Start with how your school works

Write down what takes the most time today: answering questions about free places, attendance lists, settling passes or planning rooms and instructors. The software should solve these problems first.

Consider the kind of classes you run. A school with children’s courses needs different features than a studio with drop-in classes for adults, and an independent instructor in rented rooms needs different ones than a school with several rooms and staff.

Booking and schedules

Participants should be able to book quickly, without installing an app if they don’t want to. Check on a phone that free places, price, room and instructor are visible and that the cancellation terms appear before booking.

On the school’s side, what matters is conflict checks for rooms and instructors, recurring classes and publishing the schedule only when it is ready.

  • A capacity limit per group that closes booking once it is reached.
  • Self-service cancellation by participants within a set deadline.
  • A waiting list, if your groups often fill up.
  • Option to book with a partner and limit lead/follow roles, without automatic partner matching.
  • One schedule link you can put on your website and social media.

Passes and payments

Dance schools usually work with passes that have a number of entries or a validity period. Check that the software deducts an entry on booking, returns it on cancellation, lets you freeze a pass and lets students make up missed classes.

Customers in Poland expect to pay with BLIK and instant bank transfer. Find out whose account receives the money, what each transaction costs and whether the software takes a commission. Make sure you can record cash payments in the system too.

Staff, attendance and data

Instructors should see their classes and take attendance on a phone without access to all of the school’s settings. Pay attention to staff roles and permissions.

You are responsible for student data under the GDPR. Ask where it is stored, who can access it and whether you can download your customers and bookings at any time, for example as a CSV file.

Test the software in practice

The best test is a real week of classes. Create an account, add one room and one group, publish the classes and book as a participant from your phone. You will see how many steps stand between a customer and a booking and how much work is left for you.

Compare costs over a year rather than a single month, and check the cancellation terms. Pricing models are explained in the guide to dance school software costs.

How Studio measures up

Studio covers online booking with capacity limits, waitlists and cancellation terms, email confirmations of bookings, changes, cancellations and pass purchases, schedules with conflict checks and recurring classes, passes with freezes and make-up classes, card, BLIK and Przelewy24 payments through the school’s Stripe account, attendance, room rentals, team roles and CSV export. It is free and runs in the browser.

Studio emails confirmations of bookings, changes, cancellations and pass purchases, but it does not yet have reminders before classes (by text or email), an app-store app, parent accounts or invoicing. If any of these is essential for you, include it in your comparison.