Gym management systems allow fitness businesses to organize their schedules, memberships, and facilities. While you could do all this the old-fashions, pen-and-paper way, a gym management software makes it far easier.
Of course, not all management software is made equally. We took a look at some of the most popular software programs on the market. You’ll find our reviews below:
Rankings
1. GloFox
GloFox provides gym owners with smart automation that helps them save time and money. It covers everything from class scheduling to billing to marketing. Furthermore, it can even process credit and debit card payments within the platform.
You can also report pieces of data like weight loss, measurements, and weightlifting statistics for visual representations. For these reasons, Glowfox is FitBug’s #1 choice.
2. Mindbody
Mindbody features automated promotions, personalized text campaigns, online booking, and even sales tracking. Anything you need to keep up with, Mindbody can help. It even comes with website building tools that require little coding knowledge.
You can schedule your payroll and track your employee’s schedules as well.
3. Zen Planner
For ease of use, this is one of the best apps out there. Zen Planner provides lots of premium features, including birthday alerts, a member app, and a kiosk website.
You can even send emails straight through the platform. You can send email templates and customize all emails.
4. Vargaro
Vargaro is entirely cloud-based that features integrated bookkeeping, payroll, client databases, inventory management, and more. It also comes with a free app for Android and iOS smartphones.
This software is quite easy to use and includes nearly everything you’ll need all in one place.
5. RhinoFit
RhinoFit is designed for all types of gyms and fitness studios. It can even be used for boot-camp classes. It provides scheduling, 24-hour gym access, member check-ins, benchmarking, reporting, and much more. It is incredibly comprehensive.
The only downside of this app is that it has a significant learning curve and isn’t as easy to jump into as other options.
6. Club OS
Club OS is mostly focused on sales and marketing in the fitness industry. It features automated prospect and member follow-ups, in-house email marketing, quick scheduling, and personalized texts and emails. The software is very good at reminding you what prospects you should follow-up with.
Compared to other apps, though, this one was not as intuitive and somewhat harder to use.
7. WellnessLiving
This is another cloud-based software available for studios of all sizes. It includes all the essential features you need: online booking, class scheduling, marketing, and payments. The online booking system is particularly fleshed out and easy to use.
This software also features an online store for no extra cost, which allows users to list courses and classes.
8. Membership Integrity Systems
Membership Integrity Systems is a less expensive option that still comes with great features. It allows you to track attendance, manage waivers, book classes online, utilize multiple members’ accounts, and sign electronically.
It also allows you to track member’s progress, like weight loss and body mass index.
9. ACTIVE Net
This software focuses mostly on the client-side of things. It can track reservations, schedules, check-ins, memberships, and similar data points. Payments are effortless to process using this system.
With that said, this software is quite difficult to use with a steep learning curve.
10. ABC Financial
This software’s whole purpose is to reduce delinquencies and improve collections. It allows you to access gym payment activity, manage your employees, and process payments. The customer service is reportedly outstanding.
While they are very good at onboarding new users, some pieces of the app are still a bit more complicated than they should be.
How We Ranked
The very first thing we considered when ranking each software was the ease of use. Some software is incredibly complicated and takes a long time to figure out. If you’re a new gym owner, you simply don’t have time to figure out how it works.
Some software, like ABC Financial, have outstanding customer service teams for this reason and invest a lot of resources into training their new users. However, this training still takes time and often only gets you so far. For this reason, we ranked the easiest-to-use software near the top.
Our priority was getting our readers to manage their gyms as quickly as possible.
Secondly, we also considered the value of the software. Some software costs a lot but doesn’t do very much. Others come with tons of features and are pretty inexpensive. We ranked software that was relatively inexpensive and came with lots of features near the top.
Thirdly, we also prioritized comprehensive software over software that only did one or two things. A lot goes into managing a gym. While you can function with a bunch of separate software, it is always better to have one piece of software that can take care of almost everything.
This keeps prices down and makes the whole system flow much better. You only have to worry about learning one software and don’t have to switch back-and-forth throughout the day.
Fourthly, we considered the customer side of the software. Most software is used for admin and has some customer-facing features as well. Payment processing, scheduling, and online stores are all standard features that interact directly with the customer.
Every gym owner puts a lot of value in their customers, so we scrutinized these features even more closely. Payments had to be easy to make, and online stores must be easy to navigate. Otherwise, you’re going to have some frustrated customers, which is never a good thing.
Finally, we considered what fitness-specific features the software had. Quite a few gym management software has reporting features that allow you to keep up with your customer’s weight, weightlifting statistics, and other similar data points. Others allow you to schedule classes online and even sell courses through an online store.
While these features aren’t necessarily required, they’re an excellent add-on for any gym and can make your day run much smoother.
Benefits
Gym management software makes the customer experience much smoother. While gym management software is firstly about management, it often interacts with the customer quite a bit too. Most software allows customers to check in my quickly scanning their membership card, signing into a self-serve kiosk, or something similar.
The last thing a customer wants to do is stand around and spend time with the logistics of getting into their gym. They would much instead use that time for working out. Gym management software allows them to do just that.
Gym management software can help with marketing. Even if you know very little about marketing, gym management software can allow you to put your business out there. Most come with some sort of email marketing system, and many work through texts as well.
For those with little marketing knowledge, these features can help them get their business off the ground. However, even for marketing pros, these extra features can make the whole marketing process go much smoother.
Gym management software can help with your finances. The vast majority of gym management software systems provide lots of features regarding your finances. This is one of the most significant factors that determine your gym’s success, so it only makes sense that so much attention would be paid to it.
Most gym management software allows members to pay their bills directly on the platform. This can be done at the door through a self-serve kiosk or online through an integrated website. Some systems allow you to do both, while others just feature one way or the other.
Of course, because membership payments go through the software, you can also view information about your customers and track delinquent payments as well. You can also use this information for marketing purposes.
Gym management software often allows you to keep track of your employees. Because your employees are an integral part of your business, most management systems allow you to keep up with payroll and your employee’s scheduling. They often provide the unique ability to track personal trainers as well, even those who are technically contractors and not employees.
Many also keep up with customer metrics when they engage in personal training, including weight loss, body mass index, weightlifting statistics, and similar points of data. You can use this information to track your employee’s success and get a feel for what your customers are experiencing.
Gym management software is everywhere. According to Bates in his book Health Fitness Management: A Comprehensive Resource for Managing and Operating Programs and Facilities, gym management software is quickly increasing. Before, this software was often only used in large gyms. However, now, it is nearly everywhere. Even small, neighborhood gyms often have software of some sort. Customers expect gyms to have some sort of software that allows them to get to their workout and pay online quickly.
If you want to stay competitive, you simply must have a software of some sort. You might as well get a decent one, like one we mention in our rankings section.
Gym management software helps you be unique. There are tons of gyms and fitness clubs out there. Odds are, there is probably at least a handful wherever you’re located. To keep up with the competition, you have to stand out. Gym management software can help you accomplish just that. As Bates discusses in his book, the software allows you to augment membership level with value-added services. This is accomplished through online websites and stores, which are often created and integrated with the software.
Here, you can offer your members specialized courses, classes, and other services. You can even sell tickets to special events that your store might be hosting. Customers can often browse through these classes, check the course schedule, and pay all using the same software. By offering these classes, you make your gym stand out from your competitors and enhance your total revenue.
While you could technically do this with other methods and software, gym management software allows you to keep track of everything in one place and keep your overhead low. When you only have to pay for one system, everything remains streamlined, connected, and inexpensive.
Gym management software can lower your stress. When you’re running a business, it can often feel like you’re trying to keep dozens of plates spinning at once. You have to handle marketing, onboarding new members, keeping old members current, managing your staff, upkeep, scheduling classes, sending invoices, inventory, and much more. It is a lot to keep up with and can be extremely stressful.
As you probably know, stress can have a significant impact on your health, especially if it continues for an extended period. There is quite a lot you can do to lower your overall stress, such as having proper family support and practicing mindfulness (1). However, streamlining your business and making it less stressful altogether can also be very helpful.
Gym management software was created to do just that. They can often keep up with every aspect of your business, all in one place. This allows you to stack some plates up – instead of trying to spin them all separately.
Furthermore, this software also allows you to automate some of your business operations, including membership payments, marketing emails, follow-ups, scheduling, and more. This is less for you to do, and therefore less stress you have to deal with.
Gym management software can help with lead management. Many good software can completely automate your lead management. This is less work for you and often leads to more customers as well. Often, software can help with the whole sales process, including lead generation to acquisition. Because one software takes care of everything, these leads often integrate very quickly once they are members as well.
On top of regular leads, you can also set up social media management, email campaigns, and targeted SMS messages to potential customers.
Side Effects
Gym management software can glitch. Just like any other sort of software, gym management software systems can bug and glitch. When your whole business runs off of one system, though, the effects of a minor glitch can be huge. Glitches can range from minor inconveniences to getting completely locked out of your system.
Better software tends to glitchless, which is why it is often better to purchase a more expensive option if you can. Check our rankings for some of the best gym management software on the market to avoid this potentially devastating side effect.
Gym management software often has a high learning curve. When you first get a software, the learning curve can be quite steep. Most are quite complicated, which means it’ll take a little bit of playing around for you to figure out how to use it. Some companies provide training when you first purchase their software to help you figure out how to use it. However, that is not true for all companies. This is a situation where a company’s customer service team matters a lot.
Of course, some software is easier to use than others. Surprisingly though, there are very few correct user-friendly software systems out there. Even many in our top rankings aren’t very easy to figure out when you first purchase them.
If you’re looking for an incredibly intuitive system, we recommend GloFox or ABC Financial. The later has reportedly sent out representatives to help their customers learn their system.
Gym management software can take a while to set up. Before your gym can begin using a software system, you have to set the system up. All your employees will have to be entered, your customer migrated onto your system, and you’ll need to take a complete inventory. If you have any outside marketing, it will also need to be transferred over. Any other systems you own will need to be integrated.
As you can see, it’s a lot of work! This is likely one of the biggest reasons many owners put off purchasing a system.
Upfront, setting everything up is hard work. However, once everything is integrated into the system, it can save you quite a bit of time overall. When the system is running everything, you’ll have less work to do overall.
Gym management software will require employee training. Other employees will need to be trained on at least some features of your software system. Even employees with simple responsibilities, like cleaning up bathrooms or checking in customers, will need to learn how to do inventory or access the customer’s information.
If you have many employees, it can take quite a bit of work to get them all up-to-speed with the system. Whenever you get a new customer, you will have to train them on at least the features they will be handled directly. This is not an insignificant time investment.
Furthermore, you will likely not completely understand the system yourself when you first purchase the system. This will add even more time upfront that you’ll need to invest.
Recommended Usage
For gym management software to work as intended, you need to use it for everything possible. Different software systems can keep up with different things, so you may still need other systems to keep up with certain parts of your business.
For example, ABC Financial only keeps up with the financial aspects of your business. So, you’ll need extra pieces of software if you want to keep up with your customer’s progress, marketing, and other parts of your business.
However, you can’t use ABC Financial for only some parts of your business’s finances, or it may not work correctly. You need to use the software for all the parts of your business it was designed to handle.
There are some exceptions to this, though. Some larger software systems may be fine if you only use certain parts of them. GloFox handles particularly every part of your business. If you decided that you didn’t want to use the inventory section for whatever reason, it’d likely be able to keep up with all the other parts of your business just fine.
Just remember, you are paying for it, so there is no reason not to use it. A good system should not include any poorly-made features.
Of course, you will need to keep your gym management software updated on everything you’re doing in your business. For example, the system isn’t going to be very helpful for inventory if you don’t regularly update your inventory. Customers won’t be able to check-in if you don’t add them to the system promptly, and marketing simply isn’t going to work unless you keep your emails current and updated.
Updating all the information in the software should be part of your routine.
FAQ
What is the best gym management software? We looked at tons of different software systems to help you select the best one. Truthfully, there are dozens and dozens of options out there, and many of them are very different and unique. The best one for you will depend on what you’re looking for and the parts of your business that are most important to you. Some need a scheduling system, while others don’t at all.
Out of all the systems we looked at, the best overall was GloFox. This software covers just about all the significant points most businesses are going to need. It is not as expensive as some higher-end options as well. There are a few different plans available. The basic, silver plan allows you to manage your membership and booking, process payments, schedule customers, make a website, take advantage of a company app, and receive push notifications.
Other plans are more expensive but provide extra features. Most users will not need the higher tier plans and will be perfectly fine with the necessary options. If you’re a new gym or just don’t know where to start when it comes to software, GloFox is a reliable option.
What is gym management software? Gym management software is any software designed to be used by gyms and fitness centers to manage their business. The exact features one of these software systems come with varies quite a bit, since not every business needs to manage the same things. Generally, each software allows you to track customers, manage your employees, and process payments.
Some also include marketing features, and specific software is almost wholly marketing based. Others are more focused on customer tracking and work well for those that have a personal trainer relationship with their customers. Still, others just include management for the financial side of your business.
An excellent all-around system is GloFox. It includes a little bit of everything, including a website builder and a mobile app for your customers. It can process payments, track your customers, and manage scheduling.
How much is a gym management software? As you might imagine, how much gym management software costs vary quite a bit. Most gym management software is going to cost at least $125 a month. The one exception to this is GloFox, which is less expensive on top of being one of the best software systems out there. It’s cheap cost, and great features are one reason why it is out #1 choice for gym management software.
On the upper end, some management software can cost $200 or more. Often, these include extra features or just have a more significant customer service team, which is extremely important when it comes to these sorts of software. Sometimes, spending a little bit more might be suggested, especially if you aren’t particularly tech-savvy. Generally, though, you can get away with cheaper software.
With that said, this is the base price. Some software companies have extra add-ons you can purchase, like websites and mobile apps. Sometimes, these features are included in the price. Other times, you’ll have to subscribe to those features separately.
What can gym management software do? Every software system has different features and can do different things. Most software can keep up with payments, track your customers, and manage your employees. However, how they do this varies. Some just track your customer’s membership number and information related to their gym membership payments. Others can track your customer’s weight, their lifting records, and other pieces of fitness data. This feature is particularly helpful for those who work with their customers as personal trainers or otherwise have a close relationship with their clients.
When choosing a gym management system, the most important deciding factor should be whether or not it does what you need it to do. This sort of software is somewhat newer, and therefore it can vary quite a bit. There is no baseline yet for what you should expect with each software.
How does gym management software work? It varies from system to system. Preferably, software should allow you to input information and automate many aspects of your business efficiently. Customers should be able to pay independently through a kiosk, online website, or a similar portal. Marketing should be automated as much as possible, with easy to edit email templates.
Of course, that would be in the best-case scenario and isn’t always right when it comes to different systems. Some are quite difficult to use, and others don’t automate very much at all. We recommend purchasing one of the software systems listed above to ensure that you choose one as easy-to-use as possible.
How is gym management software used? In short, gym management software is used to manage your gym. The longer answer is a bit more complicated, though. Different owners and businesses use this software for different purposes. Some gyms have a lot of classes and, therefore, will likely use some sort of scheduling feature a lot. Other owners are heavily focused on marketing, especially as they get their gym off the ground. In these cases, the software will probably be used heavily for marketing purposes. Some have a close relationship with their clients and may use software to keep up with their client’s progress.
Do I need a gym management software? If you have a gym, some sort of management software would likely be beneficial. Not only does it help you by taking some of the work off your plate, but it also makes your business look more professional. Software systems allow you to check guests in quickly and allow them to pay online, which leads to the retention of more customers. Some even allow your customers to set up automatic payments.
Even if you don’t own a gym, anyone who gives classes that are fitness related would likely benefit from this sort of software. If you need to manage members, schedule classes, and track milestones, then some sort of gym management software is best.
The only cases where we don’t recommend a gym management software is if you are a school or other venue with gym space and you don’t hold classes for monetary gain. These software systems are more for managing employees and scheduling classes, not space utilization.
Do I need other software to manage my business too? If you get a quality gym management software system, you should not need to invest in separate software at all. In the best-case scenario, the gym management software should have everything you need to manage your business. Of course, this might not always be the case. Sometimes, your software might be missing something you need. Or, you might just not like how your software handles scheduling, for instance.
In these cases, you can often find software that just fills in those gaps. However, this will cost extra money, of course. Often, you’ll end up paying just as much for this simple software as you would for a full gym management system.
Because of this, we recommend purchasing a gym management software with everything you need be provided – instead of trying to fill in the gaps with a bunch of extra software. GloFox is a decently complete software that has all the features most users will need. It is also quite cheap, so if you do need to buy extra software for whatever reason, you still won’t be spending too much money.
What’s the difference between all the gym management software systems? On the surface, all these different pieces of software might look very similar. However, underneath the surface, they are often very different from each other. Most obviously, each software is going to have very different user interfaces and ways of doing things. How do you add new members? How do you set up automatic emails? How do you keep inventory? These are all questions the systems are going to approach differently.
However, in the long-run, these differences won’t matter much. As long as the system is easy to use, how you input each member’s information won’t matter.
What does matter is what the software can do in the first place. If you need a way to track inventory, getting software that can’t track inventory isn’t going to help you much. Similarly, if you need help with marketing, you need to get a software that can help with marketing. The place that most of these software systems differ is in their cost, user-friendliness, and what they can track.
Does gym management software cast the same for multiple locations? All the prices we mention in this article are for a single location. If you have multiple locations, you will likely need to spend more on your software. Luckily, you often get a decent discount on your second software purchase. In most cases, companies will not make you pay the full price again.
With that said, the exact discount each company provides differs, so you’ll need to check out their website individually. Some don’t have an exact system but will offer you a discount if you ask. If there isn’t an apparent discount on their website, call them and ask.
Does gym management software process payments? Most of the time, yes. Most software can process payment, which allows the system to take the customer’s payment into account automatically. Some also provide websites and apps that allow customers to pay independently. You’ll also find apps that allow users to set up membership payments automatically.
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Recap
Gym management software is a vital part of managing any gym or fitness center. This software can keep up with your members, automate payments, help with marketing, keep up with inventory, schedule your staff, and much more.
There are plenty of different software systems out there, depending on what you need to track and the sort of business you’re running. We provide many suggestions in our rankings section for you to take advantage of.
For FitBug’s #1 recommended gym management software, click here.