Head to head
NextKick vs Gymdesk
Well-built, well-priced gym software. The gap opens when your business is rank-based.
Last reviewed · written for school owners actively comparing the two
The short version
- Move to NextKick if
- Visible progression is your retention model and rank records are the thing you hold.
- Stay with Gymdesk if
- Progression is not the product for you, and budget is the deciding factor.
On price: NextKick is $179/mo per location with card processing at 2.0%–2.8%, and the figure does not change as your roster grows. We do not publish what Gymdesk would charge you — their plans change and your processing rate is your own — so the checklist further down is how you work it out on your own account.
NextKick and Gymdesk, side by side
Our column is what NextKick does. Theirs is what owners who switched reported on the plans they were using — where they told us nothing, the cell says so rather than guesses.
| Capability | NextKick | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is built for | Martial arts schools only. Nothing else runs on it. | Gym management software, for gyms in general. |
| Belt rank and testing | Your exact rank order, attendance-based eligibility, scored testings, customisable certificates. | Not available to the owners we spoke to on their plan. |
| Check-in | Face recognition or barcode, on automatic member cards. Kiosk mode at the door. | Ask: what does the 5pm rush actually look like on it? |
| Tuition and family accounts | One parent's card covers several children, with testing and uniform fees on the same account. | Ask: can one card cover three siblings on one account? |
| Student and parent app | Branded to your school: schedule, rank, upcoming testings, attendance, payments. | Ask: what do parents see in the app, and on which plan? |
| Schedule | One calendar for classes, events, testings and bookings, with a note on any of them. | Ask: do testings and events live on the same calendar as classes? |
| Owner reporting | A daily report by email, plus an insight report you export for any date range. | Ask: what arrives without you logging in to pull it? |
| Selling uniforms and gear | Built-in eStore, including gift cards, against the accounts you already bill. | Bought separately by the owners we spoke to. |
| School website | Built and maintained for you, with trial signup feeding the same system. | Assembled from separate services by the owners we spoke to. |
| Support | Phone, chat, email and Zoom — answered by people who know what a testing cycle is. | Ask: who answers on a Saturday, and how fast? |
| Price as you grow | $179/mo per location. The figure does not move when your roster does. | Ask: what happens to the price at your next student band? |
| Card processing | 2.0%–2.8%, by card type and volume. | Ask: what was your effective rate last month, after every fee? |
Last reviewed . Gymdesk entries are reported experience on specific plans, not an audit of their current product.
Which one fits your school
Gymdesk is the better answer for some schools. It is worth knowing which kind before you move anything.
Where Gymdesk wins
- You run an open-mat or fitness-style operation where progression is not the product.
- You keep your own website and marketing elsewhere and are happy with that split.
- Budget is the deciding factor and your rank records are genuinely fine on paper.
Where NextKick wins
- Visible progression is your retention model, and belt records are the most important thing you hold.
- You want instructors to see who is ready to test without asking you.
- You would rather not run a website builder, an email tool, and a storefront as separate services.
What owners told us moved them
Gymdesk is well-built, well-priced gym management software, and for a straightforward gym it is a reasonable choice. The gap opens when a school's business is rank-based: belt and stripe progression, testing eligibility, curriculum, and the parent communication that surrounds a promotion are not the same problem as tracking gym memberships.
Rank and promotion management
Belt testing, digital certificates, and rank and promotion management are core to NextKick and were not available to the owners we spoke to on Gymdesk. For a school whose entire retention model is built on visible progression, this is not a nice-to-have — it is the product.
Curriculum and homework
NextKick tracks which forms, techniques, and curriculum items each student has completed. Instructors see at a glance who is ready to test and who has a gap, and parents see the same progress in the app instead of asking at the front desk.
Marketing, website, and eStore included
Built-in marketing tools, a custom school website, and an eStore for uniforms and gear are part of NextKick. Schools on Gymdesk generally assembled these from separate services, which means separate logins, separate bills, and student data living in more than one place.
What NextKick does, feature by feature
Grouped by when you would use it in a week rather than by product module. Outlined blocks are the areas owners moving from Gymdesk told us they were missing.
Rank and testing
The record your whole retention model runs on.
- Configure your exact rank order — gup and dan, kyu and dan, belts with stripes, sashes, cords.
- Set an attendance minimum per rank and NextKick works out who is eligible for the next testing from attendance, so nobody is hand-counted off a sign-in sheet.
- Create a testing, take registrations for it, and collect the testing fee in the same place.
- Certificates generate on promotion and the design is yours to customise.
- Promotion dates and results attach to the student's permanent record, so a file does not restart when a new instructor takes the class.
Moving from Gymdesk: Belt testing, certificates, and promotion management were not available to the owners we spoke to on their plan.
Check-in and attendance
The 5pm rush, without a queue at the front desk.
- A member card is generated for every student automatically — nobody issues them one by one.
- Students check in by face recognition or by barcode, whichever the school prefers.
- Kiosk mode runs check-in on a tablet at the door with no staff standing over it.
- Attendance feeds testing eligibility directly, so the two records can never disagree.
Tuition and family accounts
Martial arts revenue is family revenue, not individual memberships.
- Recurring tuition on cards and bank accounts, with family accounts so one parent's card covers several children.
- One-time charges for testing fees, uniforms, and camps sit on the same account as tuition.
- Processing runs 2.0%–2.8% depending on card type and volume.
- An eStore sells uniforms, sparring gear, and gift cards against the student accounts you already bill.
- No annual contract and no setup fee.
Schedule
One calendar instead of a whiteboard and three group chats.
- Every class, event, testing, and booking your school runs sits on one calendar.
- Leave a note on any item on it — a substitute instructor, a closed holiday, what a visiting coach is covering.
- Class capacity, booking, and waitlists are handled on the same schedule.
- Instructor rotations and assignments are set per class rather than tracked separately.
Reporting and parent communication
What you need to know, without logging in to find it.
- A daily report lands in your inbox every morning.
- Export an insight report for any date range whenever you want one.
- Students who miss class get an email automatically — you do not send it.
- A branded student and parent app carries the schedule, current rank, upcoming testing dates, attendance, and payment history.
- AI-assisted tools draft parent communications and flag students whose attendance is slipping.
Locations and programs
A second site and an after-school run are different problems.
- Run every location from one account, with per-site reporting and no second login.
- Shared student profiles across locations, so a student training at two sites is one record.
- After-school is handled as its own program: pickups and drop-offs, daily attendance, and parent notifications.
- A custom school website with trial signup and lead capture wired into the same system that bills the student.
Moving from Gymdesk: Website, marketing, and storefront were assembled from separate services around the software.
How to price the switch for your school
The arithmetic is different for each platform you might be leaving. Page through to the one you are on.
Pricing it against Gymdesk · 1 of 8
The cheaper line item is not always the cheaper year
Gymdesk's pricing is genuinely competitive, and that is a real advantage. Compare it against the full stack you would otherwise run — software, website, email or SMS marketing, app, storefront — plus the hours your staff spends keeping rank records outside the system. For most rank-based schools that total is where the comparison actually lands.
What NextKick costs
- Software
- $179/mo per location
- Card processing
- 2.0%–2.8%, by card type and volume
- School website
- From $169/mo, built and maintained
- Contract
- None, and no setup fee
What the other side costs
We are not going to put a number here. Published plans change, what you are quoted may differ from what is advertised, and your processing rate depends on terms you negotiated — so any figure we printed would be wrong for someone.
Check your current provider's pricing with them directly, then work down the checklist below. It takes about ten minutes and gives you a number that is actually yours.
Go to the checklistSeven questions to answer before you switch anything
Work down this list on your own account and you will know what you are really paying, and what you would really be giving up.
- 01
What is your effective processing rate — what you actually paid last month divided by what you actually collected?
Headline percentages leave out per-transaction fees, card-type surcharges, and monthly minimums. The effective rate is the only figure that compares cleanly, and it is the line that scales with your tuition rather than sitting still.
- 02
What does the plan you are on include, and what sits a tier above it?
On a tiered platform the entry price is rarely the tier a working school ends up on. Price the tier that includes the app, the marketing tools, and the reporting you actually use.
- 03
Does the monthly price change when your enrollment does?
Per-student and banded pricing means the cost of every new enrollment is not zero. Ask what happens at the next band, not what you pay today.
- 04
What are you paying for separately around it — website, email or SMS, a student app, a storefront?
Most schools comparing software are really comparing stacks. Add those subscriptions up before you compare one monthly figure against another.
- 05
Where does belt rank actually live today — in the software, or in a spreadsheet beside it?
If testing eligibility is worked out by hand, the software is not doing the job you bought it for. That is unpaid staff time every testing cycle.
- 06
Can you export your own students, ranks, attendance, and billing plans today, without asking?
Your roster is your asset. If getting it out requires a support ticket, you are less free to leave than you think — and that is worth knowing before you need to.
- 07
When a card declines on a Saturday, who do you reach, and how fast?
Billing problems are time-sensitive in a way most software problems are not. A ticket queue and a phone number are very different answers on the first of the month.
Or call and ask us the same seven questions.
Gymdesk vs NextKick — common questions
Is NextKick a good Gymdesk alternative for a martial arts school?
If your school runs on belt or stripe progression, yes. NextKick treats rank, testing, and curriculum as core objects rather than custom fields, which is the main thing rank-based schools miss on general gym software.
Does NextKick cost more than Gymdesk?
NextKick is $179/mo. Gymdesk's entry plan is priced lower, which is exactly why the comparison worth running is against your whole stack — website, marketing tools, app, storefront — since those are included with NextKick rather than bought separately. Verify current Gymdesk pricing with them directly.
Can NextKick track stripes as well as belts?
Yes. Stripe-based systems such as BJJ are supported directly: stripes on the current belt, promotion dates, and the full rank history on each student's permanent profile.
Do I get a website with NextKick?
A custom school website is available from $169/mo, built for you and kept updated, with trial signup and lead capture wired into the same system that manages your students.
Is there phone support?
Yes, with people who understand how a testing cycle and a family account work.
How do certificates work?
They generate on promotion, and the design is yours to customise. The result attaches to the student's permanent record alongside the promotion date.
Compare other platforms
See it on your own roster
Half an hour on a call, with your rank structure and your class schedule in front of you. No contract and no setup fee either way.
Comparison information last reviewed . The comparisons on this page reflect the firsthand, self-reported experiences of martial arts school owners who switched to NextKick from the platform named, as reported at the time they switched. Competitor pricing, processing fees, features, and workflows change over time, and the details shown may not reflect the named provider's current offering, plan tiers, or terms. Statements about Gymdeskrepresent what these owners reported experiencing on the specific plans they used, not a comprehensive or independent audit of the competitor's product, and should be read as reported experience rather than statements of present fact. This page is provided for general informational purposes only, reflects the opinions of NextKick and its customers, and is not intended as, and should not be relied upon as, a complete, objective, or current assessment. We make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any competitor information. Please verify all pricing, fees, and features directly with each provider before making any decision. All product names, logos, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners; their use here is for identification and comparison purposes only and does not imply any affiliation with, endorsement by, or partnership with those owners. If you believe any information on this page is inaccurate or outdated, please contact us at info@nextkick.ai and we will review and correct it promptly.