Gym management platforms: what to compare

What a management platform for a fitness business is

It is the system that brings together four things that usually live apart: the timetable, who is entitled to train, the money and contact with members. It serves CrossFit boxes, Pilates and yoga studios, dance and martial arts schools, and gyms with booked classes.

In practice, this is what moves inside it:

• The class calendar, with capacity per class type and a waitlist.
• The plans you sell: memberships, packs with an expiry date and drop-ins.
• Billing, with the payment methods your members actually use.
• Each person's profile: plan, attendance, payments, notes and tags.
• The app where the member books, joins the waitlist and pays.

There is a simple test for whether the switch was worth it. If one of these parts stays in a separate spreadsheet, the system has replaced nothing. It has only added one more place to check.

Capacity and the right to book

These are two different questions, and the system should handle them separately. Capacity says how many people fit in the room. The right to book says whether that person can take a spot today.

Specific questions to ask whoever shows you the product:

• Is capacity set per class type? A weightlifting session with six barbells and a circuit with sixteen spots do not have the same limit.
• What happens when two people tap the last spot in the same second?
• Does the waitlist promote people on its own when someone cancels, or does someone have to watch it?
• Does the person who moves up from the waitlist get a notice, and at what time?
• Can a plan that ended yesterday book tomorrow's class?
• Can one person have a membership and a pack at the same time, with the system knowing which one to draw from?

Selling a membership, a ten-session pack and drop-ins at the same time is a normal case. If the system only accepts one plan per person, that difference ends up being sorted out by hand, every month.

The money

You notice billing when it fails, and it fails quietly. A card that has expired tells nobody, and the person keeps training as usual.

• Which methods it accepts: card, direct debit, and any local method your members expect.
• Does the membership renew on its own, or does someone have to request payment every month?
• What happens when a charge fails. Is there a retry? Is there a notice, and who gets it?
• Is there one place listing who has payments outstanding, with the amount and a button to charge?
• When someone pauses or quits, on what day do the charges stop?
• Where does the invoice for tax purposes come from, and how much manual work does it take?

Do the sum with your own numbers. Thirty members at 55 euros is 1,650 euros a month. Three failed charges that go unnoticed for two months come to 330 euros.

The week as something that repeats

A timetable is not a pile of loose classes. It is a shape that repeats, with exceptions on top. A system that treats each class as an isolated event hands all that work back to whoever runs the gym.

• Do you write the standard week once and generate the following ones?
• Does a recurring timetable have a start date and an end date?
• Can you cancel one class without undoing the whole series?
• Moving Monday's class times from October onwards means changing how many classes?
• What happens on public holidays and in Christmas week?
• Does a substitute coach change only that class, or the whole timetable?

If the answer is copy and paste, measure the cost. Twelve classes a week is more than six hundred a year to write by hand.

The experience of the people who train

The people who train open the platform more often than anyone who runs it. If booking is hard, bookings go back to messages on someone's phone, at night and on Sundays.

• How many taps do booking and cancelling take, one-handed?
• Can the person see their position on the waitlist?
• Can they pay an overdue membership on their own?
• Can it be used without installing anything? Not everyone installs an app to book twice a week.
• Does check-in work at the door, with the room full and thirty seconds to spare?
• Can the person see what their plan includes and how many sessions they have left?
• Is the liability waiver signed on the phone, or is it paper on the desk?

Test this standing up, on your phone, with a weak signal. That is how it will be used every day.

What people tend to forget to ask

These four are the ones that come up later, when changing is already hard.

1. 1.Where the money goes. If payments land in the supplier's account and are passed on, ask how many working days they take to reach yours. If they go straight into your account, ask whose name the payments account is in.
2. 2.How you leave, and what you take with you. Ask for the export before you join: members, contacts, active plans, attendance and payment history. In what format, and how long it takes.
3. 3.Who answers support. In what language, at what hours and through which channel. A Friday at 18:30 with bookings down is when that matters.
4. 4.What happens in September. The year's sign-ups arrive within three weeks. Ask how to import thirty people at once, and how much the next price tier costs.

On price, one practical sum. If the price depends on the number of active members, do the sums with the number you have in October. And check whether the advertised prices already include VAT.

How to test instead of comparing feature lists

A feature list tells you the thing exists. It does not tell you how many taps it takes, or what happens when it goes wrong. Two hours with a real week from your gym show more than a comparison table.

One possible script, in the order it hurts:

1. 1.Create three class types with different capacities.
2. 2.Write your standard week, with the real times, and generate the next four weeks.
3. 3.Mark a public holiday and cancel that class without undoing the rest of the series.
4. 4.Create the plans you actually sell: a membership, a pack with an expiry date and a drop-in.
5. 5.Sign up yourself and two colleagues. Fill a class and leave one person waiting.
6. 6.Cancel a booking and check that the waitlist promotes on its own and sends a notice.
7. 7.Make a real payment of a small amount and see when it reaches the account.
8. 8.Do the check-in at the door, phone in hand.
9. 9.Export everything and open the file.

The last step is the one that tells you the most. A system your data leaves cleanly is a system you can join with less risk.

If this script leads you to another tool, it was still time well spent. Rummo goes through the same test.

There is a page for each kind of space, from CrossFit boxes to Pilates studios and running clubs. Software for every kind of training space