Elara is a Zettlor alternative built for studios whose week is a timetable of sessions, including sauna, contrast therapy and bathhouse studios. It sells shared places and a private booking of the same session without overselling, asks online bookers to sign every active waiver first, connects the studio's own Stripe or Square account, and brings Kenko and Mindbody data across in a migration you review before anything is written. Zettlor also runs bookings, memberships, waivers and payments for sauna studios, sets capacity room by room, and sends text messages to customers.1
Side by side
| Elara | Zettlor | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment processors | Stripe or Square, connected from the studio's own account.2 | Stripe, through the operator's own Stripe account.3 |
| Shared sessions | Each session has a capacity, a drop-in price and a credit cost.4 | Each slot has a seat count, capped by the event, the space and the slot.5 |
| Private use of the space | 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.6,7 | Shared sessions, private sessions and private buyouts on the same rooms.1 |
| Rooms and resources | No separate room record. Capacity is set on each session; overlapping sessions that share a location or instructor raise a warning, not a block.8 | Multi-room scheduling within a location, each room with its own capacity and seat settings.1 |
| Waivers | Versioned, and you can run more than one at once. Online booking asks the booker for any active waiver they have not signed, and changing a waiver's text or file asks everyone who signed it to accept the new version before their next online booking or check-in. 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. A staff booking still goes through when the customer owes a signature: the roster flags it and check-in waits for it.9,10,11 | Versioned; past signatures keep their original language. The FAQ says guests sign during online booking or at check-in; the waiver guide says a required waiver is asked for after payment, and self check-in stays blocked until it is signed.1,12 |
| Memberships and packs | Monthly, yearly and fixed-term plans; credit packs with an optional expiry; gift cards, redeemed online and at the front desk.13,14 | Unlimited, session-count, day-restricted and tiered memberships; punch passes; credits with expiry; gift cards. Members can cancel, and pause if the operator allows it.1 |
| Front desk card payments | 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 saved card, cash, a gift card, and card payments taken on another terminal also work.15,16 | Staff take cards in Stripe's in-browser checkout or charge a saved card, and walk-ins can pay by QR code on their phone. Zettlor's reader guide says dedicated Stripe Terminal readers are not supported.1,17 |
| Customer messages | Email automations and email campaigns, built in. No text messages.18,19 | Text and email confirmations, reminders and waitlist notices.1 |
| Integrations | No third-party marketing sync, and a read-only API key.20,21 | An API with documentation on request.1 |
| Moving in | A Migration Center that shows what the import will write for review before anything is written: Kenko exports uploaded self-serve, or a Mindbody API capture arranged with Elara support.22 | CSV and universal import, and the Zettlor team handles migrations from Acuity, Momence, Mindbody and other systems alongside you.1,23 |
| 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 and remaining credits) and reports to CSV, and a read-only API key reads customers, locations, plans, memberships, sessions, bookings and payments.2,24,25,21 | After termination you can request a copy of your business data within 30 days; Zettlor delivers it within 60 days.1 Stripe pays the operator directly.3 |
| 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.26 | Available in Canada, with checkout in Canadian dollars on your own Stripe account.27 |
Where Elara is ahead for sauna studios
- Waivers before an online booking. The booker signs every active waiver before the booking goes through, every version is kept, and a changed waiver is signed again before the next online booking or check-in. Zettlor's FAQ and waiver guide describe the timing differently, so ask Zettlor to show a group booking.
- Square as well as Stripe. Elara connects either the studio's Stripe or its Square account. The cited Zettlor pages name Stripe only.
- A card reader for products, memberships and packs. A connected Stripe or Square reader takes product, membership and pack sales at the desk. Zettlor's reader guide says dedicated Stripe Terminal readers are not supported.
- A Kenko or Mindbody migration you can check. The Migration Center lists the problems it finds before writing anything. Elara vs Mindbody says what a Mindbody capture brings across and what stays behind.
What Elara leaves out
Some things Zettlor offers are not in Elara:
- No room records. Capacity is set on each session, and overlapping sessions raise a warning rather than a block.
- No text messages. Confirmations, reminders and campaigns go by email.
- No add-ons at checkout, dynamic pricing or lottery for sold-out sessions, all of which Zettlor offers.28,1
- No Zettlor importer, so a move from Zettlor is a manual setup.
Questions owners ask
Can I move from Zettlor to Elara? Elara has no Zettlor importer, so the move is a manual setup. Ask Zettlor for your data export first: its FAQ says you can request a copy within 30 days of termination. Payments in your own Stripe account stay there whichever booking software you use.
Does every guest in a group sign the waiver? In Elara, the person booking online signs every active waiver before the booking goes through. Each friend booked into shared places gets their own booking: a friend new to the studio gets an invitation email that asks for the waiver, and check-in waits until that friend has signed. Guests on a private booking do not sign in Elara, and staff see how many are coming rather than their names, so collect their waivers another way.
See it with your own timetable
Ask for a quote and tell us how your week runs: shared sessions, private bookings, members on packs and walk-ins at the desk. The sauna studios page shows how shared and private sessions work together. Elara vs Zipper, Elara vs Session and Elara vs Mindbody compare other platforms sauna owners consider.
Zettlor is a trademark of its owner. Elara is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Zettlor.