What is Momence? A US-based all-in-one studio management platform for yoga, Pilates, fitness, dance, and wellness businesses, founded in 2020 (YC Summer 2020) and now owned by Clubessential Holdings, part of Xplor Technologies since March 2026. 4,500+ customers at acquisition. Best for: Solo and small-to-mid-sized US boutique studios that want a modern UI, a strong consumer mobile app, built-in on-demand video and LMS, and a free starter tier. Trade-off: Customer support is consistently rated poor (3.7/5 service rating on Capterra), pricing opacity drives forced tier upgrades, a 1% Stripe surcharge stacks on top of standard processing, and real total cost typically lands at $250 to $2,000+/month with friction on cancellation.
Key takeaways
- Momence is a US-based boutique studio management platform founded in 2020 (YC Summer 2020), acquired by Clubessential Holdings in January 2025, and now part of Xplor Technologies since March 2026. 4,500+ customers at acquisition; 3.9/5 across 76 Capterra reviews.
- Public pricing in 2026 is $0 (Basic, 5% transaction fee), $60/mo (Pro), and $199/mo (Custom). Real reported spend among Capterra and Reddit users is $250 to $2,000+/mo once add-ons, locations, staff seats, and the $399/mo AI Agent are layered on.
- Strengths: free-tier acquisition mechanic, native on-demand video and LMS, 4.9/5 consumer mobile app on iOS, native ClassPass and Gympass integrations, and a modern UI that consistently outperforms Mindbody on latency.
- Documented weaknesses: customer support quality (3.7/5 Capterra service score, shift toward canned and AI-style responses), forced momence.com backlinks from studio websites, 1% Stripe surcharge on top of standard processing, payment-capture reliability bugs, multi-month cancellation friction, and post-Xplor-acquisition operational incidents reported on Reddit.
- Best for small US boutique studios prioritizing on-demand video and a modern member mobile app. Wrong fit for multi-location chains beyond five locations, Reformer Pilates studios needing bed-level booking, and operators sensitive to surprise billing or support friction.
What is Momence?
Momence is a US-based all-in-one studio management platform for yoga, Pilates, fitness, dance, and wellness businesses. Founded in 2020 by Vojta Drmota and Matteo Carroll (both Harvard alumni, Y Combinator Summer 2020)⁷, it grew quickly on the back of a free tier and an aggressive ClassPass-style consumer mobile app. The single most important fact for any operator evaluating Momence in 2026 is that it is no longer an independent startup. Clubessential Holdings acquired Momence on January 29, 2025⁸, and Clubessential then merged into Xplor Technologies on March 30, 2026⁹. Operators signing up today are signing up to a platform mid-integration into a roughly 15,000-location global portfolio, which is material context for any multi-year decision.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2020 |
| HQ | San Francisco, CA |
| Founders | Vojta Drmota (CEO) and Matteo Carroll, Harvard alumni, YC Summer 2020 |
| Funding | ~$1.35M seed |
| 2024 revenue | $15.3M (up from $11.3M mid-2024) |
| Team size | ~104 (Dec 2024, pre-acquisition) |
| Customers | 4,500+ businesses at acquisition (Jan 2025) |
| Ownership | Acquired by Clubessential Holdings on Jan 29, 2025. Now part of Xplor Technologies (merged Mar 30, 2026). |
| Capterra rating | 3.9 / 5 across 76 reviews |
| Trustpilot | ~4 stars, flagged by Trustpilot for review-collection bias |
| Apple App Store (consumer) | 4.9 / 5 across 37K ratings |
| Markets | US (primary), UK, AU, CA |
Momence pricing in 2026 (and what operators actually pay)
Momence publishes three tiers on momence.com/pricing². The headline numbers are deceptively small, because every tier below Custom is engineered to push studios toward an upgrade once they need basic add-ons, more than one staff seat, or a second location.
| Tier | Monthly | Business processing fee | What's blocked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic (Free) | $0 | 5% (plus 4% client surcharge) | No add-ons, no phone number, no inbox, no retail, no reporting, no extra staff seats, no extra locations |
| Pro | $60/mo | 2.5% | Same hard caps on add-ons, staff, and locations |
| Custom | $199/mo | 0% platform fee | Unlimited add-ons, dedicated support |
The published tiers are not what operators pay. Cross-validated reports from Capterra and Reddit consistently land in the $199 to $300/mo range for small single-location studios and $250 to $2,000+/mo for multi-format or multi-location studios.
| Operator profile | Reported monthly | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Small single-location studio | ~$250/mo | Chase H., Capterra Apr 29, 2026 |
| Multi-format boutique studio | $2,000+/mo | Simone P., Capterra Apr 23, 2025 |
| Switching from $125/mo MBO | $200/mo quoted | /u/Former_Guitar5814, r/YogaTeachers Oct 2025 |
| Small studio | $199/mo, "felt insane" | /u/Rare_Mode1880, r/pilatesinstructors Jul 2025 |
| Small studio (sister-in-law) | "$250 plus fees" | /u/FoodAndBeans, r/yoga Jan 2026 |
| Established US studio | "$200 a month" | /u/bodytonicsf, r/yoga Jan 2026 |
| UK studio | "£300 ish per month" | /u/Stuberger83, r/pilates Oct 2025 |
On top of the subscription, operators report several non-obvious cost lines documented in Capterra and Reddit reviews. The recurring themes: an above-Stripe surcharge, forced SEO backlinks to momence.com from the studio's own website, application fees layered onto active subscriptions, and pricing opacity that requires a sales call to discover real costs.
| Reviewer | Source / Date | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| Cathy K. | Capterra, Dec 15, 2022 | "Long-term cost is high as there's an additional 1% added to the regular Stripe fee." |
| Matt R. | Capterra, Nov 16, 2024 | "they force you to give them a backlink from your website to momence.com improving their SEO, we pay you $300 go buy your own backlinks don't force us to promote your product." |
| Julie S. | Capterra, Nov 19, 2024 | "ZERO Notice to changes in features in your plan. Requiring upgrades constantly. Requiring new upgrades while still charging application fees to the owner." |
| /u/Ok_Weight_8101 | r/pilates, Oct 2025 | "What really threw me off was the lack of transparent pricing, you can't just check the cost without booking a call. Makes it hard to tell if it's even worth testing compared to other options." |
The AI Agent add-on, documented at help.momence.com³, is priced at $399/month on top of the underlying subscription. For a deeper pricing-fundamentals breakdown, see our pricing strategies guide for yoga and Pilates studios in 2026.
Momence features at a glance
Momence covers the standard horizontal SaaS surface area for boutique studios⁴: scheduling, two-way messaging, marketing automations, POS, retail, multi-location dashboards, native on-demand video with LMS, a Momence-branded consumer mobile app, ClassPass and Gympass integrations, and a paid AI Agent add-on.
| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Class and appointment scheduling | Yes |
| Two-way SMS, email, in-app messaging | Yes |
| Automated customer sequences | Yes |
| POS with contactless payments | Yes |
| Retail and inventory, barcodes, multi-location stock | Yes |
| Staff management and payroll reporting | Yes (Corporate Dashboard for multi-location) |
| On-demand video library and LMS courses | Yes (native: collections, courses, audio, PDFs, quizzes) |
| On-demand subscriptions (bundled or standalone) | Yes |
| Branded member mobile app (Momence-branded) | Yes, 4.9 stars on iOS across 37K ratings |
| ClassPass integration | Native |
| Gympass integration | Native |
| AI Agent ($399/mo add-on) | Email, SMS, in-app inbox automation; WhatsApp and voicemail on roadmap |
| Multi-location / Corporate Dashboard | Yes |
| Child accounts (parent-child) | Yes, attached to a customer profile |
Confirmed gaps based on Momence's public help center⁴. There is no purpose-built spot-map or Reformer bed-level booking UI documented, which matters for Reformer Pilates studios that need to manage individual bed assignments (see our Pilates studio management software breakdown). Family Accounts exist only as child sub-profiles under a single customer, not as a true shared-wallet family unit. And operator-side reporting is repeatedly cited as limited or inaccurate, including by users who otherwise praise the platform.
What Momence users praise
Momence has genuine fans, and any honest review needs to surface them. The praise concentrates in five themes: modern UI and lower latency than Mindbody, native on-demand video and LMS, marketing automations, ClassPass and Gympass integrations, and one of the highest-rated consumer mobile apps in the category.
| Reviewer | Industry / Role | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| Studio Owner | Health & Wellness | "Super easy to use interface." |
| CEO | Performing Arts | "have anyone on my team communicate with clients and we can all see the history." |
| Marketing | Health & Wellness | "customer-facing pages look professional." |
| CEO | Performing Arts | "integration with META and Google for our Marketing efforts." |
| Reviewer | Source / Date | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| /u/bodytonicsf | r/yoga, Jan 2026 (operator) | "I have used every major software on the market and landed with momence. Mine is $200 a month and it is really the better of all the options. Their tech however is really solid compared to MBO. I would never go back to MBO costs alone." |
| /u/UncoolPostcard | r/pilatesinstructors, Jul 2025 (operator) | "I'd 100% recommend checking out Momence. It's really easy to use on the back end, the value for what you get is amazing (especially compared to the big names like Glofox and Mariana Tek), and one of the biggest perks is that there's no contract and no setup or transfer fee." |
| /u/Due-Flamingo-9140 | r/pilatesinstructors, Jul 2025 (operator) | "I am on momence. The marketing package has been very helpful!" |
| /u/Large-Emu-999 | r/yoga, Jan 2026 (customer) | "Mindbody worked poorly with high latency swapping between days. Momence has been much nicer since the transition. Momence is far more responsive, and less cumbersome to book multiple classes in a row." |
| /u/_alzz_ | r/pilates, Oct 2025 (instructor) | "all the studios I teach in have moved to Momence and Walla. I find them easier to use as an instructor than MindBody." |
| /u/zeldasusername | r/yoga, Jan 2026 | "I find momence an absolute pleasure to use." |
The consumer mobile app sits at 4.9/5 across 37K App Store ratings¹², which is among the highest in the category. Momence clearly works for a meaningful slice of small US boutique studios.
Where Momence falls short
This is where the evidence stacks up. Capterra and Reddit independently corroborate the same recurring themes: customer-support quality, sales-vs-reality gap, per-transaction surcharges above Stripe, add-on cost layering, payment-capture reliability bugs, multi-month cancellation friction, forced SEO backlinks, and post-Xplor-acquisition operational incidents. Verbatim quotes from both sources below.
The strongest single piece of evidence is /u/SearchNo8132's testimony from July 2025, which directly ties operational degradation to the Clubessential acquisition that closed in January 2025. We surface it as the lead row in the Reddit table below because it documents a specific incident (gift cards invalidated during an upgrade window without customer notice) rather than a general impression.
| Reviewer | Source / Date | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| /u/SearchNo8132 | r/pilatesinstructors, Jul 2025 (post-acquisition) | "I would not recommend Momence at all. We worked with Momence for 2 years, but they were bought by a venture capital firm in 2025 and things have really started going downhill. It started with people not being able to use gift cards they bought. I tried to get support from their team but they said they are going through an upgrade which would make gift cards invalid for a while. They didn't tell any of their customers about this change and then left the studios to deal with their customers without any support. More recently they shut off most of our..." |
| /u/Infamous-Mood-4939 | r/pilates, Oct 2025 | "Stay away from Momence, they promise the world over the sales call and as soon as you sign on the dotted line, if anything should go wrong, customer support is all but non-existent. We went with GLOFOX and have been super happy with them." |
| /u/TheMovementCreative | r/yoga, Jan 2026 | "We use Momence. Customer service has shifted toward canned/AI-style responses. We've raised the same issues multiple times over a couple years without clear expectation-setting ('not planned') or meaningful fixes. Payment plan failures aren't consistently handled. Some failed payments are retried and notify people, others aren't. The result is manual work: running reports, checking ledgers, manually contacting families." |
| /u/forkvspoon | r/pilates, Feb 2026 | "I looked at momence, they did a good job of selling me on the demo and I was about to try them, but they charge a lot for cc fees, over the rate that stripe charges, so I won't consider them. CC fees are already high and charging percentage above the stripe fees eats profits as you grow." |
| /u/YogaBizChamp | r/YogaTeachers, Oct 2025 | "If you're a small operation that might not be a big deal, but I've had studios grow to the point where that fee starts costing more than the booking platform." |
| /u/ConsistentRegular478 | r/pilates, Feb 2026 | "Not going for Momence. It's just too complex and not reasonable pricing, when you need to have add-ons for extra price, on top of your subscription." |
| /u/Just-Bed-7385 | r/pilates, Feb 2026 (customer) | "A local dance and fitness studio uses momence and i hate it. For some reason it constantly sends me notifications while they try to figure out things on the backend, and it also lets me purchase packages I'm not supposed to have access to." |
| Reviewer | Source / Date | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| Simone P. | Capterra, Apr 23, 2025 (multi-format boutique) | "Momence cold called me, hit me up with a sales call, sold me the moon then underdelivered. The only seamless thing is the 2k a month they take out of our bank account." |
| Owner | Capterra, Health & Wellness | "support is close to useless" |
| Anonymous | Capterra | "payment capture failure caused transactions to appear successful while nothing was actually collected" |
| Marketing | Capterra, Health & Wellness | "very buggy, and features don't always work as advertised" |
| Owner | Capterra, Fine Art | "Terrible onboarding experience" (their onboarding manager quit mid-process) |
| Owner | Capterra, Health & Wellness | "can't customize the messaging or sequences sent for reviews" |
| Founder/Director | Capterra | "Trying to get someone to cancel our account for two months while continuing to be charged monthly" |
Translated into operator decisions, the recurring complaint themes are: (1) customer-support quality, with a 3.7/5 Capterra service score and a documented shift toward canned and AI-style responses; (2) the sales-vs-reality gap, where sales calls oversell and post-signature support disappears; (3) post-Xplor acquisition operational degradation, the strongest 2025-2026 thread; (4) hidden per-transaction surcharges on top of Stripe, the deal-breaker for growing studios; (5) pricing opacity, with real costs only discoverable via a sales call; (6) add-on cost layering, where the $60 Pro tier is in practice $199 to $2,000+/mo once add-ons and locations stack; (7) cancellation friction, with multi-month continued-billing loops; (8) payment-capture bugs that make transactions appear successful while nothing is collected; and (9) the forced momence.com backlink mandate from studio websites, which is uniquely operator-hostile.
For context on why support quality is a category-wide problem and what to look for in an alternative, see our AI customer support agent overview. And on the broader Mindbody-alternatives landscape, our top 5 Mindbody alternatives for studio management in 2026 covers the cross-vendor decision framework.
Methodology footnote: Trustpilot has flagged Momence's review-collection practices as not supporting reliability¹¹, so we rely primarily on Capterra¹⁰ (76 reviews, the deepest corpus) and verbatim Reddit testimony pulled from r/pilates, r/YogaTeachers, r/yoga, r/mindbody, r/pilatesinstructors, and r/FitnessStudioOwner. We have not weighted G2 (only 3 reviews) or counted vendor-controlled Reddit accounts as independent operator sentiment.
Momence pros and cons at a glance
A 30-second scan of what Momence does well and where the documented friction stacks up across Capterra and Reddit.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| $0 Basic tier as a risk-free testing path (5 percent transaction fee on payments) | Customer support at 3.7/5 on Capterra; reviewers cite cycling through 10+ agents with no continuity and a documented shift to canned and AI-style responses |
| Native on-demand video library and LMS bundled with bookings and payments | 1 percent surcharge layered on top of standard Stripe processing fees (multiple Capterra and Reddit reviewers) |
| Consumer mobile app rated 4.9/5 across 37K App Store ratings, among the highest in the category | Forced momence.com backlink required from the studio's own website (Capterra-reported) |
| Native ClassPass and Gympass integrations | Multi-month cancellation friction with continued billing reported across multiple Capterra reviewers |
| Modern operator UI that consistently outperforms Mindbody on latency per Reddit reports | Real reported spend lands at $250 to $2,000+/mo once add-ons, locations, staff seats, and the $399/mo AI Agent are stacked on the $60 advertised Pro tier |
| Marketing automation module praised by operators (Capterra and Reddit) | No documented spot-map or Reformer bed-level booking UI; post-Xplor-acquisition operational incidents reported on Reddit |
Momence vs. the alternatives at a glance
Boutique studios evaluating Momence in 2026 are typically comparing it to Mindbody, WellnessLiving, and Vibefam. The honest cross-cut on the dimensions that matter most for boutique operators:
| Dimension | Momence | Vibefam | Mindbody | WellnessLiving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price (paid tier) | $60/mo (Pro) | Custom quote, transparent | $129/mo | $89/mo |
| Free tier | Yes (Basic, 5% fee) | No (paid only) | No | No |
| Real reported spend | $250 to $2,000+/mo | Tiered, no surprise surcharges | $300+/mo | $200+/mo |
| AI features | AI Agent ($399/mo add-on) | Vibe AI suite (tiered, natively integrated) | Mindbody Messenger AI | Limited |
| Reformer bed-level booking | Not surfaced | Vibefam Spot Maps (purpose-built) | Workarounds | Workarounds |
| On-demand video and LMS | Native (strong) | Native | Limited | Limited |
| ClassPass integration | Native | Supported | Native | Native |
| Gympass integration | Native | Supported | Native | Limited |
| Family Accounts (true shared wallet) | Child accounts only | Vibefam Family Accounts (full shared wallet) | Partial | Partial |
| Studio Success Manager | Custom tier only | Included on every plan | Ultimate tier only | Limited |
| Customer support score (Capterra) | 3.7 / 5 | 4.8+ / 5 | 4.0 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Ownership | Xplor Technologies (Jan 2025 acquisition) | Independent | Vista Equity | Independent |
For a broader walk-through of the Mindbody side of this market, see our top 5 Mindbody alternatives for studio management in 2026.
Who Momence is best for (and who it is not)
Momence has a clear sweet spot. The studios that get the most value out of it are solo and small US boutique studios in yoga, Pilates, dance, and wellness that want to test a platform via the free tier, that prioritize a native on-demand video library and LMS, and that want a polished consumer mobile app for their members. If your billing setup is straightforward and you are not likely to hit the hidden-fee landmines, Momence's modern UI and ClassPass and Gympass integrations are genuinely strong.
Where it is the wrong fit is consistent across the evidence. Multi-location chains with more than five locations still pick Mindbody at higher rates because the Corporate Dashboard, while functional, is not yet at parity with the multi-location playbook chains expect. Reformer Pilates studios that need bed-level booking will not find a purpose-built spot-map UI documented, which is a common Momence-to-alternatives migration trigger. Operators with low tolerance for support friction will struggle with Momence's documented 3.7/5 service rating, the canned-AI-response shift /u/TheMovementCreative described, and the multi-agent no-continuity pattern. And studios that are sensitive to surprise billing should weigh the 1% Stripe surcharge, forced application fees during upgrades, the forced momence.com backlink, and the multi-month cancellation friction Capterra reviewers have documented.
Recent moves to watch: the Clubessential acquisition in January 2025 and the Xplor merger in March 2026 both signal that Momence's roadmap is now set inside a much larger portfolio. /u/SearchNo8132's account of gift cards breaking without customer notification during an upgrade window is the kind of operational incident that becomes more likely, not less, during a multi-platform integration. For studios making a multi-year commitment, this is material context.
When you'd switch off Momence
Based on the documented Capterra and Reddit triggers, operators typically switch off Momence for one of the following reasons. Customer-support frustration crosses a threshold, which is the single most common trigger and the one most consistently reported. Hidden-fee surprise: discovering the 1% Stripe surcharge after months of operating, or hitting a new application fee during a forced upgrade. Cancellation friction: multiple Capterra reviewers describe two-month cancellation loops with continued billing. Expanding beyond one location, where the Corporate Dashboard is functional but not at the playbook depth chains expect. Switching to Reformer-focused programming, where the spot-map gap matters. And Xplor integration uncertainty, where operators wary of a mid-integration platform direction proactively move to an independent vendor before something else breaks.
Migrating off Momence (if you're switching)
If you do decide to switch, an honest scoping of what migrates and what does not will save you weeks of pain. Across most boutique platforms, active packages and recurring memberships migrate cleanly. Class schedules typically require a rebuild on the destination platform, because each platform's scheduling data model is different. Historical payments and transaction history do not migrate, although they can usually be exported for accounting purposes. Your on-demand video library will need to be re-uploaded to the new platform's video module. And the branded mobile app needs to be rebuilt on the destination platform.
One Momence-specific cleanup step: if your studio's website was required to host a backlink to momence.com, remove it during migration. There is no reason to continue boosting Momence's SEO authority after you have moved off the platform.
Vibefam in this category
Vibefam is the comprehensive, AI-driven, all-in-one boutique fitness studio platform purpose-built for boutique fitness, yoga, Pilates, barre, dance, and martial arts studios across North America and Asia-Pacific. On the dimensions where US operators most commonly outgrow Momence (customer support quality, pricing transparency, comprehensive software across growth and marketing, and Reformer bed-level booking via Vibefam Spot Maps) Vibefam is the natural alternative for studios that want operator-aligned economics without surprise surcharges, forced SEO backlinks, or application-fee layering during upgrades.
The four-agent Vibe AI suite (AI Marketing & Retention Engine, AI Business Dashboard, Vibe AI Customer Support Agent, and AI Website Builder) is natively integrated, not bolted on as a $399/mo add-on. Every Vibefam plan ships with a dedicated Studio Success Manager (not gated to a top tier), and Vibefam Fast Migration handles member records, contact details, packages, and recurring memberships at no charge during a switch. For Reformer Pilates studios specifically, Vibefam Spot Maps offers purpose-built bed-level booking that horizontal platforms typically do not surface. Vibefam Family Accounts handles true shared-wallet family units rather than only parent-child sub-profiles, which matters for kids' dance, gymnastics, and youth martial arts programming.
Sources
Numbered citations throughout this review map to the sources below. Verbatim Reddit quotes are attributed inline with usernames, subreddits, and dates. All sources reviewed on or before 2026-06-05.
- Momence homepage
- Momence pricing page
- Momence Help Center: AI Agent ($399/mo)
- Momence Help Center: on-demand library and subscriptions
- Momence Help Center: ClassPass integration
- Momence Help Center: Gympass integration
- Momence at Y Combinator (Summer 2020 batch)
- Xplor press release: Momence joins Clubessential Holdings (Jan 29, 2025)
- Clubessential blog: Xplor + Clubessential unified company launch (Mar 30, 2026)
- Momence on Capterra (Ribbon product page)
- Momence on Trustpilot (flagged for review-collection bias by Trustpilot)
- Momence consumer mobile app, Apple App Store
If you are evaluating Momence in 2026, run the diligence honestly: ask for a real total-cost quote including the AI Agent add-on, the 1% Stripe surcharge, and any application fees on upgrades, then compare it against a transparent quote from an independent vendor. If you would like to see what comprehensive software across growth and marketing looks like with the Vibe AI suite included natively, book a Vibefam demo and we will walk you through a like-for-like cost and capability comparison against your current Momence setup.