Fitness Studio Management
The buyer population — Fitness and recreational sports centres
Base industry report for 713940 →- Establishments · CanadaA
- 4,538
- Under 10 employeesA
- 57%
- Establishments · USA
- 40,786
- Employment · USA
- 649,964
- Payroll · USA
- $12.1B
Of 4,538 Canadian establishments with employees, 57% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators. Each of those is one potential account, before any filter for size or fit.
Entry signal — what decides who wins here
One thing must be trueEntry turns on a single condition that can be named and tested before much is spent. Clear it and this becomes an execution question; fail it and no amount of operating skill helps.
Displace an incumbent the screen found well defended — payments attached to the workflow, data that does not leave, a contract that renews itself. Share here means giving a buyer a reason to break something that currently works, which is a higher bar than being better.
Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.
This is not a probability of success, and it is not a verdict on you. No survival probability is published per market, and inventing one would be worse than saying so. What the bar reads is how much of the outcome sits inside an operator's control: green means the hurdles are ones a better operator clears, red means the binding constraint is capital, an asset or a permission rather than execution. Someone arriving with an advantage this screen did not assume can win a market shown in red.
Companies named in this market · 15
The binding constraint — incumbent vulnerability
Heavily contested with payments attach as the revenue model. Studio churn is high, which makes customer acquisition expensive and retention structurally poor. Nothing is disclosed here. Every vendor named on this record is private, or sits inside a parent that does not break the line out, so no revenue floor can be built and the market size is genuinely unknown rather than estimated.
Sectors joined: Sports Tech · Brain Fitness · Sports Performance · Beauty/Wellness · Sports Analytics · Sports Equipment
[UNVERIFIED] Sector-to-NAICS mapping is analyst judgment — see data/angel-sector-map.json. Counts are a per-record cross-reference and are not additive across records.
The incumbent
Who owns this market and who is coming for it. Fields a screen never reached say so rather than guessing.
Financials & market size — sourced
Figures that came from a filing, a results release or reputable reporting, each carrying its evidence tier.
The field
Every vendor named on this record, and what each one discloses. Most disclose nothing, which is why the market is not sized.
Competitor set · 6 named · 0 disclose revenue
| Name | Revenue | Share | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| MindbodyB | not disclosed | — | Now inside Playlist alongside ClassPass and Booker, which merged with EGYM in 2026 at a $7.5B combined valuation. Bought by Vista for $1.9B in 2018; the 2021 ClassPass combination valued it at about $3B. No revenue published at any point in that chain |
| ABC FitnessC | not disclosed | — | Private (Thoma Bravo) |
| WodifyC | not disclosed | — | Private; gym-management software built around CrossFit-style boxes |
| EGYM (Playlist)B | not disclosed | — | Merged with Playlist in 2026; equipment and wellness technology rather than studio software alone |
| Xplor Technologies (Mariana Tek, Clubworx)C | not disclosed | — | Private-equity roll-up of vertical software and payments; no line reported |
| WellnessLiving / Glofox (ABC Fitness)C | not disclosed | — | Private; the mid-market alternatives to Mindbody |
Nobody here publishes revenue. The market is not sized for that reason — an estimate built on nothing would only look like knowledge.
Startups & challengers
Newer and smaller vendors going at the incumbent — funded challengers first. Named, not researched to the depth of the field above; a company with a page here links to it.
| Company | Stage | What it does | Raised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daxko | Funded challenger | Membership, billing and program software for YMCAs, JCCs and health clubs. | — |
| Vagaro | Funded challenger | Booking, POS and marketing for salons, spas and fitness businesses | — |
| Arketa | Startup | Booking, payments and on-demand video for boutique fitness and yoga studios. | — |
| PushPress | Startup | Member management and billing for CrossFit and independent gyms. | — |
| Walla | Startup | Booking, membership and payments for boutique fitness and yoga studios | — |
| EZFacility | Scrappy competitor | Scheduling, membership and billing for gyms, sports facilities and campus recreation | — |
| Gym Master | Scrappy competitor | Membership, access control and billing for gyms | — |
| TeamUp | Scrappy competitor | Class booking and membership software for fitness studios and gyms | — |
Evidence
Evidence. UNVERIFIED — screened on analyst judgment against the model in _method/screening-model.md. Incumbent names and positions are from general market knowledge and were not independently researched for this record. Verify before acting. Updated 2026-09-18: the valuation chain is now on the record — $1.9B (2018), about $3B (2021), $7.5B (2026), all from trade coverage [B]. Not one of those is a revenue figure. Every vendor here is private or inside a private roll-up, so what is measurable is what investors paid — and the consumer marketplace bolted to the software (ClassPass) is a large part of what they were paying for.
Where the industry talks
The associations, forums and events where people in this trade actually talk shop — where to listen before entering, and where the first customers are found. Each link was opened on the date shown.
Not-for-profit trade association of fitness facility owners and operators; ficdn.ca redirects here. Says it speaks for 7,000+ facilities (sector size, not membership).
Formerly IHRSA; global trade association of health club operators and suppliers. Member count not stated on home page.
Canadian fitness certification body; home page says over 25,000 professionals hold its certifications (certified, not stated as members). Runs the Global Conference & Trade Show.
HFA's annual convention and trade show for club operators; next is Las Vegas, March 10-12, 2027, per healthandfitness.org.
Canada's main fitness-industry conference and trade show; 2026 is its 33rd year.
Trade magazine for health club owners and operators; articles dated Sept 21, 2026.
Weekly podcast for gym owners and managers, running since 2015; latest episode Sept 18, 2026.
Club Industry (clubindustry.com) and Athletic Business block automated access and are not listed. Reddit r/gymowners is banned.
The businesses it sells to
Operating-business records filed along the same branch of NAICS — the customers of this software, screened as businesses in their own right.