Short answer: Most studios should offer both, but price the membership so it’s the obvious choice for regulars: a class pack is the best way in for new and irregular customers, while a membership brings predictable monthly revenue. A membership pays off for the customer once their classes per month exceed the membership price divided by the per-class price of your pack — with an £18 drop-in, a £150 ten-pack and £110 unlimited, that’s from the 8th class a month, roughly twice a week. For once-a-week customers, a limited membership (say, 4 classes a month) is usually the better product. In our booking report, 55.6% of all bookings were paid with credit from a membership or a class pack.
Should I sell class packs, memberships, or both?
Almost every studio owner asks this sooner or later, usually right after noticing how unevenly the money comes in from month to month. Packs feel safe and flexible. Memberships promise stability, but only if people will commit.
The choice is less about which model is “best” and more about who your customers are and how much predictability your finances need. Here’s the maths from both sides of the counter, what booking data shows, and the rules to settle before you sell your first pack.
What’s the difference between a class pack and a membership?
A class pack is a prepayment for a fixed number of classes — typically 5, 10 or 20 — that the customer uses whenever it suits them. A membership is a recurring payment, usually monthly, that gives either unlimited access or a set number of classes per month until the customer cancels.
| Class pack | Membership | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Once, up front | Automatically every month (or quarter/year) |
| Customer commitment | None beyond the pack | Ongoing until cancelled |
| Cashflow for the studio | Arrives in lumps | Steady and plannable |
| Price per class for the customer | Fixed per credit | Falls the more often they come |
| When a customer drifts away | Invisible: they simply don’t buy another pack | Visible: a cancellation you can respond to |
| Best for | New and irregular customers | Regulars with a weekly routine |
What does each model do to your finances?
Cashflow and predictability
A ten-pack pays you for ten classes in one go. Welcome when you’re starting out — but the money isn’t earned until the classes have been delivered, because the customer still has a claim on those credits. Spend all your pack revenue in the month it arrives and you’re borrowing from the months ahead.
A membership brings in less per payment but the same amount every month. With 60 members at £110, you know on the 1st that roughly £6,600 is coming in, less the handful who’ve cancelled. With packs, you only find out afterwards how many people topped up. Memberships are the foundation of your budget; packs are the part that fluctuates.
Churn: the invisible kind and the visible kind
Pack customers never cancel. They just stop buying — and you only notice when a regular hasn’t topped up in three months. Members cancel actively, which is actually an advantage: you get a clear event to respond to, and a reason to ask why.
Measure churn as cancellations in a month divided by members at the start of that month. A member’s average lifetime is roughly 1 divided by churn: 5% a month works out at about 20 months, 10% at about 10.
Expired credits are not a business model
Credits that expire unused look like pure profit. But a customer who loses four classes rarely buys another pack. Set an expiry that creates momentum rather than one that traps people — and treat your share of expired credits as a warning sign: when it rises, customers are drifting away.
Whichever model you choose, check whether your classes are subject to VAT in your country, and work out prices excluding VAT.
How do customers actually pay? Data from 8,100+ bookings
For our studio booking report we analysed 12 months of anonymised data (July 2025–June 2026) from 17 European boutique studios, covering more than 8,100 class bookings. Four numbers matter for the pack-versus-membership decision:
- 55.6% of all bookings were paid with credit from a membership or a class pack. Prepaid products aren’t a side dish next to drop-ins — they’re the bulk of the business.
- A median booking lead time of 144.5 hours, about six days. Customers typically plan a week ahead, which suits the weekly rhythm a membership rewards.
- 25.5% of bookings were cancelled, and 42.3% of those cancellations came less than 24 hours before class.
- A 7.8% no-show rate among studios that record attendance.
The last two matter for your choice of model. On a pack, cancel too late and the credit is gone. On unlimited, a no-show costs the customer nothing — so your cancellation policy has to keep spots free.
When does a membership pay off for the customer?
Customers do the maths — consciously or not — on the price per class. Here’s how to find the point where a membership becomes cheaper than a pack:
Break-even (classes per month) = monthly membership price ÷ price per pack credit
Above that number, the membership is cheaper. Below it, the pack is.
Example: £18 drop-in, £150 ten-pack, £110 unlimited
At £15 per credit, break-even is 110 ÷ 15 = 7.3, so unlimited is cheapest from the 8th class a month. Against drop-ins (110 ÷ 18 = 6.1), it wins from the 7th.
| Classes per month | Drop-in | Ten-pack | Unlimited | Unlimited per class | Cheapest for the customer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | £36 | £30 | £110 | £55.00 | Pack |
| 4 | £72 | £60 | £110 | £27.50 | Pack |
| 6 | £108 | £90 | £110 | £18.33 | Pack |
| 8 | £144 | £120 | £110 | £13.75 | Membership |
| 12 | £216 | £180 | £110 | £9.17 | Membership |
Selling in euros? With an €18 drop-in, a €150 ten-pack and €99 unlimited, break-even is 99 ÷ 15 = 6.6, so unlimited wins from the 7th class.
Now look at the 4-class row. A once-a-week customer comes 4.3 times a month on average (52 weeks ÷ 12) — nowhere near break-even, which is why they stay on packs for ever. The fix is rarely to cut the price of unlimited; it’s to add a limited membership, for example 4 classes a month for £56 (£14 per class).
And what does the studio earn?
From the studio’s side it looks different. Per class, packs earn you the most, but a customer’s total value depends on how long they stay. Take the same once-a-week customer:
Worked example (swap in your own assumptions)
- Class pack: buys 3 packs, then stops. 3 × £150 = £450 over about 7 months.
- 4-class membership (£56) with 5% monthly churn: average lifetime about 20 months = £1,120.
- The same membership with 10% monthly churn: about 10 months = £560.
The point isn’t the numbers but the mechanics: a membership is only the better business if members stay, so know your churn before you set the price. To work backwards from your fixed costs to the number of members you need, read what a class should cost in 2026.
Which customers choose what?
- New customers want to try before they commit. An intro offer or a small pack is the natural first purchase.
- Irregular customers — shift workers, frequent travellers, parents of small children — can’t promise a fixed routine. Push them into a membership and they’ll pay for classes they don’t use, then cancel after two months.
- Creatures of habit — the Tuesday 6pm crowd — are your core membership market. For them a membership isn’t a commitment but a convenience: they never have to remember to buy another pack.
The model also shapes how often people come. On a membership the next class costs nothing extra, so there’s no reason to ration visits; on a pack every credit is felt, and some customers save credits so carefully that the habit fades. The flip side of unlimited is that booking “just in case” costs nothing either — so a cancellation window and a no-show consequence belong in every membership.
Which model should you choose? A decision guide
| If your studio… | …then choose |
|---|---|
| is new, with fewer than 15–20 regulars | Drop-ins, one class pack and an intro offer. Add a membership once you have a core of regulars. |
| runs a steady weekly timetable where people come to the same classes | A membership as your main product, with a pack as the way in. |
| offers formats where engaged customers come 3+ times a week (hot yoga, functional training) | Unlimited — but check the price still works for your most active members. |
| runs small classes with few spots | Limited memberships (say 4 or 8 classes a month), so a few members can’t fill every spot. |
| runs courses with a fixed start and end (e.g. 10–12 weeks) | A term or course pass, paid up front. |
In Class Booking you can run drop-ins, class packs, memberships (monthly, quarterly or annual) and term courses side by side — see all features — so you never have to pick a single model for the whole studio.
Hybrid models: the best of both
A membership with a set number of classes
A membership with, say, 4 or 8 classes a month is effectively a pack that renews itself. It fits the once-a-week customer perfectly and protects capacity in small classes. Decide up front whether unused classes roll over. Our advice: no, or one month at most — otherwise you’re building a new credit backlog.
A fixed spot in the class
Some studios sell a fixed spot: the same place in the same class every week, billed as a subscription — the strongest form of habit-based membership, ideal for small classes with a waiting list. Few booking systems support it; Class Booking does.
Term passes and courses
A 10- or 12-week course paid up front combines the cashflow of a pack with the routine of a membership: same class, same time, same people. It suits beginners’ courses and pregnancy and postnatal yoga. The catch: you sell it again every term, so open bookings for the next course while the current one is running.
The pack as a stepping stone
Make upgrading easy: credit any remaining classes when a pack customer switches to a membership, and show them the numbers once they’ve been in four or five times in a month. Their own booking history is the best sales pitch. There’s more on intro offers, anchor prices and discounts in how to price fitness classes in 2026.
Rules for expiry, pauses and cancellation
Write your rules down before you start selling, and show them before the customer pays. Vague rules cause more arguments than any price.
| Rule | A sensible starting point | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pack expiry | 5 classes: 2–3 months 10 classes: 4–6 months 20 classes: 6–12 months |
Long enough to feel fair, short enough to keep the habit going |
| Extensions | One extension on request for illness, pregnancy and the like | Flexibility belongs in the exception, not the default |
| Membership pause (freeze) | Up to 1–2 months a year, with notice | A pause beats a cancellation |
| Cancellation | Rest of the current month plus one month’s notice | A low barrier to joining means more sign-ups |
| Minimum term | Only in exchange for a clear benefit, such as a lower price | A lock-in with nothing in return scares off more people than it keeps |
| Late cancellations and no-shows | A 12–24 hour window; after that the credit or class is used — members included | 42.3% of cancellations come less than 24 hours before class |
An expiry date is perfectly normal as long as the period is reasonable and clearly stated in your terms and on the receipt; one the customer didn’t know about is hard to enforce. Consumer rules on prepaid services and auto-renewing subscriptions vary, so check what applies where you operate.
Frequently asked questions
Are class packs or memberships better for a studio?
Memberships give the most stable income; class packs give new customers the lowest barrier. Most studios need both: the pack as the way in, the membership as the best deal for regulars.
How many classes a month make a membership worth it?
Divide the monthly membership price by the per-class price of the pack. If you come more often than that each month, the membership is cheaper. At £110 unlimited and £15 per pack credit, that’s from the 8th class a month.
How long should a class pack be valid?
Typically 4–6 months for a 10-class pack, 2–3 months for a 5-class pack and 6–12 months for a 20-class pack. State the expiry clearly at purchase and allow one extension for illness.
Should members be able to pause their membership?
That’s up to the studio. A pause of 1–2 months a year for holidays, illness or pregnancy keeps customers who would otherwise cancel. Set a maximum and a notice period so it doesn’t become a free cancellation.
What happens to unused classes on a pack?
That depends on the terms accepted at purchase. Most studios let unused credits expire on the stated date and offer a one-off extension on request. Lots of lapsed credits are a warning sign, not a revenue stream.
Class packs and memberships in one system
Sell drop-ins, class packs and memberships side by side, with card payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay via Stripe. From £8 / €10 a month — no commission on top of Stripe’s standard fees, no lock-in.
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