Free software is a compelling offer. If you run a dance studio, gymnastics club, or kids’ activity club in the UK, you have probably seen platforms advertising class management with no monthly subscription at all. Class Manager is the best known example, offering its software free and charging 2.7% plus 20p on every online payment instead. For a club watching every pound, that is worth a serious look.
But free software still has to be paid for. In almost every case the cost simply moves from a subscription you can see to a transaction fee you tend not to notice, taken quietly out of every payment a parent makes. Whether that works out cheaper depends entirely on how much you process.
This guide shows you how to work out what you are really paying, using published UK rates, so you can compare like for like and decide what suits your club.
Disclaimer: Class Manager is a trademark of its respective owner. All other trademarks, trade names, logos and copyrights referenced in this article are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification and comparison purposes only. Pricing and features were checked against publicly available information in June 2026 and are subject to change, so it is always worth confirming the latest details on the relevant provider's own website.
Club management platforms in the UK generally follow one of two commercial models.
Neither model is inherently better. The question is which one costs your club less at the volume you actually process. Here is how the two compare on published rates:
One point worth being clear about: card processing is charged separately on both models, at broadly similar rates. Because it applies either way, it makes no difference to the comparison, so the figures below leave it out on both sides.
Take a club with an average transaction of £40, which is typical for a monthly class subscription or a block booking. Bookiphy costs £24 a month plus VAT where applicable, with a 2.1% platform fee. A free platform on the 2.7% plus 20p model has no subscription but takes more from every payment.
The crossover sits at roughly £2,200 a month in online payments. Below that, free software genuinely does cost less, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Above it, the higher transaction fee overtakes the subscription and keeps growing. A club processing £10,000 a month pays around £1,000 more a year with Class Manager, and one processing £20,000 a month pays roughly £2,350 more.
If you choose an annual plan with Bookiphy, which carries a 20% discount as standard, the crossover point drops to about £1,745 a month. Clubs processing higher volumes can also arrange custom pricing, which improves the picture further still.
A subscription is a fixed cost. Once you have paid it, every additional booking you take costs you only the platform fee. A transaction fee behaves differently: it scales with you, so the more successful your club becomes, the more you hand over.
That is the part club owners tend to notice a year or two in. A busy summer camp season, a new venue, or a jump from 80 to 200 students all increase what you pay on a percentage model, with nothing extra in return. On a subscription model, growth largely comes free.
It is also worth checking the 20p. A flat charge per transaction hits small and frequent payments hardest. If you bill weekly rather than monthly, or take lots of small ad hoc bookings, that fixed element can add up to considerably more than the headline percentage suggests.
There is one more thing that works in your favour as you scale. Bookiphy offers custom pricing for clubs processing higher payment volumes, so the rates in this article are a starting point rather than a ceiling. If your club or academy is handling significant volume, it is worth contacting our support team to talk through what that would look like for you.
Cost matters, but so does whether the software fits how your club actually runs. Many platforms in this market began life serving dance studios and were extended outwards from there. That heritage shows in what they do effortlessly and what takes more work.
If your club runs more than a weekly timetable of classes, these are the areas worth testing carefully during a trial, whichever platform you are considering:
Bookiphy was built from the ground up for kids’ activity clubs, sports academies and camp providers. That focus shows up in the details: how camps are structured, how registers work on a wet Saturday morning, how a coach checks a child’s medical information in seconds, and how a parent books a one off session without ringing you.
Your data is hosted on AWS servers in London, so it stays in the UK and complies with UK and EU GDPR requirements. There are no long multi year contracts, and you can choose monthly or annual billing and change plan when you need to.
Payments run on Stripe Connect, which means money goes directly into your own Stripe account. You keep control of your payouts, and Bookiphy never holds your funds.
On Capterra, Bookiphy holds a 5/5 rating. Reviewers describe it as “Fantastic!” (Cara) and the “best out there” (Andrew), while Frances says she would “highly recommend” it. The themes that come up again and again are how easy it is to use, the value for money, and support that owners call second to none.
The software itself usually is, in the sense that there is no monthly subscription. The provider earns its money through a higher fee on every online payment instead. Whether that costs you more overall depends on how much you process each month.
It depends on your volume and what your club runs. Class Manager charges no subscription but takes 2.7% plus 20p on every online payment, so above roughly £2,200 a month in payments Bookiphy works out cheaper on fees. Bookiphy is also built specifically for kids’ activity clubs, camps and academies, so it is worth comparing how each handles camps, flexi and ad hoc bookings, registers and incident reporting during a trial.
Comparing Bookiphy at £24 a month plus VAT where applicable and a 2.1% platform fee against Class Manager at 2.7% plus 20p, the crossover is around £2,200 a month in online payments, assuming an average transaction of £40. On an annual plan the crossover falls to roughly £1,745 a month.
Plans start at £24 a month plus VAT where applicable, with a 2.1% platform fee that applies across all plans. Annual plans include a 20% discount as standard. Card processing is charged separately at standard rates, as it is on any platform.
Yes. Clubs and academies processing higher payment volumes can arrange custom pricing. Contact the Bookiphy support team at support@bookiphy.com to discuss rates based on your volume.
No. Bookiphy runs on Stripe Connect, so payments go directly into your own Stripe account and you keep full control of your payouts.
Yes, all three. Bookiphy offers an extensive camp booking module with add-ons such as meals and displayed menus, flexi bookings for one to one and private sessions, and full ad hoc booking capabilities.
Yes. Bookiphy provides assisted data migration and bulk upload tools, so your members, schedules and details transfer without the manual work.
Disclaimer: Class Manager is a trademark of its respective owner. All other trademarks, trade names, logos and copyrights referenced in this article are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification and comparison purposes only. Pricing and features were checked against publicly available information in June 2026 and are subject to change, so it is always worth confirming the latest details on the relevant provider's own website.
Work out what your club would actually pay
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Bookiphy is an all-in-one booking and payments platform built for kids’ activity clubs, sports academies, and class-based businesses across the UK, from football, dance and gymnastics to swimming, martial arts, tennis, multi-sports and more.
