Zen Planner is an established US platform built around martial arts, gyms and box-style studios, with genuinely strong belt and rank tracking. It is owned by ABC Fitness (Daxko) and sold sales-led: pricing is quote-only, with nothing published as of July 2026. For a yoga or pilates studio that is a lot of martial-arts-shaped software to buy through a sales cycle. Class Booking is the publicly priced, EU-hosted alternative built for class studios.
Why studios switch
Studios rarely leave Zen Planner over one missing feature. The reasons we hear are cumulative: a bill that grows faster than the studio does, a system shaped for operators much bigger than an independent studio, and support that turns slow exactly when bookings are on the line. Class Booking is deliberately built for the studios those trade-offs squeeze hardest.
Zen Planner is quote-only, with no published prices as of July 2026. Class Booking shows Basic, Pro and Studio on a public page, the same for everyone, so you can decide this week without a sales call.
Zen Planner's core is martial arts, belts and ranks. If you run yoga or pilates, much of that is weight you administer without needing. Class Booking is studio-first: classes, seasons, memberships and fixed spots are the core, not an add-on.
As an ABC Fitness (Daxko) product, Zen Planner sits in an enterprise portfolio, with the rollout and account-management overhead that implies. Class Booking is built so a new admin is productive the same afternoon, with your migration done for you.
Zen Planner is US-based and priced in USD through sales. Class Booking is priced publicly in EUR, GBP and USD, and hosts all data in the EU, in Denmark.
A member keeps the same weekly spot with a waitlist behind it, and one subscription can cover several named family members, each with a profile. Neither is documented for Zen Planner.
Side by side
No spin. Both columns reflect public pricing and published features at the time of writing.
| Class Booking | Zen Planner | |
|---|---|---|
| Belt / rank tracking | Not the focus | Yes, strong belt & rank tracking |
| Fixed spot (reserved recurring place) | Yes, same spot held every week, with waitlist | Not documented |
| Pricing transparency | Public (€10 / £8 / $13 / €30 / £20 / $35 / €50 / £40 / $60) | Quote only |
| Starting price | €10 / £8 / $13/month | Not published (quote only) |
| Family membership on one subscription | Yes | Not documented |
| Built for | Yoga, pilates & class studios | Martial arts, gyms & boxes |
| Martial-arts features (belts, skills, testing) | Not the focus | Yes, native |
| Owned by | Independent, self-funded | ABC Fitness (Daxko) |
| Annual contract | No, monthly rolling | Sales-led, terms vary |
| Automated recurring billing | Yes, via your Stripe account | Yes, integrated billing |
| Multi-language UI | EN, DA, DE, SV, NB, ES | English (US) |
| EU GDPR-compliant hosting | Yes, Denmark | Limited (US-based) |
Honest take
We're not the right fit for everyone. Here's when you should stay with Zen Planner.
Tell us when you want to switch. We export your members, classes, schedules and active subscriptions from Zen Planner, import them to Class Booking, sit on a video call with you to verify everything looks right, and switch your domain over the weekend. Your customers don't notice.
Zen Planner is quote-only, with no published prices as of July 2026, so you cannot compare until you have been through their sales process. Class Booking publishes Basic, Pro and Studio on one page, the same for everyone. For a single studio, a flat published price is usually far simpler than a sales quote.
Honest answer: if belt and rank tracking, skills and testing are central to how you run your school, Zen Planner is built for exactly that and does it better than we do. Class Booking is strongest for yoga, pilates and class-based studios running seasons and fixed spots. If your martial arts operation is mostly scheduled classes and memberships, we may fit; if it leans on ranking systems, Zen Planner is the safer choice.
No. That is a genuine gap versus Zen Planner, and we will not pretend otherwise. If tracking student progression through belts and ranks is core to your business, Zen Planner does it natively and we do not.
It depends on how billing is set up, which we confirm on the discovery call. Zen Planner uses its own integrated billing, so where subscriptions cannot move 1:1, members re-enter their card once on first login on Class Booking, and we provide an email template you can send the day before.
It depends what you value. Zen Planner has the backing of a large parent company (ABC Fitness/Daxko), with the scale and the enterprise sales process that come with it. Class Booking is independent and self-funded, which means public pricing, direct European support and no enterprise overhead. For an independent studio that is usually the better trade, but if you specifically want a big-vendor product, that is a fair reason to stay.
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