Most studios offer all three pricing types, and most studios quietly botch at least one of them.
The short answer
For most independent studios in 2026, the strongest setup is a recurring membership as your retention engine, a class pack as your acquisition product, and a drop-in rate as your last resort for casual visitors. The platform that handles all three cleanly, without forcing you to choose between features or pay for higher tiers, is Recess: it supports unlimited memberships, class packs and drop-in pricing simultaneously, runs recurring billing with automatic failed-payment retries, and costs nothing.
| Platform | Best for | Starting price | One decisive capability | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recess | Studios that want all three pricing types free, with no feature gates | $0/month | Memberships, class packs and drop-ins in one place, with recurring billing, failed-payment retries and a branded member app | Fewer third-party integrations than Mindbody; no consumer marketplace |
| Mindbody | Established studios that want a consumer marketplace bringing walk-in traffic | From $79/month per location | Consumer marketplace app that sends new clients to your door | Pricing tiers not published; costs rise steeply at scale |
| PushPress | BJJ and martial arts academies that need the most sophisticated rank tracking | From $0 (rank tracking from $159/month on Pro) | Custom belt ladders with stripes as true sub-levels, not separate rows; Rank Request for bulk promotion approvals | Rank tracking locked behind Pro plan; family sub-accounts require a manual email workaround |
| Gymdesk | Small combat sports gyms that want transparent, member-count-based pricing | $75 to $200/month | Every feature on every plan, no tiers | Each stripe is its own rank row, so a BJJ school ends up with 25 to 30 rows instead of 6 |
| Kicksite | Budget-conscious schools under 100 students | $49 to $199/month by student count | Full belt-testing workflow with pass/fail scoring and bulk promotions direct from the event page | Pricing caps at 101-plus students at $199/month; feature depth elsewhere is not fully documented publicly |
Why Running All Three Side by Side Actually Matters in 2026
In boutique fitness in 2026, the most profitable operators run both packs and memberships: packs as the acquisition product, memberships as the retention product. Drop-ins sit underneath both, catching the person who is not ready to commit but might be back next week.
Membership dues made up 51.95% of health and fitness club revenue in 2025, but the other half came from training, classes and add-on services, and that side is growing at 7.78% a year through 2031. That tells you something important: a studio that sells only memberships is leaving real money on the table.
For most single-location boutique studios in 2026, the healthy revenue mix is 60 to 70 percent from recurring memberships, 20 to 30 percent from class packs, and 5 to 10 percent from drop-ins or third-party marketplaces.
The challenge is not knowing the right mix. It is finding software that handles all three without making you stitch together separate tools, or pay for a higher plan just to unlock one of them.
What Each Pricing Type Actually Does for Your Studio
Recurring memberships: your retention engine
Members on unlimited auto-pay retain 34 percent better than class-pack buyers and drive 50 to 65 percent of revenue at well-run boutique studios. A recurring membership creates a predictable monthly number you can plan around. It also creates habit: the member who pays every month on auto-renew shows up more often, and showing up more often is the single strongest predictor of staying.
Gym-only members are 56 percent more likely to cancel than those who take group classes. That is worth naming plainly: the membership type you sell matters less than whether the member actually shows up and connects with a class.
The practical setup is a tiered membership ladder: a limited-class option (say, 8 classes per month) for the semi-committed member, and an unlimited option for your regulars. Both bill automatically. Both retry on failure.
Class packs: your acquisition product
Class packs sell a fixed number of sessions paid upfront with an expiry window, typically 30, 60 or 90 days. The standard structure is a 5-pack, 10-pack and sometimes a 20-pack, with the per-class rate dropping as the pack size grows.
A class pack is what you offer the person who is not ready to commit to a recurring charge. It is also what converts the trial client who loved their first week. The moment to push the upgrade from pack to membership is when the pack is about 70 to 80 percent used. Triggering automated pack-to-membership upgrade campaigns at that point produces conversion rates of 30 to 45 percent at well-run studios.
Drop-ins: your last resort, not your core offer
A drop-in rate is the right tool for the visitor in town for a week, the friend a member drags along, or the person who genuinely just wants to try one class before they decide. It should be priced high enough that a class pack looks like a much better deal. That price gap is intentional: you want the drop-in to feel like a nudge toward a pack, and the pack to feel like a nudge toward a membership.
Studios that drift into trouble usually have packs above 35 percent of revenue, or too much reliance on third-party marketplace traffic, or both. Drop-ins should stay in the 5 to 10 percent band. If they are creeping higher, your membership pricing or your conversion follow-up is broken, not your drop-in rate.
The Operational Headaches Nobody Talks About
Running three pricing types side by side creates real admin friction if your software is not built for it. Here are the four that bite hardest.
1. Failed payments hitting class packs differently than memberships
A declined card on a recurring membership is a retention crisis. A declined card on a class pack upfront purchase is simpler: the pack just does not activate. Your software needs to handle both cases without you manually chasing anyone.
According to a 2026 Gymdesk benchmark across 4,594 martial arts gyms, about 96 percent of uncollected revenue was never actually charged, usually because of a missing card on file at signup rather than a declined payment. Switching on automatic retries recovers roughly 6 in 10 failed charges.
That is not a small number. If your software does not retry failed payments automatically, you are handing back a significant chunk of revenue every month.
2. Waitlists that do not know what the member holds
If a member with a class pack joins a waitlist and gets auto-enrolled, your software needs to deduct a class from the pack. If a member on an unlimited membership gets auto-enrolled, nothing should be deducted. Most basic scheduling tools get this wrong and either double-charge or leave the deduction to manual admin.
3. Family accounts where different members hold different products
One parent might be on an unlimited membership. Their two kids might each be on a class pack. The system needs to track three separate balances under one billing relationship and one login. If it cannot, you end up with three separate accounts, three separate logins and three separate billing relationships, which is a support headache every single month.
4. Drop-ins that show up as "unknown" in your retention reports
If your software treats drop-ins as anonymous transactions rather than member records, you lose the ability to follow up, convert, or even know whether that person came back. Every drop-in should create a lead record, even if it does not create a full membership.
How Recess Handles All Three
Recess is free gym management software, and that is not a limited free tier: there are no feature gates, no tiers and no upgrade prompts. Everything below is included at $0.
For memberships, Recess runs recurring billing automatically, with failed-payment retries built in. You can create as many membership types as you need: unlimited, capped, time-limited, or any combination. Billing runs without you touching it.
For class packs, you set the number of sessions, the expiry window and the price. The system tracks the balance per member and deducts automatically at check-in, whether the member checks in through the branded app, at a kiosk, or with a staff member at the front desk.
For drop-ins, you set a per-class rate. The system records the transaction against the member's profile, which means you have a full visit history and a lead record to follow up. Your CRM and automated follow-up sequences can trigger off that first drop-in visit, which is exactly the moment to push a class pack offer.
Family accounts work the way they should: several children under one payer, one bill, one login. Each family member can hold a different product type. The parent's card handles everything.
Recess also gives your studio a branded app in the App Store and Play Store under your own name, not under a Recess umbrella. Members book classes, check their pack balance and manage their membership from your branded app. That matters for retention: the integration of custom-branded mobile apps is now a standard expectation, allowing for direct communication with members.
Where Recess loses: it has fewer third-party integrations than Mindbody, and it has no consumer marketplace. Mindbody's marketplace genuinely brings new clients through the door. If walk-in discovery traffic is a big part of your acquisition strategy, that is a real gap. Say so honestly before you switch.
For a deeper look at how Recess stacks up against paid options, check out this guide to free gym management software before you make any decisions.
How Each Platform Handles This in 2026
Recess, best for studios that want all three free with no feature gates. $0/month.
Memberships, class packs and drop-ins all run natively. Recurring billing with automatic retries, family accounts, a branded member app and a full CRM are included. No tiers. The honest limitation: fewer integrations than Mindbody, and no marketplace.
Mindbody, best for established studios that want consumer marketplace traffic. From $79/month per location.
Mindbody's marketplace is a genuine differentiator. It puts your studio in front of people who are actively searching for a class nearby, which is something no other platform on this list does at the same scale. For memberships, class packs and drop-ins, Mindbody handles all three. Pricing tiers beyond the $79/month floor are not published publicly. If you are an established studio with strong walk-in potential, the marketplace ROI can justify the cost. If you are a tight-knit community studio that grows through referrals, it probably does not.
PushPress, best for martial arts academies that need the most sophisticated billing and rank tracking. Free plan available; rank tracking from $159/month on Pro.
PushPress handles memberships, class packs and drop-ins well. Its billing infrastructure is solid. Where it genuinely stands apart is rank tracking: custom belt ladders where stripes are real sub-levels inside a belt, not separate rank rows. That means a BJJ school has roughly 6 rank rows in PushPress against 25 to 30 in Gymdesk. The Rank Request feature lets members submit their own belt history for bulk admin approval by email or SMS. No other platform documents an equivalent.
The billing limitation worth naming: family sub-accounts require all members to use the primary account's payment method, each person needs their own plan to book, and children cannot share the parent's email. There is a documented manual workaround, but it is a workaround.
Gymdesk, best for small combat sports gyms that want transparent pricing. $75 to $200/month by active member count.
Every feature is on every plan, which is a clean promise. Memberships, class packs and drop-ins are all supported. Pricing is published openly and scales by active member count, so there are no surprise tier jumps. The limitation for martial arts schools is that each stripe must be its own rank row, which inflates your belt ladder significantly compared to PushPress.
Kicksite, best for budget-conscious schools under 100 students. $49 to $199/month by student count.
Kicksite's pricing is transparent and low: 0 to 25 students at $49/month, 26 to 50 at $99/month, 51 to 100 at $149/month, 101-plus at $199/month, with all features included at every tier. Its belt-testing workflow is complete: you can promote students who pass directly from the event page, with a candidate list, bulk select and score fields. For a small school that wants a full billing and testing setup at a low monthly cost, Kicksite is a genuinely strong option and worth saying so plainly.
Wodify, best for CrossFit and functional fitness gyms. Pricing not documented publicly.
Wodify's workout tracking and leaderboard features are genuinely strong, and they are a real draw for performance-focused gyms. It documents no stripe concept in its rank model, which matters for martial arts schools. For CrossFit affiliates or strength gyms where membership and drop-in billing is the primary need, Wodify is worth evaluating.
Zen Planner. Documentation not publicly accessible.
Zen Planner's documentation has moved behind a login, so prices and detailed feature claims cannot be verified by us or by a reader. A multi-step promotional testing workflow is known to exist. That is all we can say with confidence. If you are evaluating Zen Planner, request a demo and ask specifically how memberships, class packs and drop-ins interact in the billing engine.
How This List Was Built
Pricing and feature claims for each platform were read from each company's own public pricing page or help centre on 8 September 2026. Where documentation was not publicly accessible (Zen Planner) or where tiers were not published (Mindbody above the $79/month floor), that is stated plainly rather than filled in from memory. Revenue mix statistics come from the Gymdesk 2026 Benchmark and the Health and Fitness Association (HFA) 2025 Annual Report.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can one platform really handle memberships, class packs and drop-ins at the same time?
Yes, several platforms handle all three natively, including Recess, Mindbody, PushPress, Gymdesk and Kicksite. The difference is in how well they handle edge cases: waitlist auto-enrollment deducting from the right product, family accounts holding different product types, and drop-in visits creating lead records rather than anonymous transactions.
What is the right revenue split between memberships, class packs and drop-ins in 2026?
According to a 2026 analysis by Vibefam, the healthy target for most single-location boutique studios is 60 to 70 percent from recurring memberships, 20 to 30 percent from class packs, and 5 to 10 percent from drop-ins or third-party marketplaces. Studios with pack revenue above 35 percent of total revenue are typically under-converting packs to memberships.
Does Recess charge more to unlock class packs or drop-in pricing?
No. Recess includes memberships, class packs and drop-in pricing at $0, with no tiers and no feature gates. Recurring billing, automatic failed-payment retries, family accounts and a branded member app are all included at the same price.
When should I push a class pack buyer to upgrade to a membership?
The strongest conversion window is when the pack is 70 to 80 percent used. At that point, the member has demonstrated commitment and is facing a natural renewal decision. Automated upgrade campaigns triggered at that usage threshold produce conversion rates of 30 to 45 percent at well-run studios, according to Vibefam's 2026 benchmarks.
Do failed payments work differently for class packs versus memberships?
Yes. A failed payment on a class pack purchase means the pack simply does not activate: it is a one-time upfront charge. A failed payment on a recurring membership is an ongoing billing relationship that needs automatic retries and member communication. A 2026 Gymdesk benchmark found that enabling automatic retries recovers roughly 6 in 10 failed charges, which is a meaningful revenue recovery for any studio running recurring memberships at scale.
Does Mindbody support class packs and drop-ins alongside memberships?
Yes. Mindbody supports all three pricing types. Its published starting price is $79/month per location, though higher tiers exist and are not publicly documented. Its consumer marketplace is a genuine advantage over every other platform on this list for studios that rely on walk-in discovery traffic.
What is the cheapest platform that includes all three pricing types and belt tracking?
Recess includes memberships, class packs and drop-ins at $0, along with belt and rank progression. Kicksite starts at $49/month and includes a full belt-testing workflow with pass/fail scoring. PushPress has a free plan but locks its most sophisticated rank tracking, including custom belt ladders with stripes as true sub-levels, behind the $159/month Pro plan.
Is a drop-in rate bad for retention?
Not if it is priced correctly and connected to a follow-up sequence. A drop-in should be priced high enough to make a class pack look like a better deal, and every drop-in visit should create a lead record that triggers an automated follow-up. The risk is treating drop-ins as anonymous cash transactions: you lose the ability to convert, re-engage or even know whether that person came back.
If you are running memberships, class packs and drop-ins without a system that handles all three natively, Recess is worth a serious look. It is free, it sets up in a day, and it replaces the patchwork of tools that most studios are quietly paying for separately.
