What Studios Actually Book On: A 2026 Platform Benchmark
We checked the live booking link of 301 independent studios to see what they really run on. The field is quietly migrating off legacy software — here's the directional picture.
Tandava Team · · 13 min read
If you run a studio, you've probably wondered what everyone else is booking on — and whether the platform you're on is still the sensible default. So we went and looked: not at stale directory listings, but at the actual live Book/Schedule link of 301 independent studios across 32 cities and 9 countries. This is the competitive picture as best we can see it.
First, the honest caveats. This is our own research and opinion, not vendor-supplied or independently audited data. It's directional, not definitive: it reflects a curated sample of 301 studios across 32 cities and 9 countries, which skews toward studios with a findable, English-language web presence — so read it as "where the wind is blowing," not a census. We verified each studio's current platform by following its live Book/Schedule link in June 2026, but software, pricing, and features change constantly. Always confirm the current details on each vendor's own site before making a decision. Company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners; we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or speaking for any of them. None of this is legal, financial, or business advice.
What the field runs on now
No single platform owns this market anymore. Mindbody is still the most common choice, but it's one bloc among several — and nearly a quarter of studios skip dedicated booking software entirely, taking reservations through their own website.
| Platform | Studios | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mindbody | 81 | 27% |
| Own website (direct) | 70 | 23% |
| Momence | 29 | 10% |
| WellnessLiving | 15 | 5% |
| 12 | 4% | |
| Drop-in (no system) | 11 | 4% |
| Walla | 9 | 3% |
| Mariana Tek | 8 | 3% |
| 8 | 3% | |
| Arketa | 5 | 2% |
| Bsport | 4 | 1% |
| Acuity, Momoyoga, Rezerv, Fresha, Setmore, Wix, Strongbee, others | 1–3 each | tail |
A wrinkle on "own website." These buckets aren't perfectly mutually exclusive. A studio that takes bookings on its own domain might be running a genuinely independent system — or it might have an embedded booking widget from one of these platforms (Mindbody, Momence, Walla, Arketa and others all offer them). We classified by whatever powered the checkout when we could tell, but an unbranded embed can look like "own website." So read "direct" as "books on their own domain," not necessarily "uses no platform" — the true platform footprint is likely a little higher than the direct share alone suggests.
Grouped by generation
Cluster the platforms into three families — legacy (Mindbody, WellnessLiving), modern (Momence, Walla, Arketa, Mariana Tek, Bsport), and direct/manual (own site, WhatsApp, Instagram, walk-in) — and the shape of the market becomes clearer. In our read, legacy software is now a minority of the field.
If you're on Mindbody, you're with the largest single platform — but no longer with "what everyone uses."
The trend worth watching: the field is drifting off legacy
Two independent signals point the same way.
1. Newer studios start on newer software. Among the studios where we could confirm a founding year, the generation mix shifts steadily by era. Post-2020 studios are the first cohort where modern platforms out-adopt legacy outright.
2. Every documented switch moves off legacy. We found twelve studios with a verifiable platform migration — an announcement, a leftover logo, a still-live legacy listing. Every single one left a legacy platform, and none moved toward one.
| Studio | City | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| STRETCH | Vancouver | Mindbody | Momence |
| The Prana Lounge | Vancouver | Mindbody | Mariana Tek |
| YYoga (×3) | Vancouver | Mindbody | Mariana Tek (own-branded app) |
| Sukha Yoga (×3) | Austin | WellnessLiving | Arketa |
| The People's Yoga (×2) | Portland | Mindbody | Walla |
| YoYoYogi | Portland | Mindbody | Walla |
| Flood Yoga | Seattle | Mindbody | Arketa |
Where the switchers landed: Arketa 4, Mariana Tek 4, Walla 3, Momence 1. Nine of twelve left Mindbody; three left WellnessLiving; zero moved toward legacy.
Read this honestly. "12 switches" is a floor, not a rate. It only counts migrations that left a public trail; plenty of studios switch quietly. The real number is larger — but every trace we can see points in the same direction.
Platform norms depend entirely on your market
Here's the caveat that matters most before you act on any of the above: the "norm" is regional. Software adoption in North America looks nothing like a destination market in Asia-Pacific or Latin America.
If you operate in North America, booking software is the baseline and the real question is which one. If you operate in a destination market — Bali, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Central America — the norm is WhatsApp, Instagram, your own site, or simply walking in. There, adopting a full platform makes you the outlier: possibly a differentiator, possibly friction your clientele doesn't actually want.
Branded apps come included now
98 studios (32%) offer a branded or own-name app. Almost all are platform-provided white-labels (Mindbody, Momence, Mariana Tek, Walla), not custom builds. The takeaway: a branded app is no longer a development project — it ships with the modern platforms.
If you take three things from this
- The independent field is migrating off Mindbody and WellnessLiving toward Momence, Walla, Arketa, and Mariana Tek — and new studios increasingly start there. Factor that direction into any platform decision, then verify the specifics yourself.
- Software norms are regional. Match your market; don't import another region's playbook.
- A branded app is table stakes on modern platforms, not a reason on its own to switch.
Whatever you choose, the goal isn't to follow the herd — it's to find the booking experience that fits your studio, your members, and your market. Every platform here genuinely serves some studios beautifully. The art is matching the tool to the room.
Method notes: current platform verified per studio via its live booking link (June 2026); generation buckets are our classification; founding-era cross-tabs use a ~29% dated subset skewed toward established studios; the switch count is evidence-gated and represents a floor. Figures are rounded. Corrections welcome — if we've mislabelled your studio, tell us and we'll fix it.