Gym management software built around your club
Plenty of gyms run well on ClubRight, TeamUp, Glofox or Mindbody. This page shows what those products cover, where a system built for your club would do more, and what it would cost against your subscription. A first release with the four core features typically costs £3,500–£5,000 and goes live within a month.
£495 for a working prototype in 5 days. It comes off the build.
Next First Gear slot: w/c 19 Oct · 2 of 3 builds booked this month
Is custom worth it for you?
Three questions, and a straight answer.
What gym management software does, and who offers it
These are the jobs gym software usually covers, and which of five products sold to UK gyms offer each one. Press “Need it” on the ones your club needs. If your current system already does them all, you may not need me; if it doesn't, the estimate below follows your picks.
| Feature | ClubRight | TeamUp | Glofox | Mindbody | Resamania | Your club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First release | ||||||
| Member records and PAR-QContacts, health questionnaire, waivers and emergency contacts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Memberships and Direct DebitContracts, freezes, pro-rata joins and failed-payment retries | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Class and PT bookingCapacity, waitlists that fill themselves, instructor timetables | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Check-inQR code or fob at reception, with overdue members flagged | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Door accessAn active membership opens the door; a lapsed one doesn't | Yes | Kisi | Yes | Partner | Engage+ | |
| Online joiningPlan, PAR-Q, Direct Debit mandate and first payment online | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Phase two | ||||||
| Member appBook, pay, freeze and see visits from a phone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Engage+ | |
| Till and stockShakes, kit and day passes on the member's account | Yes | Yes | Boost+ | Yes | Yes | |
| Staff rota and trainer payShifts, class pay rates and PT commission for payroll | Complete | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not listed | |
| Leads and lapsed membersEnquiries followed up, quiet members sent a nudge | Complete | Yes | Boost+ | Ultimate | Yes | |
| Churn, attendance and revenueWeekly figures by plan, class and coach | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Several sitesMembers who train anywhere, figures for each site and the group | Add-on | Yes | Add-on | Yes | Yes | |
From each product's own site, checked Oct 2026: ClubRight, TeamUp, Glofox, Mindbody, Resamania. A plan name means that plan and up. Add-on means a paid extra; Partner means through a third-party integration. Resamania is the UK name for Xplor Gym. A dash means the product's site doesn't list it.
Next: the tools it connects to ↓What I’d build first, and what waits
The first release follows a member from joining to walking through the door: their record and health questionnaire, the membership they pay for, the classes they book and the check-in at reception. That’s where your income and your duty of care sit, so those four are ticked already.
Door access and online joining can join that first month when you want members signing up at 11pm without a phone call. The member app, retail, staff pay, retention emails, reports and a multi-site view make up phase two, each phase with its own fixed price.
What AI can do here
- Spot members drifting away. It reads attendance and flags the people whose visits have dropped off, with a suggested message for a coach to send in their own words.
- Answer the front-desk questions. Opening times, class spaces, how to freeze a membership: an assistant answers from your own rules and hands anything about money or health to staff.
- Turn a PT session into notes. The trainer dictates two lines after a session and the system files them against the client’s programme.
Health questionnaires and injury notes stay out of any AI model. I quote AI work on its own, £1.5k to £5k, once reception has a few busy months on the new system behind them.
The tools it should work with
Tick the payment services, accounts package and door hardware your system should talk to. Each connection is priced into the first release.
Switching from your current system
What I move. Members and their contact details, contracts and renewal dates, freezes, class packs and credits left, payment history and arrears. Bookings for the weeks ahead come too, so nobody loses a reserved spin bike.
Direct Debits. Bacs lets a gym move active mandates to a new collector through a bulk change, so members don’t re-enter bank details. They get a notice letter first. I price the move into the import and time it between two collection runs.
The order of work. Your members go into a practice copy of the new system first. You pick twenty members, say a couple on freezes and a corporate account, and compare their balances and renewal dates with your current system; I correct any gap before launch. Leave the old software running for a month after go-live, and read its cancellation terms before you serve notice.
What your current system lets you take
From each vendor's own help pages and terms, checked Oct 2026. Where a page doesn't say, I've written what I'd ask their support.
I'm on ClubRight
- Any report exports to CSV, which covers members, plans and revenue. Each member's profile also has its own export for GDPR requests.
- Their pages don't describe exporting payment history or bookings, or an API. I'd ask support for both, and how long they keep data after you cancel.
- If your Direct Debits run through ClubRight Pay, I'd ask how they hand mandates to a new collector in a Bacs bulk change.
I'm on TeamUp
- Customers export as CSV, with form answers and membership fields. Memberships and invoices with payments export from their reports.
- Closing needs at least 7 days' notice. GoCardless payments already submitted may still collect afterwards.
- I'd ask TeamUp whether the GoCardless account is in your name. If it is, the mandates stay with you and the new system connects to the same account.
I'm on Glofox
- The client list downloads as CSV from the dashboard.
- Their terms make your data available for 60 days after the contract ends, once all fees are paid, including any off-boarding charge.
- I'd ask Glofox for contracts, payment history and future bookings as files, and how GoCardless mandates move if they were set up through Glofox.
I'm on Mindbody
- Clients export to Excel through the mailing lists report, most other reports export to Excel or CSV, and client data is available through Mindbody's API.
- Cancelling needs 30 days' notice. Their help centre says data can't be exported once the account is closed, apart from a paid export in the 30 days after, so export first.
- I'd ask Mindbody how Bacs mandates collected through Mindbody Payments UK move to another collector.
I'm on Resamania
- Their pages mention management exports and an API on the top plan, but not formats.
- Resamania runs Direct Debit as a Bacs bureau, under its own SUN or yours. If it's yours, the mandates are in your name.
- I'd ask for members, contracts, payment history and future bookings as CSV, and when data is deleted after you leave.
What you pay now, and what a build would cost
I've filled this in from your ticks and a 400-member club. Put in your own members and clubs and compare the two over three to five years.
£179 a month ex VAT
What a subscription can't give you
- Corporate, family and off-peak rules billed exactly as you sell them, with no month-end fixes.
- No per-site fee, so a second club doesn't double the software bill.
- Your members, contracts and payment history are yours, so you can change supplier without starting again.
- Changes when you ask for them, not when they reach a vendor's roadmap.
The build is the middle of your estimate (£4,250), paid up front. The first month's hosting is free, so the plan starts in month two, and one plan covers every club. Subscription prices are list prices ex VAT and leave out set-up fees and price rises.
What gym software costs
List prices ex VAT, from each vendor's pricing page, checked Oct 2026.
| Product | Price | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| ClubRight | £99 (Core) or £179 (Complete) a month per site, any number of members. Head office for a group is £199 a month. | Direct Debit at 40p–45p a collection, cards at 1.85% + 20p. No set-up fee or contract. |
| TeamUp | £99 a month up to 100 active customers, rising to £299 over 500. One account covers every location. | Every feature on every band. Branded app £79 a month. The page doesn't say whether prices include VAT. |
| Mindbody | Starter from £89 a month per location. Accelerate and Ultimate are quoted. | Branded app and email marketing are on the higher plans. |
| Glofox | Quote-based. The plans page says from $99 a month. | Price varies by location and plan. Retail and marketing start on Boost. |
| Resamania | Quote-based. | Runs its own Direct Debit bureau. API access on the top plan only. |
| Gymdesk | $100 to $240 a month by active members, in US dollars, for gyms using their own card processor. | Extra locations $100 each. Its own payments service is US and Canada only. |
When off-the-shelf is enough
A single gym or studio with standard monthly memberships and a class timetable is well served by a subscription; at that size a build costs more than it saves. Stay on a subscription too if:
- the club is new and you’re still testing which memberships sell;
- members expect to download your gym’s own app from Apple or Google;
- billing comes out right every month and your staff like the system.
Building starts to pay with a second or third club, where per-location fees multiply, or when corporate deals, family memberships and trainer splits leave someone fixing billing by hand each month.
Open-source software you could run instead
A third route is free software you host yourself and can change. I haven't found an open-source project that runs a UK gym end to end, and none takes Direct Debit, but these two come closest, each checked Oct 2026.
- Odoo Community with OCA membership LGPL-3.0 / AGPL-3.0
Good for: Contacts and leads, memberships, invoicing, card payments, a till and events.
Missing for you: No Direct Debit, class waitlists, door access or PAR-Q. Those would be custom modules.
- wger AGPL-3.0
Good for: Workout and nutrition plans for members, with phone apps and an API.
Missing for you: Training only: no billing, booking, check-in or door access.
If you'd rather go open source, I can set it up, host it, connect it to GoCardless and your door system, and build the gym pieces it's missing.
Your plan, ready to keep or send
Everything you ticked, split into a first release and phase two, with a price range for each. Email it to yourself or send it to me.
First release
The first month after kickoff
- Member records and PAR-Q
- Memberships and Direct Debit
- Class and PT booking
- Check-in
Phase two
About a month, after the first release is in use
Nothing picked yet
- First release estimate
- £3,500–£5,000
- Phase two estimate
- None picked
- After launch
- Cruise, £199/mo
Estimates, not quotes: First Gear ends with a fixed price for the first release.
How the estimate works
Each phase starts at £1,500 for what every system needs: logins, hosting, backups and your data imported. Each feature and connection adds £250 to £1,000 depending on its size, and the range is 15% either side of the total. The break-even uses the middle of both phases.
A Monday, before and after
An example for a two-site gym, not a record of any one club’s day.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| 6am | The door system and the membership list disagree. A member whose card was declined last week still gets in. | A failed payment marks the membership overdue and reception sees it at check-in. The door follows the rules you set. |
| Mid-morning | A corporate client asks how many of their staff trained last month. Someone exports and filters by hand. | Each company’s usage report runs from their own login. |
| Evening | The 6pm class is full; three people on the waitlist find out by checking the app. | A cancellation offers the space to the next person by email and text. |
| Month end | Trainer sessions are counted from a spreadsheet to work out commission. | Commission comes from the sessions booked and attended, and goes to payroll as a file. |
The rules your system has to follow
- Health data. A PAR-Q or injury note is health data, which UK GDPR treats as special category data. You need an Article 9 condition to hold it, and fewer staff should see it than see the member’s name and plan.
- Joining online. A membership sold online or by phone is a distance contract under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, so the member gets a 14-day cancellation period and the joining page must give them the required information before they pay.
- Rolling memberships. The government plans to bring in a subscription contracts regime under the DMCC Act 2024, expected in spring 2027: reminders before renewal and an easy way to cancel. A system you own can change when the rules are final.
- Direct Debit. Collections run under the Bacs Direct Debit scheme, and your payment provider sets out its rules, such as how much notice members get before each payment.
Is my data safe?
Logins are split by job: reception sees memberships and check-ins, trainers see their own clients, and only named staff see health notes. Opening or editing a member’s file leaves an entry in an audit log, the same log you draw on when a member asks for a copy of their data. Card details stay with the payment provider and never touch your system. Member records are encrypted, kept on UK or EU servers, and copied to a backup overnight.
Will my staff use it?
Reception uses three screens: check a member in, take a payment, book a class. I design them for a busy desk at 6pm. During First Gear one of your front-desk staff tries the prototype during a normal shift, and whatever slows the queue gets changed before I start building.
Other ways to solve it
| Option | Cost | Best for | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gym software | A monthly fee per location, often plus card fees | One site with standard memberships | Corporate, family and trainer rules get worked out by hand |
| Custom build | £495 prototype, a fixed price for the build, then hosting from £79 a month or your own server | Two or more clubs, corporate and family billing, doors and Direct Debit in one place | The money goes out before launch, and a new feature like a member app is its own phase |
| Open source (Odoo Community, wger) | No licence fee; a server and someone to install and maintain it | Clubs happy to run Odoo’s memberships and till as they come | No Direct Debit, waitlists or door control, so those still need building, and updates are your job |
| Spreadsheets and a payment link | Free | A new PT studio with a few dozen clients | No check-in, no waitlist, and arrears found late |
| Booking app plus Direct Debit app | Two small monthly fees | Studios that sell classes, not contracts | Two lists of members that drift apart |
Four guarantees, in writing.
They're written into the terms you accept when you pay.
Every build also comes with a 30-day fix guarantee. If something I built doesn't work as the plan describes, I fix it free.
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See it first
You click through a working prototype before you commit to the build, and you keep it either way.
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Fixed price
You pay the price in the build plan. New ideas go into a later phase with its own fixed price. Nothing is billed by the hour.
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On time
If I miss the go-live date in your build plan because of a delay on my side, you get 3 months of Cruise free (£597). If your data, feedback or sign-off is late, the date moves by the same number of days.
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Yours to keep
Code, data and accounts are in your name from day one. Export your data or cancel a plan whenever you like, and ask for a full handover pack.
You'll talk to me
I've built software for over ten years and started ByteGears in 2020. The person on your kickoff call is the person who writes the code. Recent work includes quoting automation for a renewable-energy installer and a cask whisky auction platform with ID and anti-money-laundering checks.
Questions about a gym build
How much does gym management software cost?
The published prices I found run from £89 to £299 a month per site or account, some vendors add a fee per payment, and others only quote. Step 3 lists them and sets them against a build. A first release here usually lands between £2k and £10k at a fixed price, then costs nothing or a monthly plan from £79, depending on whether you host it yourself.
Can you move our members' Direct Debits without them signing up again?
Usually, yes. Bacs allows a bulk change, where active mandates move across after members get a notice letter, so nobody re-enters their bank details. I set up the new collection, write the letter with you and time the switch between two collection dates.
Does it work with our door access system?
If the access system has an API or a supported integration, yes: an active membership opens the door and a lapsed or frozen one doesn't. I check your controller's model during First Gear and test the link before go-live, with a manual override at reception for the day the internet drops.
We run classes, PT and a café. Can one system bill all of it?
Yes. Memberships, class packs, PT sessions and retail all go onto the member's account, so they get one statement and your accounts package gets one set of figures. Trainer commission can be worked out from the same records.
What happens after it goes live?
Anything that breaks in the first 30 days I fix at no cost, and the first month's hosting is free. After that you choose a monthly plan (Idle £79, Cruise £199 or Overdrive £449) or host it yourself. Payment for the build is 50/50, with the £495 for First Gear taken off the deposit.
Can members book from their phones?
Yes, in the browser, and they can add it to their home screen like an app. I build web apps, not native iOS or Android apps, so there's no App Store listing.
Let's get the gears turning.
Send me your plan. If First Gear is the right start, I'll reply with a payment link that holds your slot. If an off-the-shelf product would serve you better, I'll name it.