Walla is a premium boutique fitness platform with a genuinely strong reputation for design and support, and — unusually for this category — it publishes its prices. That deserves credit. It is also several times the cost of most alternatives, so the honest question is what the premium buys and whether your studio needs it. Mako is the business platform for a studio at a fraction of the price. Here is the comparison without the marketing on either side.
Walla: Published. Roughly $320/month per location for the lower tier and $599/month per location for the higher one. Add-ons are priced separately — Branded App around $149/month, Two-Way Texting around $100/month, Web and SEO around $199/month.
Mako: Pulse is free. Basic at $139/month — the complete platform with three team members. Team at $249/month — fifteen team members, advanced reporting, QuickBooks sync. Enterprise at $999/month — unlimited members across three locations, with extra locations at $75/month on Team. Roughly 20% off annually, no contract.
The realistic comparison: a single studio on Walla's entry tier with two-way texting is roughly $420/month. Add a branded app and it is $569. Mako Team is $249 with texting included. Over a year that is a gap of $2,000 to $3,800, and a two-location studio doubles Walla's base while Mako adds $75.
Walla is not overpriced for nothing. The interface is excellent, onboarding is hands-on, support is responsive, and the front-desk experience is the best-considered in boutique fitness. Studios that use it tend to like it a great deal, and that is not a small thing when your staff live in the software eight hours a day.
The question is whether that is worth two to four times the cost for your studio specifically. For a high-revenue boutique where staff experience and brand polish drive retention, plausibly yes. For a studio watching margin, it is a large fixed cost to carry for interface quality.
The best in the category. Staff pick it up quickly and it is pleasant to use all day.
Walla puts its numbers on the page while most of its competitors hide behind a form. In a category this opaque, that is genuine respect for the buyer.
Hands-on, structured, and consistently well reviewed. If you have been burned by a bad migration, that matters.
Everything client-facing is designed for a premium brand, and it shows.
$139 or $249 against $320 to $599 before add-ons. The gap is not marginal and it repeats every month.
Two-way texting, email and SMS automations, and automated win-back journeys are in the platform, not priced separately.
Walla charges per location at full rate. Mako's Team tier adds locations at $75/month, and Enterprise covers three.
Profit per class after instructor pay and room cost, cash-flow forecasting, unit economics, LTV. Walla reports the studio's activity well; it is not built to tell you which classes carry the business.
Pulse costs nothing, imports from other platforms, and compares your churn against market averages — you can run it beside Walla today without changing anything.
Pick Walla if:
Pick Mako if:
Your studio 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 studio owners who would rather spend their time on students 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: https://app.makocrm.so/demo
Self-serve. Instant access. No forms, no calendars, no "talk to sales."
