Recess vs Zen Planner
Zen Planner was started in 2006 by a martial arts school owner, it has run belts and grading longer than almost anyone in this category, and it is now part of Daxko. The difference is not the belt board. It is what your monthly bill is made of: on Zen Planner the plan climbs with your active member count and the tools that chase leads and answer texts are priced beside it, and on Recess there is no monthly bill at all.
Every Zen Planner figure on this page was read on Zen Planner's own website, its help center and the terms its site links to. Each one is footnoted, with the page and the date, at the bottom.
Recess has no monthly platform fee, no add-ons and no setup cost. It 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.
Recess is not built for chains past about a hundred locations. Past that, centralized franchise tooling matters more than we can serve, and we would tell you so on the first call.
Who each one suits, plainly. Zen Planner is a mature, conventional subscription built for schools and boxes that rank people, and it does that job. Recess is the same category of software with the subscription taken out. So most of this page is not about features at all. It is about what you are willing to pay every month for tools you will use every week, and what happens to that number as your school fills up.
The parts of the bill, side by side.
Zen Planner publishes more of its price list than most of this category, including a separate page carrying every band. Everything in their column below came off their own pages on 31 August 2026, and can change without notice.
Their belt and grading tooling is established and good. It sits in the base package at every price band rather than waiting on an upgrade, and it carries rank on the profile, a view of who is due to test, shared curriculums, and a progress view in the member's app.
Recess does all of that as well, but progression is the newest part of our product and it is rolling out now. If a grading cycle is the thing you cannot afford to get wrong this quarter, ask us to show you ours working before you move anything.
Your school's own app, on the App Store, included. Zen Planner puts a member app in the Studio package, and putting your name and colors on it is a separate Branded App add-on published at $39 a month. The terms their site links to add that the studio opens, maintains and pays Apple directly for its own Developer Account. On Recess every school gets its own app under its own listing on the App Store and Google Play, from the first day, at no charge and with no developer account to run.
The bill grows as you grow, and the tools that do the growing are priced beside it. Zen Planner publishes eight bands by active member count, from $99 a month up to 45 members to $289 at 251 and above, and the terms their site links to allow the fee to rise by up to the Consumer Price Index plus three percent in any twelve month period, and say plainly that fees may increase but shall not decrease. Marketing automation, the lead pipeline and two-way texting are in Zen Planner Engage at $249 a month, and texts on the base plan are 2.1 cents each. On Recess there is one version, it does all of that, and the number does not move when you sign your hundredth member.
Everything Zen Planner charges for, in one place.
Zen Planner publishes more of its price list than most of this category, and that deserves saying before anything else. A separate tiers page carries the whole table, band by band, rather than sending you to sales for a number.
The plan. Zen Planner Studio is banded on active members, which they define as anyone with a membership or who has attended an event in the past month, never staff and never prospects. Eight published bands: $99 up to 45 members, then $133, $155, $189, $229, $239, $269, and $289 at 251 and above. Every Studio feature is on every band, which is a better policy than most of this category and worth crediting.
The extensions. A website is $99 a month. Zen Planner Engage, which carries marketing automation, the lead pipeline, AI campaigns, reputation tools and two-way texting, is $249 a month and includes the website. Bought together as Ultimate, Studio, website and Engage run from $348 a month at the smallest band to $538 at the largest, which their page notes saves $99 a month against buying them separately. A Branded App is $39 a month, an EMV card reader is $39 a month, and a New Business Bundle of Studio, website and branded app is $199 a month.
The messages. Texts on the base plan are 2.1 cents each, billed monthly on your Zen Planner bill, and their help center says the service is one-way, pointing you to Engage if you want members to be able to reply. A school with 400 members sending two texts a week to each of them spends about $874 a year on messages nobody can answer, and more if any of them run past 160 characters, because their help center says longer messages are split into several.
The processing. This is the one number Zen Planner does not publish. Their payments page names PaySimple as the preferred provider, processing card and ACH through processors like Stripe and WorldPay, and their FAQ says new customers can receive exclusive pricing via Stripe and to contact an account executive. The pricing page marks payment processing with an asterisk reading "Additional charges and/or fees may apply." Get the rate in writing before you sign. Where this page needs a processing figure it assumes the standard rate Stripe publishes, 2.9% plus 30 cents, and labels it as an assumption everywhere it appears. The calculator below uses the 2.9% only and leaves the cents out, so its number is lower than the real one rather than higher.
Flex Fees, which is the fair part. Zen Planner also offers to add a per-transaction fee that your member pays and that shows on their receipt. That is the same shape as the Recess model. If you were going to switch that on anyway, the two products are closer than the monthly figures make them look, and we would rather point it out than have you notice it later.
The contract. Their pricing FAQ answers the commitment question in three sentences: "Zen Planner is a month-to-month subscription. Annual contracts are available upon request. 12-month commitment." The terms their site links to let you cancel the software membership at any time on 30 days' notice through a Cancellation Request Form, unless a longer Term is stated on your Order Form, and note that cancelling the software does not necessarily cancel payment processing, Engage or full-service billing. Leaving inside a Term costs 100% of the fees the remaining months would have carried. Read your own Order Form for the Term you actually agreed to, rather than the website.
That is $5,724 a year, taken straight off their published list rather than guessed at, with card processing and 2.1 cents a message still to come. A school of the same size on Studio alone pays $189 a month, or $2,268 a year, and does its lead follow-up and its two-way texting somewhere else.
Recess is one thing at one price. There is no plan to pick, no band to cross, no seat count and no setup fee. 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.
That is a trade rather than a free lunch, and it is not automatically cheaper for you. A school with a high average sale and low volume may well prefer a predictable monthly figure and a checkout total with nothing added to it. Put your own revenue in below, then check the answer against your own bank statement rather than either company's marketing.
Two sliders, their floor against zero.
Their side uses Zen Planner Studio alone, at the published band for your active member count, with no website, no Engage, no branded app and no text messages. Processing is assumed at 2.9%, the percentage part of the rate Stripe publishes, because Zen Planner publishes no rate of its own. The 30 cents a transaction is left out on purpose, so the real figure is always higher than the one shown. Treat the result 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. Engage at $249 a month, a website at $99, a branded app at $39 and 2.1 cents a message are all left out of the figure above, so the real gap is wider than this.
What school owners ask us before they move.
A service fee of approximately 5% of what they are buying, added at checkout, and that is the whole of how Recess earns anything on your account. There is no monthly platform fee, no per-feature add-on, no setup cost and no plan to outgrow. Card and bank processing is covered by Recess out of that fee rather than billed to you on top. If you would rather carry a monthly bill yourself and keep your checkout total clean, that is a reasonable preference and a subscription platform serves it better.
Not the capability, but be careful about the timing. Recess handles belts and stripes, skills and levels, clubs, milestones, leaderboards, printed certificates and a progress view in the member's own app, and a student moves into the next program automatically on a rule you set once. Zen Planner has been doing rank since 2006 and it shows, and their version sits in the base package at every price band. Progression is the newest part of Recess and it is rolling out now, so if a grading cycle is the thing you cannot afford to get wrong this quarter, ask to see ours working before you move anything.
Zen Planner counts active members, which they define as anyone with a membership or who has attended an event in the past month, and they say they never charge for staff or prospects. Their published bands run $99 a month up to 45 members, then $133 to 60, $155 to 75, $189 to 100, $229 to 150, $239 to 200, $269 to 250, and $289 above that. Add $249 a month if you want Engage for two-way texting and campaigns, $99 for a website and $39 for a branded app. Card processing is the one figure they do not publish, so ask for it in writing.
No. Two-way text and email are included, with templates, push notifications and sending on your own domain, and there is no charge per message. On Zen Planner's base plan their help center puts SMS at 2.1 cents a message, billed monthly on your Zen Planner bill, and says the service is one-way, pointing to Engage at $249 a month if you want members to be able to reply.
Yes, and as things in their own right rather than as a recurring class you remember to end. A term has a start and a finish, enrolling a student books their sessions, siblings sit on one account and one card, make-up credits and waitlists work inside it, and students age up into the next program automatically. Zen Planner documents both as well: their best practice article builds a season as recurring classes with no defined end date, and their camps article has you add each purchaser to the camp's classes on the calendar once they have paid.
Yes. Recess integrates with CAP for CrossFit programming, and carries challenges, points, milestones and leaderboards for the members following it. Zen Planner does this through SugarWOD, which is in their Studio package and adds an in-gym display with lift percentages and leaderboards. Neither company wrote the programming tool. Both connect to one.
Three things, all on their own pages. Their pricing FAQ says Zen Planner is month to month, that annual contracts are available on request, and, in the same three-sentence answer, 12-month commitment, so read your Order Form for the Term you actually signed. The terms their site links to let you cancel the software membership on 30 days' notice unless a longer Term is stated, and note that this does not necessarily cancel payment processing, Engage or full-service billing. Leaving inside a Term costs 100% of the fees the remaining months would have carried.
Yes. If your grading cycle is the center of how you run and you want that part proven rather than new, theirs has a twenty year head start and sits in the base package at every band. If you want your website, your CRM and your school software bought from one company on one invoice, they sell that and Recess does not sell websites. And if you would rather pay a predictable monthly figure than have your members see a fee at checkout, that is a real preference and their model serves it better than ours.
Every Zen Planner claim on this page was read on Zen Planner's own website, its help center and the terms its site links to, on 31 August 2026. Nothing here comes from a review site, a software directory or a summary of either. Zen Planner can change its prices and packaging at any time, so verify anything that matters to your decision.
1.Pricing page, page dated 26 August 2025: the $99 starting price, the Studio includes list, the "Additional charges and/or fees may apply" note, the $99 website, the $249 Engage, the $39 branded app, the $39 EMV device, and the FAQ answers on tiering by active members, the contract, the payment processors and belt tracking. 2.Pricing tiers page, page dated 8 June 2026: the eight Studio bands, the Essentials and Ultimate bundles, the New Business Bundle and the add-on prices. 3.Payments page, page dated 10 February 2026: PaySimple as preferred provider, Flex Fees, and the FAQ answer directing pricing questions to an account executive. 4. Help center, "How Do I Send a Text Message?", last modified 27 July 2026: 2.1 cents a message billed monthly, one-way only, US and Canadian numbers, 160 characters. 5. Help center, "How Do I Set Up/Maintain Session Based Classes?", last modified 28 July 2026. 6. Help center, "How Do I Add Camps?", last modified 4 August 2026. 7.Martial arts page, page dated 18 March 2026: belt and skill tracking, shared curriculums and family memberships. 8. Help center, "A Smarter Tag for Family Accounts", last modified 18 June 2026. 9.Product page, page dated 5 January 2026: SugarWOD, the time clock, payroll, and the listing of two-way text under Engage. 10.Engage page, page dated 29 May 2026. 11.Branded app page, page dated 7 August 2025: "$39/mo, available as a Zen Planner add-on". 12. The Terms of Service that zenplanner.com/terms-of-use resolves to, published by Daxko and dated 16 June 2026: cancellation on 30 days' notice at section 8f, early termination at 100% of the remaining fees at section 8d, fee increases capped at the Consumer Price Index plus three percent at section 4i, and the studio's own Apple Developer Account at section 20c. 13.stripe.com/pricing: "2.9% + 30c per successful transaction for domestic cards".
Where this page states a processing cost for an ordinary US card sale, it is an assumption of 2.9% plus 30 cents and is labelled as an assumption at every point of use. It is not Zen Planner's rate. They have not published one, and their payments FAQ directs the question to an account executive.
Where this page says Zen Planner does not publish something, that is a statement about what is on their website, not a claim about what their software can be made to do. Where it describes how something is set up, that is their own documentation describing their own product, and we have linked the article so you can read it yourself.