What Australian clubs actually choose between when they leave iClassPro.
A straight rundown of the realistic options, what each is good and bad at, and the questions worth asking before you move. Written by one of the options, which is worth knowing while you read it.
Start with why you are looking
Clubs rarely leave iClassPro because it is bad software. It is mature, well supported and a lot of gyms run happily on it. What sends an Australian club looking is usually fit: a bill priced per student in US dollars that grows as you do, accounting that assumes you are not on Xero, no notion of a working with children check or of Gymnastics Australia membership, an American school calendar, and support hours that land while your club is closed.
Each of those is small. Together they turn into a few hours a week of admin nobody chose, and a spreadsheet or two holding the gaps together. It is worth naming which of them is actually costing you, because that decides which alternative is the right one, and sometimes the answer is to stay put.
The four kinds of alternative
The other American platforms
Jackrabbit Class and similar products sit in the same place as iClassPro: mature, well supported, and built for the American market. Moving between them solves whatever specific thing annoyed you, and leaves the structural things untouched. You will still be priced per student in US dollars, still translating semesters into terms, and still emailing support in the middle of your night.
Suits: A club whose complaint is about a particular feature rather than about fit.
General fitness and booking platforms
Products built for gyms, studios and personal trainers can be cheaper and simpler, and some are Australian. What they usually do not have is the shape of a children’s club: levels and progressions, waitlists and makeups, guardians attached to students, working with children checks, or anything that understands a competition.
Suits: A small adult focused club, or a studio that does not need the child specific parts.
Australian and New Zealand club software
A smaller field, and the reason it exists is that GST, Xero, working with children checks, Gymnastics Australia membership and four school terms are real work that offshore products leave to you. Saltari is in this group. So are a handful of others, and it is worth looking at more than one.
Suits: Clubs where the local specifics are costing real admin time each term.
Spreadsheets and a payment link
Genuinely the right answer for some clubs, and worth saying out loud. Under about 60 or 80 students, a well kept spreadsheet and a Stripe link can beat paying for software you use a tenth of. The point it stops working is usually when you cannot answer who has paid and who turned up without half an hour of adding up.
Suits: Very small clubs, and new clubs in their first year.
Eight questions to ask any of them
Take your own numbers to each supplier rather than reading feature lists. These separate the options faster than a comparison table will, including ours.
- How is it priced, and what happens to that price if we grow by 200 students or add a venue?
- What currency is it billed in, and who wears the exchange rate?
- Does it produce a GST invoice a parent’s accountant will accept, without editing?
- Does it reach Xero properly, or does someone rekey it every month?
- Where do working with children check expiries live, and what happens when one lapses?
- Can it bill Gymnastics Australia membership on a date and pro rate a mid year join?
- What time of day does support answer, in our time?
- What comes across if we move, and what do we lose?
Where Saltari fits
We are in the third group, so treat this as the interested party talking. Saltari is built in Australia for Australian and New Zealand clubs, and the local specifics are the product rather than an afterthought.
- One AUD price at $150 a month, unlimited students, coaches and locations
- GST as its own invoice line, and approved coach hours into Xero payroll
- WWCC and first aid expiry tracked on the staff record
- Gymnastics Australia membership billing, pro rated for mid year joins
- Competitions with live scoring and public scoreboards, included
- Australian support, and hosted on Azure in Australia
The honest cost is maturity. Saltari is younger than iClassPro, with fewer clubs on it and a smaller pool of people who already know it, and party bookings are less developed than theirs. If parties are a serious part of your revenue, or your team has years of process built around your current system and none of it hurts, staying put is a perfectly good decision.
Common questions
What are the main alternatives to iClassPro in Australia?
They fall into four groups. Other American platforms such as Jackrabbit Class, which are mature but share iClassPro’s structural fit problems for an Australian club. General fitness and booking software, which is often cheaper and simpler but rarely understands levels, makeups, guardians or competitions. Australian and New Zealand club software, which is a smaller field but built around GST, Xero, working with children checks and four school terms. And spreadsheets, which are genuinely the right answer for a small enough club.
Why do Australian clubs leave iClassPro?
Rarely because it is bad software. Usually it is the fit: a bill priced per student in US dollars that grows as the club does, accounting that assumes you are not on Xero, no notion of a working with children check or Gymnastics Australia membership, an American school calendar, and support hours that land while the club is closed. Each is small on its own. Together they add up to a few hours of admin a week that nobody chose.
Is it worth switching mid year?
Usually the cleanest moment is the start of a term, so enrolments and billing line up with a natural break. That said, most clubs run a term in parallel rather than switching over a weekend: new enrolments into the new system, existing families finishing where they are. Saltari gives two months free partly so that is possible without paying twice.
How do we compare options fairly?
Take your own numbers to each one rather than reading feature lists. Your actual student count, your actual venue count, and a real invoice with GST on it. Ask each supplier what the price becomes at double your size. Ask what happens to a working with children check when it expires. The answers separate the options much faster than a comparison table will.
Where to next
For the detail on one of the options, compare Saltari and iClassPro side by side, read about gymnastics club software in Australia, or follow the migration guide if you have already decided. The case studies are still being written with founding clubs rather than finished, and there are Founding Club seats that include the migration.
Put your own numbers through it.
Two months free, no credit card. Load a term of real classes and see whether it fits your club better than what you have.