For most academies past about sixty students, payment processing quietly costs more than the software subscription it rides on. Owners negotiate hard on a $150 subscription and never ask about the 2.9% that costs three times as much. This guide does the math with real, published numbers, every rate below was read from the vendor's own page on August 27, 2026, and covers the three levers that actually move the total: your card rate, your ACH share, and your failed-payment recovery.
Where the percentage goes
Every card charge is split three ways. Interchange goes to the member's card-issuing bank, set by Visa and Mastercard in public tables they update twice a year (the current editions took effect in April 2026). A small assessment goes to the card network itself. Whatever remains above those costs is the processor's margin, and it is the only negotiable part. Flat-rate pricing, the "2.9% + 30¢" model most gym platforms use, bundles all three into one number: simple, predictable, and priced above cost so the flat-rate provider never loses. For reference, the standard flat rates of the two biggest general-purpose processors are Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢ online with ACH at 0.8% capped at $5, and Square at 2.6% + 15¢ in person and 3.3% + 30¢ online on its free plan. Recurring gym billing is card-not-present, so the online rates are the relevant ones.
What the gym platforms charge
Published rates as of August 27, 2026: Kmura charges 2.6% + 30¢, the lowest published card rate among the platforms in our buyer's guide. Gymdesk Payments is 2.9% + 30¢ with ACH at 1% capped at $5, and Gymdesk also lets you bring your own Stripe or Square account without markup. Kicksite processes through Basys at $29 a month plus 2.9% + 25¢, with an alternative where members pay a 3.75% service fee and the gym's net cost is zero. PushPress charges 4.99% + 30¢ on its free plan, 2.89% + 30¢ on Pro, and 2.75% + 30¢ on Max. Wodify advertises "as low as" 2.7% + 30¢. MyStudio starts at 2.9% + 30¢, with its help center listing 2.9% + 55¢ for card-not-present. BJJLink prices differently: a 1% service fee on all billing on its $49 plan, waived on the $149 plan. Zen Planner and Spark Membership publish no rate at all; Zen Planner's payments run through its preferred provider PaySimple, and its Flex Fees feature can pass a fee to members. An unpublished rate is not automatically a bad rate, but you should get it in writing before you sign, along with every per-transaction and monthly payments fee.
The math at three gym sizes
Assume the US average BJJ membership of $146 a month (Gold BJJ's State of Jiu Jitsu survey; a smaller Grapple Tactics survey of 58 gyms puts big-metro pricing at $161 to $195, so scale accordingly).
At 60 students, about $8,760 in monthly billing: 2.9% + 30¢ costs about $272 a month; 2.6% + 30¢ about $246. The $26 monthly gap is about $315 a year.
At 100 students, about $14,600: 2.9% + 30¢ is about $453; 2.6% + 30¢ about $410. The gap is $526 a year, and the free-plan rate of 4.99% + 30¢ would cost about $759 a month, which is why free software is the most expensive kind at this size.
At 200 students, about $29,230: 2.9% + 30¢ is about $908; 2.6% + 30¢ about $820. The gap is over $1,050 a year. Percentage-fee models scale the same way: BJJLink's 1% service fee is $292 a month here, so its $149 no-fee plan wins at any billing volume above $10,000 a month.
Two fee structures deserve a special note. Member-paid service fees (Kicksite's 3.75% option, Zen Planner's Flex Fees) move the cost onto students, about $65 a year for a student paying the average rate at 3.75%. That is a legitimate model, but card surcharge rules differ by state and card network, so confirm compliance for your state before enabling one, and weigh what an extra line item does to the perceived price of your gym. And monthly "payments" fees ($29 to $49 at some processors) are small alone but permanent; add them to the percentage math whenever you compare.
ACH: the lever most gyms never pull
Bank-transfer payments cost a fraction of cards: 0.8% capped at $5 at Stripe, 1% capped at $5 through Gymdesk Payments, and similar elsewhere. On a $146 membership, that is roughly $1.20 versus about $4.50 on a card, a 70%-plus saving per payment, and ACH payments do not expire the way cards do, which also cuts involuntary churn. The realistic play is not converting everyone; it is offering ACH at signup as the default for annual and family plans, where the absolute savings are biggest. Convert even a third of a 100-student academy to ACH and you keep roughly $100 a month that was going to processors, before counting the failed payments you no longer chase. Ask every platform you evaluate to walk through its ACH signup flow on the demo; if members have to hunt for it, adoption will round to zero.
Failed payments are silent churn
Between expired cards, reissued numbers, and thin balances, a few percent of recurring charges fail every month, and each one converts a paying member into a free one until someone acts. Three mechanics fix most of it: automatic retries spaced over several days, card-updater support so replaced cards keep working without the member typing anything, and a same-week human message for anything still failing, since a member whose payment quietly fails learns that nobody is watching. Keep failures under 3% of charges and check the number monthly; it belongs next to churn in your metrics review.
The hidden-fee checklist for your next demo
Ask these seven questions and get the answers in writing. What is my exact card rate, per-transaction fee included, card-not-present? Is there a monthly payments or gateway fee on top? What does ACH cost and is it capped? What do refunds and chargebacks cost me? Which features on this demo are add-ons, website, branded app, marketing suite, and what do they add per month? What happens to my rate and tier when I grow past a member threshold? And what does it cost to leave, including exporting my full history? On that last one: platforms confident in their product publish easy exits, and the switching process itself is covered in our migration guide.
Kmura's answers, for the record: 2.6% + 30¢, no monthly payments fee, no tiers to outgrow at $150 flat per location, SMS pay-as-you-go as the only metered extra with the cost shown before sending, and free white-glove migration in, including attendance and promotion history. Run your own numbers with the cost savings calculator, or book a walkthrough and we will run them with you.
This article describes published pricing and general payment mechanics; it is not financial or legal advice, and surcharge rules for member-paid fees vary by state.
