Best Martial Arts Software: 7 Tools Ranked for Dojos

You teach the 4:30 Little Dragons class, the 6:00 teens, and the adult BJJ session, then go home and do the admin. Membership payments that failed overnight. A parent asking whether the second child gets a discount. Grading entries scribbled on a clipboard, waivers in a filing cabinet, and three families who paid cash that never made it into the spreadsheet. That's hours every week you could spend on the mat or with your family. The best martial arts software clears most of it, but the tools aren't interchangeable. We compared 7 platforms and ranked them for independent dojos.

Quick comparison: best martial arts software at a glance

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Software	Pembee ★ Editor's Pick ★★★★★ 4.9 (23)	Gymdesk ★★★★★ 4.8 (148)	Kicksite ★★★★★ 4.8 (127)	PushPress ★★★★★ 4.7 (186)	Zen Planner ★★★★☆ 4.3 (270)	Spark Membership ★★★★★ 4.6 (11)	Martialytics ★★★★★ 4.7 (21)
Best for	Family-focused, multi-discipline dojos	Independent academies wanting all-inclusive plans	Small karate and taekwondo schools	BJJ and MMA gyms	Large and multi-location schools	Lead generation and marketing automation	Grading and curriculum tracking
Starting price	$45/moflat, any roster size	$75/moup to 50 members	$49/moup to 25 students	$04.99% + $0.30 card fee	$99/moscales by active members	$199/mosingle plan	$69/moup to 50 students
Free trial	30-day trial	30 days	30 days	Free plan	Demo-led	8 weeks	30 days
Belt/rank tracking	Partial	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	Partial	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes
Family accounts	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	Partial	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes
Kiosk check-in	✗ No	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes
Price flat as roster grows	✓ Yes	✗ No	✗ No	✓ Yes	✗ No	✓ Yes	✗ No

Ratings are Capterra scores with review counts, checked October 2026. Scores based on fewer than 50 reviews (Pembee, Spark Membership, Martialytics) are a soft signal. Partial belt tracking: Pembee stores belt rank, grading dates and stripe progress in staff-only custom fields, with no automated promotion engine; PushPress includes its belt system on the Pro and Max plans only. Partial family accounts: PushPress supports family sub-accounts with shared billing, but family pricing is set up manually through discounts. PushPress pricing is plan-based rather than tied to student count.

How we ranked these tools

We started with the platforms that come up again and again in martial arts software lists and on Capterra's martial arts category, then dropped generic fitness tools with no martial-arts features. For each of the remaining tools we checked the official pricing page, the published feature set, and real reviews on Capterra, G2 and Trustpilot, looking for the complaints that show up repeatedly rather than one-off rants.

We weighted the things that eat an independent dojo owner's week: recurring billing and failed payments, family accounts for kids' programs, attendance, belt progression, waivers, and the true monthly cost once your roster grows past the entry tier. Ease of setup for a non-technical owner who also teaches every class counted heavily too.

1. Pembee - Best Overall for Martial Arts Schools

Pembee activities calendar showing a week of classes across programs — Every class, term and drop-in session sits on one calendar, so Little Dragons, teens and adult classes are managed in one place.

Pembee is our booking, class management and payments platform for activity providers, and our martial arts school software is built for dojos running multiple disciplines, belt grades and family memberships. It suits owner-instructors with big kids' programs who want billing, registers and parent comms handled without a long setup.

Best for: family-focused and multi-discipline dojos that want terms, passes and memberships in one system at a flat monthly price.

Key features:

Sell terms, beginner intro courses, session passes, drop-ins and monthly memberships side by side, with automatic retries on failed membership payments and pro-rated mid-term joining
Family accounts where one parent books every child, with sibling discounts and multi-discipline family pricing applied automatically
Mobile registers on a phone or tablet, with allergies and notes visible, no-show flags, live capacity and limited-access logins for instructors
Custom registration forms that collect belt or grade, health info, emergency contacts and parental consent for under-18s, plus staff-only fields for belt rank, grading dates and attendance toward the next stripe
Add-ons at checkout for capacity-capped grading entries, seminars, gi and uniform sizes, equipment and merch
Bulk email by class (say, "Tuesday Juniors") or location, plus automated confirmations, payment reminders and term-start emails

Pembee family account with one parent managing several children — One parent login covers every child, and the sibling discount applies at checkout without anyone doing the math.

Pricing: Standard is $45/mo (up to 5 admins) and Premium is $105/mo, which adds unlimited admins, waitlists, Zapier, conversion tracking, account credits and reports. Adding instructors, classes or locations doesn't raise the price, and annual billing gets 2 months free. Card and Apple Pay payments run through Stripe with a 0.59% Pembee fee on top of Stripe processing; cash and bank transfers can be reconciled in the same dashboard. 30-day free trial, no card required. See our pricing page for full plan details. Pricing checked October 2026.

Pembee pricing page showing Standard and Premium plans in USD — The $45 Standard plan costs the same for 30 students or 300, so growing your kids' program doesn't push you into a new tier.

Pros:

Lowest paid entry price in this list, and it stays flat as your roster grows
Built for kids' and family billing, with sibling and multi-discipline family pricing out of the box
Mixes terms, intro courses, passes, drop-ins and memberships, which suits dojos that run beginner courses alongside ongoing training
Gradings, seminars and gi orders sold as capped add-ons, so you stop collecting grading fees by hand

Cons:

No dedicated belt engine: belts live in staff-only custom fields, with no automated promotion criteria, eligibility alerts or promotion history
No kiosk or self check-in; instructors take attendance on the mobile register
No native or branded member app; members use a hosted booking page and customer portal
Lighter CRM and lead management than Spark Membership, Kicksite or Gymdesk, and a smaller integrations list (Stripe, Zapier on Premium, Google Analytics, Meta Pixel)

What users say: Capterra reviewers (4.9★, 23 reviews) call Pembee "easy to use on our end" and praise same-day support, with one saying their admin workload was "cut in half - more than half!" The criticisms are a limited mobile app, register sorting fixed to surname, and workarounds for complex multi-session pricing. The review base is small and mostly UK customers, so treat it as a soft signal.

Verdict: For an independent dojo with a large kids' program, Pembee covers the work that eats your evenings (billing, family bookings, registers, grading entries and parent emails) at the lowest flat price here. If automated belt promotion or a kiosk at the front desk matters more than family billing, look at Gymdesk or Kicksite next.

2. Gymdesk - Best for Independent Academies Wanting All-Inclusive Plans

Gymdesk dashboard with payments, attendance chart and today's schedule — Gymdesk puts revenue, attendance trends and the day's classes on one screen, and every feature is included on every tier.

Gymdesk (formerly Martial Arts on Rails) is gym and studio management software with a strong martial arts and BJJ focus. It's a strong fit for independent academies that want rank tracking, check-in and marketing in one package without feature-gated tiers.

Best for: independent martial arts and BJJ academies that want every feature included and are happy to pay more as membership grows.

Key features:

Rank progression per program based on classes, hours, attendance, skills or age, with flags showing who is ready to promote
Family households with linked profiles, sibling discounts and combined billing
Check-in by kiosk, name search, barcode or phone
Digital waivers that parents can sign
Website builder, CRM, email and SMS marketing, automations, referrals and landing pages
Member app included, with a branded app available as an add-on

Gymdesk email messaging screen with templates and member filters — Built-in email and SMS marketing is one area where Gymdesk goes further than lighter booking tools.

Pricing: Micro $75/mo (up to 50 active members), Small $100/mo (51-100), Medium $150/mo (101-150), Large $200/mo (151-250), Enterprise on quote from 251 members. Those rates apply when you take payments through Gymdesk Payments; without it, the list prices are $100, $125, $175 and $240. Every feature is on every tier, month to month, with no setup or cancellation fees. A branded app is $100/mo extra and each extra location is $50/mo. 30-day free trial, no card. Pricing checked October 2026.

Gymdesk pricing page showing Micro, Small, Medium and Large gym tiers by active member count — Gymdesk's price doubles from $75 to $150 a month once you pass 100 members, before the $100 branded app add-on.

Pros:

Native rank promotion engine that flags students ready for their next belt
All features on every tier, so there are no surprise upgrades for core tools
Kiosk check-in, website builder and CRM included
Reviewers repeatedly call it "extremely user friendly" and praise pricing as "very transparent and affordable"

Cons:

Price steps up with member count, starting $30/mo above our Standard plan
Reviewers say "reporting is extremely limited and not entirely clear"
One reviewer says support is email-only and "can be quite slow," and flags that there's no staff app for attendance

What users say: Capterra reviewers (4.8★, 148 reviews, listed as Martial Arts on Rails) praise how easy it is to use and how clear the pricing is. G2 reviewers mention it was easier to set up than Zen Planner. The recurring complaints are thin reporting and slow, email-only support.

Verdict: Gymdesk is the strongest martial-arts feature set per dollar among the rank-tracking tools here, and it beats us on belt promotion, kiosk check-in and marketing. For a family-heavy dojo where the main pain is billing and bookings, the higher, roster-based price and the $100 branded app add-on make it a bigger commitment.

3. Kicksite - Best for Small Karate and Taekwondo Schools

Kicksite dashboard showing unpaid students, new leads and active student counts — Kicksite's dashboard opens on what a school owner checks first: unpaid students, new leads and active student numbers.

Kicksite is school management software built only for martial arts, with 18+ years in business and a claimed 2,100+ schools in 23 countries. It's the cheapest way into a dedicated belt system if your school is small.

Best for: small karate and taekwondo schools under 25 students that want martial-arts-specific belt tools at a low entry price.

Key features:

Custom belt curricula with one-click promotions
Family accounts
PIN or barcode kiosk check-in, or check-in from a phone
Digital waivers and agreements sent by email or text
Recurring billing with failed-payment alerts
Lead capture forms, landing pages and nurture flows, plus free unlimited one-way texting

Kicksite testing eligibility settings listing belt ranks from white to red — Kicksite lets you set the classes attended, days at rank and testing fee a student needs at each belt before they can test.

Pricing: $49/mo (0-25 students), $99/mo (26-50), $149/mo (51-100) and $199/mo (101+), with all features on every tier. Processing is offered through Basys in the US or Stripe internationally; the flat processing plan is $29/mo plus 2.9% + $0.25 per card charge. 30 days free. Pricing checked October 2026.

Kicksite pricing page showing four tiers by student count, from $49 to $199 a month — A 60-student school lands on the $149 tier, plus the $29 monthly processing plan.

Pros:

Built only for martial arts, with belt curricula and promotions at the core
Lowest entry price among the dedicated martial arts tools
Reviewers love the communication tools: "billing is a breeze, mass emails are a breeze," and you can send a text and email at the same time
Lead capture and nurture flows built in

Cons:

The $49 tier caps at 25 students, so a 60-student kids' program pays $149/mo plus the $29/mo processing plan
One 2025 reviewer says the "scanner system for attendance was not reliable"
Older reviews flag that families don't always show as families when checking payment status, and one 2021 review says you can't take attendance per specific class (this may have changed)

What users say: Capterra reviewers (4.8★, 127 reviews) praise easy billing and mass email and text. Complaints center on check-in scanner reliability and how families display in billing.

Verdict: For a small karate or taekwondo school that wants a proper belt curriculum from day one, Kicksite is a solid, focused pick. Once your roster passes 25 students the price climbs fast, and a family-heavy school pays far more per month than our flat Standard plan.

4. PushPress - Best for BJJ and MMA Gyms

PushPress dashboard with leads, new memberships, check-ins and the day's schedule — PushPress started in CrossFit and functional fitness, and its martial arts tools have been built on top of that gym-first core.

PushPress is gym management software that started in CrossFit and functional fitness and now targets BJJ, MMA, karate and taekwondo. It claims 5,000+ gyms. The free plan makes it easy to try, but the martial arts features sit on paid plans.

Best for: BJJ and MMA gyms that run like a fitness gym, with adult memberships, and can justify the Pro plan for belt tracking.

Key features:

Belt and stripe tracking with custom belts and colors, promotion criteria (time at rank, classes attended, milestones), an eligibility view and promotion history, on Pro and Max only
Family sub-accounts with shared billing (family pricing set up through discounts)
Kiosk Mode through the Staff App
Digital waivers with guardian signing
Recurring billing with contracts and failed-card retries
PushPress Members App included, with a branded app as a paid add-on

PushPress rank tracking screen with a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu belt tracker from white to black belt — PushPress's belt tracking is thorough, but it starts on the $159 Pro plan, not the free one.

Pricing: Free plan at $0 with card fees of 4.99% + $0.30. Pro is $159/mo and Max is $229/mo, both with card fees of 2.75-2.89% + $0.30 and ACH at 0.79% + $0.30. Add-ons: Branded App $81-97/mo and Grow (marketing automation) $329/mo. The free plan replaces a free trial. Pricing checked October 2026.

PushPress pricing page comparing the Free, Pro and Max plans with their processing rates — On a $150 monthly membership, the free plan's 4.99% + $0.30 card fee costs about $7.79 per charge.

Pros:

Free plan lets you start without a monthly fee
Full belt system with promotion criteria and history on Pro and Max
Reviewers say setup is "so intuitive" and support is "so responsive and helpful"
Kiosk Mode through the Staff App, plus the PushPress Members App

Cons:

Belt tracking needs Pro at $159/mo, and marketing automation costs another $329/mo
The free plan's 4.99% + $0.30 card fee adds up quickly on monthly memberships
Reviewers say the member app "can occasionally feel slow" and reporting is limited; one Capterra review reports members "being re-charged for past purchases without explanation"

What users say: Capterra reviewers (4.7★, 186 reviews; it also scores 4.8 on G2) praise intuitive setup and responsive support. Complaints focus on a slow member app, limited reporting and too many automated emails to members.

Verdict: PushPress fits adult-focused BJJ and MMA gyms that want a gym-style platform with a real belt system. For a kids-heavy dojo, the paid tier you need for belts costs more than three times our Standard plan, and family pricing takes manual setup.

5. Zen Planner - Best for Large and Multi-Location Schools

Zen Planner dashboard with membership counts, attendance, financials and a retention summary — Zen Planner is one of the longest-running platforms in the category, with martial arts customers alongside CrossFit and yoga studios.

Zen Planner, owned by Daxko, is an established membership platform for martial arts, CrossFit, yoga and fitness. Its depth and multi-location support make it a natural choice for larger schools and growing chains.

Best for: larger and multi-location martial arts schools that need depth, promotion alerts and a long track record.

Key features:

Belts, stripes and skill milestones, with automated alerts when a student is eligible for promotion
Family billing, linked profiles and a Parent Portal
Kiosk Mode on the Staff App for check-in, bill payment, document signing and retail
Custom contracts and waivers per membership type
Website on Essentials and above, two-way SMS through Zen Planner Engage, and lead management on Ultimate
Multi-location support

Zen Planner rank setup for a jiu jitsu program with required time and attendance for each belt — You set the time and attendance a student needs at each belt, and Zen Planner flags when they're ready for the next test.

Pricing: Studio from $99/mo, Essentials from $198/mo, Ultimate from $348/mo, and a New Business Bundle from $199/mo, with prices scaling by active members. Add-ons include a branded app ($39/mo) and card readers ($39/mo). Month to month, no contract. Demo only, with no free trial listed. Pricing checked October 2026.

Zen Planner pricing page showing the Studio, Essentials and Ultimate plans — Zen Planner's three plans start at $99, $198 and $348 a month, and the price scales with active members.

Pros:

Deep feature set with promotion alerts, kiosk and parent portal
Built for multi-location and larger schools
Long-tenured users praise support, with one Trustpilot reviewer saying "I've been with Zen Planner for over 14 years"
A Capterra reviewer says it "meets all my needs without overkill"

Cons:

No free trial, and the $99 starting price climbs as membership grows
Billing and cancellation disputes recur in reviews, including "after months of emails, we are still waiting for a resolution to ongoing billing issues"
Reviewers flag price increases, and add-ons for a small dojo stack up

What users say: Capterra reviewers (4.3★, 270 reviews) are broadly positive, while Trustpilot is more split at 3.8★ from 342 reviews (53% five-star, 16% one-star). Praise centers on support and fit; complaints center on billing disputes and price rises.

Verdict: Zen Planner beats us on depth, multi-location scale and promotion tools, and it suits established schools with several sites. For a single independent dojo, the price climbs with your roster, there's no trial to test it, and reviewers report billing friction that's hard to accept from your own software vendor.

6. Spark Membership - Best for Lead Generation and Marketing Automation

Spark Membership dashboard with website visits, new contacts, active clients and billing totals — Spark is built around growing enrollment, with sales and lead tools front and center.

Spark Membership is all-in-one membership software built primarily for martial arts schools, claiming 2,000+ of them. Its focus is growth: lead capture, SMS and sales automation sit alongside the core admin tools.

Best for: growth-focused schools that want marketing and lead automation in the same system as billing and belts.

Key features:

Belt and rank tracking with belt history
Family accounts
Kiosk app and digital waivers signed before arrival
Branded iOS and Android app available
Two-way SMS, email automation and AI sales chatbots
Landing page and website builder, plus POS with inventory

Spark Membership SMS inbox showing two-way text conversations with leads — Two-way texting and AI sales chatbots are where Spark goes further than any other tool on this list.

Pricing: One plan at $199/mo with every feature included. Free data migration and done-for-you setup by an account rep. 8-week free trial. Payment processing rates are not published. Pricing checked October 2026.

Pros:

Strongest marketing and lead automation in this roundup
Belt tracking and a kiosk app included, with a branded iOS and Android app available
Free migration and done-for-you setup
Reviewers say having "billing, scheduling, member information, attendance, and communication all in one place saves us a tremendous amount of time," and that the team "responds in minutes"

Cons:

$199/mo is over 4x our Standard plan
A reviewer says it "can sometimes freeze and be buggy with payments," and another felt the company "charged a high fee and promised quality" without delivering
There's a learning curve, and processing rates aren't published

What users say: Capterra reviewers (4.6★, 11 reviews) praise the all-in-one setup and fast support. With only 11 reviews, treat the score as a soft signal.

Verdict: If your priority is filling classes through automated follow-up and texting, Spark beats us on marketing. For an owner-operator who mainly wants simple billing, bookings and registers, it's a big monthly cost for growth tools you may not use.

7. Martialytics - Best for Grading and Curriculum Tracking

Martialytics dashboard with student list, overdue plans, absent students and an attendance chart — Martialytics is built only for martial arts and includes unlimited locations and users on every plan.

Martialytics is management software built only for martial arts, claiming 1,295+ schools. It suits small and mid-sized dojos that want gradings and curriculum at the center of their system.

Best for: small and mid-sized dojos that run structured gradings and want curriculum tracking built in.

Key features:

Gradings and curriculum insights, including mobile gradings
Attendance with kiosk check-in
Family management
Digital waivers and paperless onboarding
Student app
Recurring billing through Stripe with no markup and failed-card retries, plus leads and a mobile shop

Martialytics grading screen grouping students by readiness to grade, with eligibility bars — The grading screen sorts students into ready, almost ready and not ready, so you can see who is due to grade before the day.

Pricing: $69/mo (0-50 students), $99/mo (51-100), $129/mo (101-200) and $199/mo (200+), with all features on every tier. Leads and inactive students don't count toward your total. Unlimited users and locations. 30-day free trial, no card, no lock-in. Pricing checked October 2026.

Pros:

Dedicated gradings and curriculum engine
Unlimited locations and users on every plan
Stripe at standard rates with no markup
Support gets glowing reviews: "hands down, the best I've ever seen with any company"

Cons:

Per-student tiers start $24/mo above our Standard plan
Older reviews ask for processors other than Stripe and flag that you can't filter members by age with one click
One reviewer moved off it after passing about 200 members

What users say: Capterra reviewers (4.7★, 21 reviews) rave about support. The newest Capterra review dates from November 2022, and some old complaints (no mobile version, no family grouping) have since been fixed, so treat the score as an older, soft signal.

Verdict: Martialytics is a good fit for dojos where gradings and curriculum come first, and it beats us on those tools. The per-student tiers and an aging review base make it a harder call for a fast-growing kids' program.

Choosing the right martial arts software for your dojo

We rank Pembee first because it handles what fills an independent dojo owner's evenings (family billing, kids' programs, mixed terms and memberships, grading entries and registers) at a flat $45 a month, however big your roster gets. If automated belt promotions and a front-desk kiosk matter most, Gymdesk and Kicksite are the strongest dedicated alternatives. Multi-location schools should look at Zen Planner, and growth-focused academies with a marketing budget will get most from Spark Membership.

Still building your school? Our guides on how to start a martial arts school, how to promote a martial arts school and martial arts school insurance cover the rest, and so does how to run a martial arts class.