It's 3 PM on a Tuesday in July. The sun slices through the high windows, illuminating dust motes dancing over the empty wrestling mats. Maybe there's one kid drilling armbars with an assistant coach, or a few regulars hitting the bags in the boxing area. It’s slow. Summer camp season, family vacations, people just out enjoying the weather. The energy on the mat is different, quieter.
As a gym owner, you're not just watching the clock. You're watching the books. You're thinking about rent, utilities, staff salaries, and those fixed subscriptions that roll over every single month, regardless of how many people showed up for the morning class. Your gym management software is often one of them.
Retention is coaching, not software – but you cannot coach what you cannot see. And you definitely shouldn’t be bleeding money just to track an empty mat on a slow month.
Many software platforms charge a flat monthly fee. It's predictable, sure. But predictable doesn't always mean fair, especially when your revenue ebbs and flows with the seasons or unexpected downturns. We believe your software costs should move with your business, not against it.
The Fixed Fee Model: A Look at the Competition
Let's cut through the marketing noise and look at the numbers for some common gym management platforms.
- Mindbody advertises plans starting at $79/mo per location [id=a5c2f150-d5e8-479a-9382-62aaa10893c0]. That's $79 you pay whether you sign five new members or five members cancel.
- Gymdesk starts at $75/mo for up to 50 active members, scaling up to $200 for 201–400 active members [id=fda67fd9-c046-404e-e28-92b7aad29744, id=f5a06107-5cda-46ad-75dd722c504d]. A flat fee, but one that can increase as you grow, regardless of your actual monthly intake.
- PushPress Core Pro is published at $159/mo [id=45e3b4c7-8541-4164-90d1-159f37c85304e]. Again, a solid monthly commitment, rain or shine.
These prices don't include card processing fees, which are an additional cost often around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for standard processing like Stripe [id=93d169d4-87b9-4adb-83cf-b253777b018b]. That flat monthly bill might feel safe, but during a slow month, when every dollar counts, it can be a real weight.
OpenMat: Built for the Mat, Not the Treadmill
We know what it's like to build a gym from the ground up, to put in the reps and make every dollar count. That's why OpenMat operates on a different model: $0/mo + 1% for paid classes / 0.7% for recurring memberships [id=05c0679a-2fa6-4f0a-bcf7-b9ef32ea32ca]. This is on top of standard Stripe processing fees.
No monthly minimum. No upfront commitment. If your gym has a slow month, your software bill shrinks right along with it. If you have a killer month, you pay a little more, but you've got the revenue to cover it.
When Does a Flat Fee Make Sense? (And When Does OpenMat Save You Money?)
It's important to be transparent. There's a point where, if your gym is bringing in a lot of recurring revenue, a flat monthly fee from a competitor might technically be less than OpenMat's percentage fee.
Let's break down the crossover points based on recurring revenue:
- Mindbody ($79/mo): OpenMat's recurring membership fees would match Mindbody's $79/mo at roughly $11,300/mo in collected recurring revenue [id=64adfb79-2752-42f6-bed5-a703fc99dc01]. Below that, OpenMat is cheaper.
- Gymdesk ($75/mo starting): OpenMat's fees would match Gymdesk's $75/mo starting tier at approximately $10,700/mo in collected recurring revenue [id=3c945325-0e22-4936-b512-39ae383b201b]. Again, below that, OpenMat costs less.
- PushPress Pro ($159/mo): OpenMat's fees would match PushPress Pro's $159/mo at about $22,700/mo in collected recurring revenue [id=3b3c656c-70bf-4052-bcbb-debadc38eea4]. For revenue under this threshold, OpenMat offers savings.
So, if your gym consistently pulls in significantly more than, say, $25,000 in recurring revenue every single month, a fixed fee might work out to be marginally less for the software portion. But how many months are truly that consistent, without any dips?
Consider that empty mat on a slow Tuesday. Or the holiday season when attendance slackens. Or the period after a big competition when everyone takes a break. With a flat fee, your software bill stays the same while your cash flow tightens.
With OpenMat, if your recurring revenue drops to $5,000 in a slow month, your software fee for memberships is just $35. If it hits $0 because you're running a special event weekend, your software fee is $0.
We designed OpenMat to be as flexible as a pre-roll warm-up. Setup is a screenshot, not a migration project, because we know you have better things to do than wrestling with software documentation. You're here to coach, to build your community, and to keep people on the mats. And part of that is having a financial structure that supports you, not drains you.
Think about the first three weeks of a new student's journey, which often decide everything. Your software should help you track that engagement, not be another hurdle in your budget.
We're not here to hide prices or lock you into contracts you can't understand. We believe in published prices in a market that hides them, because transparency builds trust, just like consistency builds a strong gym.
Ready to see exactly what you'd pay with OpenMat versus the competition?
Calculate your exact cost now.
At the end of the day, we believe you should only pay when you get paid. Your software should be a partner in your gym's success, not another fixed expense looming over your head during a slow month.