody B. Head Teaching Professional Sports
“The software was very difficult for customers to use, so much that about half of our parents (and a couple of our coaches) just wanted me to do everything for them. Doing so on my end was time-consuming. Zen Planner offers some options to integrate with our existing website, but it didn’t work in every circumstance. What customers could do from our primary domain was pretty limited, and it wasn’t easy to switch back and forth between our site and the ZP site. Zen Planner does not offer automatically-applied membership discounts, so we had to have customers use offer codes. Membership discounts (such as on retail or private lessons) are pretty standard in fitness businesses and not having that option was a major pain. There was no way to easily see which coaches had availability at which times.”
– Liz M. CEO, Sports
GloFox
Overview: Fitness studio management software that provides an all-in-1 place to manage daily admin tasks and increase revenue. From class scheduling to payment processing, the Glofox software makes admin tasks hassle free. With seamless client communications through a branded mobile app and website integration, gym owners can build meaningful relationships that give their studios the stability needed to grow revenue and retain members.
Starting Price: $110/mo. Pricing details and other plan options available only by request.
Features:
- Attendance Management
- Attendance Tracking
- Automated Scheduling
- Billing & Invoicing
- Calendar Sync
- Capacity Management
- Class Management
Class Scheduling - Client Database
- Client Management
- Confirmation/Reminders
- Contract/License Management
- Dues Management
- Email Marketing
- Waitlist Management
- Marketing Automation
Unique Features: Glofox offers its customers a customizable, branded app where members can log in to buy passes, enroll in classes and training sessions and view video content. The company stresses that, unlike many competitors, it is not a marketplace. Once a customer signs into a gym or studio, they only see that fitness business’s content. Glofox does not advertise other gyms or studios to its client’s members.
Who it’s best for: If you are a brand conscious studio or gym who would like to reduce mundane admin tasks and improve your customer experience, Glofox is your go-to management software.
What this software is doing right: Customers report that Glofox’s interface is beautifully designed, aesthetically pleasing and fairly easy to learn and use.
Where the software can improve: Glofox gets low marks for customer support. Many customers complain about technical issues that go unresolved and leave them feeling ignored and frustrated. The company’s reporting system appears to have had substantial glitches that have left customers in the lurch.
Notable Reviews:
“Sales, leads, marketing, basically everything I need to operate a boutique studio. I like the waiting list feature and how easy it looks to make it both branded to my company and tailored to exactly what me and my clients need. I’m looking forward to starting the build process to see how it goes. The experience so far has been all good from my perspective.”
– Natalie G. Director, Health, Wellness and Fitness
“I have to admit, filling in the sections and setting up the back end of Glofox is much easier and straight forward when compared to say Mindbody. It’s less cluttered and more user friendly and will integrate into your website easily so there are some good points but there are more bad points. I had to pay an international transaction fee every time I paid for my account. I’m based in Australia. The fee didn’t break the bank, but when it’s already one of the most expensive software companies it’s enough to annoy.”
– Dany W.
VirtuaGym
Overview: Virtuagym offers fitness software solutions to personal trainers, independent studios and gym chains of all sizes. Built from the ground-up for fitness fanatics who want to get the most out of each working hour. Vituagym’s scheduling and real-time attendance tracking tools help fitness studio owners know who’s in the gym and what the capacity is to host more people while complying with social distancing.
Starting Price: $29/mo.
Features:
- Activity Tracking
- Appointment Scheduling
- Attendance Management
- Automated Scheduling
- Billing & Invoicing
- Calendar/Reminder System
- Capacity Management
- Class Scheduling
- Contract/License Management
- Document Storage
- eCommerce Management
- Employee Portal
- Event Management
- Exercise Library
- Fitness Assessments
- Fitness Plan
- Gamification
- Goal Setting / Tracking
- Group Scheduling
- Health Coaching
- Health Monitoring
- Internal Chat Integration
- Inventory Management
- Lead Generation
- Life Coaching
- Marketing Automation
- Membership Management
- Multi-Location
- Nutrition Program
- Online Booking
- Online Payments
- Point of Sale (POS)
- Reporting/Analytics
- Self Check-in/Check-out
Unique Features: VirtuaGym launched its PRO+ software solution to help gyms, clubs, and studios serve new membership demands amid the coronavirus. The turnkey digital membership and engagement solution helps gyms, health clubs, and fitness studios stay connected to your members who have become accustomed to working out at home via a personalized app, and combines in-facility training with digital on-demand workout videos – all managed by Virtuagym.
VirtuaGym offers trainers a fitness coaching app for workout planning and a calorie counter and meal planner app to share with clients so that they can build nutritional coaching programs and have customers track their progress.
Who it’s best for: Health clubs, personal trainers, physical therapists, dietitians and other health & fitness related businesses.
What this software is doing right: VirtuaGym is innovative and offers personal trainers and fitness businesses that focus on lifestyle coaching programs tools that can’t be found anywhere else, like health assessments, apps for training sessions and nutritional coaching, plus the company is focusing new features on the online workout space to help fitness studios evolve and grow post-pandemic.
Where the software can improve: VirtuaGym’s multiple apps don’t integrate with each other, which is clunky. Customers report issues with the onboarding process and switching from their existing payment system to the ones offered by VirtuaGym. The company also gets low marks for slow customer service.
Notable Reviews:
“Better than every other system we have used when asking inexperienced or junior staff to pick it up and go with it. The user interface for customers is also much easier and better than others, we have had very positive feedback from our gym members. A good range of tools and options that can be set up and customized without having to dedicate additional resources to operate it. The community noticeboard feature has been vital to our customer-centric approach.”
– Jack B. Commercial Manager, Health, Fitness & Wellness
“We were super excited when we found this software, and thought it could do everything we needed. But as we got into the set up and transferring from our old system it was honestly a bit of a let down. It is a better experience for our clients and that is why we are sticking with it but really hope to see some development on the back end side of it so it allows us to more easily run our business.”
– Valerie A. Fitness Centre Coordinator/Manager
We know. That was not a small bit of information to look at. But when shopping Mindbody competitors, it’s helpful to know the strengths and weaknesses for each software solution.
Punchpass may or may not be the best option for you.
The good news… a zero commitment trial period!
(AND) we don’t take a credit card until you decide if we are a good fit.
Is Punchpass Free?
Punchpass offers a two week free trial where fitness business owners get full access to the software platform and customer support. During your two week trial you can explore all the features of the software.
Here’s what to expect during your Free Trial:
- You’ll get free training, personal support and helpful tips from our friendly team.
- You can test drive the system — you’ll add classes to your schedule, sign in students, sell passes and memberships, email clients, generate reports, and more!
- If you decide Punchpass is right for you, we can get your customer data over & you’ll be ready to go!
There are no long-term contracts – you can cancel or change your plan anytime.
Punchpass software is simple, straightforward, and user-friendly – just like us! 😀 And our monthly plans are some of the most affordable in the industry, just right for new and emerging fitness businesses.
We’d love to help you out. Start your free trial today!
