Elara is a Session alternative built for studios whose week is a timetable of sessions, including sauna, contrast therapy and bathhouse studios. Session, the sauna booking platform at bookasession.org, sells communal places and private hire from one timeslot, each closing the other, as Elara does.1 Where they differ is waivers and the desk: Elara asks for every active waiver at once and holds check-in until each one is signed, and it sells products, memberships and packs on a connected Stripe or Square card reader.
Side by side
| Elara | Session | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment processors | Stripe or Square, connected from the studio's own account.2 | Stripe, paid straight into the studio's own Stripe account.3,4 |
| Shared places and private booking | Each session has a capacity. 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 private booking is offered only while the session has no other bookings; once booked privately, nobody else can book a place.5,6 | Every way to book a session draws on its spaces: a communal ticket takes one, a group price a block, and private hire all of them. A private booking closes the session, and a communal booking takes private hire off sale for that date.1,7 |
| Start times and rooms | Each session has its own capacity and start time. There is no room record, and overlapping sessions at the same location or with the same instructor raise a warning rather than a block.8 | One session can sell several lengths, and bookings of different lengths overlap while sharing its spaces. Separate sessions for one room keep separate spaces.1,9 |
| Waivers | Versioned, and you can run more than one at once: a customer owes every active waiver they have not signed. Online booking asks the booker to sign before the booking goes through, and changing a waiver's text or file asks everyone who signed it to accept the new version. Friends booked into shared places sign before they can be checked in. Guests on a private booking do not sign, and the staff roster shows how many are coming.10,11,12 | One waiver applies to each booking: the session type's, else the location's, else the default. The booker signs for everyone, or each visitor signs. Changing the wording creates a new version that returning visitors sign on their next booking. On a private hire, the party size sets how many waivers go out. For a per-guest waiver, staff open the booking at the door to see who has signed and let anyone missing sign there.13,7,14 |
| Memberships and packs | Monthly, yearly and fixed-term plans, and credit packs that expire after a set time or never.15 | Memberships, and bundles that never expire or expire after a set number of months, which can be limited to some prices, sessions or times.4,16 |
| Gift cards | Gift cards, redeemed online and at the front desk.17 | Gift vouchers for a session or for a money value; a money voucher shows as a gift card balance on the customer's account.18,19 |
| Front desk | A connected Stripe or Square card reader takes product, membership and pack sales; a membership is added once the reader payment is approved, and a monthly or yearly plan sold at the desk does not renew itself. A walk-in's session booked at the desk is marked paid on the booking.20,21,22 | Session does not connect to a card reader: staff take the payment on their own reader, or on a phone with Stripe's Tap to Pay, and record it on the booking as paid.23 |
| Built-in campaigns and automations.24 | Booking confirmations, reminders and review requests, and newsletters to the whole list.3 | |
| Moving data | Kenko exports are imported self-serve; a Mindbody capture is arranged with support. Either is reviewed before anything is written. Elara has no Session importer. Staff export selected customers and reports to CSV.25,26,27 | Imports bookings, customers, gift vouchers and bundles from Acuity, Bookwhen, Wix or any tool that exports a spreadsheet (Periode exports are sent to Session's team), and moves member lists on request. One export downloads every booking, customer and signed waiver; saved cards and live memberships stay in Stripe.28,29 |
| Currency | One currency per studio, set to match its payment account, so a studio whose account settles in USD or CAD charges in it.30 | Regional settings start as British (GBP, London time and VAT); a venue elsewhere sets its own currency, and Session warns when it differs from the Stripe account's.31 |
Where Elara is ahead for sauna studios
- A card reader for products, memberships and packs. A connected Stripe or Square reader takes product, membership and pack sales, and a membership is added once the payment is approved. Session's own guide says it does not connect to a card reader, so a desk payment is taken on a separate reader or phone and then recorded on the booking.
- Square as well as Stripe. Elara connects either the studio's Stripe or its Square account. The cited Session pages name Stripe only.
- Check-in waits for every signature. Elara refuses check-in until a customer has signed every active waiver. Session's check-in guide names cancelled and unpaid bookings as the ones that cannot be checked in, so ask Session whether a missing signature stops check-in.
- More than one waiver on a booking. A general waiver and a cold plunge waiver can both be required, and a customer signs each one they owe. Session applies one waiver to each booking.
What Elara leaves out
Some things Session describes are not in Elara:
- No waiver for guests on a private booking. The staff roster shows how many are coming, not who, so collect their waivers another way.
- No waiver limited to some sessions or locations. Every active waiver applies to every customer.
- No several lengths sharing one session's places. Each session has its own capacity and start time.
- No group price that sells a block of places as one. In Elara a group is a booker and their friends (up to three by default), each with a place of their own.11
- No add-ons, such as towel hire, sold with a booking.32
- No Session importer, so a move from Session is a manual setup.
Test one day in both
Ask each vendor to run the same day. Sell a pack and a membership at the desk on a card reader. Require a general waiver and a cold plunge waiver, book three friends into one session, and try to check in the one who has not signed.
See it with your own timetable
Ask for a quote and bring your real schedule. The sauna studios page explains how shared and private sessions work together. For other alternatives, read Elara vs Zettlor, Elara vs Zipper and Elara vs Mindbody.
Session is a trademark of its owner. Elara is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Session.