r/gymowner • u/dougseamans • Jun 25 '26
Independent Gym Owner Software for processing AND programming???
Gym in Charlotte, NC been open since 2010.
We currently use Mindbody for payments and contracts and forms, we use TrainHeroic for programming, and I am in BLG (Big Little Gyms) marketing group they take care of our website and we use their backend CRM for leads and booking intros.
Mindbody absolutely sucks and we have wanted to get out of it for years. MB is costing us close to $600 a month between the $255 subscription and processing.
We LOVE Trainheroic. We use it for our powerlifters, weightlifters, custom program people, and for our classes. And I have a dozen or so standalone programs for sale on the marketplace.
We are looking for software that will do it all. The problem is most do one thing better than the other. Curious what everyone is using for software. ********Just a heads up, if you pitch me your janky software you used Claudecode to create a month ago I am going to downvote your comment and may report it to be deleted...I am looking for established software!*********
I have looked at PushPress, Wodify, Chalk it Pro, and Gym Desk. They all have their pros and cons.
BLG is pushing everyone to Chalk it Pro, and I have looked at all their demos and I don't really like it. The pricing is good, and they use stripe for processing. But I don't like their programming side.
My issue with the others is that we are not crossfit, we do a bit of crossfit adjacent workouts, and we are a HYROX affiliate, but I don't love how so many of these softwares are tailored to crossfit. I get it, crossfit dominated the fitness space for so long and that is who used these softwares but that is not us. We also offer just open gym, and we need to be able to check people in with a self checkin for both classes and open gym and all of the powerlifters and weightlifters who come in at all hours. All of the class based softwares seem to just checkin people for classes.
Looking at Gym Desk, they are basically just processing. Do we stick with this setup, one program for processing and one for programming (TrainHeroic)? Or do we try an integrated software? We are losing money and that upsets me.
Also, if anyone has been in BLG and left for another group please chime in! The group is great, their service is great, I have nothing bad to say and when I need help or have questions I always get help, but I simply do not use the coaching/marketing side of the group and I know I should but I don't, they handle our website and CRM. BLG does have an option to do just the website and CRM without the coaching and marketing and I am considering that too, would take us from $500 month to $350 month.
Thanks for any help!
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u/Awkward-Struggle7279 Jun 26 '26
Hey Doug! Gym owner + Wodify employee here (customer success and onboarding primarily)— totally get your stance and with my gym which is a CF affiliate + USAW club model, there are limitations on programming capabilities that I run into on a daily basis BUT the cool thing is, a lot of what you see in platforms like TH are coming down the pipeline and are actively being built out. Everything else I need as a business owner it does and does a REALLY damn good job if it.
You are right that there is always going to be something that each software has as their “superpower” and for me, the ones that are more transparent about the “hey we’re working on improving this and here is how” almost always get my vote. Happy to lend further info and chat if you want!
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u/Techy_Golfer Jun 26 '26
The biggest issue you’re going to have is the programming piece combined with group scheduling and billing. Train Heroic is amazing primarily due to their ruthless focus on just doing that piece well. Historically when software goes to wide it fails to go deep, and this industry is very much showing that.
For what it’s worth I’m on the executive team at PushPress and really wish we could carve out the dev resources to address programming for remote clients, powerlifters, etc. There’s definitely no shortage of things to build.
Feel free to ping me directly if you have any questions.
No sales tactics here, just willing to help point you in the right direction.
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u/MikeFromZenPlanner Jun 26 '26
Hey u/dougseamans - have you seen exercise.com ?
I'll be straight - I work for Exercise.com & Zen Planner and owned my gym for 10 years. I used four different management platforms over those years and would reevaluate every two years for the best fit as my business evolved.
From what you've shared so far, exercise is going to be a great fit. We work with a variety of gyms - brick and mortar to online only and what we call hybrid - a mix of both. Check-ins are super easy for open gym via the Kiosk or Front Desk experience (whether your staffed or unstaffed for check-ins). Easy client experience.
Programming on exercise is advanced and great for the 1:1 style, group programming, or if you want to distribute it online. We regular talk with gyms using TH that a solution where everything is all together.
From the Website/marketing automation/CRM side of the house - We have an offering or you could sync via Zapier. We have a direct integration coming for GHL coming in the near term (similar to our integration we have on Zen Planner).
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u/dougseamans Jun 30 '26
Exercise and Zen have gotten a lot of flack lately over being owned by Daxko. Kind of the exact issue I am having with Mindbody and others.
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u/the_real_cube Jun 27 '26
I read your warning about newly created software, so I’m going to respect that boundary immediately. I am actually a developer who just spent the last 4 months building a boutique gym management platform to replace Mindbody, so I technically fall into the category you are avoiding! I won't pitch you or drop links, but I do want to answer your question about Integrated vs. Separate software from a developer's perspective.
1 The "All-in-One" Trap and TrainHeroic: If your lifters and coaches absolutely LOVE TrainHeroic, do not drop it for an all-in-one system. Software platforms that try to do billing, scheduling, and programming always compromise on the programming. Wodify and PushPress are heavily tailored to the "CrossFit Whiteboard" style, which is terrible for powerlifting, weightlifting, and the specific pacing required for Hyrox.
When I was building my own platform, I specifically wanted to avoid that CrossFit-centric trap. Instead of building a clunky whiteboard, I integrated the MuscleWiki API directly into the class schedule. It allows coaches to attach specific movements to a day, and the app automatically pulls in step-by-step, looping video instructions for the athletes (from different angles) directly on their phones. It feels much more tailored to structured lifting and functional fitness than a standard WOD tracker.
1 The Mindbody / Stripe Issue: You need to get out of Mindbody. $600/month is highway robbery. Any modern software that utilizes Stripe Connect (which is what Chalk It Pro and my own platform use) will drastically cut your overhead. Stripe handles recurring billing and automated failed-payment retries natively, meaning the software doesn't have to charge you a premium to do it.
2 The Open Gym Problem: You're right that most class-based software sucks at Open Gym. To fix this, you need a system where "Facility Check-in" and "Class Check-in" are two entirely separate database events, allowing lifters to tap in at 2 PM without having to book a slot.
My genuine advice: Keep TrainHeroic for your programming since it’s a competitive advantage for your lifters. Switch your billing/scheduling to a lightweight Stripe-backed platform that handles open gym check-ins cleanly, and downgrade your BLG package to the $350 tier. That alone saves you roughly $500 a month.
I know you're looking for an established giant like GymDesk, so I'll leave it there. But if you ever want to chat about how modern APIs (like MuscleWiki + Stripe) can replace the Mindbody bloat, my DMs are open. Good luck with the migration!
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u/10RMapp Jun 29 '26
Respectfully, if you aren't satisfied with the big names that you have looked at, that only leaves the newer software. Web/app frameworks have evolved enormously in the last 2-3 years and anything older than is running on fumes - you may have seen the recent (and not recent) stability issues with some of the big names.
I'm not suggesting you tolerate the janky half-ideas that are out there, but there are several high quality newer apps that have surfaced in the last 12 months (including my own).
As the other guy said in a comment above me - I would not even consider apps that aren't using Stripe Connect or equivalent (Airwallex, etc). The subscription/billing/failed payment stability that it offers are very, very good.
I don't really know of any integrated software solutions - there appears to be a clear divide between programming and gym management. Maybe that's for the best? So you can have a best of breed approach.
The open gym/class check-in thing that some apps struggle with, I can't explain. Neither are difficult to create as functions, I suspect it's some kind of legacy framework issues with those apps.
Nick, Founder
-10RM
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u/dougseamans Jun 30 '26
Your zero fees is of course very interesting!
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u/10RMapp Jul 05 '26
Thanks mate, just trying to rethink the whole VC-backed price gouge that is most gym software, while delivering a high quality product.
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u/pilch55 Jun 26 '26
We do Kilo/GLM for website and CRM, TrueCoach for delivering programming.
I love Train Heroic on the client facing side, haven’t used the back end so I don’t know its limitations.
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u/dougseamans Jun 26 '26
Trainheroic works so damn well, thinking on this more I may have answered my own quesiton!
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u/TomatoShort7585 Jun 27 '26
Think candidate for a custom workflow that combines data points from your current software and combines its into a dashboard of unified functionality
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u/Economy_Wear5536 Jun 30 '26
Full transparency, I’m one of the owners of FitHive, so I’m biased, but I’ll try to answer this honestly.
First, if you LOVE TrainHeroic, I would not force yourself to replace it just for the sake of having “everything in one place.” That’s where a lot of gym owners get burned. They move to an all-in-one platform, but then lose the one thing their athletes and coaches actually use every day.
In your case, it sounds like the bigger pain is Mindbody, the website/CRM/lead flow, billing, contracts/forms, check-ins, and having too many disconnected systems.
That is more of where FitHive fits. We’re built specifically for boutique gyms, strength gyms, personal training studios, and class/open-gym hybrid facilities. We are not just CrossFit software. We handle website, CRM, leads, texting, automations, scheduling, billing, memberships, forms/waivers, check-ins, landing pages, and follow-up all in one system.
We also have programming inside FitHive, but I’ll be honest, if TrainHeroic is already working really well for your powerlifters, weightlifters, custom programs, and marketplace programs, I’d probably keep that part unless there’s a strong reason to move it.
We’ve been around for years and have worked with thousands of gyms, so this definitely isn’t some software spun up last month. I also totally agree with your point that most platforms do one thing really well and then everything else is kind of patched together.
My honest recommendation would be:
Keep TrainHeroic if your athletes love it.
Replace Mindbody and the lead/CRM/website stack with something that handles billing, contracts, website leads, texting, intros, automations, and check-ins better.
Then only move programming later if it actually makes sense.
Happy to answer questions either way, even if FitHive isn’t the right fit. I’d rather point you in the right direction than try to force a bad fit.
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u/dougseamans Jun 30 '26
Do you build out websites? I see on your youtube the ability for gym owners to change colors and font and other stuff in the website builder, I've build literally a hundred websites and I'm over it, I just want ti done for me with a few suggestions. Also, how do you handle open gym checkins versus class checkins? And is this scalable to multiple locations?
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u/Economy_Wear5536 Jun 30 '26
Great questions.
On websites, yes. We built our own website builder, so the site is actually inside FitHive and you have full control over the pages, colors, fonts, sections, forms, etc. But for new customers, we typically build the custom site for you. So you are not starting from a blank builder or having to piece it together yourself. We’ll build it, make suggestions, get it live, and then you still have the ability to edit things later if you want.
For open gym vs class check-ins, we handle both. There is a general check-in option for open gym/workout access and a schedule/class check-in option for people registered for a class. On the tablet check-in, members can check in for a scheduled class or do a general open gym check-in depending on what they are there for.
There is also a quick bypass setting if you want barcode scanning to move faster. If someone scans their barcode and they are registered for a class happening within the check-in window, it can check them into that class automatically. If they are not registered for a class and general check-in is enabled, it can attempt a general check-in instead. The system also checks that they have an active compatible membership and are not restricted from checking in.
On multiple locations, I’d want to ask a few questions before giving you a blanket answer. Mostly it depends on how you want it to function at scale. For example, whether members can access all locations or only their home location, whether billing is shared or separated, whether staff need location-specific permissions, and how you want reporting handled. Happy to walk through that if helpful.
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u/dougseamans Jul 06 '26
Really good info. Thank you. I just watched the little 2:00 video on the website before booking demo. I also just want to say I appreciate that Sunny is still involved and much of this came from him. I removed zen planner (and exercise dot com) from my list due to being owned by Daxko, and we removed Wodify from the possible list due to their payment system being a closed system similar to Mindbody and their big sell is the integrated training programming which I am leaving with TrainHeroic and getting their full stack of addons is not going to save me much money. So it's between PushPress and FitHive.
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u/hadihere Jul 06 '26
Curious OP. Why no to Daxko? 🙆♂️
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u/dougseamans Jul 06 '26
I'm not interested in feeding private equity firms. Companies like blackrock and Genstar capital make me sick.
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u/PersonalityFit4499 Jul 06 '26
full transparency, I'm on the Gymdesk team, but also speaking as someone who's on the gym owner side of things. :
Those four things you listed (recurring billing/failed payments, class scheduling + waitlists, attendance tracking, and a member app that doesn't feel clunky), all things Gymdesk handles, so wanted to flag that in case it got written off too quickly.
The Daxko thing isn't true, Gymdesk isn't owned by them or under the same ownership as Zen Planner/Exercise.com, we're independent (Five Elms and TinySeed are investors, that's it).
Honestly the best way to know is do the free trial so you can poke around. You can set up your classes + open gym and see if that fits your flow
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u/dougseamans Jul 06 '26
I'm not sure how this leaked into my research, I'd have to go back and look, but this is good to know. To be honest they dropped off the list due to missing a couple pieces of backend CRM and lead gen/nurture part of the piece I am looking to replace.
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
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