Fitness Studio Booking Software: What Matters Most To Studio Owners

Boutique fitness studio booking and management software is an industry that was once dominated by a single player. Not anymore! 

Any Fitness Studio Owner that has looked into bringing studio software into their business for the first time or considered changing studio software platforms knows that the market is FILLED with options. So many, in fact, that figuring out what software will work best for your boutique fitness studio can be a dizzying prospect!

As a marketing strategist and business coach to boutique fitness studio owners, I’ve worked with hundreds of Fitness Studio Owners around the globe. Studio management software is a topic that comes up in 1:1 coaching sessions and inside our Thrive and Marketing Intensive group-based programs. 

To help clear things up for Fitness Studio Owners everywhere, Spring Three decided  to put together some comprehensive content and resources on studio software. To do that, our team conducted research on things like features, price point, integrations, and analytics, but we didn’t stop there!

We also turned to YOU, the studio owners and software users, with a survey that gave us great insight into what you are using, what you love (or don’t!) about your software, and what matters most to you and your business. 

3 Fitness Studio Software Features that Matter the Most

The Spring Three Studio Software Survey revealed three features or considerations that seem to make the biggest difference to boutique fitness studio owners when choosing and using fitness studio software. Those three features are:

1. Price or affordability 
2. How easy the studio software is to use (by studio owners and their clients)
3. Reporting and analytics

Price of Fitness Studio Software

By far, the consideration that was mentioned most about what studio owners like about their software was the price or affordability. And that makes sense! Booking software is a must-have expense for boutique fitness studios but it can’t be cost-prohibitive. After all, your business needs to make a profit to thrive, right?

The price point that makes sense to you as the Fitness Studio Owner will depend heavily on the overall size of your business and what the functionality of the fitness studio software will bring to your business. As you weigh your options, consider the potential for revenue growth and time saved inside your business. Typically, you’ll want to think beyond the immediate size of your business and plan accordingly.

The Fitness Studio Booking System Must be Easy to Use

The fitness studio owners who were most satisfied with their fitness booking software were those who found their software easy to navigate…. For the studio owners themselves as well as the clients. 

Fitness Studio Owners can’t leverage a bunch of fancy features if they are impossible to figure out and actually use. Many studio owners reported that they felt they had to have a high level of technical know-how to get to the data that they need, and that is frustrating. 

Studio clients need to be able to quickly and easily buy packages, book sessions, and see your schedule on any device and without any fuss. The last thing any studio owner wants is to lose a booking or worse, a client all together, because the booking software is hard to use. 

As you transition into a new software, it’s important to learn how to use that software. At Spring Three we work with studio owners across many different studio management systems and each has it’s own way of working! Invest time in learning the capabilities of your studio software and make the most of any onboarding sessions offered by your software provider… it will save you hours down the road!

Reporting for Fitness Studio Businesses

In our survey, Studio owners shared that access to key information is critical in order to make sound business decisions. Not all software offers easy access to data and that can be frustrating! So… what reports are important? 

At Spring Three, we recommend Studio owners want to be able to see things like sales, attendance, and payroll at a glance - that is a given! Beyond that, Studio Owners should also want to be able to track data on new client acquisition, retention, revenue over time and more. 

And it’s important that this information is easy to access!

What Studio Management Software are Fitness Studio Owners using right now?

But as a sneak peak, here is a list of the studio software options that showed up the most on our survey results: 

• MindBody - This long-standing Studio Management Software has been around for decades and many are familiar with it. Designed for wellness  studios of all sizes with the ability to support different offers and revenue streams.
• Walla - A very user-friendly software that gives easy access to data and makes running a successful studio easy! Specifically designed for studios of all sizes with the ability to support different offers and revenue streams.
• Momence - With all the capabilities of top level studio management software, Momence makes running your studio a breeze. Specifically designed for fitness studios of all sizes with the ability to support different offers and revenue streams.
• Bookee - a great option for smaller studios, easy to use for studio owner and client with a lot of functionality 
• Acuity - a lower cost option for smaller 1:1 studios. Limited reporting and 
• Mariana Tek - Built for class based studios and works well with multiple locations.
• Fit Degree  - great for class based studios, easy to use and our studio owners love it
• Arketa - a newer all-in-one platform that facilitates a hybrid of offerings with easy

Wondering which were the most popular? MindBody and Acuity were the most frequently listed current studio software platforms on the Spring Three Studio Software Survey, closely followed by Momence and Walla. 

Stay tuned for the second article in this series: Which Studio Software Works Best For Which Type of Studio Offerings? 

Need help inside your studio business? Check out the ways we can work together.