Recess vs Mindbody
Mindbody is the oldest and largest name in this category, and it owns the consumer app many people use to find a class in the first place. The real difference is not a feature count. Recess is one product rather than a platform with packages and add-ons around it, and it is shaped around programs and families.
Every Mindbody claim on this page was read on Mindbody's own website and support center, and is footnoted below.
Recess has no monthly platform fee, no add-ons and no setup cost. It earns roughly 5% paid by the member at checkout, with card and bank processing covered by Recess out of that fee.
Recess is not built for chains past about a hundred locations. If that is you, Mindbody is the better answer, and we would say so on the first call.
Who each one suits, plainly. If your growth depends on strangers discovering you, Mindbody has a consumer marketplace and Recess has nothing like it. If a parent signs one child up for a twelve week term and a second child for a different one, Recess is shaped for that and Mindbody is shaped around one adult booking one class.
Where the two actually differ.
Mindbody changes its pricing, packages and features without notice, and says on its own pricing page that not all features are available in all regions or on all tiers. Verify anything here that matters to your decision.
Mindbody owns a consumer app where people search for classes near them and book. Recess has nothing like it, and is not building one. Every member who books on Recess is someone you already reached.
So work out what share of your new members actually arrive that way. If it is a real share, stay where you are — nothing else on this page outweighs it. Most owners find the number is smaller than they assumed.
Your own app, on the App Store, under your own name — included. Not a web wrapper and not an add-on. On Mindbody the Branded Mobile App is listed as not available at all on Starter, optional on the packages above it, and included only with Ultimate Plus. On Recess every studio gets one, published to the App Store and Google Play under its own listing, from day one.
And every feature, free, permanently. No plan to choose and nothing waiting on a higher tier. The things a growing studio reaches for first — two-way messaging, reporting, lead follow-up, automated substitutes, payroll integrations — all sit above the entry package on Mindbody's own published breakdown. On Recess a studio with sixty members runs the same software as one with six hundred.
What you actually pay.
Mindbody publishes one number: starting at $79 USD per month per location. Accelerate and Ultimate prices are not published, and each plan card sends you to sales. Users are unlimited per location, so price rises with locations rather than people.
Do the plan fee and the card fee stack? Yes, and Mindbody says so itself. Their pricing FAQ answers the total-cost question in three parts: the base plan, premium add-ons, and transaction fees that apply when you accept payments, send text messages, use certain integrations or when a new client discovers you on the Mindbody app. In their words, your total is the plan you pick “plus any extras you add and any fees tied to how you sell and get paid.”
Mindbody does not publish a US card processing rate. Their rates article carries a table for around twenty regions, and the United States is the one row with no figure in it. This page assumes 2.9% plus 30 cents, the standard published Stripe rate. Their own worked example bills processing at 3.5%, and their published Canadian card-not-present rate is 2.89%, so the real figure may well be higher. Ask them for their US rate in writing before you sign anything.
Scale that to a $100 sale and it is $3.50 plus $20.00, leaving $76.50, with the monthly plan fee on top. The commission is capped at $30 per transaction and is non-refundable even if the sale is later refunded or charged back. It also buys you a member you did not have, which is the trade this whole page turns on.
Recess is one thing at one price. No plan to choose, no seat count, no setup fee, nothing behind a paywall inside the product. Recess earns a service fee of approximately 5% paid by the member at checkout, with card and bank processing covered by Recess out of that fee.
That is not automatically cheaper for you, and we would rather say so than have you find out. If you would rather absorb the cost yourself and keep the checkout total clean, a monthly subscription is a different trade. Do the arithmetic on your own volume before believing anyone, including us.
Put your own volume in.
Their side uses the published entry price of $79 a month per location, plus processing assumed at 2.9% and 30 cents. They publish no US rate and their own worked example bills 3.5%, so treat this as their floor rather than their price.
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 this is that you can see both sides of it.
What owners ask when they are weighing this up.
Actually free, permanently, with every feature included. There is no plan to choose and nothing 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.
Yes. Recess has no consumer marketplace and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If a meaningful share of your new members arrive through that app, that is a real reason to stay where you are. Work out what share it actually is before you decide — many studios assume it is larger than their own numbers show.
No. There is one version of Recess and it includes messaging, sequences, campaigns, lead capture, reporting, staff, payroll, multiple locations and your own branded client app published under your own listing.
Yes. It has martial arts belt tracking, a belt promotion report, class tests and a Progress Tracking feature covering programs, ranks and rank history. Check your package: belt tracking is not on Starter, and Progress Tracking is limited to Accelerate 2.0 and above. This is a difference of depth, not of presence.
Recess, and it is not a close call. Every feature is included from day one, so a studio that has not taken its first payment gets the same software as one with six hundred members. There is no plan to outgrow. On a tiered platform the things a new owner needs most — reporting, staff records, two-way messaging — are usually the ones sitting on a higher plan.
No. Independent single-location studios are exactly who Recess is built for, and there is no monthly fee to justify at that size. The size we are wrong for is the other end — past about a hundred locations.
Every Mindbody claim on this page was read on Mindbody's own website and support center, not from review sites or summaries, and was re-checked on 31 August 2026. Mindbody changes its pricing, packages and features without notice, and notes on its own pricing page that not all features are available in all regions or on all tiers, and that quoted statistics are not guaranteed. Verify anything here that matters to your decision.
Sources: the Mindbody business pricing page (plans, the $79 starting price, per-location pricing, the 3M+ figure, the total-cost FAQ, support and data conversion); the software packages article and the full feature breakdown (what sits on which tier); the Marketing Platform fees article (the 20% new client commission capped at $30, its non-refundable terms, the $30 worked example and the 127,000 figure); the family accounts overview and FAQ; the Progress Tracking and Martial Arts Belt Promotion articles; the Substitution Management article; and the Mindbody Payments processing rates article, where the United States row carries no rate.
Where this page states a cost for an ordinary US card sale it is an assumption of 2.9% plus 30 cents, the standard published Stripe rate, and is marked as an assumption at every point of use. It is not Mindbody's rate; they have not published one for the US.