The ultimate guide to fitness studio memberships: Pricing, packaging, and retention 

Every fitness studio wants more members. The most successful ones know the real work starts after sign-up. 

After all, fitness studio memberships hit a record high in 2024, with 77 million Americans enrolled in health clubs and fitness facilities — a 20% increase since 2019. It’s a clear shift in the industry, as more fitness businesses move away from pay-per-class models and toward recurring memberships that offer long-term stability and scalability. 

But business growth is far from guaranteed. 

The average studio loses up to $25,000 each year to churn, and replacing just one lost member can cost five to seven times more than retaining them. As acquisition costs climb, fitness studio member retention has become a top priority. And without a solid strategy, even the busiest class schedule can fall short of sustainable success. 

So, what does a winning membership program actually look like? 

This ultimate guide to fitness studio memberships breaks it all down. From pricing and packaging to tiered benefits, automation tools, and member engagement strategies, we’ll walk you through the full lifecycle of building and maintaining a high-performing membership model that gives your business the muscle to flex real growth.  

Let’s get started. 

Whether you’re running a yoga studio, strength training facility, or full-service fitness studio, your gym membership pricing strategy should be tailored to real customer behaviors and expectations — not generic industry benchmarks.  

The most effective fitness studio memberships are built around two key pillars: your core member personas and your chosen business model. Together, these factors guide everything from pricing tiers and access levels to scheduling and services.  
 
Here’s a closer look at how to define both.  

To create meaningful fitness studio memberships, you need to know who’s walking through your doors. Member personas represent your key customer types, including what they want, how often they work out, and what they’re willing to pay for.  

Three core personas categorize most customers: 

Understanding which mix of these personas your studio attracts (or wants to attract) will shape your membership packages.  

Different personas prefer different access models, making the right setup an essential aspect of your gym membership strategy. The fitness business model you choose will influence how you structure packages, staff your facility, and supply value across your member base.  

Think about how your target personas prefer to train and which business model can support their workout habits as well as your workflow:  

Your chosen business model should align with your studio’s strengths, your staffing resources, and how your members prefer to work out. When your business model is a natural fit with your capabilities and customer base, it becomes far easier to support membership retention over time.  

Once you understand your audience and how your business operates, the next step is brainstorming the right gym membership pricing strategy. The goal is to strike a balance between financial sustainability and perceived value: in other words, what members receive for their money and what they feel it’s worth. 

With 41% of former gym goers churning because membership was too expensive, even dollar differences can have a dramatic impact. Smart, value-driven pricing builds trust, supports retention, and sets the stage for scalable growth. Curious how to get there? These three steps help calculate the sweet spot for membership fees. 

Before you start building packages, define what makes your studio unique. Your gym membership pricing strategy should reflect the core strengths that set you apart from your competitors, whether that’s state-of-the-art equipment, highly trained instructors, or a supportive, tight-knit community. 

It helps to look outward: Research competitors in your area with similar offerings to understand how they structure pricing, what features they promote, and how they position their studio.  

You’re not trying to offer the lowest price. You’re aiming to build a smarter strategy that reflects your business’s real value. For example, if you run a strength-focused studio, but a nearby competitor emphasizes wellness and recovery, your pricing should reflect the performance-driven outcomes you deliver — not just the amenities you share. 

Likewise, remember that value isn’t just about what you offer; it’s about what your personas care about most. Do they prioritize convenience? Coaching? Cleanliness? Identifying the features that matter to them helps you price with purpose and build memberships that feel worth every penny. 

Membership pricing is a formula that’s part science, part psychology. One of the most effective tactics is price anchoring: showing a higher-priced option first, followed by a more moderate or discounted tier. This helps frame your mid-tier pricing as the most reasonable and accessible. 

Price anchoring works especially well for member acquisition. In fact, new membership activations jump 25–30% in January when studios lean into discounted intro offers around New Year’s. However, monthly enrollment often dips by spring as that momentum fades and full prices kick back in. 

This is where a well-structured tier system can help. Offering options that meet a range of budgets and access levels keeps members engaged beyond the first month and encourages long-term loyalty. It also opens the door to higher-priced tiers, creating more profit opportunities (more on that below). 

When it comes to setting price points, most fitness studios select one of two models: cost-plus pricing or value-based pricing. 

The right pricing model depends on your margins, market, and member expectations. In many cases, a hybrid approach that covers operational costs while also accounting for perceived value leads to stronger pricing confidence and supports better member retention over time. 

You know how we said tiers open the door to more profit opportunities? Here’s the proof: Gyms that offer three or more membership tiers see a 15–20% higher retention rate than those with just one or two. And it’s not just about revenue, it’s about loyalty. Premium-tier members are 35% less likely to cancel than basic-tier members, thanks to a stronger sense of value. 

Let’s break down how to build gym membership packages that benefit your members — and your margins. 

A successful tier system meets members where they are in their fitness journey while still giving them room to level up. Most studios benefit from offering three options: basic, mid-tier, and premium. Each tier should reflect an increase in value, with benefits that match your member personas’ habits and goals. 

Here’s one way to structure your tiers: 

Basic tier membership: 

Mid-tier membership: 

Premium tier membership: 

Not only do membership add-ons help customize the experience, but they also help create revenue-driving opportunities to boost your bottom line. In fact, 35% of members are willing to pay more for extra perks like personal training or wellness services. Here are a few popular upsells to consider: 

Depending on your workflow, add-ons can be offered a la carte or built into upper-tier memberships. Either way, they reinforce value and revamp the member experience to boost ultimate retention. 

Even with well-built tiers and welcoming add-ons, managing fitness studio memberships can be a workout in itself. From billing and scheduling to tracking cancellations and churn, running a membership-based studio can quickly become more complex than a pay-per-class model. 

Fitness membership automation does the heavy lifting on the backend so your team can focus on the member experience up front. Automation helps reduce manual workload, eliminate human error, and prevent staff burnout by streamlining the everyday tasks that keep your studio running. 

With the right fitness studio member software, you can automate billing, renewals, alerts, and retention tasks in one place — no juggling spreadsheets, siloed tools, or stressed-out front desk staff. Here are three ways fitness membership automation makes retention easier. 

Empowering members to manage their own accounts doesn’t just improve convenience; it boosts retention. Studios that offer mobile booking and class reservations see retention rates increase by up to 25%. 

Through a self-service member portal, clients can: 

When members are in control of their own studio experience, they remain more engaged and are more likely to return. Even just two member interactions per month can lower cancellations by up to 33%. 

Cancellation doesn’t always have to mean goodbye, especially when member retention is top of mind. Automated cancel or pause flows give members flexible alternatives when they consider leaving, such as pausing their membership, switching tiers, or accepting a one-time discount. 

This small shift makes a big difference. Studios that offer flexible membership options, like pay-per-visit or hybrid models, see 18% fewer cancellations. Even better, membership automation makes these flows feel seamless (and gives you a second chance to save a valuable customer). 

While your team works hard to deliver a great member experience in the studio, the right software acts like a spotter, supporting your staff behind the scenes. From tracking check-in frequency to monitoring app activity, automation helps you identify members at risk of canceling before they even reach that point. 

“A lot of [gym] businesses have kind of given up on a software vendor solving the consumer experience for them,” explains Zenoti co-founder and CRO Dheeraj Koneru.  

Fitness studio software like Zenoti is designed to do just that: combine artificial intelligence (AI) and automation so businesses can move beyond reactive cancellations to proactively spot risk. 

Between missed renewals, mismatched payments, and miscommunications at the front desk, minor gaps in your systems can add up to major revenue loss. With the right fitness studio management software, membership automation can help close those gaps and reduce day-to-day friction. 

For example, tools like HyperConnect use AI to handle routine inquiries, route calls, and relieve the front desk from record-keeping, helping your team stay focused on in-person interactions. On the trainer side, mobile tools provide real-time access to client schedules, preferences, and progress, keeping everyone aligned without extra admin work. 

Automation can also help prevent billing issues before they start.  

Zenoti validates payment details in advance, verifying account information before it’s time to collect membership dues. That includes confirming accounts are active and have sufficient funds, a simple but often overlooked safeguard that can prevent failed transactions and billing delays for your business and minimize disruption for your members. 

Together, these tools help your studio run more efficiently, protect revenue, and give your staff more time to do what they do best: support members on their fitness journey. 

Retention is one of the biggest challenges facing fitness studios today. The average fitness club sees approximately 55% of members renew annually, meaning five out of 10 members cancel each year. But with the right strategies, you can keep your fitness member retention rate in shape — pun intended. 

The first month of a fitness membership sets the tone: 80% of members who visit less than once a week in their first 30 days will cancel within six months. But fitness studios that invest in onboarding? They experience up to 75% higher retention than those that don’t. 

The easiest way to streamline onboarding is with customer relationship management (CRM) software. Gym CRM software acts as a central hub for your member data, storing everything from visit history and class preferences to communication logs and membership details.  

You can use that information to automate onboarding workflows that: 

A lack of motivation is one of the fastest routes to membership churn. In fact, 40% of Americans identify difficulty staying motivated as the top challenge to achieving their 2025 fitness goals. Luckily, automation can help. By tracking engagement, like check-ins and class attendance, studios can send timely push notifications and reminders that can boost attendance by 18%. 

One of the most effective tools for boosting long-term engagement? Progress tracking. A body measurement chart allows members to see real changes in body fat, muscle mass, and overall dimensions, not just the number on the scale. When members can visualize their progress, they’re more likely to stay consistent — and committed to your studio. 

Gamification is one of the biggest trends shaping the fitness industry. Brands like Orangetheory and Peloton have set the standard by incorporating leaderboards, milestone tracking, and rewards that turn workouts into wins. 

It’s working: when gyms offer loyalty programs, incentives, or goal-based challenges, members tend to stick around longer, especially if they hit an early milestone. Even members who were at risk of cancelling but received a successful commitment interaction that got them back in the studio were 45% less likely to cancel in the subsequent month. 

Looking to gamify your membership experience? Try: 

A little friendly competition (and timely recognition) can turn passive participants into loyal, long-term members. 

At a time when socialization is the primary reason people join fitness studios, it’s likely that your customers also crave connection. Community is a major driver of fitness studio member retention, and it’s easier than ever to leverage elements like your gym CRM software or membership automation features to build your fitness family. 

To foster connection: 

Between thoughtful packaging and tier design, onboarding and engagement, fitness studio memberships thrive when built to drive connection and consistent value. 

The most successful gym membership pricing strategies are rooted in real member preferences, a scalable business model, and automated systems that do the heavy lifting. By tracking behavior and engagement over time, you can fine-tune your offerings, boost retention, and build a membership program that keeps your studio in fighting shape. 

The right tools make all the difference. Discover how Zenoti supports every step of membership management, from pricing and packaging to engagement, billing, and beyond.