The gym and studio ops stack (2026)

The rule

This is an operations stack for a US independent gym, yoga studio, or training room — one location, maybe a second, not a franchise rollout. It is not a programming stack. We will not rank workout generators, caption tools, or review bots. That catalog is Aiacent. If the leak is the coaching, leave. If the leak is dues in Venmo, a schedule in a group text, and coaches paid from a personal account, stay.

The default stack

• Booking: Square Appointments while you are small and the front desk already takes cards on Square. Calendly if you only sell intro calls, not class packs. A full class-pack operating system (the Mindbody category of product) is a later buy. We did not freeze a public Mindbody rate card on this pass, so we will not print one. Get the quote in writing before you sign a location minimum.
• Payroll: Gusto Simple $49/month + $6/person if you want a published bill that is not tied to the register. Square Payroll $35 + $6 if hours already live on Square. Homebase if the schedule and shift swaps are the weekly fire. See gym payroll for ADP and the contractor question.
• Scheduling the staff: Homebase or the tool inside the booking system. Deputy when a crew outgrows the free tier — confirm the current per-user price on the employee-scheduling ranking.
• Books: Wave at $0 in year one if you will reconcile dues and sales tax. QuickBooks Online Plus at $140 when a CPA and class packs need a real file. The booking app is not the ledger.
• Banking: a business checking account in the entity name. Cash at the desk means a branch. Mercury or Relay at $0 monthly if you do not bag cash. Sub-accounts for sales tax and payroll.
• Retail at the counter: the same POS as the booking system. A second register for t-shirts is how inventory lies. See small-retail POS if merch becomes a real line.

Front desk and labor

Member billing and payroll are different jobs. The system that charges a membership can tell you who attended. It does not deposit payroll taxes because a class ran. Gusto is the default when you want that deposit on a card you can read. Square Payroll is the default when the time clock is already Square. Homebase is the default when publishing the week is the fight.

Whether a coach is a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor is not a setting. It is a legal question. Gusto’s Contractor Only plan is $35 + $6 if they are truly contractors and you will file 1099s. Mislabeling them is not a software win. We are not your wage-and-hour counsel. Multi-state payroll matters the week a coach lives in another state or you open a second box across a line. Simple is single-state. Plus is $80 + $12.

Front-desk scheduling of clients is the appointment ranking. Staff scheduling is the employee-scheduling ranking. Do not make Calendly your membership system, and do not make Homebase your class pack.

Money

As of September 23, 2026, using cards we last confirmed on September 20–21: Gusto Simple $49 + $6; Plus $80 + $12; Contractor Only $35 + $6. Square Payroll $35 + $6. QBO Simple Start $38; Plus $140. Wave $0. Square Free software still takes in-person processing at 2.6% + 15¢; Plus is $49 per location. Confirm gusto.com/product/pricing and the Square POS page. A class-OS quote is extra and should be written next to these, not instead of them.

A $0 booking month can still be an expensive processing month. Open the business account before the landlord’s ACH and the payroll draft share a personal checking login. Sales tax on retail and on some services is a ledger job — see the small-seller sales-tax guide if you ship supplements, and ask a CPA what your state does with dues. We will not guess.

What to skip

• A franchise-grade club OS on day one because a Facebook group uses it.
• Rippling or a PEO for six coaches. Justworks is a different contract if you are actually buying a PEO. Read that page first.
• AI programming and caption tools as a reason to pick a vendor. Aiacent.
• Personal Venmo for drop-ins and for paying the closer.
• Two booking links. One book.
• Treating booth-style rent the way a salon might, without a written agreement. Salon payroll is the sibling if you are chairs, not classes.