Zen Planner Alternatives for BJJ Academies
Zen Planner is the multi-program incumbent a lot of gyms start on. If your academy runs on belts, stripes and a curriculum, here are four alternatives worth a shortlist, with published prices, and who each one actually suits.
What Zen Planner Is, and Who It Fits
A fair read before the comparison: Zen Planner is capable, mature, and the natural home of a certain kind of facility.
Zen Planner is a long-established gym management platform, now part of Daxko, used by fitness gyms and multi-program facilities that run several disciplines under one roof. Its Studio plan starts at $99 a month and is tiered by member count, and the feature list is broad: memberships and billing, scheduling, a member app and a staff app, attendance, belt and skill tracking, reporting, and workout tracking with a SugarWOD integration.
It publishes its add-on menu openly: a website at $99 a month, Engage marketing automation at $249 a month, a branded app at $39 a month and EMV card devices at $39 a month, all as of September 1, 2026. Payments run through Daxko Payments or a preferred processor, and the processing rate is quoted rather than published.
The question worth asking is not whether Zen Planner is capable. It is whether a platform built around a fitness club, with belts as one feature among many, matches how a jiu-jitsu academy actually runs.
Why BJJ Academies Start Looking Elsewhere
Three things come up again and again when jiu-jitsu owners price Zen Planner properly.
The sticker is not the invoice
Studio starts at $99, but the number moves with member count, and the things many academies want, a website, marketing automation, a branded app, are separately billed add-ons that can more than triple the monthly total. Price the full configuration you would actually run before comparing it with anything flat.
A processing rate you have to ask for
For most academies the percentage taken off every membership payment costs more than the subscription. Zen Planner quotes its rate through its payment partners rather than publishing it, so the true monthly cost cannot be worked out from the website. Get your exact rate and per-transaction fee in writing before you sign.
Belts as a feature, not the model
Belt and skill tracking is on Zen Planner's feature list, which is more than most generalists offer. The difference is what the system is built around: a fitness-club model of memberships, check-ins and workouts, with rank tracking added on. Ask on the demo how time in grade, stripes and curriculum by rank connect to attendance and to who is due for a promotion.
None of that makes Zen Planner a bad platform. It makes it a platform shaped for a different kind of gym.
Zen Planner alternatives for BJJ academies
Four options worth shortlisting if a multi-program fitness platform is not the right shape for your academy, with published prices, and who each one actually suits.
Kmura
Built specifically for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu rather than adapted to it — belts, stripes, and a fully customizable curriculum are the data model, not a workaround. $150 a month flat per location with card processing at 2.6% + 30¢, a nightly AI review that flags at-risk students and pre-drafts the follow-up for your staff to send, the whole platform in English and Portuguese, and free white-glove migration.
Best for: BJJ academies that want software matching how they already run.
Gymdesk
A generalist gym platform with genuine martial-arts roots, priced by member count from $75 to $200 a month. It also lets you bring your own payment processor instead of locking you to one, which is unusual in this category.
Best for: Schools wanting a polished generalist and control over processing.
Kicksite
Martial-arts software since 2007, priced from $49 to $199 a month by active student count. Every feature is available at every tier, so you are not paying to unlock the basics as you grow.
Best for: Traditional martial-arts schools that want a long-established vendor.
BJJLink
BJJ-specific software with a technique library and LMS built in, on a $49 plan that adds a 1% service fee on billing or a $149 flat plan with no service fee. The technique library is a real differentiator if delivering curriculum content to students matters to you.
Best for: Academies that want a built-in technique library above all else.
See the full comparison of BJJ school management software
Competitor figures read from each vendor's own published pricing page on August 27, 2026. Prices and features change; verify before you buy.
Where Kmura Fits
Kmura is built for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specifically. Belts, stripes, promotion history and a fully customizable curriculum are the data model, not custom fields bolted onto a generic member record, so attendance rolls up into who is actually due for a stripe.
Instructor hours and classes taught are tracked, and tracking is where it stops, because Kmura is not payroll software. A nightly AI review reads your academy's activity, flags students who are drifting and pre-drafts the follow-up for your staff to send. It never sends anything on its own. Pricing is $150 a month per location, flat, with every feature included at every size and card processing at 2.6% + 30¢. The only thing billed outside that flat price is SMS, which is pay-as-you-go with the cost shown before you send. Migration is free and white-glove, and the whole platform runs in English and Portuguese.
A demo is a walkthrough with our co-founder, Todd Snider, Co-Founder & CEO.
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