Glofox, now ABC Glofox, describes its software as "Built for class-led fitness businesses of all kinds, from independent studios to growing gym brands".1 Elara is a Glofox alternative built for studios whose week is a timetable of classes and sessions: gyms that run classes, Pilates and yoga studios, and sauna, contrast therapy and bathhouse studios. Each class sets its own credit cost, so a reformer class can take two credits from the same pack as a one-credit mat class. One session can sell shared places and, while nobody has booked it, the whole session to a customer booking online. Check-in waits until each booked customer has signed every active waiver, and payments go through a Stripe or Square account the studio owns. Elara has no appointments, spot booking, app-store member app or self check-in, and cannot import from Glofox.
Side by side
| Elara | Glofox | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared places and private booking | Each class or session has a capacity, a credit cost and a drop-in price. With private booking turned on for the studio and the session, and either a private price or a private credit cost set for the whole session, a customer can book the whole session privately while it has no other bookings, and once it is booked privately nobody else can book a place.2,3 | Classes with a capacity and a waitlist that either tells everyone a place is free or books the first person in line.4 A private class is one "you can hide from the 'Member App' and 'Website Portal'" and offer from the dashboard,5 and semi-private sessions are booked by staff only.6 The cited pages do not describe a client booking a whole scheduled class online while it is open for single places. |
| Credits per class | Each class sets its own credit cost, and credit packs can be limited to the session categories you choose.7,8 | "It's not possible to charge an additional amount as well as a credit, or to use more than one credit per person booking."9 |
| Spots and rooms | A customer books a place in a session, not a particular spot. No room layouts or bookable rooms. | Spot Booking lays out a room on a grid so members pick a spot in the app or web portal, and studios ask support for access.10 Facilities rent a space in time slots, and "Only one client can be booked into a 'Facility' slot at any given time".11 |
| Plans and families | Monthly, yearly and fixed-term plans, and credit packs with optional expiry. Each customer holds their own plans.8 | Recurring, fixed-term, credit pack, group, family and trial memberships, among others.12 Family accounts are "not available on all Glofox packages".13 |
| Waivers | Versioned, and you can run more than one at once. Online booking asks the booker for any active waiver they have not signed. Friends booked into shared places sign before they can be checked in; guests on a private booking do not sign. A staff booking still goes through when the customer owes a signature: the roster flags it and check-in waits for it.14,15,16 | Standard contracts on every package: a waiver at registration and membership terms at each purchase, with a parental waiver where family accounts are on. E-signed e-agreements are an add-on.17 With e-agreements, a studio can block booking in the member app and web portal, and barcode entry, until they are signed.18 Staff are prompted for a signature from the class booking list and the access tab;17 the cited pages do not say whether check-in waits for it, or whether members sign again when a waiver's text changes. |
| Check-in and door access | Staff check customers in from the session roster. No self check-in and no door access, so keep your access system for entry.19 | Staff check-in,20 a self check-in kiosk "offered to Boost and Elite Glofox customers",21 barcodes from the member app,22 and door access through Kisi or Passport.23,24 |
| Payment account | Your own Stripe or Square account, connected from Payment settings.25 | Glofox Payments, which runs on Stripe; a studio with a Stripe account from a previous business is told "we still encourage you to move over to Glofox Payments".26 The move sends saved payment details from the studio's Stripe account to Glofox's.27 Its terms make Glofox Payments a Stripe connected account and say a studio "may not own data related to individual End Users, including without limitation End User card data".28 |
| Front desk card payments | Stripe WisePOS E, S700 and Verifone P400 readers, or Square Terminal, with the sale completed once the provider confirms the payment.29 | A Stripe S700 or S710 reader ordered through Glofox, which takes memberships, credit packs, add-ons and store products; bookings are "not currently supported for terminal payments".30 |
| In Canada | A studio charges in one currency, set to match its payment account, so a studio whose account settles in CAD charges in CAD. Stripe readers take Interac debit cards when the studio charges in CAD, and Elara cannot refund an Interac payment yet.31,32 | Glofox Payments lists card, direct debit and terminal payments in Canada.26 The cited pages do not mention Interac. |
| Customer messages | Email automations and email campaigns, built in, including a review request after a visit that links to your Google or Yelp page. No text messages.33 | Automated emails and multi-step workflows,34 texts as an add-on,35 and push notifications to the app.36 Loyalsnap, a partner integration, can "request Google, Yelp, and Facebook reviews".37 |
| Customer booking | Customers book, buy plans and gift cards, and sign waivers through widgets on the studio's own website. Elara has no customer app in the app stores.38,39 | The shared Glofox member app, where clients search for their studio by name,40 a branded app published under the studio's own Apple developer account,41 and a web portal embedded on the studio's website.42 |
| Booking channels | No marketplace listing or marketplace connection.43 | A two-way ClassPass connection with a cap on the places ClassPass can take,44 and Wellhub.45 |
| Several locations | Each session belongs to one location and runs in that location's own time zone. Plans, waivers, customers and the payment account are shared across the studio; reports filter by location, and staff roles can be limited to their locations for sessions, reservations, reports and shifts, while customers, sales and the POS stay studio-wide.46,47,48 | Roaming memberships with a home studio,49 and on Enterprise, a head office that pushes settings and content to its branches.50 |
| API | A read-only API key reads customers, locations, plans, memberships, classes, reservations and payments. No webhooks.51 | An API with credentials from ABC Fitness, and a Zapier connection on Elite.52 |
| Moving in | The Migration Center imports from Kenko and Mindbody only, so there is no import from Glofox.53 | Migration brings client profiles and existing payment methods,54 and memberships and credits are assigned again after the move.55 |
| Leaving | Payments, and the customers and saved cards behind them, stay in your own Stripe or Square account. Staff can export selected customers (name, contact details, membership, remaining credits and join date) and reports to CSV, and a read-only API key reads customers, locations, plans, memberships, classes, reservations and payments.25,56,51 | A client list downloads to CSV.57 The terms say Glofox is "not an archive" for studio data, and that it will use reasonable efforts to return the data within 60 days of termination, once fees are paid, including an off-boarding fee, through its standard off-boarding process and file format.28 The cited pages do not say how saved cards move when a studio leaves. |
Glofox sells some of these as add-ons or on particular plans,58 so ask which plan carries the ones you need.
Where Elara is ahead for class and session studios
- A credit cost on each class. A reformer class can cost two credits and a mat class one, from the same pack. Glofox's help center says a booking cannot use more than one credit.
- Shared and private on one session. A session sells individual places and, while it has no other bookings, the whole session to a customer booking online. Once it is booked privately, nobody else can book a place, so the two never oversell each other. Glofox's private classes are hidden from the app and offered by staff. Ask Glofox how a client would book out a class that is already on the timetable.
- A payment account that stays yours. Elara connects the Stripe or Square account your studio owns, so the account, and the customers and saved cards in it, stay with the studio. Glofox encourages studios to move their own Stripe accounts onto Glofox Payments, and its terms say a studio "may not own data related to individual End Users, including without limitation End User card data". Ask Glofox what happens to saved cards if you leave.
Gyms, Pilates and yoga studios
Glofox's Pilates page offers to "reserve reformers or spaces with a clear, visual booking experience".59 A reformer class has a fixed number of machines and often costs more than a mat class. In Elara, each class sets its own capacity and credit cost, so an eight-reformer class sells eight places at two credits each beside a twenty-place mat class at one, and a client sees one balance. A client books a place, not a particular reformer: Elara has no numbered spots. A yoga workshop is a one-off session with its own price. A gym that runs classes uses the same model, with entry left to its own access system. The Pilates studios, yoga studios and gyms pages show how Elara runs each.
Sauna, contrast therapy and bathhouse studios
Glofox's scheduling page names "facility bookings like saunas and courts".60 A Glofox Facility takes one client per slot, and the cited pages do not say how a sauna with several places would sell shared places and a private hire of the room from one session, so ask Glofox. A sauna hour is usually sold two ways: individual places in a shared session, and the whole room for a private group. In Elara, both come from the same session, and once it is booked privately, shared places close. Elara can ask for several waivers, such as a general waiver and a cold plunge waiver, and each friend booked into shared places signs their own before they can be checked in. Guests on a private booking do not sign in Elara, so collect their waivers another way. The sauna studios page follows one weekend at a ten-place sauna.
What Elara leaves out
Elara keeps to classes and sessions, so some things Glofox offers are not in it:
- No appointments or courses. A one-to-one session is a session with one place.
- No spot booking, room layouts or facility rentals.
- No self check-in, member barcodes or door access.
- No text messages or push notifications. Booking confirmations, campaigns and reminders about expiring memberships or unsigned waivers go by email. Elara sends no reminder before a booked session.
- No customer app in the app stores, shared or branded. Customers use the booking widget on your website.
- No family accounts, and no marketplace listing or connection.
- No webhooks or Zapier app, and no marketing, marketplace or automation integrations; the API reads data only.
Questions owners ask
Can I bring my Glofox data to Elara? Not by import: Elara's Migration Center reads Kenko and Mindbody only. Tell us how many members, plans and locations you run when you ask for a quote, and we will say what moving involves before you commit.
Does Elara have a branded app like Glofox's? No. Glofox offers its shared member app and a branded app under your own Apple developer account. Elara has no customer app in the app stores: customers book, buy plans and sign waivers through widgets on your own website.
What happens to my members' saved cards? On Glofox Payments, they sit in a Stripe account under Glofox, and the cited pages do not say how they leave. In Elara they would have to reach your own Stripe or Square account. Ask Glofox how an export works, and ask us before you plan the move. The guide to moving saved cards explains what decides whether renewals keep running.
See it with your own timetable
Ask for a quote and tell us how your week runs: the classes or sessions you sell, your plans and packs, your waivers and how many locations you have. To weigh other options, read Elara vs Mindbody, Elara vs Zen Planner or Elara vs WellnessLiving.
Glofox is a trademark of its owner. Elara is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Glofox or ABC Fitness Solutions.