All guides · Published September 6, 2026 · 2 min read
What a commission on your own clients really costs
Some studio platforms take a percentage of every payment your clients make. The rate looks small. Over a year, it is not. Here is the arithmetic, with public figures.
Disclosure: this guide is written by the team behind Ritmello, a studio management platform. We have that bias, and we make up for it with figures you can check yourself.
The three lines of an invoice
When software collects money for you, you pay three things: the monthly subscription, a platform commission on every sale, and card processing fees. The first line is the one people compare. The other two are the ones that weigh.
A worked example with Momence’s public pricing
Take a studio collecting $8,000 a month online. On Momence’s pricing page in September 2026, three plans coexist.
- Free plan: $0 subscription, but 5% charged on you, that is $400 a month, plus 4% added on the client.
- Pro plan: $60 a month, plus 2.5% on you, that is $200. Total: $260 a month.
- Custom plan: $199 a month, no commission.
On top come the platform’s processing fees: 3.9% plus $0.30 per online payment in the US and Canada, according to the same page. On $8,000 across 200 payments, that is roughly another $372.
Over twelve months, the Pro plan costs $3,120 before processing fees. A flat $79 a month subscription costs $948. The difference, $2,172, is the price of the commission.
The 4% your client pays
The client-side commission is the quietest one. It never appears on your invoice: it is added to the price your client sees at checkout. A ten-class pass at $150 costs her $156. You did not raise your prices, yet she pays more, and it is your studio she associates with that amount.
Why platforms do this
It is not malice, it is a model. A platform that collects for you earns on volume: the more you sell, the more it makes. The model has a merit, the free plan exists. It has a flaw: your success costs you money, indefinitely.
The question to ask: who is the merchant?
In the other model, you are the merchant. Your clients pay into your own Stripe account, with your keys. You see every payout in your Stripe dashboard, you negotiate processing fees directly with Stripe, and the software cannot take a share of money it never sees. A payout held back by a middleman becomes impossible by design.
That is Ritmello’s model: $79 a month, 0% commission, your Stripe keys. The “commission” line is missing from the invoice because it cannot exist.
Run it on your numbers
Take last month’s online revenue, apply your plan’s commission rate, multiply by twelve. Compare that amount with a flat subscription. The result is usually clear enough to need no advice.
Figures recorded in September 2026 on Momence’s public pricing page. The full comparison is at ritmello.com/alternative-momence. Always check current terms.
Also read: Choosing software for your Pilates or yoga studio: seven questions before you sign · Switching studio software without losing your clients’ credits