Short answer: Kicksite and Mako solve different parts of a martial-arts business. Kicksite documents student, attendance, and rank-management workflows, while Mako emphasizes broader payments, team operations, and business reporting. Mako publishes this comparison, so current student limits, prices, fees, features, and contract terms should be attributed to each vendor’s official pages.
Disclosure: This is vendor-authored analysis, not an independent review or hands-on product test.
Method: We checked the official sources below on September 1, 2026. Features, prices, fees, promotions, limits, and contract terms can change. Quote-only or unverified items should be labeled; absence from an official page is not proof that a feature is unavailable.
| Publisher | Source | What it supports | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kicksite | Kicksite pricing | Active-student bands 49 99 149 and 199 monthly; annual discount and trial | Frozen-student counting taxes processors and add-ons need confirmation |
| Kicksite | Martial arts management software | Belt/rank attendance billing failed alerts leads reports and communications | Does not establish processor rates or all add-on pricing |
| Mako CRM | Pricing - Transparent Plans for Service Businesses | Public plan prices, annual totals, included team members, additional-location price, and month-to-month contract statement | Vendor-authored and changeable; checked date required; does not independently prove value, superiority, or competitor differences |
| Mako CRM | Invoicing and Payment Software for Service Businesses | Invoice creation, payment links, partial-payment tracking, reminders, recurring billing, Stripe processing, and Mako fee statements | Vendor-authored; Stripe fees can vary by market and account; sample collection and speed figures are not independent outcome evidence |
Kicksite is martial arts school software — student management, attendance, belt and rank tracking, and the specific mechanics of running a dojo. Mako is the business platform underneath a school: memberships, payments, instructor pay, retail, and the reporting that tells you whether the program actually makes money. Kicksite knows martial arts. Mako knows the business. Which matters more depends on your size.
Kicksite: Published and banded by active student count. 0–25 students $49/month, 26–50 $99, 51–100 $149, and 101+ $199. Clear, predictable, and honestly presented.
Mako: Pulse is free. Basic at $139/month — the complete platform with three team members. Team at $249/month — fifteen team members, extra locations at $75/month each, advanced reporting, QuickBooks sync. Enterprise at $999/month — unlimited students. Roughly 20% off annually, no contract, and no charge based on student count.
The crossover: at 25 students Kicksite is $49 against Mako's $139 — Kicksite, comfortably. At 100 students it is $149 against $139, near enough level. Past 101 students Kicksite is $199 flat and Mako Basic is still $139, or Team at $249 if you need more than three staff logins. Below a hundred students, Kicksite is the cheaper answer and we would say so to your face.
Belt and rank tracking. Curriculum progression, testing eligibility, stripe tracking, rank history. This is core to a martial arts school and Kicksite handles it natively. Mako does not have a belt system — you would be tracking rank outside the platform.
For many school owners that alone settles it, and it should. If rank progression is how you run your program, do not switch to something that cannot represent it.
Built for exactly this. Curriculum, testing, and progression in one place.
$49 to $149 is genuinely cheaper than any flat-rate platform at small and mid size.
Attendance, class check-in, and family accounts structured the way a dojo actually operates.
It does the job without asking you to configure a business intelligence suite.
Profit per program after instructor pay and mat time, cash-flow forecasting, unit economics, LTV. Kicksite tells you the class was full. Mako tells you whether the after-school program is subsidising the adult classes or the other way round.
Per-class rates, splits, tips, timesheets and payouts — native, calculated at the rate that applied on the day.
Uniforms, sparring gear, belts, patches — stock levels, low-stock alerts, and margin per item. For a school with a real pro shop, that is a revenue line currently running on a spreadsheet.
Growth does not raise your bill. At 400 students Mako Basic is still $139.
Pulse compares your student retention against market averages and names who has stopped attending — free, and it imports from other platforms. In a business where a student who misses three weeks usually never comes back, that is worth running regardless of what else you use.
Pick Kicksite if:
Pick Mako if:
Your school is a business. Not a hobby, not a side project, not a calendar with a cash register. It deserves software that treats it accordingly. If your platform cannot tell you whether you are financially healthy, it is not doing its job. And in 2026, you have better options.
See Mako in action — no sales call required
Mako is built for independent school owners who would rather spend their time on the mat than on demo calls. Open the live demo, poke around, and see exactly how booking, payments, and financial intelligence come together in one place.
Try the demo: Open the Mako CRM live demo
Self-serve. Instant access. No forms, no calendars, no "talk to sales."
