Most gym owners are paying for bloated platforms loaded with hidden fees, forced upsells, and features they never use. Bag Carriers connects you with a smarter solution — and personally walks you through exactly how it works.
The Problem
Many platforms advertise a base price, then lock essential features behind higher tiers — CRM tools, marketing automation, attendance tracking, branded apps. You sign up for one price and end up paying significantly more once you actually run your gym on it.
Most gym software routes your member payments through their own processor — and adds a platform markup on top of standard rates. On a gym doing $25,000/month in membership payments, a 0.7% markup is $2,100 a year in invisible fees that never appear on a pricing page.
Mindbody, Glofox, and Zen Planner all use annual contracts with early termination fees. If the software doesn't work for you after three months, you're still paying for nine more. You're locked in before you know whether it actually fits your operation.
Most platforms were designed for boutique fitness studios or CrossFit boxes and bolted on support for martial arts, wrestling, gymnastics, and general gyms as an afterthought. The result is workflows that don't match how you actually run your facility.
The Bag Carriers Approach
We don't just point you at a website and wish you luck. Bag Carriers personally walks you through the platform, answers your specific questions, and makes sure the setup fits your gym — before you commit to anything.
The solution we work with prices by member count, not by feature. A gym with 150 members gets the exact same feature set as a gym with 400. No gating. No per-module upsells. The price you see is the price you pay.
Fitness gyms, martial arts schools, yoga studios, CrossFit boxes, wrestling academies, dance studios — the platform handles the full range with purpose-built workflows for each. Not an afterthought. Not a bolt-on.
Automated recurring billing, member onboarding, attendance tracking, class scheduling, digital waivers, and member communications — all in one place. Less admin. More time on the floor.
Built-in prospect management, automated follow-up sequences, and retention tools that help you convert leads into members and keep them engaged long-term. Grow your gym without adding headcount.
Month-to-month billing. No setup fees. No cancellation penalties. A 30-day free trial with no credit card required. You evaluate it on your own terms — and Frank is available throughout to answer any questions.
You get a real demo from someone who knows the platform and knows your industry. Not a 45-minute product tour that ends with a high-pressure close. A genuine conversation about whether this is the right fit for your gym.
How It Stacks Up
For a gym with 200 members at an average of $140/month membership, here's what the real annual cost looks like across platforms — including processing fees and the features most pricing pages don't mention upfront.
Mindbody
$1,800+
per month — enterprise tier
Real invoice often 3–5x the sticker price once add-ons are included.
Glofox / ABC
$1,300+
per month — no prices listed
"Transparent pricing — no hidden fees" on a page with zero prices listed.
Zen Planner
$1,267
per month — full stack
Full pricing only visible after a demo call.
Our Recommended Solution
$150
per month — all features included
What you see is what you pay. No surprises on the first invoice.
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Bag Carriers Industry Report
If you run a gym, martial arts school, fitness studio, or any membership-based fitness business, there's a good chance your software is costing you significantly more than the number on the pricing page. The platforms that have dominated the gym management space have built sophisticated pricing architectures designed to show you the smallest possible number upfront — and capture much more on the back end.
This guide does the math they don't want you to do before you sign.
01 — The Four Ways Gym Software Actually Charges You
Most gym owners think of software cost as a single monthly number. In reality there are four separate cost vectors — and most pricing pages only show you one of them.
Base subscription. This is the number on the pricing page. It's also the only cost that gets compared in most reviews and buyer's guides. For a gym with 200 members, this ranges from $75 to $500+ per month depending on the platform.
Processing markup. Most gym software platforms process your member payments and add a fee on top of standard Stripe or card network rates. This markup — typically 0.5–1.0% — is often buried in the terms or disclosed only during onboarding. On a gym doing $30,000/month in membership revenue, a 0.7% markup is $2,520 per year that never appears on a pricing page.
Feature gating. Many platforms advertise a base price, then charge separately for CRM features, marketing automation, branded mobile apps, advanced reporting, or API access. A "$159/month" plan can easily become $400+ once you add the features you actually need to run your business.
Contract lock-in. Annual contracts with 3–6 month early termination fees are standard at several major platforms. If the software doesn't work for you after 60 days, you're still paying for the rest of the year. This hidden cost isn't financial until it is — and when it is, it's significant.
The real cost of gym software isn't what's on the pricing page. It's what you're paying 6 months after you sign — once the upsells, markups, and add-ons are all live on your account.
02 — What Transparent Pricing Actually Looks Like
Transparent pricing in gym software has three characteristics: the price scales by a simple, understandable metric (usually member count); every feature is included at every tier without separate add-on pricing; and the payment processing integration uses standard market rates without a platform markup.
This model exists. It's not common, but it exists. And for most independent gym owners — who don't need enterprise call center integrations or custom white-label apps — it provides everything a well-run gym requires at a fraction of the cost of the major platforms.
At $140/month average membership, a 150-member gym has $21,000/month in recurring revenue. A transparent, all-in platform at $150/month represents 0.7% of revenue. The same gym on a platform with a $300 base + 0.7% processing markup + $100 in add-ons pays $547/month — 2.6% of revenue. The annual difference is $4,764. Every year.
03 — The 6 Questions to Ask on Any Gym Software Demo
1. What's the total cost for a gym my size, including processing? Ask them to show you an all-in number — base subscription plus processing fees at your expected monthly revenue. If they can't or won't show you this, that tells you something.
2. What features are only available on higher tiers? Ask specifically about CRM, marketing automation, attendance tracking, member portal, and reporting. If any of these are gated, understand the upgrade cost before you sign.
3. What's the contract term and cancellation policy? Month-to-month with no cancellation fee is the right answer. Annual contracts with exit penalties are a red flag for any platform you haven't fully evaluated.
4. Do you add a markup on payment processing? A direct question deserves a direct answer. If they can't tell you clearly whether they add a fee on top of standard card rates, assume they do.
5. What does migration look like? How long does it take to move your member data? Is there a fee? Who handles it? A platform confident in its product makes migration easy.
6. What does your typical customer look like? If you run a martial arts academy and every case study is a boutique yoga studio, the platform may not be optimized for how you actually operate.
04 — Why Bag Carriers Does This Differently
Most gym software is sold through digital funnels, free trials, and automated email sequences. You sign up, poke around, and either figure it out or don't. If you have questions, you submit a ticket.
Bag Carriers does demos personally. Frank knows the platform, knows the gym industry, and knows the specific questions that matter before you commit. The demo isn't a product tour — it's a conversation about your gym, your current setup, and whether this solution actually fits.
If it's not the right fit, Frank will tell you that too. We'd rather lose a deal than set up a gym on software that isn't right for them. That's what We Carry the Weight means — we're accountable to your outcome, not just your signup.
Ready to see the platform and get your questions answered by someone who actually knows it? Book a personal demo with Frank — no sales script, no pressure, just a real conversation about your gym.
Book a Personal DemoWhat Gym Owners Are Saying
I was paying close to $400 a month between software and add-ons. The demo took 20 minutes and it was obvious we were overpaying. Switched the same week.
Martial Arts Academy Owner
Frank didn't try to sell me anything on the demo call. He walked me through the platform, answered my questions honestly, and let me decide. That's why I trusted the recommendation.
Independent Fitness Gym — 180 Members
We'd been on Mindbody for three years. The migration was smoother than I expected and our monthly software cost dropped by more than half. Wish we'd done it sooner.
Yoga & Fitness Studio Owner
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What to Expect
Frank reviews your submission
We look at your gym type, size, and current setup so the demo is relevant from the first minute.
Personal 20-minute demo call
Frank walks you through the platform live — not a recorded video, not a product tour. A real conversation about your specific gym.
Your questions answered honestly
Ask anything — about pricing, migration, features, or how it compares to what you're using now. Frank gives you straight answers.
You decide — zero pressure
30-day free trial if you want to try it. Month-to-month if you sign up. No contract, no obligation, no follow-up sales sequence if it's not right for you.
🔒 Frank personally conducts every demo. Your information stays between you and Bag Carriers — it's never sold or shared with third parties.