Recess vs Kicksite
Kicksite has built software for martial arts schools and nothing else since 2007, and belts, ranks and testing are its home ground rather than something bolted on afterwards. The difference is not belt tracking. It is how many bills the school pays, how much of the week the software runs on its own, and what the student actually holds in their hand.
Every Kicksite claim on this page was read on Kicksite's own website and knowledge base on 30 August 2026, and is sourced at the foot of the page.
Recess has no monthly software fee, no add-ons and no setup cost. It earns roughly 5% paid by the member at checkout, with card and bank processing covered out of that rather than billed to you on top.
Recess is not built for networks past about a hundred locations. If that is where you are heading, this is the wrong page, and we would tell you so on the first call.
Who each one suits, plainly. If martial arts is the only business you will ever run, Kicksite's entire roadmap is decided by people who teach on a mat, and that is a real thing to want. If your building also holds a gymnastics class, an afterschool run and a summer camp, Recess is shaped for a week that has more than one shape in it.
Kicksite has served martial arts schools and only martial arts schools since 2007, and it shows in the parts a school touches daily: a rank curriculum you build yourself with your own belt graphics, ranks tied to programs, belt testing events, an Eligible to Promote list, one-click promotion and the whole promotion history kept. Every feature is included on every tier, which is rarer in this category than it should be, and on their own published breakdown it is true.
If belts, attendance and testing essentially are the software for you, and you want a vendor whose next feature request comes from somebody standing on a mat, stay where you are. Nothing further down this page outweighs that.
A real app, in both stores, with your school's name on it, included. Kicksite's own knowledge base is unambiguous about this and we are quoting it rather than characterising it: the Member Portal "isn't available on the App Store or Play Store", and Kicksite itself "is not available as an app in the Google Play Store (Android) or the Apple App Store (iOS)". What a student gets is a browser page at kicksite.net that they add to a home screen. On Recess every school gets a native iOS and Android app published under its own listing, its own name and its own icon, from the first day.
One fee instead of three lines. Kicksite publishes both halves of its price, which is to its credit, but there are two halves: $49 to $199 a month for the software depending on how many students you have, and a Basys processing account at $29 a month plus 2.9% and 25 cents on every card. Recess has none of the three. No software bill, no processing account, no per sale charge to the school.
What is different once you look past the belt.
Kicksite changes its pricing and its features without notice. Every figure in their column is theirs, published on their own site, and dated in the sources at the foot of this page. Check anything that will decide your answer.
Two bills, and Kicksite publishes both.
Start with the credit. Kicksite prints its price on a public page and does not make you book a call to see it, and every feature is on every tier. The software is priced on how many students you have: $49 a month up to 25, $99 to 50, $149 to 100 and $199 above that. Their own account billing article adds a detail the pricing page leaves out, which is that the count includes frozen students as well as active ones, and that a downgrade has to be made by hand rather than happening on its own.
The second bill sits on a different page, and it adds to the first rather than replacing it. Their Payment Processing page publishes the Basys schedule in full: a flat rate card account at $29 a month plus 2.9% and 25 cents a transaction, or a card and ACH account at $35 to set up, $49 a month, 2.9% and 25 cents per card and 30 cents per ACH. We can say the two stack because their own page describes the processing account as an integration you switch on from inside a Kicksite account you are already paying for. A school with 90 students is at $178 a month before a single card is run.
Their third option is the closest thing in this category to how Recess works, and it deserves saying out loud. Basys also sells service fee card payments: the student pays an extra 3.75% at the point of sale, which in Kicksite's words "brings your net transaction fees to ZERO", on the same $29 a month. That is the same conviction Recess is built on. The person buying carries the cost of being able to buy, so the school keeps the whole ticket.
That $3.15 is the per sale part only. Underneath it sit the $29 a month processing account and the $49 to $199 a month software, neither of which moves with how much you sell. On Recess the same $100 sale leaves the school with $100, and the member pays about $5 at checkout.
Recess is not automatically cheaper for you, and we would rather say that than have you work it out later. Per transaction, 2.9% and 25 cents is a smaller number than 5%. Where the arithmetic turns is the fixed money and where the fee lands: on Recess there is no software bill and no processing account underneath it, and the fee only exists when a sale does. Do the sum on your own volume before you believe anybody, us included.
Run it on your own student count.
The student slider picks the Kicksite tier the way their own pricing page does. The processing lines use the Basys flat rate account, which is the cheaper of their two card options.
Every figure on the Kicksite side is their own published software price and their own published Basys fee schedule, read on 30 August 2026. The two are billed separately. The 25 cents a transaction is applied at an assumed average sale of $120, which is our assumption and marked as one; the percentage and the two monthly fees are not assumptions. Your members pay a service fee of about 5% at checkout on Recess, which is how the software is free for you. That is a real trade rather than a free lunch, and the point of showing both sides is that you can weigh it.
The questions that come up on the first call.
No. Recess carries belts and stripes, skills and levels, testing, promotion history, certificates, badge artwork and a progress view inside your school's own app, plus enrollment gating so the next class only becomes bookable once a student is ready for it. Being straight with you, this is the part of the comparison where Recess is newest. Kicksite has shipped belt tools for years and progression is the most recent thing we have built. Ask us to set your own rank structure up during the demo rather than taking our word for it on a web page.
Actually free, permanently, with every feature included. There is no plan to choose, no setup fee and nothing waiting behind a higher tier. Recess earns a service fee of approximately 5% paid by the member at checkout, and card and bank processing is covered out of that rather than billed to you on top.
You may not, and we would rather you did the sum than took our side of it. At 25 students, $49 for the software plus $29 for the Basys account is $78 a month, and predictability is worth something. The reasons to move are not really about that number. They are the app your students would have on their phones, the staff hours and pay that Kicksite's own knowledge base says it does not track, and a sibling discount that recalculates itself instead of being arithmetic you redo every September.
Yes. Recess publishes a native app for your school to the Apple App Store and Google Play, listed under your own name and icon, and it is included rather than sold as an add-on. Kicksite's knowledge base states that the Member Portal "isn't available on the App Store or Play Store", and separately that Kicksite itself "is not available as an app in the Google Play Store (Android) or the Apple App Store (iOS)". Their students use it as a browser page added to a home screen.
No. There is one version of Recess and it includes two-way messaging, sequences and campaigns, lead capture, reporting, staff records, shifts and payroll, multiple locations and your own branded app. Kicksite also puts every feature on every tier, so on this particular point the two of us agree with each other and disagree with most of the category.
Yes. The migration is automated and our team runs it: students, guardians and family relationships, current ranks and promotion history, attendance, memberships and billing. Ask for a test import of your real data before you commit, from us or from anyone else. Then ask a second question in writing of whichever vendor you choose, including us: whether your stored payment methods can move to another provider, not only whether your data can be exported. Those are two different questions, and the second one is what decides whether leaving is actually possible.
Every Kicksite claim on this page was read on Kicksite's own website and knowledge base on 30 August 2026, not on review sites, roundups or summaries. Kicksite changes its pricing and features without notice. Verify anything here that will decide your answer.
1. Pricing page: the $49, $99, $149 and $199 tiers by active student count, "all features included at every tier", discounted annual pricing on request, the first 30 days free, free unlimited one-way texting, and Basys named as the preferred payment partner. kicksite.com/pricing/ 2. Knowledge base, How to Access Account Billing Information, updated 19 August 2024: the same four tiers, the count based on "active and frozen students", manual downgrades, and association discounts. kicksite.com/knowledge-base/plan-and-billing-information/ 3. Payment Processing page: Basys as the preferred US partner and Stripe for 40+ countries; flat rate card at $29 a month plus 2.9% and $0.25; card plus ACH at $35 setup, $49 a month, 2.9% and $0.25 per card and $0.30 per ACH; and service fee card payments at $29 a month where students "automatically pay an additional 3.75% that covers your costs and brings your net transaction fees to ZERO". kicksite.com/payment-processing/
4. Knowledge base, For Students, How to Install the Member Portal, updated 12 December 2025: "The Member Portal isn't available on the App Store or Play Store, but you can easily install it to your home screen or computer dock." kicksite.com/knowledge-base/install-member-portal/ 5. Knowledge base, How Do I Use Kicksite as an App, updated 12 December 2025: "As of this writing, Kicksite is not available as an app in the Google Play Store (Android) or the Apple App Store (iOS)." kicksite.com/knowledge-base/faq-how-do-i-use-kicksite-as-an-app/ 6. FAQ page: serving martial arts since 2007, the feature list, the tiers restated, "no hidden fees or gated features", the Member Portal described as a mobile web app, and the website and local search services. kicksite.com/faq/ 7. Knowledge base, Tip: Use Programs to Track Employee Time, updated 13 February 2025: "Kicksite does not have an employee time clock function", the workaround of entering staff as students on check in and check out programs, and the note that a school needing time and "wages owed" calculated "may find it's better to use another site or app". kicksite.com/knowledge-base/tip-use-programs-to-track-employee-time/
8. Knowledge base, How to Set Up Families, updated 27 January 2025, and The Member Portal, updated 14 July 2025: the Primary, free non-attending Contacts that do not count towards the active student total, and "The Primary of a Family can view all other Family members' accounts". 9. Knowledge base, Tip: How to Set Up a Family Membership, updated 9 April 2025: "Billing functionality is not yet available for Family Memberships, so the template you make should have No Billing selected", with the recurring amount "the total price for all members, calculate it based on your school's pricing" and a worked example of $100 for the first student and $75 for the second. kicksite.com/knowledge-base/family-membership/ 10. Martial Arts Software page: belt curriculum, testing events, Eligible to Promote, one-click promotion, promotion history, kiosk and mass check-in, finances, inventory, media library and the Member Portal sections. kicksite.com/martial-arts-management-software/ 11. Knowledge base, How to Create a General Event, updated 19 August 2024: invitations, multi-day dates, an optional fee with online registration and payment, guests, reminders and a size limit. 12. Knowledge base, How to Restrict Check-In, updated 18 November 2025: triggers for outstanding balance, expired membership, unsigned agreement and no payment method, with message or block options.
13. Knowledge base, How to Set Up Inventory, updated 6 August 2025: categories, revenue streams, tax, deliverable items with stock counts and export. 14. Knowledge base, For Students, Member Portal Overview, updated 26 February 2025: the published list of portal sections. 15. Knowledge base, How to Use Two-Way Texting in Kicksite, updated 29 April 2026: Conversations, message templates, push notifications, per-employee permissions and the exportable SMS log. 16. Knowledge base, How to Set Up an SMS Integration, updated 20 February 2026: Twilio, a dedicated toll-free number per school, and verification usually completed within five days. 17. Lead Management page: lead capture forms, landing pages, prospects board, shortlink and QR generators. kicksite.com/martial-arts-lead-management-software/ 18. Switching page: the first 30 days free, a free import handled by an in-house Data Specialist "in 2 business days or less", and 60 days of onboarding with a dedicated specialist. kicksite.com/switch/
Two notes on how this page treats what it does not know. The only assumption on the Kicksite side is the $120 average sale used to apply their 25 cents per transaction inside the calculator, and it is labelled as an assumption there as well as here; their percentage and both monthly fees are published figures, not estimates. And where this page says something is not in the Member Portal's published sections, that is a statement about what Kicksite documents, not a claim about what their software can be made to do. Ask them.
Claims about Recess describe Recess's own product. Progression is the newest part of it, and this page says so where it matters rather than only here.