Short answer: Mako and Zen Planner both support gyms, but their documented feature emphasis and commercial terms differ. This vendor-authored comparison reviews workout and skill tracking, scheduling, billing, reporting, add-ons, pricing, and gym fit. It links official sources and labels information that providers do not publish instead of filling gaps with assumptions.
Disclosure: Mako CRM publishes this comparison and is one of the products discussed. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zen Planner | Studio School and Gym Software Pricing Tiers | Active-member price bands $99 through $289; Website Engage bundles branded app and member-based tiering | Duplicated Website display; rates are tier/member-band values not universal; taxes and contract terms unknown |
| Zen Planner | Zen Planner Pricing | Studio starts $99 monthly; Website $99; Engage $249; scheduling billing attendance workout tracking reporting and marketing | Month-to-month and annual-on-request statements require qualification; additional fees may apply |
| Zen Planner | Zen Planner Engage | Marketing/CRM campaigns lead management automated communications and AI content features | Feature page does not establish total cost or contract terms |
| 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 |
Zen Planner built its reputation in CrossFit boxes and martial arts academies. If your gym tracks member belt ranks, posts PRs to a leaderboard, and runs programming that members follow over weeks and months, Zen Planner is the deepest platform in the category for that workflow. If your gym runs memberships, classes, and billing without a skill-progression component, you're paying for features you'll never use — and missing the financial intelligence layer that tells you whether the business is actually healthy.
Zen Planner: Published. Studio from $99/month for the day-to-day toolkit, with the Engage tier at $249/month for advanced marketing automation, and a branded app add-on at $39/month.
Mako: Pulse is free. Basic at $139/month is the complete operational platform — CRM, booking, memberships, estimates, invoicing, payments, customer portal, and email and SMS automation — with three team members. Team at $249/month adds up to fifteen team members, shared workflows, advanced reporting, and QuickBooks sync. Enterprise at $999/month is unlimited users across three locations. Roughly 20% less annually, no contract at any tier.
At 300 members, the 12-month comparison:
The two ladders line up almost exactly — $138 against $139 at the bottom, $249 against $249 at the top. Price is genuinely not the deciding factor here. What differs is what you get for it: Zen Planner spends the money on skill progression and community, Mako spends it on financial visibility and seats.
Zen Planner's workout tracking is the best in the category for gyms that make it a core feature. Members can log WODs, track PRs across movements, follow multi-week programming, and see progress over time. Leaderboards, skill levels, and performance history are first-class features — not add-ons. For a CrossFit box or martial arts academy where member progression is part of the product, this is a genuine differentiator.
Martial arts academies use Zen Planner specifically for belt and rank tracking. Member profiles store curriculum progress, test history, and instructor notes on skill development. There is no equivalent in Mako or most other gym CRMs — it's a niche feature Zen Planner has owned for a decade.
Leaderboards, class performance feeds, and community engagement tools are stronger in Zen Planner than in most alternatives. For gyms where community competition is part of the culture, this matters.
Zen Planner shows revenue totals, membership counts, and class attendance. It does not natively surface MRR trending, LTV by cohort, CAC, or cash runway. Owners who want that level of business visibility typically run a secondary system. Mako's financial dashboard shows all of it natively — the difference between knowing your revenue and understanding whether your business is healthy.
Zen Planner reports on your own numbers. Mako Pulse compares them with market averages for your city and state, names your at-risk members, and imports from other platforms — for free, before you switch anything.
Automated retry sequences, dunning emails, and SMS card-update requests are native in Mako. Zen Planner's failed payment handling requires more manual follow-up. For a 300-member gym at $140/month average, recovering 70% of failed payments (typically 2–4% of MRR) is worth $5,000–$8,000/year in recovered revenue — several times the annual software cost either way.
At-risk member identification, automated win-back sequences, post-class follow-ups, and intro-conversion automation are built into Mako Basic. Zen Planner's automation is functional but the advanced marketing layer sits on the Engage tier at $249.
If your gym offers a mix of group classes, personal training, and other services, Mako handles the hybrid model more cleanly. Zen Planner is optimized for the CrossFit/martial arts single-format model.
Pick Zen Planner if:
Pick Mako if:
Your wellness business 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 CRM can't tell you whether your business is financially healthy, it's not doing its job. And in 2026, you have better options.
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