For: Fitness studios · Massage
Arketa review 2026: pricing, fees and the catches
Disclosure: Our #1 pick is MeetScarlet, and we are affiliated with them. We also cover competing tools and where they shine. We may earn commissions from links on this page. Details
The short answer: Arketa is booking, payments, video and marketing software for fitness studios and massage practices. Only one plan is priced: Individual is $49 a month, billed annually, for one login, plus a 3% Arketa fee on top of Stripe’s card fees. Studio plans are quote-only. The catches: hidden studio prices, marketing automation from Studio Growth or a paid add-on, and “all sales are final”. Based on Arketa’s public pages, checked November 5, 2026. Our #1 pick, MeetScarlet, says it’s live and includes a branded app on its standard plan, but its appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet” (checked November 5, 2026).
Key takeaways
- Arketa publishes one plan price: Individual is $49 a month, "Billed annually (save 17%)", for "1 team member login". Studio Core, Studio Growth and Studio Suite all say "Custom" (checked November 5, 2026).
- Card payments run through Stripe at "2.9% + $0.30 USD" in the US. Individual adds Arketa's own 3% fee; for Studio plans the fee is "Let's talk" (checked November 5, 2026).
- Its pricing FAQ says plans renew month to month "unless you sign up for an annual plan", and Individual's $49 is billed annually. Its referral page pays out when a referred business signs "a minimum one-year contract".
- Its terms say "all sales are final and no refunds may be provided for any purchase at this time", and prices can change "with or without notice" (checked November 5, 2026).
- Switching can carry over active packages, memberships and members' saved cards, but only as part of your first migration.
- Email and text campaigns and automated workflows aren't in Individual or Studio Core. They come with Studio Growth, and its FAQ also calls marketing automation "part of the Marketing Suite, a paid add-on"; neither shows a price.
What Arketa is (and isn’t)
Arketa (the company behind it is Sutra Fitness, Inc., per its terms) calls itself “all-in-one studio management software for all modalities including Pilates, yoga, gyms, and contrast therapy”. One system covers classes, appointments, memberships, card payments, staff, payroll and marketing. Its business-type menu lists solo instructors, single and multi-location studios, yoga, Pilates and Lagree, group fitness, gyms, recovery and wellness, personal training, spin and massage. So it’s relevant to our fitness studios and massage readers.
What it isn’t: salon software. Its own summary written for AI tools lists “restaurant/salon/medical scheduling” as “Not a fit”. We found no page for barbershops, tanning salons or padel clubs.
How we reviewed Arketa
- We read Arketa’s pricing page, its plan-by-plan feature table and FAQ, and its free-trial page on November 5, 2026.
- We read its terms of service and its affiliate referral page.
- We read its classes, staff, massage and migration pages, help articles on support, failed payments and client transfers, and its public status page.
- We looked up third-party ratings on the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot, and label them as other people’s opinions. G2 and Capterra blocked our requests.
- We haven’t used Arketa hands-on, so we couldn’t count booking steps or time a setup. This review is documentation-based.
Our method explains how we put pages together.
Arketa pricing (checked November 5, 2026)
| Plan | Price | Team and locations | What the plan adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | $49/month, “Billed annually (save 17%)” | “1 team member login”, 1 location | Class, private and event scheduling. Client records. An unlimited on-demand video library and livestream classes. Class packages, memberships and booking widgets. Email and text reminders, intake forms and digital waivers. No point of sale or staff management |
| Studio Core | “Custom” (“Request a demo for pricing”) | Unlimited team members; “Multiple rooms + locations” | Point of sale, staff management and payroll reporting, dedicated account management |
| Studio Growth (“Most Popular”) | “Custom” | As Core | “Email + text campaigns”, “Automated workflows”, a lead pipeline, an AI email builder and 1:1 texting |
| Studio Suite | “Custom” | As Core | A “Custom branded mobile app (iOS + Android)”, push notifications, a branded website, Apple TV and Roku displays, and Facebook and Google ad integrations |
| For comparison: MeetScarlet (our #1 pick) | $349/month plus $999 one-time setup, or $3,490 a year with setup free | 5 staff logins and 1 location; on Scarlet Pro ($499/month plus $999 setup, or $4,990 a year), 20 staff logins and “up to 3 locations” | A branded iPhone, Android and web app. Classes with spot maps and a waitlist, and memberships. Text reminders (coming soon) are Scarlet Pro only. Email reminders are “built but not sending yet”. Card payments turn on once your Stripe account is approved, but its appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet” |
Source: Arketa’s pricing page, checked November 5, 2026. Prices are in US dollars. We found no month-to-month price for Individual. The page shows only the price billed annually, $49 a month. By our arithmetic, that’s $588 a year. Five add-ons (Branded Mobile App, Marketing Suite, Branded Website, Accounting and Bookkeeping) show no price. Compare what other booking apps cost.
Card processing and other fees:
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Stripe card processing (US) | “2.9% + $0.30 USD” per transaction, on every plan |
| Arketa’s transaction fee | 3% on Individual; “Let’s talk” on Studio plans |
| Passing fees to clients | Optional: you can “pass credit card fees on to clients at checkout or absorb them yourself” |
| Processor | Stripe: its FAQ says “We process payments through Stripe” |
| Add-ons | No price shown for any of the five |
| For comparison: MeetScarlet (our #1 pick) | Card payments in its app are Stripe’s fees plus 1%, through your own Stripe account. They turn on once Stripe finishes checking that account. Its appointments help still says “no live card payment has been run yet”, so check with MeetScarlet before counting on card payments (checked November 5, 2026). We found no price for its email and text automation bundle |
Sources: pricing page and classes page, checked November 5, 2026. By our arithmetic, a $100 card payment on Individual costs $6.20 in fees ($3.20 to Stripe and $3 to Arketa), assuming the 3% applies to the full payment.
Contracts, cancelling and your data
Arketa’s pricing FAQ answers “Is there a commitment?” with “No, you can upgrade or downgrade at any time. All plans renew month to month unless you sign up for an annual plan.” Its affiliate referral page, though, rewards referrals “when they sign up for a minimum one-year contract”. So ask what term your Studio quote carries, and get it in writing.
The terms of service set no contract length. They say “all sales are final and no refunds may be provided for any purchase at this time”, and that Arketa “reserves the right to change its pricing at any time, with or without notice”. Payment errors must be reported in writing “within forty-five (45) days of the payment date”. To end your account, “you may simply discontinue using Service”. The terms page showed no “last updated” date when we read it.
Your data: the plan table lists “Full data export” on Individual and Studio plans. We didn’t find what it includes or its file format.
Classes, appointments and spot booking
Classes, appointments and events share one calendar. “When a spot opens, the next person on the waitlist gets in automatically”, and you set the hours it can happen. Waitlists work for appointments too. Spot booking lets clients “pick their exact bike, reformer, or mat” (classes page). Failed membership renewals are retried “up to 8 times within 30 days”, and the client gets an email to update their card (help article).
On Studio plans, instructors request subs inside Arketa, and pay rates can be set by class type, format or instructor, with “wages, commissions, and bonuses” in one payroll export (staff page).
For massage practices, its massage page says it assigns “treatment rooms and equipment automatically”, sends intake and health-history forms before visits, and lets you “require a card on file or take a deposit at booking”, with no-show fees that “charge automatically”.
Switching to Arketa
Its migrations page offers a dedicated onboarding specialist and a live migration tracker. The homepage says “Most studios are live within 4 weeks”. Its transfer help says a first migration with Stripe payment data can move “Client accounts, active packages, active subscriptions, stored payment methods”. Without that data, members add a new card. Moving active memberships and payment data “can only be done as part of your initial migration”. A plain client list can be imported yourself at any time. We found no migration fee on its pages, and no statement that migration is free.
What Arketa does well
- One calendar for classes, appointments and events, with automatic waitlists for appointments as well as classes, and spot booking.
- Video on every plan: an unlimited on-demand library, unlimited video storage and livestream class management, per its plan table.
- Failed payments chased for you, with up to 8 retries in 30 days.
- Switching that keeps members billing, if active memberships and saved cards move in your first migration.
- Instructor payroll built in on Studio plans, with sub requests and one combined export.
- Text and email reminders on every plan, per its plan table.
- A public status page, which showed “All services are online” on November 5, 2026 (status page).
Where Arketa falls short
- Studio prices are hidden. All three Studio plans say “Custom”, the Studio transaction fee is “Let’s talk”, and no add-on is priced, so a studio with staff can’t work out its cost before a demo (pricing page).
- Individual is one login, with an extra fee. It allows “1 team member login” and 1 location, has no point of sale or staff management, and adds a 3% fee to Stripe’s.
- Marketing automation costs extra. Email and text campaigns and automated workflows aren’t in Individual or Studio Core. They come with Studio Growth, and its FAQ also calls marketing automation “part of the Marketing Suite, a paid add-on”. Neither shows a price (pricing page (text version)).
- No refunds. “All sales are final”, and prices can change “with or without notice” (terms).
- Support hours depend on your plan. The homepage promises a human “any time of day, in under a minute”. Its support help gives Studio live chat 24 hours Monday to Thursday, 12am to 7pm EST on Fridays and 9am to 5pm EST at weekends, and Individual “Business hours”, answered “Within 24 hours”. We found no uptime commitment.
To weigh these against Mindbody’s catches, see Arketa vs Mindbody.
Arketa reviews and complaints
Third-party opinion, not our own research: on November 5, 2026, the Arketa Business App (the owner and staff app) averaged 3.0 out of 5 from 42 US App Store ratings (2.95 before Apple rounds it), and 2.6 from 5 reviews on Google Play. Its Trustpilot profile showed 2.6 out of 5 (“Poor”) from 8 reviews, 63% of them one-star. The profile is unclaimed, and Trustpilot says the company “hasn’t invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative”. All three are small samples. Clients book in each studio’s own app or booking page, so there’s no single client app to rate. We didn’t sort individual reviews by topic. For comparison, we found no third-party ratings for our #1 pick, MeetScarlet (checked November 4, 2026).
Arketa or our pick, MeetScarlet?
| Arketa | MeetScarlet | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Individual $49/month billed annually, for one login; Studio plans “Custom” | Scarlet is $349/month plus $999 setup, or $3,490/year with setup free, for one location. Founding studios pay $299 a month instead of $349 for the first 24 months, on monthly billing, with the $999 setup included at no charge. MeetScarlet plans 10 places (checked November 5, 2026) |
| Staff | One login on Individual; unlimited on Studio plans | 5 staff logins; 20 on Scarlet Pro ($499/month plus $999 setup, or $4,990/year with setup free) |
| Text reminders to clients | “SMS notifications + reminders” on Individual and Studio | Scarlet Pro only, coming soon; its Jane comparison page says email reminders are “built but not sending yet” |
| Classes and spot booking | Classes, appointments and events on one calendar, with automatic waitlists and spot booking | Weekly classes with an optional pick-your-spot map and an automatic waitlist, on every plan, per its class-booking page |
| On-demand and live-streamed video | On every plan: an unlimited on-demand library, unlimited video storage and livestream classes, per its plan table | Its about page says “There is no on-demand or live-streamed video” |
| App under your own business name | Studio Suite, or an add-on with no price shown. Arketa says the app is “published under your name”, and that its team “builds and publishes the app to both app stores for you”. The studio apps we found on the US App Store, such as this one, list Sutra Fitness, Inc. as the seller | Included: iPhone, Android and web, published under your own Apple ($99 a year) and Google Play ($25 once) developer accounts |
| Card payments | Live now through Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30, plus 3% on Individual | Stripe’s fees plus 1% to MeetScarlet, through your own Stripe account. Card payments turn on once Stripe has checked that account. But its appointments help still says “no live card payment has been run yet”, so check with MeetScarlet before counting on card deposits or no-show fees |
| Switching | A first migration can move active packages, memberships and saved cards | “Scarlet imports clients, not booking or payment history”, with “no direct importer” for other apps |
| Locations | “Multiple rooms + locations” on Studio plans | “Each Scarlet studio has one schedule”. Scarlet includes 1 location; Scarlet Pro “includes up to 3 locations” |
| Payroll | Pay rates, commissions and one payroll export on Studio plans | We found no payroll or commission report |
| Support and uptime | Studio chat 24 hours Monday to Thursday, shorter hours Friday to Sunday; Individual in business hours; a public status page; no uptime commitment found | Its terms say “For support, message @meetscarletapp on Instagram. We aim to reply within one business day.” Its help also offers email (“A person reads every message”), with “Priority support” on Scarlet Pro. We found no status page or uptime commitment |
| Email and text marketing | Studio Growth, or the Marketing Suite add-on; no price shown | A separate bundle with no published price |
| Availability and terms | Now, with a 7-day free trial of Individual or a demo; terms say “all sales are final” | Its terms page says “Scarlet is live, and founding studios can join now”, and “There is no free trial.” Plans renew automatically. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the paid period, with no refunds for part-used months or years, apart from founding-plan exceptions. You can export the member list as a CSV at any time. Its FAQ says store apps take “about 4 to 6 weeks”, mostly for Apple’s enrollment, and the web app is live sooner |
| Third-party reviews | 47 app-store ratings for its staff app (our arithmetic) and 8 on Trustpilot (see above) | No third-party ratings found (checked November 4, 2026) |
Sources: MeetScarlet’s white-label page, class booking page, switching page and support help, checked November 4, 2026; its about page, checked November 3, 2026; and its pricing and FAQ, Jane comparison, terms, payments help and appointments help, checked November 5, 2026.
Choose MeetScarlet, our pick, if you want a branded iPhone, Android and web app at a published price, on its standard plan. Its store apps take “about 4 to 6 weeks”. Its email reminders are “built but not sending yet”, and we found no date for them. Choose Arketa if you need card payments working today, since MeetScarlet’s appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet”. Arketa also fits if you want reminders that send now, on-demand or livestream video, instructor payroll, several locations, or a switch that keeps members’ saved cards, and you’re happy to get a Studio price in a demo.
Who should pick Arketa, and who shouldn’t
| If you are… | Arketa? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A solo instructor | Individual fits | $49 a month billed annually for one login, with a 7-day free trial; Arketa’s 3% comes on top of Stripe’s fees |
| A class studio with a team | Studio plans (ask for a quote) | Unlimited staff, point of sale and payroll reporting; compare our fitness class picks |
| Leaving Mindbody | Worth a look | A first migration can move active memberships and saved cards; see our Mindbody alternatives |
| A massage practice | Worth a look | Rooms, intake forms, deposits and no-show fees on its massage page; compare our massage picks |
| Wanting a price before a sales call | Only if you’re solo | Only Individual is priced; WellnessLiving publishes its studio plans |
| Running several locations | Studio plans | “Multiple rooms + locations”; ask how reporting works across them |
| A barbershop, salon, tanning salon or padel club | Look elsewhere | Salon scheduling is “Not a fit” in its own summary; see our barber picks, Tan-Link review or Playtomic vs CourtReserve |
| Wanting an app under your own name on iPhone, Android and web | Studio Suite, or see our pick, MeetScarlet | Arketa’s branded app comes with Studio Suite or as an add-on, both unpriced. MeetScarlet includes a branded iPhone, Android and web app at $349 a month plus $999 setup, or $3,490 a year. Its store apps take “about 4 to 6 weeks”; the web app is live sooner. Its card payments turn on once your Stripe account is approved, but its appointments help says “no live card payment has been run yet” |
The verdict
Arketa suits class studios and massage practices that want classes, appointments, payroll and guided migration in one system. Solo instructors get a published price and a seven-day trial; studios with a team have to book a demo to see one. Get your term and Studio fees in writing before you sign, because its terms say “all sales are final”. If that works for you, see Arketa. Comparing options? See our fitness class picks, Mindbody alternatives or WellnessLiving review.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Arketa cost?
- Arketa's Individual plan is $49 a month, billed annually, for one team member login. Studio Core, Studio Growth and Studio Suite all say "Custom" and "Request a demo for pricing". Checked November 5, 2026.
- Does Arketa have a free trial?
- Yes, for independent instructors. Its free-trial page offers "Seven days free" on the Individual plan; Studio plans start with a demo (checked November 5, 2026).
- What are Arketa's transaction fees?
- Stripe charges "2.9% + $0.30 USD" per card payment in the US on every plan (checked November 5, 2026). Individual partners also pay Arketa's 3%, and for Studio plans the pricing table says "Let's talk". Arketa says you can pass card fees on to clients at checkout or absorb them.
- Is there a contract with Arketa?
- Its pricing FAQ says there's no commitment and that all plans renew month to month unless you sign up for an annual plan; Individual's $49 is billed annually. Its referral page, though, pays out when a referred business signs "a minimum one-year contract", so ask what term your Studio quote carries (checked November 5, 2026).
- Can I get a refund from Arketa?
- Its terms say "all sales are final and no refunds may be provided for any purchase at this time" (checked November 5, 2026). To end your account, the terms say you "may simply discontinue using Service".
- Does Arketa have a branded app?
- Yes. A "Custom branded mobile app (iOS + Android)" is part of Studio Suite and is also sold as an add-on, with no price shown on either (checked November 5, 2026). Arketa says the app is "published under your name" and its team "handles the App Store for you".
- Does Arketa work for massage therapists?
- It has a massage page covering appointments, treatment rooms, intake forms, packages and memberships, with deposits or a card on file at booking. Its own summary written for AI tools lists "restaurant/salon/medical scheduling" as "Not a fit", and we found no pages for barbershops, tanning salons or padel clubs.
Sources
- Arketa pricing, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa pricing (text version: plans table, add-ons and FAQ), checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa free trial, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa terms of service, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa affiliate referral program, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa homepage, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa classes and appointments, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa staff management, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa for massage, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa migrations, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa summary written for AI tools (llms.txt), checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa help: contact and support, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa help: subscription payment failures, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa help: transferring clients, checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa status page, checked November 5, 2026
- A studio app built on Arketa on the US App Store (seller shown), checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa Business App on the US App Store (third-party ratings), checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa Business on Google Play (third-party ratings), checked November 5, 2026
- Arketa on Trustpilot (third-party reviews), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet pricing and FAQ, checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet terms of service (updated November 5, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet payments help (updated November 5, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet help: appointments, deposits and no-show fees (updated November 5, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet white-label booking app page, checked November 4, 2026
- MeetScarlet class booking page (one schedule per studio), checked November 4, 2026
- MeetScarlet switching page, checked November 4, 2026
- MeetScarlet vs Jane comparison (by the Scarlet team, updated November 1, 2026), checked November 5, 2026
- MeetScarlet about page (no on-demand or streamed video), checked November 3, 2026
- MeetScarlet help: if something looks wrong (support), checked November 4, 2026
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