What booking software actually costs a reformer studio
Comparing booking software for a reformer studio is unusually hard, because a large part of the market does not publish a price at all. Here is how to compare them anyway.
If you have spent an afternoon on this you will have noticed the pattern: plan names, feature lists, testimonials, and then a button that says Get a quote or Book a demo. It is not an accident. Quote-based pricing lets a vendor charge a ten-reformer studio more than a four-reformer studio for the same software, which is good for the vendor and hard for you to evaluate.
The four pricing models in this category
| Model | How it works | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Flat subscription | A fixed fee per month, usually tiered by feature or by size | Established studios with steady revenue |
| Quote on request | No public price; a call, then a number tailored to you | Larger studios and chains with negotiating room |
| Per member or per client | A fee that scales with the size of your client list | Studios with a small, high-value client base |
| Percentage of revenue | A share of what you actually take, nothing when you take nothing | New and seasonal studios, anyone with uneven months |
None of these is dishonest. They just distribute the risk differently. A flat subscription moves the risk onto you: the quiet January costs the same as the busy September. A percentage moves it onto the vendor.
What to work out before you sit through a demo
If you are going to be quoted rather than shown a price, go in with your own numbers so the quote has something to be measured against.
- 01Your realistic monthly revenue, low month and high month. Not the good month. A studio that takes €3,000 in July and €900 in January is priced very differently by a flat fee than by a percentage.
- 02Card processing, separately. Almost every platform charges you card fees on top of the software fee, and some add a percentage of their own to it. Ask what the total deduction from a €100 payment is, end to end, and get the answer in writing.
- 03The contract length. A monthly price on an annual commitment is an annual price. Ask what happens if you want to leave in month four.
- 04What is in your tier and what is not. Waitlists, automated reminders, memberships and reporting are routinely split across tiers, so the price you were quoted is often not the price for the product you were shown.
- 05Getting your data out. Ask specifically whether you can export your client list and their remaining credits, in a format you could hand to somebody else. The answer tells you how confident they are that you will stay.
Our price, because it seems only fair
Reformer Pilates Booking is free until your studio takes €1,000 in a calendar month. Above that we take 2.5%, and only on the part above €1,000, and we never take more than €250 in a month. There is no subscription, no setup fee, no contract and no tier: every studio has every feature.
| You take in a month | We take | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| €600 | €0 | 0% |
| €1,000 | €0 | 0% |
| €2,000 | €25 | 1.3% |
| €5,000 | €100 | 2.0% |
| €11,000 | €250 | 2.3% |
| €20,000 | €250 | 1.3% |
| €40,000 | €250 | 0.6% |
The ceiling binds at €11,000 of monthly revenue: €1,000 free, then 2.5% of the next €10,000. Past that our number stops moving, which is the part most worth checking against whatever else you are considering, because in this category the price normally only travels in one direction.
Stripe's card processing is separate and goes to Stripe, roughly 1.5% plus €0.25 per payment on European cards. Your clients pay into your own Stripe account, in your own name, so the money never passes through us. Our 2.5% comes off each payment above the threshold as it happens, which means there is no card of yours to charge and no invoice to chase.
Where we are still the wrong choice
It is worth being straight about this. The ceiling means we no longer get more expensive as you grow, so price is not usually the reason to pick somebody else. Breadth is. We do not do multiple locations yet, we have no campaign builder, and staff management is an instructor list rather than a rota system.
So the honest test is not whether a percentage beats a subscription at your size. It is whether the things we do not build are things you need. If they are, get quotes, and use the questions above on all of us.
Try the calculator on the homepage with your own numbers, or set your studio up and pay nothing until your clients start paying you.
Start for freeCommon questions
- Why do Pilates booking platforms hide their pricing?
- Quote-based pricing lets a vendor charge different studios different amounts for the same software, based on size and on how much you appear able to pay. It is a legitimate commercial strategy and it is also the reason comparing this category takes an afternoon rather than five minutes.
- Is there free booking software for a Pilates studio?
- There are free tiers, but they are usually limited by client count or by feature, and the limits tend to bite at exactly the point the studio starts working. Reformer Pilates Booking is free by revenue instead: the whole product, with no feature limits, until your studio takes €1,000 in a month, and capped at €250 a month after that.
- What should I budget for booking software?
- For a small reformer studio, anything above roughly 3% of your revenue deserves a hard look, once you have added the software fee and card processing together. Below 2% is comfortable. The important part is comparing the total deduction, not the headline monthly fee.