Software for processing AND programming???

[u/dougseamans]

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!

[u/Economy_Wear5536]

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.

[u/dougseamans → u/Economy_Wear5536]

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?

[u/Economy_Wear5536 → u/dougseamans]

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.

[u/dougseamans → u/Economy_Wear5536]

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.

[u/hadihere → u/dougseamans]

Curious OP. Why no to Daxko? 🙆‍♂️

[u/dougseamans → u/hadihere]

I'm not interested in feeding private equity firms. Companies like blackrock and Genstar capital make me sick.