A martial arts school runs on the same jobs every week: take the enquiry, book the trial, collect the fee, track who is ready to grade, chase the paperwork.

This guide covers eight platforms used by dojos, karate schools, taekwondo academies and BJJ gyms in 2026, with every figure taken from the vendor's own pricing page.

Two things worth knowing first: AI has mostly arrived inside the subscription, and the card-processing rate attached to a plan often costs more than the plan.

What martial arts schools actually need from software in 2026

Three things separate dojo software from a general gym system: rank and belt tracking tied to attendance, family billing on one invoice, and a member app parents will open.

Published prices run from EUR 14 to $249 a month, and most vendors scale the fee by active students rather than staff seats.

1. Kicksite - priced by the size of your roster

Kicksite is martial-arts-only software: member management, billing, attendance, belt rank tracking, lead management and reviews. Every feature sits on every tier rather than being unlocked as you climb.

The tier table is blunt: $49 a month for 0-25 students, $99 for 26-50, $149 for 51-100 and $199 for 101 or more. A 30-day trial is offered, annual billing is discounted but the figure is not published, and neither is the card rate. Pricing lives at kicksite.com.

Why it made the list: you can price the bill at 100 students before booking a demo.

2. Martialytics - one price, no cut of your revenue

Martialytics is martial-arts-only too, and transparency is its pitch: every plan includes every feature, locations are unlimited, and it uses standard Stripe rates instead of a marked-up processor.

Published tiers: $69 a month for up to 50 students, $99 for 51-100, $129 for 101-200 and $199 beyond that. There is a free student app and a 30-day trial with no card required. Read the detail on martialytics.com.

Why it made the list: the subscription is the whole bill.

3. Gymdesk - the cheapest tier if you let it take the payments

Gymdesk began as martial arts software and still supports attendance-linked promotions and family billing. Every plan includes unlimited staff accounts, a website and all features.

Tiers follow active members, with two prices: Micro (up to 50) $75 a month with Gymdesk Payments or $100 on your own processor, Small (51-100) $100 or $125, Medium (101-150) $150 or $175, Large (151-250) $200 or $240. Extra locations are $50 or $100 and a branded app $100 a month. Published rates, not quotes - see gymdesk.com.

Why it made the list: a $25-a-month discount for using its payments makes the true cost explicit.

4. PushPress - the best free tier and the clearest AI

PushPress lists martial arts alongside CrossFit and small-group training, covering scheduling, billing, member and staff apps and belt tracking on the paid plans. Its AI Assistant answers questions about members, attendance, leads and revenue from your own data.

The tiers are straightforward: Core is free, with card processing at 4.99% + $0.30; Pro is $159 a month at 2.89% + $0.30 cards and 0.79% + $0.30 on bank payments; Max is $229 at 2.75% + $0.30. All of it is printed on pushpress.com.

Why it made the list: the AI Assistant is included on every plan and carries no beta label.

5. BlackBeltCRM - a daily AI reading of your numbers

BlackBeltCRM is a martial-arts CRM built around operations: nightly billing and autopay, a morning list of what needs attention, ready-made follow-up emails and texts, and retention history showing which members are drifting.

Pricing is a ladder set by active members: $49 up to 25, $79 for 26-50, $119 for 51-100, $159 for 101-250, $199 for 251-500 and $249 from 501 up. Extra locations cost $39 a month and texting is $19 for 500 messages. The ladder is on blackbeltcrm.com.

Why it made the list: its AI claim is narrow and checkable - a daily reading of your numbers, verified against your own data.

6. MyStudio - unlimited students, priced by location

MyStudio is aimed at schools that want to stop counting students: membership management, billing, scheduling, attendance, a website and rank and belt management are on every plan.

Essentials is $79 a month, Growth $159 and Scale $239, each per location with unlimited students; Growth and Scale add rank testing triggers, automations and your branding. Cards run at 2.9% + $0.30 and bank payments at 1%. AI lead conversion is listed as an add-on with no published price, so it has to be quoted - see mystudio.io.

Why it made the list: unlimited students on every plan removes tier anxiety.

7. Dojo Expert - euro pricing for small and multi-dojo schools

Dojo Expert covers up to five dojos on every plan, with manual attendance checklists on the entry tier and QR code or kiosk attendance above it. Class booking, Zapier, PayPal, Stripe and GoCardless integrations and a student app are spread across the tiers.

Basic is EUR 14 a month for up to 100 members, Pro EUR 24 for up to 1,000, Ultimate EUR 33 for unlimited, with 20% off yearly billing (EUR 228, EUR 588, EUR 1,188). Additional dojos cost 20% of your subscription each - see dojoexpert.com.

Why it made the list: the lowest published entry price here, and no AI feature is claimed anywhere on its pages.

8. Mat Track - an AI front desk, still in early access

Mat Track pairs a member app with a gym console: members, families, kiosk check-in, waivers, Stripe and GoCardless payments, a shared inbox and retention analytics. Its AI, Marty, drafts replies, checks billing and answers questions from your records before a human approves.

Starter is $49 a month for up to 100 active members, Growth $99 for 101-250 and Pro $199 for 251-500, with 20% off annual billing. Marty is included on every plan at no extra cost while it is in early access - see mattrackapp.com.

Why it made the list: the clearest picture of an AI front desk in a school, with an honest badge.

Where AI actually sits on these platforms

The biggest name in the market is Zen Planner, which started in 2006 when a martial arts school owner built it for his own business. Studio membership starts at $99 a month and scales by active members, with belt tracking included. AI is not in that tier: it arrives with the Engage module from $249 a month, where Voice AI answers calls, Conversation AI handles messages, Workflow AI runs follow-ups, Reviews AI drafts replies and Content AI writes copy.

Elsewhere AI is either included or absent. PushPress and BlackBeltCRM ship it inside the subscription. MyStudio sells AI lead conversion as an add-on with no published price. Dojo Expert and MartialArts.io (from $47 to $147 a month by school size) name no AI at all, and neither does Spark Membership, whose single plan is $199 a month after an eight-week trial.

If AI is the main reason you are switching, ask what it reads, what it can change, and whether a human approves the action.

The number that matters more than the subscription price

Add the subscription and the card rate together. A school collecting $30,000 a month in tuition pays about $1,497 in fees on a 4.99% + $0.30 plan and about $825 at 2.75%. The difference, roughly $672 a month, is nearly three times the $229 subscription that unlocks the cheaper rate.

As a rule of thumb the processing gap covers the upgrade at around $10,000 a month collected; below that, a free or cheap tier is usually cheaper overall.

How to choose without sitting through five demos

Write down three numbers per vendor before you talk to anyone: the subscription at your student count, the card rate, and every per-location or per-message charge.

Then check the tier boundary you are about to cross. At 48 students, Kicksite's $99 tier and Martialytics at $69 solve the same problem at different prices.

Finally, make sure grading is included rather than an upgrade, because belt and rank tracking is the one feature general fitness software handles badly. If you run general fitness classes too, the gym-side comparison is the better starting point.

The honest takeaway

There is no single winner, because the market prices three ways: flat tiers by student count, per-location pricing with unlimited students, and cheap software with a higher card rate.

AI is not yet a reason on its own to move platforms. The platforms that ship it include it quietly, most that do not stay silent, and the vendors that charge extra mostly refuse to publish the price. Buy on grading, billing and the card rate - then treat AI as the signal that the vendor is still building.

Cover photograph: Black belt tied by NainDeathlegs, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.