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Best MAAT alternatives for martial arts gyms (2026)
MAAT's $59 plan carries a 1% cut of your transactions, a growth tax that compounds. Six alternatives with vendor-verified pricing and honest trade-offs.
The short version: MAAT's pitch is one line, $59 a month, unlimited members, and the fine print is one more, plus 1% of your transactions. That second line is a growth tax: about $99 a month in total at $4,000 of monthly payments, $159 at $10,000, climbing forever, as of August 2026. If the flat-and-simple idea is what sold you, these six alternatives keep it without the percentage, every price from the vendor's own page.
What MAAT's 1% fee adds up to
Run MAAT's real price at three gym sizes. A small club collecting $2,000 a month through the platform pays $59 plus $20, so $79, perfectly fair. A steady 120-member gym at $8,000 pays $59 plus $80, $139, already more than two flat-priced specialists here. A strong gym at $15,000 pays $209 a month and rising with every new member's direct debit, more than any published flat plan in this guide. The 1% sits on top of Stripe's own processing fees, and it never caps.
One more datum, offered plainly under our sourcing rules: MAAT has zero verified reviews on Capterra as of August 2026. Small companies often do, and absence of reviews is not evidence of problems, but every rival below carries hundreds of verified reviews you can read, and that asymmetry is worth something when choosing where your member data lives. Our MAAT switching page covers the one-to-one comparison; the field follows.
Mat Track, flat pricing with the retention layer
Ours, judge accordingly. Mat Track keeps MAAT's virtue, a short honest price list, and removes the percentage: a 7-day free trial, then $49 Starter, $99 Growth, $199 Pro, and no platform cut of your payments on any plan, you pay Stripe's or GoCardless's standard rate and nothing more. What it adds is the layer MAAT does not attempt: retention alerts on each member's own 60-day attendance pattern, comeback challenges, multi-art rank ladders with grading criteria in the app, and a member app built for daily habit, streaks, badges, leaderboards, community.
Mat Track's AI front desk, Marty, is now in early access: see how the alternatives compare on AI.
Where it wins:
- Takes nothing from your payments, no matter how much you collect.
- Watches attendance and flags fading members, which MAAT does not attempt.
- Starter is $49 flat for up to 100 active members, where MAAT would charge $59 plus 1% of your payments.
Where it falls short:
- Each plan has an active-member cap, where MAAT is unlimited.
- More product to learn than MAAT's deliberately minimal setup.
Martialytics, the other flat-fee specialist
The closest temperament match: martial arts only, $69 to $199 a month by student count, every feature at every tier, unlimited locations, a free student app, standard Stripe rates with no revenue cut, and free leads and inactive students. Lighter than the big platforms, no retention automation, but honest in exactly the way MAAT buyers wanted.
Where it wins:
- Flat pricing that takes no percentage of your income.
- Belt and grading tracking is built in.
- Unlimited locations on every plan.
Where it falls short:
- Priced by student count, where MAAT is unlimited.
- Nothing watches attendance for you; spotting a fading member is still your job.
- Small footprint, 0.8% of installs in our 5,191-site crawl.
More on our Martialytics switching page.
Kicksite, the belt-administration upgrade
If MAAT's lightweight belt handling is the itch, Kicksite is the specialist: custom curricula, testing events, one-click promotions, $49 to $199 with everything included, 4.8 on Capterra across roughly 130 reviews. Students get a mobile web portal rather than a native app.
Where it wins:
- The best belt-testing and grading administration in the market.
- Flat, published pricing with nothing gated by tier.
- Hundreds of verified reviews you can read, where MAAT has none.
Where it falls short:
- Costs $199 a month past 100 students, more than MAAT for a large school with modest payments.
- Students get a website to log into, not a real app on their phone.
- Its automatic messages chase invoices and renewals, not fading attendance.
Full treatment in our Kicksite alternatives guide.
Gymdesk, the incumbent option
The most-installed platform in our crawl: $75 to $200 by member count, website builder included, month to month, 4.8 on Capterra across about 150 reviews. The branded app adds $100 a month and ranks stay basic, but the operation is bigger and better-documented than anything else on this page.
Where it wins:
- Big, simple and stable, with a website included in the price.
- Takes no percentage of your payments.
Where it falls short:
- The branded member app costs an extra $100 a month.
- Belt and rank tracking is basic.
- There is no free plan.
Subject of our Gymdesk alternatives guide.
PushPress, unlimited free with different fine print
The other unlimited-members-for-$0 offer, with the percentage moved rather than removed: PushPress Free takes 4.99% plus 30 cents on cards against 2.89% on its $159 tier and 2.75% on its $229 tier, everything published, 4.7 on Capterra. Swapping MAAT for PushPress Free trades a 1% platform fee for a roughly 2.1-point card-rate premium, usually a worse deal, the arithmetic is in our PushPress pricing breakdown.
Where it wins:
- Unlimited free tier.
- Full transparency.
- Polish and ecosystem.
Where it falls short:
- Its free plan's card rate costs more than MAAT's 1% at most volumes.
- Belt and rank tracking needs the $159 Pro tier.
- Built for functional fitness first; martial arts is a side room, not the main hall.
Zen Planner, the maximal opposite
At the far end from MAAT's minimalism: two decades of pedigree, native belt testing, a website product, and a modular bill, $99 to $289 core plus app, website and Engage modules reaching about $616 configured at 150 members, Capterra 4.3 across 270 reviews. For a gym leaving MAAT because it outgrew simplicity rather than resenting the fee, this is the deep end, priced in our Zen Planner pricing breakdown.
Where it wins:
- The most complete martial arts feature set here.
- Published module prices.
Where it falls short:
- Fully configured it costs about $616 a month, triple most flat plans here.
- The price jumps steeply each time your member count crosses a tier.
- Billing complaints in its own reviews.
MAAT alternatives with AI for the front desk
Two of the five other alternatives sell AI, as of 19 October 2026: PushPress and Zen Planner. MAAT, Martialytics, Kicksite and Gymdesk market none. Neither PushPress nor Zen Planner says its AI can refund a member. Mat Track's Marty, in early access, can: he checks the member's Stripe charges, sets up the refund and drafts the reply, and nothing happens until your team approves.
| Software | Its AI, 19 Oct 2026 | Who has the final say |
|---|---|---|
| Mat Track | Marty (early access): drafts member email and text replies, sets up Stripe refunds and cancellations, answers staff questions from your records | Your team, before anything is sent or refunded |
| MAAT | None advertised | No AI |
| Martialytics | None advertised | No AI |
| Kicksite | None advertised | No AI |
| Gymdesk | None advertised | No AI |
| PushPress | AI Assistant (Pro, Max): answers questions, pauses or cancels plans, applies charges; no refunds listed. Conversation AI for texts, DMs and web chat (Grow add-on, $329 a month plus message fees) | Assistant: you, it asks first. Conversation AI: you or the AI, your setting |
| Zen Planner | Engage AI (separate product, from $249 a month): answers calls, texts, web chat and DMs; books trials | The AI |
Sources: each vendor's own website or help centre, checked 19 October 2026: MAAT; Martialytics; Kicksite; Gymdesk; PushPress AI Assistant, pricing, Grow; Zen Planner Engage AI, pricing.
Marty is Mat Track's AI front desk, in early access. A parent texts asking whether there is a kids' class on Saturday; Marty drafts the answer from your timetable, prices and policies, and it waits in the inbox until someone at the gym reads it and presses Send. Complaints, injuries and disputes he hands straight to a person, with a note. Meet Marty or start free and request him.
If you chose MAAT for control over a short price list, hold AI to the same standard: nothing should reach a member that nobody at the gym has read. Letting AI reply on its own buys speed; the cost is finding out what it said after the member does. Marty's reply or refund arrives ready to approve, and nothing goes out until someone at your gym says yes.
How to choose software after MAAT
Do the two sums MAAT taught you to skip. First, your real MAAT bill, $59 plus 1% of last month's platform volume, written next to each flat price here at your size. Second, the growth version, the same sum at double your revenue, because that is the bill you are actually choosing. Then decide what the saved percentage should buy: retention alerts and a habit-building app (Mat Track, mechanism in our gym member retention guide), grading administration (Kicksite), or MAAT-like simplicity with no cut (Martialytics). Mat Track's full list is at mattrackapp.com/gyms for the disclosed baseline.