Zen Planner describes itself as gym software for martial arts schools, CrossFit and functional fitness gyms, personal trainers and boutique studios.1 Elara is a Zen Planner 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 one group. 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 does not track workouts or belt ranks, has no appointments, app-store member app or self check-in, and cannot import from Zen Planner.
Side by side
| Elara | Zen Planner | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 reservation limit and a waitlist that fills a cancelled place automatically or offers it to the next person for a set time.4,5 One-on-one sessions are appointments,6 and its personal training page books one-on-one, semi-private and group sessions from one calendar.7 The cited pages do not describe a client booking a whole scheduled class privately. |
| Credits per class | Each class sets its own credit cost, and credit packs can be limited to the session categories you choose.8,9 | A class card is a number of classes for the programs and classes it lists, and Zen Planner "automatically deducts one class" each time the member attends or reserves.10 The cited pages do not say whether one class can count as more than one. |
| Plans and families | Monthly, yearly and fixed-term plans, and credit packs with optional expiry. Each customer holds their own plans.9 | Monthly and annual memberships, class packs, drop-ins, punch cards and family plans.11 Family members linked under a head of household are billed with the same payment method, and a membership can be shared with another member.12,13 |
| 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 | Signature documents for prospects, members or alumni, for a membership category or for an event.17 Online sign-up asks for the waiver before payment, and a parent or guardian signs for a child.18 At the front desk an unsigned document shows as an alert on the member's profile,19 and on the kiosk, a member who taps to check in sees their alerts and can sign an unsigned waiver there.20 The cited pages do not say 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.21 | Check-in from the member app, a front-desk kiosk or by staff;11 a barcode scanner on the kiosk;22 and unattended entry through HybridAF.23 |
| Payment account | Your own Stripe or Square account, connected from Payment settings.24 | Its in-house processing, which the pricing page calls Daxko Payments, and "Third-party processors are also supported".25,26 A business can also connect its own Paysafe account.27 The cited pages do not say whether a gym can connect a Stripe or Square account it already owns. |
| 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.28 | The Lane 3000 reader, which works with the Staff App and takes chip, contactless, Apple Pay and Google Pay.29 |
| 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.30,31 | Zen Planner Payments serves Canadian businesses with local bank payments,32 and the Paysafe connection takes EFT in Canada.27 The cited pages do not mention Interac or billing in Canadian dollars. |
| 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, custom automations that can send a text, and one-way texts to US and Canadian numbers, with two-way texting in Zen Planner Engage;34,35 AI tools come with Engage too.36 A pre-made template asks members for a Google or Yelp review.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 Zen Planner Member App in both stores,40,41 a branded app as an add-on,42 and embeds for the calendar, membership sign-up and appointments on the gym's website.43 |
| Booking channels | No marketplace listing or marketplace connection.44 | Connections to booking channels such as ClassPass, Wellhub and FitReserve.45,46,47 |
| Workouts and ranks | No workout tracking and no belt ranks. | Workout tracking,48 programming and leaderboards through SugarWOD,49 and belt ranks with attendance requirements, promoted by staff.50 |
| 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.51,52,53 | One account runs several locations while all payments go to one bank account; a location that deposits to another bank account needs its own account, and four or more accounts can be bridged for combined reports.54 |
| API | A read-only API key reads customers, locations, plans, memberships, classes, reservations and payments. No webhooks.55 | Outbound webhooks for people, class sessions and attendance; data cannot be imported through them.56 |
| Moving in | The Migration Center imports from Kenko and Mindbody only, so there is no import from Zen Planner.57 | Its switching service takes CSV files and says member profiles, billing details and payment methods transfer.58 Its import article lists past memberships and attendance on earlier memberships among data imported for a fee,59 so ask what the standard migration includes. |
| 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.24,60,55 | Cancelling takes 30 days' notice through a request form.61 Custom reports export to CSV.62 The cited pages do not say how saved cards move when a business leaves Zen Planner. |
Zen Planner sells some of these as add-ons or on particular packages,25 so ask which package 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. Ask Zen Planner whether a class can take more than one class from a class card.
- Shared and private on one session. A session sells individual places and, while it has no other bookings, the whole session to one group. Once it is booked privately, nobody else can book a place, so the two never oversell each other. Ask Zen Planner how a group 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. Ask Zen Planner which processor you would use, and what happens to saved cards if you leave.
Gyms, Pilates and yoga studios
Zen Planner's boutique page says it works for yoga, Pilates, barre and cycling studios.63 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 and programming left to the coaches, since Elara tracks no workouts. The Pilates studios, yoga studios and gyms pages show how Elara runs each.
Sauna, contrast therapy and bathhouse studios
Zen Planner's own comparison calls it "Built for gyms and martial arts schools, not spas and salons",64 and the cited pages do not say how a sauna, cold plunge or bathhouse studio would sell shared places and a private hire of the room from one session, so ask it. 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 Zen Planner offers are not in it:
- No workout tracking, programming or leaderboards, and no belt ranks.
- No appointments. A one-to-one session is a session with one place.
- No self check-in or door access.
- No text messages. 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. Customers use the booking widget on your website.
- No family accounts or shared memberships, and no marketplace listing or connection.
- No webhooks, and no marketing, marketplace or automation integrations; the API reads data only.
Questions owners ask
Can I bring my Zen Planner 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.
What should I check when reading Zen Planner reviews? Look past the ratings to what moving in and leaving involve. Zen Planner's switching page says migration and setup take "about one week",58 cancelling takes 30 days' notice through a request form,61 and the cited pages do not say how saved cards leave. For a class and session studio, also ask how a class card counts a reformer class and whether a group can book a whole class.
What happens to my members' saved cards? When a business moves to Zen Planner, it asks its current processor to export card and bank details.65 The cited pages do not say how they leave. In Elara they would have to reach your own Stripe or Square account. Ask Zen Planner and its processor 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 Glofox or Elara vs WellnessLiving.
Zen Planner is a trademark of its owner. Elara is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Zen Planner.