How Much Does Martial Arts Studio Software Cost? (Real 2026 Numbers)

The short answer: $50-$300/month, but the sticker price is half the story

Dedicated martial arts management platforms in 2026 cluster between $49 and $150 per month for a single-location school, with 'growth' and multi-location tiers running $150-$300+. Generic gym platforms (Mindbody and similar) often start higher and climb steeply with student count and add-on modules.

But two schools paying the same subscription can have wildly different real costs once you add setup fees, SMS metering, payment processing markups, and per-student overage tiers. Evaluate the total, not the headline.

The five costs that aren't on the pricing page

When schools tell us they left a platform over cost, it's almost never the base subscription — it's one of these five, discovered after signing.

• Setup/onboarding fees: $0 on most modern platforms; legacy vendors still charge $99-$500
• Per-student tiers: a plan that's $79/mo at 100 students can be $189/mo at 250 — model your growth before signing
• SMS metering: some platforms charge per text on top of the subscription; at 1,000+ messages/month this adds $20-$80
• Payment processing markup: Stripe's base rate is ~2.9% + 30¢; some platforms add 0.25-1% on top, which on $20k/mo of billing is $50-$200/month — often the single biggest hidden cost
• Annual contracts with early-termination fees: a discount for prepaying 12 months is fine; a mandatory 12-month term with a buyout clause is a red flag

How to compare quotes apples-to-apples

Build a one-line total for each vendor: subscription at YOUR student count, plus expected SMS volume at their rate, plus processing markup on YOUR monthly billing volume, plus any setup fee amortized over 12 months. A '$49/mo' platform with a 1% processing markup can cost more than a '$99/mo' platform without one once you're billing $15k/month.

Ask each vendor these questions in writing: What does my price become at 200 students? Is SMS included and at what limit? What is the total processing rate including your markup? Is there any contract term or cancellation fee?

When cheap is expensive

Spreadsheets and free tools cost hours instead of dollars: manual attendance, manual invoicing, and no automated dunning typically eat 5-10 staff-hours a week at a 150-student school — real money at any wage. And a single failed-payment cycle that goes unchased costs more than a month of software.

MyDojang publishes flat monthly pricing with SMS included in every plan, no setup fees, and no contracts — and our comparison pages put our numbers next to each competitor's, with a visible last-verified date, so you can check rather than trust.