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Best dojo management software, 7 compared (2026)
Karate, judo and aikido schools run lean timetables and grade in cycles. Seven platforms compared on what a real dojo week needs, prices verified.
The short version: the best software for a karate, judo or aikido school is a martial-arts-only platform: Kicksite for grading depth, Martialytics for simplicity, Mat Track (ours) for catching students who fade between belts, Zen Planner if you want modules. The median dojo on our data runs 8 or 9 classes a week, not BJJ's 16, so you are buying gradings, family billing and retention, not schedule management. Every price is from the vendor's own page, August 2026.
What an 8-class week does to the software question
We run 11,000 gyms on our directory and crawled their websites in August 2026. The dojo disciplines stand apart in two ways. First, the week is lean: the median karate school with a published timetable runs 9 classes, taekwondo 9, judo 8 and aikido 5, against 16 at the median BJJ academy and 14 across all martial arts. Around two thirds of those classes sit in the evening, and in karate a third are kids' classes.
Second, almost nobody has software. Of the karate school sites that loaded cleanly, roughly one in nine showed detectable booking software (29 of 273); judo clubs about one in seven (32 of 223); aikido dojos one in twenty-five (4 of 102). BJJ, by contrast, is at 30%, the story of our BJJ software guide. Where software does show up the counts are small and we report them as counts, not shares: Gymdesk leads judo (17 of the 32 detections), while karate splits between Spark Membership (11 of 29), Kicksite and Gymdesk (6 each).
Read those two facts together and the buying decision changes shape. A lean week means the scheduling module, the thing generalist platforms demo hardest, is the part you need least. And a paper-run market means your real comparison is not platform versus platform, it is platform versus the binder at the front desk. The binder is free. Software has to beat it on the things the binder is quietly bad at.
What a dojo actually needs from management software
Four things, and they have little to do with booking classes. Progression is structural: kyu and dan grades with criteria, stripes, custom ladders per art, not a free-text "level" field. The paying customer is often a parent, sometimes for two or three children on different belts, so family billing has to be native. Revenue clusters around gradings, testing fees, new belts, equipment, so testing events need administration, invitations, eligibility, records. And attrition hides in the plateaus between ranks: a student rarely quits the week after a promotion, they fade quietly in the long middle of a syllabus, which is exactly when nobody is looking. That last one is the binder's biggest blind spot, and the one this comparison weighs heaviest.
Mat Track, for the students who fade between belts
Ours, weigh accordingly. Mat Track's centre is the plateau problem: every student is watched against their own 60-day attendance pattern, and when a green belt who trained twice a week slips to twice a month, you get flagged while a conversation still changes the outcome. Ranks run across multiple arts with grading criteria students read in the member app, and the app itself is built to be opened between classes, streaks, badges, leaderboards, community. Pricing is public: free to 200 contacts, which covers many single-location dojos outright, then $99 Growth and $199 Pro, billed monthly, no platform transaction fees, as of August 2026.
Where it wins:
- Flags fading students automatically, the plateau problem the binder can't see.
- Free below 200 contacts, so a small dojo pays nothing to leave paper.
- Ranks across multiple arts, with criteria students can read in the app.
Where it falls short:
- Belt-testing event administration is younger than Kicksite's or Zen Planner's.
- No website builder, which Gymdesk bundles.
- Self-serve setup, with no account rep doing it alongside you.
Kicksite, for grading administration done properly
The traditional-school specialist, close to two decades of martial-arts-only history, and the deepest belt-testing toolset in the market: custom curricula per program, eligibility rules, one-click promotions, full rank histories. Pricing is flat and honest, $49 to $199 a month by student count with every feature at every tier, and its Capterra rating is 4.8 across roughly 130 reviews, as of August 2026. Students log into a mobile web portal rather than a native app, and its automation is transactional, invoices and renewals rather than anything that watches attendance.
Where it wins:
- The best belt-testing and grading administration in the market.
- Flat, published pricing with nothing gated by tier.
- Built only for martial arts schools, so the defaults fit a dojo.
Where it falls short:
- Students get a website to log into, not a real app on their phone.
- Nothing watches attendance for you; spotting a fading student is still your job.
- Light outside belt administration, no funnels, basic reporting.
Full treatment in our Kicksite alternatives guide.
Martialytics, for small dojos that want it simple
Martial arts only, likeable, and priced the way you wish everything was: $69 to $199 a month with every feature at every tier, unlimited locations, a free student app, free storage of leads and inactive students, and standard Stripe rates with no cut of your payments, as of August 2026. Belt and grading tracking is built in. Its Capterra record is warm but small, 4.7 across 21 reviews, with support praised and reviewers wishing for better mobile admin tools.
Where it wins:
- Simple published pricing and no revenue cut, ever.
- Belt and grading tracking included at every tier.
- Unlimited locations, unusual at this price.
Where it falls short:
- Nothing watches attendance for you; spotting a fading student is still your job.
- Reviewers wish for better mobile admin.
- A small team and a small review base, weigh it as you would any young vendor.
More on our Martialytics alternatives guide.
Gymdesk, the generalist that dojos actually use
The most-installed platform in our overall crawl and the leader among judo clubs specifically: $75 to $200 a month by member count, everything at every tier, website builder included, month to month, 4.8 on Capterra across about 150 reviews, as of August 2026. The trade-offs for a dojo are specific: the branded member app is $100 extra, and rank tracking is basic, workable for one simple ladder, limiting for kyu/dan systems with multiple programs.
Where it wins:
- One plain price with a website builder in the bundle.
- The most-used platform in martial arts, so help and peers are easy to find.
- Month to month, with no exit fee.
Where it falls short:
- Belt and rank tracking is basic for a real kyu/dan syllabus.
- The branded member app costs an extra $100 a month.
- You get reports to check, not alerts when a student is drifting.
Subject of our Gymdesk alternatives guide.
Zen Planner, for dojos that want the full stack
The veteran, and the deepest feature set here: native belt testing refined over two decades, a website product, and the Engage marketing module. The price is a stack: core $99 to $289 across eight member-count tiers, branded app $39, website $99, Engage $249, about $616 a month fully configured at 150 members, as of August 2026. Capterra 4.3 across 270 reviews, support consistently praised, billing the recurring complaint, including reviewers reporting charges after cancelling. Full table in our Zen Planner pricing breakdown.
Where it wins:
- Belt testing as deep as anything in the market.
- The most complete feature set on this page, if you buy the modules.
- Two decades of martial arts pedigree.
Where it falls short:
- The configured bill climbs fast, about $616 a month with the modules at 150 members.
- The price jumps each time your member count crosses a tier.
- Its own reviewers complain about billing, including charges after cancelling.
Spark Membership, for dojos whose problem is enrolment
The platform karate schools use most in our crawl (11 of the 29 detections), and a different animal: Spark is built for getting students, funnels, landing pages, SMS campaigns, point of sale, with an account rep doing setup alongside you. Its price is behind a demo; its own promo copy shows $99 a month at half off, implying a regular price around $199, as of August 2026, and its Capterra base is thin, 4.6 across 9 reviews, too few to prove much either way. If your mats are half empty, it is the getting-members specialist here; if students join fine and fade later, it is aimed at the wrong end of your problem.
Where it wins:
- The strongest enrolment and marketing tools in this niche.
- Rep-led setup, someone builds it with you.
- The most-detected platform on karate school websites in our crawl.
Where it falls short:
- No published price list; budgeting starts at a sales demo.
- Retention is tools you drive, not alerts that find you.
- A thin review base, 9 on Capterra, for a platform this established.
More in our Spark Membership alternatives guide.
PushPress, for the free plan, with eyes open
Everything published, including the card rates most vendors hide: a $0 Free plan with unlimited members at 4.99% plus 30 cents on cards, then $159 Pro and $229 Max at 2.89%, with rank tracking in the paid tiers, 4.7 on Capterra across roughly 190 reviews, as of August 2026. It is built for functional fitness first, and for a dojo the free plan's maths is the whole question: fine while payments are small, expensive once real card volume flows. We work through the break-even in our PushPress pricing breakdown.
Where it wins:
- Every price is public, down to the processing rates.
- A real free tier with unlimited members.
- Modern, well-supported software.
Where it falls short:
- The free plan's 4.99% card rate gets expensive as card volume grows.
- Belt and rank tracking needs the $159 Pro tier.
- Built for functional fitness first; a dojo is not its home crowd.
Why iClassPro is not on this list
Earlier versions of this guide, ours included, listed iClassPro alongside the platforms above. We dropped it: as of August 2026 its own website pitches gymnastics, cheer, swim and dance schools, and martial arts is not among the activities it names. It remains a capable class-management system for those markets; recommending it for a dojo would be recommending someone else's tool.
How to choose software for a dojo
Start from the binder, not the brochure. Write down what paper already does well at your school, then buy only for its blind spots. If gradings are your bottleneck, testing events, eligibility, records, Kicksite is the specialist and Zen Planner the deep end. If the real leak is students fading mid-syllabus, buy something that watches attendance and says so out loud, that is Mat Track's case, and the mechanism is in our gym member retention guide. If enrolment is the problem, Spark is the only one here aimed at it. And if the honest answer is that you just need clean billing for 60 families, Martialytics at $69 or Mat Track's free plan gets you off paper for less than a set of sparring mitts. Our published list is at mattrackapp.com/gyms, and the one-to-one switching cases are on our compare hub.