PushPress has the most attention-getting offer in this market — a permanently free plan — and it is a genuinely good one. It is also the comparison where the sticker price is most misleading, in both directions.
PushPress Core Free is $0/month with unlimited members, leads and staff, class scheduling, a member app and kiosk check-in. For a new school with twelve students, that is an excellent deal and you should take it.
The cost is in the processing rate. Free bills card payments at 4.99% + $0.30, against 2.89% + $0.30 on Core Pro at $159/month. On $10,000 a month of tuition, that difference is about $210 — more than the paid plan costs. The free plan is cheapest at low volume and gets more expensive than the paid one as you grow, which is the opposite of how software pricing usually reads.
Do the arithmetic against your own monthly tuition before you choose a tier. That advice applies to us too.
| Axion Dojo | PushPress | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Martial arts schools only | Gyms and martial arts academies |
| Entry price | Not yet published | $0/mo on Core Free |
| Card processing | Standard Stripe rates, your own account | 4.99% + $0.30 free; 2.89% + $0.30 on Pro ($159/mo) |
| Where tuition lands | Your own Stripe account, straight to your bank | Built-in processing |
| Rank tracking | One ladder per style | Rank tracking included |
| Website | API and embeddable forms into your own site | Site tooling available |
PushPress figures are its own published rates, checked September 2026. Check pushpress.com for current pricing.
A new or small academy with little revenue and no budget should start free. Nothing in this comparison beats $0 when you have fifteen students and are not sure the school will work. PushPress is also strong if you run strength and conditioning alongside the martial arts, since it covers both.
Your own merchant account, so the processing rate is between you and Stripe rather than set by your software vendor — which is the whole point of the arithmetic above. Plus per-style rank ladders and gradings run end to end with fees and automatic promotion.
This page is the summary. The guide is the manual — written for people running a school, not for people shopping for software. Read how billing and payouts work, or start at the contents page.
The subscription is genuinely $0 with no contract. The card processing rate on that tier is higher than on the paid tiers, so at meaningful tuition volume the free plan can cost more overall than the paid one. Run the numbers on your own monthly total.
Probably PushPress, on price. Come back to this comparison when you are processing enough tuition for the rate difference to matter.
No. There is a free trial, but not a permanent free plan.
Your own Stripe account is the difference. Start a free trial.