Free yoga studio software: the honest cost breakdown

Ask what yoga studio software costs and you will get a number: $129 a month, $199, whatever the pricing page showed. That number is the start of the conversation, not the end of it. Studios buy capacities, not plans, and the extras (payment processing, the second location, the features locked behind the top tier) are where the bill actually lives.

This is the honest version. Typical published ranges as of September 2026, the catches inside each, and the arithmetic at three studio sizes so you can place yourself. We run NForge, which is free software that charges 7.9% when students pay — so this breakdown is also us making the case for our own pricing model, and you should read it with that in mind.

What yoga studio software charges: the published ranges

Mindbody: from $99 to $699+ per month, per location. The headline tiers understate it in two directions. Pricing is per location, so two studios double the bill. And the lower tiers omit things studios discover they need — automated marketing, the fuller scheduling set — which pushes real usage up the ladder. Mindbody also runs a consumer marketplace; being listed on it is free, but it takes 20% of a new client's first purchase, capped at $30, for the introduction.

Momence: from $60 to $199+ per month. A free tier exists, and it deserves its reputation check: it takes a 5% revenue share plus a client surcharge on bookings. The monthly fee is $0; the percentage is not. For a busy studio, the paid tiers plus processing can land close to Mindbody money anyway.

Arketa: from $49 to $124+ per month, plus 3%. A platform fee on top of payment processing — the two-numbers pattern that looks moderate and adds up. The studio tier sits at the top of that range.

Worth naming the free-adjacent options too: Glofox and TeamUp both advertise free tiers or entry plans, but quote-to-see pricing means the real number arrives by sales call — treat any "free" you cannot self-serve with the same scepticism as a free gym tour.

The pattern across all three: a monthly number that scales with your ambition, plus percentages that scale with your success.

What yoga studio software costs at three studio sizes

Take a typical mixed timetable — drop-in classes around $15, a monthly unlimited around $120, so roughly a hundred card transactions a month at the small end — and run the software bill at three sizes. For NForge the only cost is 7.9% of card volume, processing included; for the subscriptions we use the mid-tier plus typical processing (2.9% + 30¢ a transaction), which is what most studios actually pay. Prices are in dollars because that is how these platforms publish; the arithmetic is currency-blind.

Small: one space, $1,500/month in bookings. A $99 subscription plus processing lands near $172 a month all-in. NForge's 7.9% of $1,500 is $118.50. The free software is cheaper from day one, by about $640 a year.

Medium: one busy space, $4,000/month. The tier you need at this size is typically $199; with processing, around $395. NForge: $316. Percentage pricing still wins, by less. This is the crossover zone the subscription pricing is designed to defend.

Large: two locations, $10,000/month. Per-location pricing means two subscriptions; call it $400 a month before processing, roughly $890 all-in. NForge: $790. Close enough that the decision stops being about money — and at this size you are also the customer Mindbody's enterprise features are built for, which is a fair trade if multi-location dashboards are your life.

The honest summary: percentage pricing wins while you are small and growing, and the gap narrows to a rounding error once you are large and fixed. The question that matters is which phase you are in — and how long you plan to stay in the first one.

What "free" has to include for this to be real

Free yoga studio software is only free software if it does the studio's actual jobs, or the savings just become admin elsewhere. The list that matters: recurring class schedules (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, custom), per-class capacity so an eight-mat room sells eight spots, prepaid booking with the card at checkout, memberships as session packs students can top up, automated invoicing, and payouts that reach the bank the next working day. Anything less and you are back to a spreadsheet with extra steps.

That is the level NForge ships at — including the things studios forget to price-shop until they need them, like the booking page being public and searchable so the software doubles as your discovery channel.

The catches nobody puts on the pricing page

Processing is never included in the sticker. Subscription plans quote their fee and let you discover card processing separately. When you compare, add the two numbers before comparing anything.

Free tiers with revenue share are not free. Momence's 5%-plus-surcharge free tier applies its percentage to everything with no monthly floor; a processing-included percentage with no monthly fee (ours or anyone's) at least ties the bill to bookings. Read the free tier's revenue share before calling it free.

Per-location pricing compounds quietly. The second studio is often the moment the bill doubles while the ambition doubles only once. Worth knowing before you sign the lease.

Who should not choose free software

Honesty cuts both ways. If you run multiple locations and live out of a centralised roster, Mindbody's enterprise tier earns its fee — we do not ship multi-location dashboards. If you need your brand on a consumer-facing app, white-label products exist for that. And if your timetable runs on equipment-heavy apparatus scheduling, test any option against that reality before switching. Free that does not fit is the most expensive kind.

The decision, compressed

• Under roughly $3,500/month in bookings: percentage pricing wins outright
• $3,500–$5,000: roughly level — choose on features, not price
• Above that with multiple locations: subscriptions start winning, and enterprise features matter more than the delta
• Whatever you choose: compare the all-in number (subscription + processing, or processing-included percentage), never the sticker

The quiet asymmetry worth ending on: subscription costs arrive whether the month was good or dead. Percentage-only pricing means January pays for January and a dead August costs nothing. For a business whose income swings with the seasons, that is worth more than any tier discount.