Guides · updated 20 August 2026
Choosing class management software for a kids' club
Every platform in this market does the same core job: a booking page, a register, payments, a waiting list. The differences that matter are the fee model, whether the product was built for children or adapted to them, and how hard it is to leave. Here is a method, then the facts.
Question one: what does a full class cost you?
Fee models in this market come in three shapes: a flat subscription, a subscription plus a percentage of every booking, and quote-based pricing you cannot see until sales calls you back. The shape matters more than the headline number, because a percentage grows with your success and a flat fee does not.
Do the arithmetic on your own numbers: places filled per term, price per place, terms per year. A 3% booking fee on £20,000 of annual bookings is £600 a year on top of the subscription. Cheap-looking monthly prices can carry the expensive part in the percentage.
Question two: was it built for children?
A children's club needs the child on the booking, not just the paying adult: ages, medical notes, emergency contacts, photo consent, and a register that shows them at the door. Products built for adult fitness or general events can take a child's booking, but check where the child's details live and whether the register shows what a first-aider needs.
Sibling discounts, terms, instalments and half-term camps are the other tell. If the pricing model is built around memberships and drop-ins, you will spend your life working around it.
Question three: how does the money move?
Prefer platforms where card payments settle into your own payment account (typically Stripe) rather than being held and paid out on the platform's schedule. Your money arriving directly simplifies cash flow and bookkeeping, and it means leaving the platform never means chasing a final payout.
Question four: how hard is it to leave?
Ask three things before you sign: is there a notice period, can you export families and bookings yourself, and do parents' accounts belong to you or to the platform's marketplace? The honest platforms answer in a sentence. Evasive answers here are the answer.
The facts, as published
ClassForKids does not publish its pricing; its own materials describe transaction fees as estimates confirmed by an account manager, so you cannot compare it on price until you are in a sales conversation.
Pebble publishes Core at £25 a month plus 3% + VAT per booking and Premium at £35 a month plus 2.5% + VAT, on a full-year commitment. The percentage is the part to model against your volume.
Bookwhen publishes tiers with monthly booking caps (300 to 4,000) and takes no cut of payments; its free plan is for free events only. The cap is the part to model: a sold-out term can move you up a tier.
Gymcatch starts from £10 + VAT a month with no booking fees; courses, discount codes, memberships and website integration are bolt-ons at £2 + VAT each per month, and the product is shaped around fitness businesses.
RocketClass, ours, is a flat subscription with no booking fees and payments into your own Stripe account. We keep head-to-head comparisons, with sources and the rows each rival wins, at the compare page linked below.
Fair questions
Is a spreadsheet and bank transfers honestly fine?
Under about fifteen children with one class and no waiting list, yes, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. The break point is the first term you spend evenings chasing payments or the first time the register is wrong at the door.
What is the biggest pricing trap?
Percentages compound with growth. A platform that costs nothing at ten bookings a month can quietly become your biggest supplier bill at three hundred. Model the fee at the size you want to be, not the size you are.
Where these figures come from
- ClassForKids' own materials describe transaction fees as estimates confirmed by an account manager rather than a published rate. Source
- Pebble's published pricing: Core £25/month + 3% + VAT per booking, Premium £35/month + 2.5% + VAT, full-year commitment. Source
- Bookwhen's published pricing: paid tiers with monthly booking caps, no cut of payments, free plan for free events only. Source
- Gymcatch's published pricing: from £10 + VAT/month, bolt-ons at £2 + VAT each per month. Source
Checked 20 August 2026. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Run your club on the tool we built for it.
Booking pages, registers with medical notes, waiting lists that run themselves and payments into your own Stripe account, for one flat price.