Guides
Building a fitness studio service menu for 2027
Seventeen fitness studio package shapes, each with the capacity it draws, who it suits, and the specific way it fails, so you can pick three rather than list all.
What to take away
- Seventeen package shapes, not seventeen things to sell. Named studios sit in the table so you can picture each one.
- Pick three or four that are obviously different from each other. A menu of near-identical options teaches members nothing.
- Read the middle column firstwhat a package draws from peak capacity is what it costs you, whatever it earns.
- The shapes that fill quiet hours are worth the most attention, because peak hours mostly fill themselves.
- Every shape here fails in a specific way. Knowing the failure in advance is what makes the choice deliberate.
- Prices are yours to set from your own costs. The market figures below are benchmarks, not targets.
Studios collect packages the way garages collect tools, and end up with a menu nobody can read. A fitness studio service menu for 2027 should be short. What follows is a catalog of seventeen shapes, each with a real studio selling it and the trade-off attached. Pick deliberately, and retire the shapes you kept out of habit.
The seventeen shapes
| Shape, with a named example | Best suited to | Draw on peak capacity | Fails when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single drop-in: a SoulCycle single ride, typically $30 to $40, or a Barry's single class, typically $30 to $45 | Visitors, first-timers, irregular attenders | One seat, unpredictable | It becomes the default and nothing is forecastable |
| Intro offer, fixed short period: the new-student intro week CorePower Yoga runs in many markets, and the free first class Orangetheory offers | People deciding whether this is for them | Heavy while it runs | It is sold to people who were going to join anyway |
| Small prepaid block: a five-class pack at CorePower Yoga or Barry's | Regulars who dislike commitment | Deferred, usually redeemed at peak | Credits pile up unredeemed and members feel cheated |
| Large prepaid block: a Barry's 20-class pack, or a ClassPass credit bundle that typically runs from 4 credits a month to 100-plus | Committed members who want a lower unit price | Deferred and long-lived | Expiry arrives before the member has used it |
| Capped month, low cap: Orangetheory Basic at four classes a month, typically $59 to $79, or a Club Pilates four-class membership, typically $89 to $129 | Once-a-week attenders | Bounded and easy to plan | The cap is set below what a normal week looks like |
| Capped month, high cap: Orangetheory Elite at eight classes a month, typically $99 to $129, or a Club Pilates eight-class membership, typically $139 to $179 | Most members, most of the time | Bounded, rarely reached | It is priced as if everyone will reach the cap |
| Unlimited month: Orangetheory Premier, typically $159 to $199; Club Pilates unlimited, typically $199 to $279; Planet Fitness Classic at $10 to $15 a month for one club, plus an annual fee | Heavy users and enthusiasts | Unbounded, concentrated at peak | Peak fills with unlimited members and new sales cannot get in |
| Off-peak only: the daytime rate YMCA branches and hospital fitness centers sell to members who train before the after-work rush | Shift workers, parents, retired members, home workers | Zero draw on peak by design | It is described as a discount instead of as its own product |
| Single-format pass: Solidcore reformer packs, CycleBar ride packs, StretchLab stretch sessions | People who came for one specific thing | Concentrated in that format's slots | The format's instructor leaves |
| Multi-format pass: ClassPass, typically $19 to $199 a month by plan and market, or a Life Time membership covering classes, gym and pool | Members who want variety | Spread, harder to forecast | Formats have different costs and the pass ignores that |
| Small group block: F45 Training group blocks, or the on-ramp courses CrossFit affiliates run | Members who want coaching without one-to-one pricing | Occupies a full slot with fewer people | Group size drifts up until it is just a class |
| One-to-one session: personal training at Equinox or Life Time, typically $75 to $150 an hour | People with a specific goal or constraint | A whole room-hour for one person | It is sold into peak hours a class could have filled |
| One-to-one plus class bundle: Life Time personal training blocks sold to members whose membership already includes studio classes | Members transitioning into group training | Mixed, and the mix changes monthly | Nobody tracks which half is actually being used |
| Corporate or workplace block: Wellhub, the platform formerly called Gympass, and ClassPass Corporate | Employers buying access for staff | Predictable, often mid-morning | The named contact leaves and the renewal quietly dies |
| Gift certificate: gift cards from SoulCycle, CorePower Yoga and most studios, valid at least five years under federal rules | Buyers who are not the attender | Unpredictable, often never redeemed | The obligation outlives everyone's memory of it |
| Founding or presale offer: founding rates at new Club Pilates, F45 Training and Solidcore locations | Early members before opening | Committed before capacity is proven | It is priced for cash flow and honored forever |
| Paused or frozen membership: freeze terms written into Orangetheory and Equinox membership agreements, usually a monthly fee | Members with a temporary reason to stop | None while frozen | There is no rule, so it becomes an argument |
Reading the table
Three patterns are worth naming.
Three patterns in the table
Pattern
- Top shapes
- Consume peak, commit nobody
- Middle shapes
- Commit people at peak
- Off-peak product
- Adds capacity, not competes
- Freeze policy
- Written in advance
What it does
- Top shapes
- Nothing forecastable
- Middle shapes
- Concentrate where least room
- Off-peak product
- Treated as afterthought
- Freeze policy
- Invented per member, resentment
Risk
- Top shapes
- Middle shapes
- Off-peak product
- Freeze policy
Shapes at the top of the table consume peak capacity without committing anyone. Shapes in the middle commit people but concentrate them exactly where you have least room. The off-peak product adds capacity instead of competing for it, and most studios treat it as an afterthought.
The last row is not really a package, but it is sold like one and it needs the same design work. A freeze policy written in advance is a retention tool. A freeze policy invented per member breeds resentment among the members who did not think to ask.
Franchised brands such as Orangetheory and Club Pilates write freeze terms into their membership agreements, with a fee that typically runs $5 to $20 a month while the membership sits. The rule exists before the request arrives.
Prices in the table are typical US ranges, not one city's rate card. Four things move them: rent per square foot, instructor pay, class size, and how much of the day the studio fills. A ClassPass subscription runs from about $19 a month on the smallest credit bundle to roughly $199 on the largest.
What to check before you publish any of them
Whatever shapes you choose, work through how a package is tested before it goes on the menu rather than announcing it and watching. The structural logic behind the four underlying selling units is in how services and packages are built, and the question of which of them actually carry margin is worked through in which services carry the contribution.
Before publishing any package
- Test the package before announcing it
- Check room working capacity and equipment
- Confirm instructors you can staff
- Review how services and packages are built
- Check which services carry contribution
Two constraints sit underneath every row of that table. The room's working capacity, which is set by the floor plan and the equipment on it and inventoried in the new owner's equipment checklist, decides how many seats exist. The instructors you can staff decide how many of them you can actually open.
Booking software decides whether a shape is sellable at all. Punchpass starts around $49 a month for a single-location studio. Glofox and WellnessLiving typically run $100 to $300 a month depending on locations and add-ons.
Mindbody entry plans typically start near $139 a month, with a setup fee on top. TeamUp and Momence sit in the same band. Check that a member can hold two packages at once before you sell the second one.
How these have to be described
Conditions on an offer belong where the offer is, in the same size type, in words a member can act on. Expiry, peak restrictions, freeze rules, and cancellation notice spark complaints when discovered late.
Describing offer conditions
- Conditions sit where the offer is
- Same size type as the offer
- Words a member can act on
- State expiry, peak, freeze, cancellation
- Follow FTC advertising guidance
- Check state health-club rules
The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses sets out how offers and their qualifications are expected to be presented.
Gift certificates are the clearest case. Federal gift-card rules keep them valid for at least five years from the date of issue, and some states require longer.
Contract terms themselves are a separate matter, and several states have specific rules for health-club agreements. Ask your state consumer-protection office or attorney general what applies, and have a lawyer read the document.
Making the arithmetic visible
None of these shapes can be compared without records that link every attendance to the package it came from. That is a booking-system setting, and it is worth checking before you launch anything new.
Making the arithmetic visible
- Link every attendance to its package
- Check booking-system setting before launch
- Keep income and expense records
- Know delivery cost of instructors
For the documentation side of income and expenses, the Internal Revenue Service's guidance on what records a business should keep is the reference. For the delivery cost side, the Bureau of Labor Statistics profile of fitness trainers and instructors describes what the role involves, though what it pays in your market is a local question.
Instructor pay is the largest line for most class-based studios. BLS puts median pay for fitness trainers and instructors in the mid-$40,000s a year. Group class rates usually run $25 to $50 a class, and one-to-one sessions $75 to $150 an hour.
Common questions
Which three should a new studio open with?
Something to try, something regular, and something for the hours you cannot otherwise fill. In practice that is usually an intro offer, a capped or unlimited month, and an off-peak product.
CorePower Yoga's introductory week, an Orangetheory Elite or Premier membership and a YMCA daytime rate are the three shapes as they appear in the market. Everything else can be added once you know which slots are tight.
Can I run both prepaid blocks and monthly memberships?
Yes, and many studios do. The thing to watch is that a block bought at a lower unit price than the membership teaches your members to avoid the membership. If the block is meant for irregular attenders, price it so it is genuinely the worse deal for a regular one.
What about gift certificates?
They are a real obligation that can sit on your books for a long time. Federal rules keep most gift cards valid for at least five years, and states can add their own rules on top. Check with your state before setting any expiry, and keep a list of outstanding certificates that somebody actually reads.
Is the corporate block worth chasing?
It fills mid-morning slots that nothing else fills, which makes it valuable out of proportion to its revenue. Employers buy this access through Wellhub, the platform formerly called Gympass, and through ClassPass Corporate. The risk is concentration in a single relationship. Treat the individual attenders as members you want to keep, not as a block renewed once a year.
