Everything Recess does, and the things it does not.
One page, in ordinary words, so you can check whether Recess covers the thing you actually need before anyone books a call. It includes what we are not good at, because that is usually what decides it.
100% free to use, no hidden fees. Members pay about 5% at checkout.
How to read this page.
Recess is one product. There are no plans, no tiers and no add-ons, so everything below is available to every studio from the first day. Nothing here is priced separately and nothing is held back for a bigger account.
Recess ships continuously, and a few of the newest parts are still landing with studios. If the timing of one of them matters to your decision, ask on the call and we will tell you exactly where it stands. We would rather do that than write a caveat under every line on this page.
The schedule, and everything that is not a drop-in class.
Most software in this category is built around one adult booking one class. Recess runs that, and it also runs the things that come with a season, a term, a camp week and a roster of children.
A class recurs. An event or a workshop does not, and carries its own capacity, fee and waiver. A season or a term is enrolled once and runs for its whole length rather than being booked a week at a time. Camps, afterschool, semi-private and private sessions, appointments taken against a staff member's availability, virtual classes and a video on demand library all sit on the same schedule as everything else.
Enrollment can be gated. You set the requirement once on the class: a level or a rank, a skill an instructor has signed off, a prerequisite class, an age range, a tag you keep on the client, or the membership or program they hold. Anyone who does not meet it never sees the class as bookable, so nobody has to turn anyone away at the door.
Tournaments run as events with registration, divisions and fees, and hand you the field as a spreadsheet. Recess does not draw the brackets, and it is not going to pretend it does.
Belts, skills and everything a student climbs.
This is the newest part of Recess and the part most software in this category has least of. It is one ladder system, and it covers a belt, a gymnastics level, a swim stage or a skill a coach signs off, because underneath they are the same thing.
You define the ladder. The ranks, what sits between them, and what somebody has to do to move up are yours to set rather than ours to assume. Belts and stripes, skills and levels, clubs, challenges and points, milestones and leaderboards all hang off it. Certificates print, and badge artwork is generated for the awards you give out.
Students see where they are without asking. A member-facing progress view sits inside the studio's own app, so a parent can open it on the way home and see what their child is working toward, instead of asking a coach at pickup.
Families, staff, and who can see what.
A household is not a list of unrelated customers who happen to share a surname, and most software treats it like one.
A family account holds several children who may be on completely different programs and different ladders, paying from one card. Sibling billing works across them, so a second and third child are priced the way your studio prices them rather than as three separate strangers. Team accounts do the same job for a squad or a group booking under one payer.
A client profile carries attendance, purchase history, notes, forms and signed waivers on one record, so nobody has to open a second screen to answer a question. Staff have their own records, and roles and permissions decide what each person can see and do.
Taking money, and getting it back out.
Recess is free to use. There is no monthly platform fee, no per-feature add-on and no setup cost. Recess earns a service fee of approximately 5% paid by the member at checkout, and card and bank processing is covered by Recess out of that fee rather than billed to you on top of it.
What you can sell: subscriptions, packages, bundles, contracts, retail products and gift cards, through your own app, your website or the point of sale at the counter. Payment plans spread a balance over dates you set. Account balances and invoices handle the money that does not fit into a single checkout, and you can add your own custom fees where your studio needs them.
Failed payments recover themselves. The member is asked to update the card in your app before anyone at the studio gets involved, which is the difference between a quiet fix and an awkward conversation at the desk. Disputes and refunds are handled in the same place as everything else.
Getting people in, and getting them to come back.
Most of this category reports on your marketing. The part worth having is the part that does it while nobody is at the desk.
Lead capture forms feed a pipeline. Audiences and tags decide who hears what, and automated sequences and campaigns run from there in your studio's voice from your own domain. In-app pop-ups reach the people already using your app, who are usually the easiest ones to reach and the ones most software forgets.
An AI lead agent answers new enquiries on its own. It qualifies the person, works out which class actually suits them, takes their name and email and books the trial, without waking anybody up and without a form that says somebody will get back to them within two business days. When the conversation converts it becomes a real client thread rather than sitting in a widget somewhere.
Client referral rewards are set up once. A member shares theirs, and the credit or discount is applied automatically when the person they referred signs up, so the reward does not depend on anyone remembering it.
Talking to members, with nothing metered.
This is the line on a competitor's invoice that surprises people, so it is worth being blunt about ours.
Two-way messaging by text and email, in one thread per person. Their bookings, attendance, packages and notes sit beside the conversation, so nobody has to open another screen to answer a question about a class next Tuesday.
Texting is unlimited and free. There are no credits to buy, no per message rate and no monthly fee for the number. Sends go from your own domain, so a parent sees your studio's name and not ours.
Templates cover the messages you send often, and push notifications reach people through your own app rather than competing with the rest of their inbox.
Coaches, hours and the payroll run.
Payroll in this category is usually an export you finish somewhere else. Here it is computed as the classes happen.
When a class loses its coach, Recess messages every other coach cleared to teach it, takes the first yes, and updates the schedule and the members' app. Pay follows the class, so whoever covers is paid at their own rate without anyone editing payroll afterward.
Shifts are scheduled, staff clock in and out, and pay rates are set per person and per class type, with head count rules where you use them. At the end of a period you run a report rather than assemble one.
The books, the costs and the forecast.
Most software tells you what came in. What an owner actually needs is what is left, and what next quarter looks like.
Business Health connects QuickBooks, so revenue, costs, payroll and a forward forecast sit in one place instead of in three. You ask it questions in plain language rather than building a report and hoping you filtered it correctly.
It reads your QuickBooks rather than replacing it. Your books stay where your accountant expects to find them, and without QuickBooks connected this section only has half the picture.
Your own app, on the App Store under your listing.
Elsewhere in this category a branded app is an add-on with a monthly fee, a build fee, or a tier you have to reach first. Here it is what every studio gets.
Every studio gets a branded client app carrying its own name, logo and colors. It can be published to the Apple App Store and Google Play under your own listing, so somebody searching for your studio finds your studio rather than finding us.
Members book, pay, update a card, read your messages and see their own progress in it. There is no separate charge for it and no plan to reach first.
What it plugs into.
This is the whole list. If what you need is not on it, ask before you assume, because finding out in your busiest month is expensive.
Moving off what you are on now.
The migration is automated and our team runs it. You do not manage a project and you are not exporting spreadsheets at midnight.
Students, ranks, attendance history, memberships, packages, contracts, families, waivers, upcoming bookings and billing information come across, so your members arrive with their records rather than as a blank list somebody has to rebuild.
Studios have moved from Mindbody, Momence, Mariana Tek, Jackrabbit, PushPress, Zen Planner, iClassPro, Kicksite, Glofox, Walla, Arketa, The Studio Director and DanceStudio-Pro, among others. That list is not exhaustive. Whatever you are on now, ask, and we will tell you plainly.
The questions, and the straight answers.
These are the questions people actually type, in the words they type them. If yours is not here, it is the one worth asking on the call.
Recess is free to use. There is no monthly platform fee, no per-feature add-on and no setup cost. Recess earns a service fee of approximately 5% paid by the member at checkout, and card and bank processing is covered by Recess out of that fee rather than billed to you on top of it. A studio running four classes a day pays the same as one running twenty, which is to say nothing.
No to all three. There is no setup cost, no minimum and no plan to commit to, because there is no plan. The migration is run by our team and is not charged for either.
Yes. A season or a term is enrolled once and runs for its whole length rather than being booked a week at a time, and a payment plan spreads the cost across dates you choose. That is the difference between a program and a repeating class, and it is the thing most software in this category does not hold.
Yes. Pay rates are set per staff member and per class type, with head count rules where you want a full class to pay more than an empty one, and hourly staff clock in and out. Payroll is computed as classes happen, so at the end of a period you run a report rather than assemble one. Recess works out what each person earned. Paying them still happens through whatever you already use to move the money.
Yes, and this is one of the reasons studios move. A family account holds several children who may be on completely different programs and different ladders, paying from one card, and sibling billing prices the second and third child the way your studio prices them. They are one household in Recess, not three unrelated customers who share a surname.
Yes. You set the requirement once on the class: a level or a rank, a skill an instructor has signed off, a prerequisite class, an age range, a tag you keep on the client, or the membership or program they hold. Anyone who does not meet it never sees the class as bookable, so nobody has to have that conversation at the door.
Yes, two-way, by text and email, in one thread per person. Their bookings, attendance, packages and notes sit beside the conversation, so nobody opens a second screen to answer a question. Sends go from your own domain, so a parent sees your studio name and not ours.
No. Texting is unlimited and free: no credits, no per message rate and no monthly fee for the number. This is worth checking on any other quote you are holding, because it is often a separate line, a prepaid balance, or a feature that sits on a higher tier.
Every studio gets a branded client app with its own name, logo and colors, and it can be published to the Apple App Store and Google Play under your own listing. There is no separate charge for it and no tier to reach first. Members book, pay, update a card, read your messages and see their own progress in it.
Yes. A camp week or an afterschool block is a program with its own roster, its own price, its own agreement and its own attendance, so a parent enrolls for the week rather than booking five separate sessions. Both sit beside your classes rather than inside your class schedule.
Yes, on a ladder you define. The ranks, the stripes between them and what somebody has to do to move up are yours to set. Testing, promotions, printed certificates and badge artwork all hang off the same ladder, and a student can see where they are inside your app.
Yes. Belts, gymnastics levels, swim stages and individual skills a coach signs off are the same mechanism underneath, so a gym that has never awarded a belt uses it the same way a martial arts school does. Clubs, challenges and points, milestones and leaderboards attach to it as well.
Yes. A member-facing progress view sits inside the studio's own app, showing where somebody is on the ladder and what is next, so a parent can look on the way home instead of asking a coach at pickup.
You can run the registration side of it. A tournament is an event with registration, divisions and fees, and Recess hands you the field as a spreadsheet. It does not draw brackets, score matches, or talk to a governing body's scoring system, and it is not going to pretend it does.
Yes. Staff availability drives one to one appointments, private and semi-private sessions, and they sit on the same schedule as the classes rather than in a second calendar. Session packages draw down as the appointments happen.
Yes, on the same roster. Packs, unlimited memberships, drop-ins and ClassPass bookings all appear as one list of people who are coming, which is the only way a front desk can actually work.
The recovery runs on its own. The member is asked to update the card in your app before anyone at the studio gets involved, which is the difference between a quiet fix and an awkward conversation at the desk. Disputes and refunds are handled in the same place.
Yes. Point of sale handles selling at the counter, with retail products, gift cards, bundles and your own custom fees on the same ledger as everything else, so the end of the day reconciles against one system rather than two.
Yes. Recess messages every other coach cleared to teach that class, takes the first yes, and updates the schedule and the members' app. Pay follows the class, so whoever covers is paid at their own rate without anyone editing payroll afterward.
Yes. Each site has its own schedule, rooms and staff, while clients, billing and reporting stay unified, and a family with a child at each location has one account. You are not running two copies of your studio and reconciling them by hand.
Yes. The migration is automated and our team runs it, so nobody at your studio manages a project. Students, ranks, attendance history, memberships, packages, contracts, families, waivers, upcoming bookings and billing information come across. Studios have moved from Mindbody, Momence, Mariana Tek, Jackrabbit, PushPress, Zen Planner, iClassPro, Kicksite, Glofox, Walla, Arketa, The Studio Director and DanceStudio-Pro among others, and that list is not exhaustive.
Yes, and it is the connection behind Business Health, which puts revenue, costs, payroll and a forward forecast in one place and lets you ask questions of it in plain language. Recess reads your QuickBooks rather than replacing it, so your books stay where your accountant expects to find them.
Yes, both. ClassPass bookings land on the same roster as everyone else, and Wellhub, formerly Gympass, covers members who reach you through their employer.
Yes. Roles and permissions decide what each person can see and do, so what a front desk shift can open is not what an owner can open. Staff have their own records, which is also what pay rates and payroll are computed against.
Not by itself, and it is worth being clear about that. Recess has no consumer marketplace and is not building one, so every member who books on Recess is somebody you already reached. What it does is answer them, qualify them and book the trial without waiting for anyone to be at the desk.
As many as you need. Staff logins are unlimited and are not priced, because charging per seat would mean charging a studio for hiring.
Yes. You set how many classes are in the pack, how long the credits last, which classes they apply to and whether it renews on its own. A client is told at booking when she is using her last credit and can buy the next pack there and then.
Groups past about a hundred locations, anyone who needs to keep their own merchant account, anyone who wants brackets scored in the software, and any owner who would rather absorb a monthly platform fee so the member never sees a service fee at checkout. There is a whole section on this page about it, because those calls are cheaper to have now than six weeks into an onboarding.
What Recess does not do.
Every one of these has cost us a deal, and all of them are still true. A page that only lists what a product can do is not a reference, it is an advertisement.
Ask about the one thing this page did not answer.
Every studio has one question that decides it, and it is usually specific enough that no feature page would ever have covered it. Bring that one.