Studio software maker Mariana Tek tells new barre studios to budget $200 to $500 a month for software. What a barre schedule needs, and what it costs here

November 2, 2026

Mariana Tek's guide "How to Open a Barre Studio in 2026: A Step-by-Step Guide" is dated June 18, 2026. Its table "Realistic Startup Cost Breakdown for 2026" has a row for "Studio management software" at "$200 to $500/month." We read the page on November 2, 2026.

Under the heading "What Mariana Tek Delivers for Barre Studios," the same guide lists what the software should do. The second line is "Spot reservation technology so clients can book their favorite barre position in advance." This post goes down that list. For each line it says what Frontmat does, what it does not, and what it costs at $99 a month.

The $200 to $500 is a budget, not a price

The guide does not say what Mariana Tek charges. The $200 to $500 is a budget line for any new barre studio, and it is the only row in that table priced by the month. The table's total is "$60,000 to $190,000." Software is the line that keeps billing after opening day.

Mariana Tek's pricing page names three bundles and prints no dollar figure on any of them. The bundles are "Core," "Core + Growth" and "Full Growth Bundle." Each shows "Book a demo" where a price would be. Our earlier Mariana Tek post covers the ranges other sites estimate.

Spot booking: the favorite barre position

Mariana Tek does this. Its barre software page says "Allow customers to pick their own spot easily when booking" and names where members like to stand: "at the front by the instructor, near the mirrors, or near the exit."

Frontmat does it too. You draw the room once and point classes at it. Each spot has a type, and barre is one of the types next to mat and a plain spot. Type is set per spot, so one map can hold barre spots along the wall and mats in the middle. Members book a numbered spot from the map in the member app or on your own website. A class's capacity is the number of bookable spots. A member's usual spot is preselected the next time they book.

If part of the barre is out for repair, open that one class and tap those spots to block them. Members cannot book a blocked spot, and the rest of the week is untouched. Why the front row fills a 6am class covers the rest.

Waitlists and late cancels

When a full class frees a spot well ahead of class, a member on the waitlist is booked automatically and their credit is used. Near class, the waitlist gets a claim offer by email and text with a deadline. The default window is 30 minutes, and the first claim wins. Nobody is booked into a class that starts in ten minutes. Waitlists that feel fair explains the reasoning.

The free-cancellation window is set on each class. The default is 12 hours. A late-cancel or no-show fee holds for 24 hours before it charges, and staff can waive it from the roster in that time. The rule lives on the product the member booked with, so a class pack and an unlimited membership can follow different rules.

Packs, memberships and card fees

The guide's billing line is "Automated billing and membership management so you never have to chase a payment manually." Frontmat's store sells drop-ins, class packs with an optional expiry, and memberships that are unlimited or a set number of classes a month. Each membership is a monthly Stripe subscription on your own Stripe account.

Card fees go to Stripe at its published rate, which is "2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards." Frontmat adds no platform fee and no commission on member purchases.

The branded app: in the $99, installed from the browser

The first line on the guide's list is "A custom-branded app that puts your studio's identity front and center, not a third-party booking platform." Mariana Tek's pricing page lists "Custom-branded iOS and Android Apps" in Core. The guide's budget also has a separate row for "Branding, website, and app setup" at "$4,000 to $12,000."

Frontmat's member app carries your studio's name, color and icon, and it is part of the $99 with no setup fee. It installs from the browser. On an iPhone that is Add to Home Screen in Safari. On Android, Chrome offers Install app. There is nothing to find in an app store. If a store listing matters to you, that is a difference worth weighing.

The website part of that budget row works the same way. One snippet puts your live schedule on the website you already have, in your colors. On a current browser, people pick a class and a spot, sign in and pay right there. The logo and the website itself are still yours to pay for.

What we do not do from the guide's list

Another line offers "Retail and add-on sales built into the same platform," and the first thing it names is socks. We sell drop-ins, packs and memberships. We do not have a retail point of sale, so socks at the front desk get rung up on something else.

The marketing line is "Built-in marketing automation that re-engages lapsing members before they cancel, not after." Ours is smaller. Each lead gets three follow-up emails in your words, and a win-back goes out on its own when a member stops coming. That is not a marketing suite. Mariana Tek's own pricing FAQ places "access to our Marketing Suite, Xplor Growth" in Core + Growth.

The guide's reporting line covers "attendance, revenue, retention risk, and instructor performance." Our reports show fill rate by class and the funnel to day 90, and each member's page shows 26 weeks of classes. There is no payroll, no consumer marketplace and no AI front desk. That holds on every Frontmat account, because there is one plan.

Walla's barre page

Walla's barre page covers sub management, no-show fees, check-in and reports. It prints no price, and the word spot does not appear on it. Eight of its nine testimonials print a studio name, and five of those names contain "Yoga."

The spot feature is on Walla's pricing page, which lists "Book-a-Spot" in the starting plan. That plan is "$299" with "/mo per location, billed monthly" under it, so one location is $3,588 a year. Our Walla post has the rest of that page.

Questions for the Mariana Tek demo

• What Core costs a month at one location, in writing.
• Which bundle includes spot reservation. The pricing page does not name it in any bundle.
• Whether the custom-branded iOS and Android apps carry a setup fee, and how much.
• Whether the marketing automation in the barre guide is in Core or only in Core + Growth.
• How long the contract runs, and what the card processing rate is.

Then set the answers next to the $200 to $500 a month that Mariana Tek's own guide tells a new barre studio to budget.