Best Martial Arts Software UK (2026)
Most software guides for martial arts schools are written by the software companies. This one isn't — and the first thing worth saying is that a good half of the tools marketed at dojos are general gym platforms with a belt field bolted on.
That distinction matters more than any feature list. If you run a syllabus, your admin shape is not "members and classes". It's time-in-rank, stripes, grading eligibility, a different curriculum per belt, and a register that has to tell you who has actually done the mat hours before you put them in front of a grading panel. A tool that treats rank as a dropdown will technically work and quietly cost you an evening a month.
This guide covers the five tools UK clubs realistically end up choosing between — Martialytics, Kicksite, RainMaker, Zen Planner and Gymdesk — judged on grading and rank tracking first, and on the things that specifically bite a UK club second.
Quick Verdict
Martialytics is the one most UK clubs should look at first. It is built specifically for martial arts schools, it prices in pounds rather than dollars, and its grading system is the only one in this group designed around the question you actually ask each term — who is ready to grade. The catch is real though, and it is a UK-shaped one: it is not compatible with GoCardless, which is how a large number of British clubs collect monthly fees.
Kicksite is the better answer for a small club — under about 25 students — where the priority is reliable basics without a learning curve. RainMaker suits schools that lead-chase seriously and want CRM depth, provided you can live with its reporting. Zen Planner and Gymdesk are general fitness platforms with genuine belt-tracking support — worth considering if you run mixed programmes (a strength and conditioning class alongside the mat sessions) rather than a pure dojo.
Why This Decision Matters More for a Dojo
Three things make martial arts admin different from gym admin, and they are the three places generic software leaks time.
Grading eligibility is a calculation, not a date. Time in rank, attendance since last grading, and syllabus completion all feed it. If your software can't answer "who is eligible" without you exporting a register into a spreadsheet, you will do that export several times a year, every year.
Your register is your safeguarding record. Kids' classes mean emergency contact details, medical notes and who is authorised to collect a child sit alongside attendance — not in a separate folder.
Family billing is the norm, not the exception. Two or three siblings on one payment, often with a family discount, is standard in a martial arts school and comparatively rare in a commercial gym. It is also, as the comparison below shows, one of the more common gaps.
The UK-specific point worth checking before anything else: how the tool takes money. Most of these platforms are American and route payments through card processors. A great many UK clubs collect monthly fees by Direct Debit — commonly through GoCardless — because it is cheaper than card fees and has far lower failure rates on recurring payments. None of the five tools here has confirmed GoCardless support, and Martialytics documentation lists it explicitly as not yet compatible. If you already run Direct Debits, confirm the migration path with the vendor before you commit, not after.
The Five Tools Worth Your Time
Martialytics — built for martial arts, priced in pounds
Approx. pricing: from £69/month for 50 students, then priced per active student with volume discounts as you grow. Leads and inactive students are not charged. A processing fee of 1–2% applies depending on plan. 30-day free trial, no card required.
Martialytics is one of the few tools in this category that is GBP-native rather than a dollar price you absorb an exchange rate on. Every feature is included on every plan — there is no tier where grading or the student app is held back — and locations, users and emails are unlimited.
The grading system is the reason to look at it. It uses a traffic-light view of who is ready to advance, built from attendance and time in rank, which turns the pre-grading scramble into something you can read in one screen. Attendance, emergency contact details, grading lists and group email are all handled in one place, and students get their own app.
The catch: several real limitations show up consistently in verified reviews on Capterra and G2. It is not compatible with GoCardless — the single biggest issue for UK clubs already running Direct Debits. There is no family grouping, which is a genuine problem if a large share of your students are siblings on one payment. There is no one-off card payment option — reviewers report that taking a single payment switches the auto-renew to whichever card was used. There is no reduced-permission "lite" login for an assistant instructor who only needs the register, and at least one club reported outgrowing key features past around 200 members. Reviewers also note the email tool tells you the percentage who opened but doesn't list who didn't, which makes chasing awkward.
Kicksite — reliable basics, priced by student count
Approx. pricing: from $49/month for up to 25 students, $99/month for 26–50, $149/month for 51–100, and $199/month above 100. Priced in US dollars — your actual cost moves with the exchange rate. Annual billing carries a discount.
Kicksite covers student management, billing, attendance, belt rank promotion and communications, with a member portal and mobile web app where students can see their attendance and achievements. It rates 4.8 out of 5 across 126 reviews on Capterra, and the consistent themes in those reviews are that it is straightforward to learn and that support is responsive.
For a club under about 25 students, the entry tier is the cheapest genuinely martial-arts-aware option in this comparison, and the low learning curve is worth something real when you are the person teaching four evenings a week.
The catch: reviewers report the attendance scanner is unreliable, which matters if you were planning to run self-check-in on the door. There is no point-of-sale — if you sell gis, gradings or club kit at the desk, that lives somewhere else. Landing-page customisation is limited, and student video uploads are capped at 1.5GB, which is tight if you intended to host syllabus footage.
RainMaker — CRM depth, reporting frustrations
Approx. pricing: not published publicly — RainMaker quotes on enquiry. Reviewers describe it as toward the expensive end, and several note it has become noticeably pricier over the last year.
RainMaker is built for martial arts businesses and leans harder into the sales side than the others here: lead and prospect tracking, automated billing, scheduling and attendance, with marketing automation running through it. It holds roughly 4.3 out of 5 across several hundred reviews on Capterra and Software Advice. Users consistently praise the automation and the support team.
If you run paid trials and intro offers and genuinely work a lead list, the CRM side is more developed than anything else in this comparison.
The catch: the most repeated complaint in reviews is reporting — multiple reviewers report that financial reports return conflicting figures and that they end up exporting to Excel and reconciling manually. For a tool positioned partly on business intelligence, that is a significant catch. Reviewers also note the product updates more slowly than competitors, and that pricing is not transparent up front.
Zen Planner — general fitness platform with real belt tracking
Approx. pricing: from $99/month (Studio), $198/month (Essentials) and $348/month (Ultimate), in US dollars. Optional modules including marketing, a website and a branded app are priced separately on top.
Zen Planner is not a martial-arts-only product, but its belt-ranking and testing features are genuinely built out rather than bolted on — it handles rank classification, grading events and student progression properly. It is a reasonable fit for a club that also runs fitness classes, or a facility where the mat programme is one of several things happening.
The catch: the base tier is the start of the cost, not the end of it. The marketing, website and branded-app modules are separately priced add-ons, and clubs that switch several on can end up paying multiples of the headline figure. Price the configuration you will actually use before comparing it with anything else here.
Gymdesk — everything in the price, including family accounts
Approx. pricing: from $75/month for up to 50 members, rising to around $150/month for 101–200 members, in US dollars. A branded app is an optional extra.
Gymdesk is another general platform, but it bundles rather than tiers: scheduling, billing, check-in, member app, website builder, belt and rank tracking, point of sale, family accounts and skills tracking are all included in the base price. The family accounts point is worth flagging — it is the specific gap that catches clubs out on Martialytics, and Gymdesk includes it as standard.
The catch: it is a fitness platform serving martial arts as one of several verticals, not a tool built by and for martial artists. The rank tracking is competent rather than deep, and you will not find the grading-readiness view that a purpose-built tool gives you. USD pricing applies.
Price and Fit Comparison
| Tool | Entry price | Currency | Purpose-built for MA? | Family accounts | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martialytics | £69/mo (50 students) | GBP | Yes | No | Most UK clubs |
| Kicksite | $49/mo (≤25 students) | USD | Yes | Not confirmed | Small clubs, simple needs |
| RainMaker | Quote on enquiry | USD | Yes | Not confirmed | Lead-driven schools |
| Zen Planner | $99/mo (Studio) | USD | No — general fitness | Not confirmed | Mixed programmes |
| Gymdesk | $75/mo (≤50 members) | USD | No — general fitness | Yes, included | Families, all-in pricing |
Prices are approximate and change — verify current plans on each vendor's website. USD-priced tools cost you a moving amount in pounds depending on the exchange rate, and card processing fees sit on top of the subscription in most cases. "Not confirmed" means we could not verify the feature from the vendor's own published material, not that it is absent.
What to Check Before You Commit
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Do you collect fees by Direct Debit (GoCardless or similar)? | The most important question on this page for a UK club. None of these tools has confirmed GoCardless support, and Martialytics lists it as not yet compatible. Confirm the migration path before committing. |
| What proportion of your students are siblings on one payment? | Family grouping is missing from Martialytics and included as standard in Gymdesk. If a third of your roll is families, this single feature may decide it. |
| Do you need to know who is eligible to grade, at a glance? | Martialytics is built around this. The general platforms will store rank but won't answer the eligibility question for you. |
| Do you sell kit, gradings or gis at the desk? | Kicksite has no point of sale. Gymdesk includes one. |
| Will assistant instructors need access? | Martialytics has no reduced-permission login — an assistant who only needs to take the register gets the full system or nothing. |
| Are you above roughly 200 students, or heading there? | At least one club has reported outgrowing Martialytics features at that scale. Ask the vendor directly about your size. |
| Are you comfortable with a price that moves with the exchange rate? | Only Martialytics prices in pounds. The rest are USD. |
The Decision Framework
Who This Is NOT For
This guide is for people running a martial arts school as a business — a dojo, academy or club with a roll, a syllabus and monthly fees. It is not for:
Instructors teaching a handful of students in a hired hall — if you have fifteen students and take cash or a standing order, a spreadsheet and a group chat genuinely is the right answer. None of these tools will repay their cost at that size.
Commercial gyms with a martial arts class on the timetable — if the mat sessions are one line in a broader fitness schedule, you want a gym platform chosen on gym criteria, not a dojo tool.
Anyone looking for training or syllabus content — this is about the software that runs the admin side of a club. It is not about coaching, curriculum design or governing body affiliation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which martial arts software works with GoCardless?
We could not confirm GoCardless support on any of the five tools in this comparison, and Martialytics documentation lists it as not yet compatible. If you currently collect monthly fees by Direct Debit through GoCardless, treat this as the first question you ask any vendor — moving a club's payment method mid-year is disruptive and it is much cheaper to find out now.
Is there martial arts software that prices in pounds rather than dollars?
Martialytics is the only tool in this comparison with GBP-native pricing, starting at £69/month for 50 students. The others publish in US dollars, which means your monthly cost moves with the exchange rate and may attract a currency conversion fee from your card provider.
Which tools handle families with several children training?
Gymdesk includes family accounts in its base price. Martialytics does not offer family grouping, which multiple reviewers raise as a limitation. For the other three we could not verify family billing from published material — ask directly, and be specific about whether you need one invoice per family or a sibling discount applied automatically, because those are different features.
Can these tools tell me who is ready to grade?
Only partly, and this is the clearest difference between purpose-built and general tools. Martialytics uses a traffic-light system driven by attendance and time in rank to show grading readiness directly. Zen Planner and Gymdesk will record rank and grading events but expect you to make the eligibility judgement yourself from the underlying data.
What does martial arts school software actually cost in the UK?
Realistically £60–£200 per month for a club between 50 and 150 students, depending on the tool and how many students you carry. Budget for two things beyond the subscription: payment processing fees of roughly 1–2% plus the card processor's own charge, and — on tiered platforms — the add-on modules, which can cost more than the base plan if you switch several on.
Do I need martial arts specific software, or will general gym software do?
If you run a syllabus with gradings, the purpose-built tools save you real time on the one job the general platforms do worst — working out who is eligible to grade. If your club is small, or rank progression is informal, a general platform with good family billing and a lower price may serve you better. The honest answer depends on whether gradings are a monthly administrative event for you or an occasional one.