Fitness Club or Gym Management Software Comparison Guide
You are about to open a fitness club or are considering the ways in which you can shake up your management. Either way, the help of technology is needed and you have landed in the right place. Many options exist for you to choose from, so let’s cover the basics of what fitness clubs need out of the software, how they already manage without the help of the following gym management software, and how these apps compare.
Paperclips and pencils are on their way out. While saving trees, these companies are also saving fitness businesses time and money. Additionally, software for club management opens the door to many more revenue streams.
Managing a Fitness Club’s Trainers and Clients with Gym Management Software
Managing a fitness club is a multi-faceted and all-around laborious job. However, it is highly rewarding! Managing a fitness club well means that you and your team are making a massive difference in the health of your community. Overall, fitness clubs provide a resource for health education and a place to take action on health and fitness.
Fitness clubs provide a location where members can use fitness equipment, wellness facilities like spas and pools, and fitness instruction sessions and classes. Therefore, in combination, the management of these amenities requires a great deal of mental power and tremendous organizational skills. With that said, there is so much to consider when managing a fitness club! Therefore, fitness clubs need hard-set systems of management and structured tasks to ensure that the staff and members have the best experience possible.
Management systems for fitness clubs are the methods and overall structure of how the club is organized and tended to from the bottom up. Compare this to the cogs in a machine. Each piece fits together and rotates to make all of the other cogs function properly and in order. When upper management hires a new personal trainer for the club, a new cog has been added to the fitness club machine. These systems should promote increased engagement in staff and especially members.
An ease to the strain of keeping track of all the cogs in the system is the use of innovation through automation. Automation of tasks through gym management system software saves gyms and clubs large amounts of time while also giving them more control over the details small and large.
How do gyms keep track of their members without?
Aside from the old school printing workouts and pencil and paper progress tracking, gyms and fitness clubs use various CRM software.
More specifically, gyms keep track of their members through this specialized CRM software. CRM software stands for Customer Relationship Management Software. It automates the methods in which a business maintains contact with and the tracking of customers. Based on the overarching nature of its name, many software within the fitness software branch can be considered CRM software because they cultivate and innovate the way fitness businesses form relationships with their customers.
Within the fitness software industry, you will find there are lots of options to choose from. In fact, some software niches in their application while others bundle a large number of tools that positively influence overall business tasks. For example, you can check out FitSW’s feature page for information on the breadth of fitness business tasks that are supported in the app.
For example, many software options like MindBody, ClassPass, and GloFox are specified (niched) for booking and client management. While, on the other hand, software such as FitSW, Trainerize, TrueCoach, or MyPTHub combine the client management and booking systems with other features relevant to fitness instruction and coaching.
Overall, the bundled gym management system options are great for businesses looking to supplement their more focused CRM tools. Moreover, these options allow for close management of fitness instructors within the gym or club as well as the overarching management of all clients within the club. On a smaller scale, trainers can manage their own clients through the software as well!
What is fitness management software?
In totality, Fitness management software automates the processes of onboarding a client to just about any aspect of client management and tracking. Users of this software can be guaranteed time saved, money saved, member retention increase, and better client engagement overall. Within all those overarching improvements, you can identify key areas where money and time are saved and build off of the key features that enhance client engagement as well as member retention.
Moreover, member engagement has a massive effect on member retention and member retention has a massive effect on the success of a fitness club. The more engaged the members, the more likely they are to build loyalty to the club or gym. More loyal members spend more money on various products, services, and membership tiers provided by the club or gym.
With that kind of effect, why not consider employing a club management software?
Consider Management Software When Opening Your Fitness Club
Starting a studio requires a business plan, a budget, and a general idea of how you will structure your management system. Through what methods are you going to use technology to improve the experience your staff and customers have? At the beginning of any endeavor, it is always easiest to have a plan. Having to make large structural changes down the road can be costly and time-consuming. Therefore, plan your management systems thoroughly before implementing them.
Consider gym management software first to see how the software can bundle a number of tasks through automation. Also, consider this software for managing your overall clients and trainers in your studio or gym.
FitSW & Trainerize Comparison
Without further ado, let’s break down some key features of gym management software like FitSW and Trainerize and compare these two options.
Feature Comparison of FitSW and Trainerize
| Feature | FitSW | Trainerize |
|---|---|---|
| Workout Builder | + | + |
| Exercise Library | + | + |
| Workout Templates | + | + |
| In-app Live Classes and Consultations | + | + |
| Trainer Webpage | + | — |
| Online Coaching Listing | + | + |
| Progress Tracking | + | + |
| Notes on Clients | + | + |
| Notes Sections for Clients on Assignments | + | — |
| Acheivements | + | + |
| Nutrition Plan Builder | + | + |
| Food Library | + | — |
| In-app Messaging | + | + |
| Scheduled Messages | + | — |
| Automated Messaging | + | + |
| Gym and Trainer Notifications | + | + |
| Habit Coaching | + | + |
| Compliance Tracking | + | + |
| In-app Payment Managements | + | + |
| Third-Party App Integrations | — | + |
Customer Support
FitSW
Won Best Support from Software Suggest. Responds and solves issues within a day. Ranks better than Tranerize in customer satisfaction than Software Advice.
4.5 stars on Capterra
Trainerize
4.5 Stars on Capterra
Custom Branding
FitSW
All premium users have access to fully custom branded and white-labeled apps. Mobile app store listings reflect the brand of the fitness business and are customized with logos and colors throughout.
Updates are free and revisions are provided upon request.
Option to white-label all automated emails sent by FitSW
Trainerize
Users on the Pro plan have limited custom branding options. The apps are only internally branded. All app store listings reflect the Trainerize brand. No revisions are available
Studio and Enterprise plans provide custom branding options for app listings and in-app custom themes. Studio plans offer up to 1 revision while Enterprise plans offer up to 3.
Platform Availability
FitSW
Available on web, Android, and iOS
Trainerize
Available on web, Android, and iOS + an Apple Watch app
Pricing
FitSW
Gym accounts start at $59.99 per month with 2 trainers and 60 clients
Trainerize
Unlimited trainers on the Grow, Pro, and Studio accounts with plans starting at $5 per month for 2 clients, $20 per month for up to 5 clients, and $40 for up to 15 clients.
Overall Value
FitSW
According to Software Advice FitSW ranked higher in terms of overall value in customer satisfaction. FitSW features rapidly grow as the company grows giving the businesses they serve something to always look forward to.
Trainerize
Trainerize ranks higher in usability and offers powerful tools for its price. This software has had time to make their key features robust in application.
