Recess vs Spark Membership
Spark is built for martial arts schools and publishes exactly one number: $199 a month, after an eight week free trial. Eight weeks free is unusually generous. What is not published is everything that sits around that $199, and that is the part worth asking about.
Every Spark claim on this page was read on Spark Membership's own pricing page, 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, neither of these is the answer, and we would say so on the first call.
Who each one suits, plainly. Spark is a focused martial arts product with a long free trial and one published price. Recess charges the studio nothing and earns a fee paid by the member instead. The question is whether $199 every month beats a percentage on what you actually collect.
Where the two actually differ.
Spark publishes its headline price and a free trial, which is more than most of this category does. Card processing rates, setup fees, text message costs and the price of a branded app are not published.
Eight weeks free, then one flat price, on a product built for martial arts rather than adapted to it. Rank eligibility driven by attendance is genuinely good machinery. If your testing cycle runs on it and your instructors trust it, that has real value and moving it costs you something.
They also migrate your student data free, and they say so up front rather than making you ask. For a school with years of rank history, that is not a small thing.
Your own app, on the App Store, under your own name, included. Spark describes staff apps on Android and iOS, but does not publish what a member-facing app under your own branding costs, so you cannot compare it until you are on a sales call.
And a price you can work out before you talk to anyone. Spark publishes $199 and nothing else. No card rate, no setup fee, no text message cost. Recess is one number, paid by the member, with processing covered out of it, and you can do that arithmetic yourself today.
What you actually pay.
Spark publishes one number: $199 a month, after an eight week free trial. That trial is longer than anything else in this category and they deserve credit for it.
What is the total cost? You cannot tell from their site. The pricing page states the plan fee and the free trial. It does not state card processing rates, setup fees, text message costs or contract length.
That matters more than the headline. On a school collecting $18,000 a month, the card rate alone decides several thousand dollars a year. Get all four numbers in writing before you sign anything.
Recess is one thing at one price. No plan to choose, no seat count, no setup fee, nothing behind a paywall. Recess earns a service fee of about 5% paid by the member at checkout, and card and bank processing comes out of that fee rather than being charged on top.
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 price of $199 a month. Processing is assumed at 2.9% and 30 cents, the standard published Stripe rate, because Spark does not publish a rate of its own. That assumption is marked as an assumption.
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.
Recess is free permanently, not for eight weeks, so there is nothing to compare at the end of the trial. The honest difference is that Spark costs you nothing for two months and then $199 every month, while Recess costs the studio nothing ever and charges your members about 5% at checkout instead. Work out 5% of your collections and compare it to $2,388 a year.
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.
Belts, stripes, testing days and a ladder you define yourself, plus skills, clubs, milestones and a progress screen in your own app. Spark ties rank eligibility to attendance requirements, which is tighter automation than ours, and if your testing cycle depends on that specific behaviour it is worth weighing.
Recess, and it is not a close call. Every feature is included from day one with no plan fee to carry while you fill your first classes. An eight week trial is generous, but it ends, and $199 a month is a real bill for a school that has not filled its mat yet.
No. Independent single-location schools 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 Spark Membership claim on this page was read on Spark Membership's own pricing page, not from review sites or summaries, on 3 October 2026.
Sources: the Spark Membership pricing page, for the $199 monthly price, the eight week free trial, the free student data migration and the statement that there are no long contracts.
Where this page says a figure is not published, that means it was not stated on Spark's pricing page on the date above. Card processing rates, setup fees, annual pricing, text message costs and the price of a member-facing branded app all fall into that group.