Best Personal Trainer Software

Consistent training and perseverance is the secret for achieving perfect fitness.  Individuals aiming for perfect fitness achieve these qualities under the supervision of trained professionals or personal trainers.  Personal trainers ensure that individuals achieve their goals without any injuries or exertions. They plan diet, training programs, and training methods to maximize the client’s output and minimize their burnout. In parallel to fitness training, they have to manage administrative tasks such as accounting, marketing, insurance, and customer management. They can have a hectic schedule managing multiple clients and managing admin work. Manually managing these activities could be a daunting task, and mismanagement sometimes leads to client’s dissatisfaction. Personal trainers can get efficient in managing their administrative processes by investing in the best personal trainer software. The personal trainer software makes trainers efficient in organizing their routine tasks and optimize their fitness training business. However, different trainers have different needs, and to get the best result from the personal trainer software, it is essential they choose the right personal trainer software.

This buyer guide on personal trainer software is intended to help personal trainers and individuals involved in the fitness training business to get complete insights on the personal trainer software.  The guide discusses in detail about the personal trainer software costs, features, benefits, future trends, etc., which could help personal trainers in filtering the best personal trainer software suitable for them.

Fitness trainers work in long shifts and sometimes have to manage multiple clients all at once.  They have to manage clients with different fitness objectives and have to plan training programs accordingly.  During the entire journey, they have to keep motivating the clients and monitoring their progress.  Besides training the client, they have to remain active in areas such as marketing and accounting, especially if the trainer is operating solo.  Mismanagement of these activities can affect their fitness training business and can end up losing the clients.  Finding a balance between admin work and coaching is extremely important for personal trainers to thrive in the fitness training business.   Right from managing the training schedules, re-schedules, membership renewals, payments, equipment purchase, management etc., there are so many factors that a trainer needs to take control of. Management is a key for all trainers’ issues. It is necessary that a personal trainer introduces a good management practice to streamline the business activities and reduce the workload.

For a  personal trainer or anyone running a Gym business, management of these activities could become effortless if they have a robust management system such as personal trainer software.

Personal trainer software is a tool that helps trainers to organize and track various activities they carry out on a regular basis. They can track activities such as scheduling a client’s fitness program, monitoring client progress, creating a nutrition plan for clients, managing client’s information, managing equipment, collecting online payments, etc. It can be helpful to both personal trainers working solo or in association with a fitness club.

Personal trainer software helps the trainer get organized and identify the leaks that could result in loss of business.  It allows them to manage multiple activities from a single interface.  They don't have to manually note down the client's progress or juggle between the busy schedules. Personal trainer software can help to deliver better service to the client and track their progress at pinpoint accuracy.  Customer management becomes easy as all the client information can be accessed with just a few clicks.  They can send an email notification or text message about upcoming events and change in schedule.  Personal trainer software also allows the trainer to communicate with the client through their social handles.  A lot of marketing stuff can be carried out through personal trainer software at minimum costs.  

There is a rising demand for the personal trainer, and it becomes essential that personal trainers become efficient in organizing their tasks. Personal trainer software can be productive in that perspective and helps to train more clients in a lesser time.  Overall, the best personal trainer tools can help trainers to meet client's expectations and enhance their business performance. To take maximum advantage of personal trainer software, users should explore the benefits of personal trainer software.

• Increases client base: Personal trainer software makes communication easy with the clients. It gives them a centralized system to manage customers and inform them about new training schedules or discount offers on memberships. It is easy to upsell other services such as fitness products or nutritional food products. They can also set individual alerts for the clients to remind them about their training session.  All these features can help the trainer to increase its client base. 
• Support multi-instructors:  Best personal trainer tools enable users to connect and collaborate with other trainers.  Users can directly link them to their site and collaborate with them for various training sessions.
• Well organized:  Personal trainer system allows users to search for available dates, personal trainers, and rooms. They can avoid an error like double online bookings and perform their work in a more organized way. Membership management is another challenging task where personal trainer software could be quite helpful.  It can assist in various membership management tasks such as manage contracts and renewals, create custom membership plans, automate payment collection and easily access waivers.
• Tracking performance: Personal trainer system comes with data and reporting capabilities.  It gives details about the staff performance and training class performance.  They can even collect data about client improvement, popular time-slots, and client response to various memberships.
• Self-service client portal: Top personal trainer software comes with a self-service client portal, and it empowers the client to self navigate through various services such as pay outstanding amounts, scheduling sessions, updating payment information, selecting packages or memberships, etc.
• Video conferencing:  Personal trainers can also address clients through video conferencing if they are physically not present on the site. Trainer software can easily integrate with third-party video conferencing tools.
• Point of sale (POS): Top personal trainer software provides tailor-made POS that helps them to deliver better service and make smart decisions.  It offers payment flexibility by accepting multiple payment methods.  Users can add multiple tax scenarios and can save their time filing them manually.

• Client management
• Email notifications
• Progress tracking
• Program builder
• Nutrition tracking
• Team accounts
• Customized theme
• Data analytics and reporting
• Appointment scheduling

• Easy learning curve:  The best personal trainer software should have an easy learning curve and provide a high level of control over the training process.
• Support multimedia:  The client should be able to upload the progress photos or videos of them performing exercises. It is helpful when the coach is guiding the client from a distant place or conducting online classes.
• Support mobile devices:  With the introduction of mobile devices, there is a trend set up for paperless collaborations.   It saves a lot of time and gives customers instant access to a lot of vendor’s services. A personal trainer can share nutrition plans, client schedules, exercise programs, etc., with mobile apps. Between sessions, the client can stay connected to their instructors through live conferencing or in-app messaging.  It is recommended that users should choose the best personal trainer tools for their fitness training business.
• Third-party tool integration:  Third-party tool integration is essential when personal trainers want to perform specific functions such as accessing social media accounts from the software itself.
• Pricing:  Pricing is an important factor in software purchase, and the customer always prefers software that promises higher ROI.  Different software vendors follow different pricing models, and it is essential that customers choose the software pricing model that suits their requirements. Besides, that users should check for additional charges such as software set up charge or after-sale services. For individuals working solo can also pick free personal trainer software with basic features.  Most software vendors offer both monthly and annual billing plans.   
• Customization: To increase the brand’s footprint, some personal trainers would prefer using customized software to change the theme or logo as per the business requirement.  It can help to market their services more efficiently.
• Data analytics:  Data analytics can help personal trainers in numerous ways. They can have a complete view of their training business, member performance, member retention, etc. These metrics could be helpful in making a decision for their future plans.  Personal trainer tools with in-built data analytics feature assist personal trainers in keeping their training business on track.

Online personal trainer software is very effective for running a fitness training business.  It gives both flexibility and freedom to access the software from anywhere.  It provides all the features such as tracking client performance, client management, client scheduling, workout templates, virtual and on-demand training.  Some of the best online personal trainer software allows trainers to create a customized program.  They can use customized templates to create content on nutrition and dietary plans.  It can facilitate easy payment by automating invoice processing and integrating with major payment providers.  Online personal trainer software can even provide a flexible membership that can be upgraded with add-ons.  Some of the online personal trainer software even offers a free trial so users can check the features and see whether it matches their criteria.  There are also online personal trainer software that supports website builders to create a responsive web portal and design them according to the brand’s theme.  Personal trainers can save lots of time using the best online personal trainer software, but there are other technologies that are quickly becoming the trend in the fitness and training sectors.  A personal trainer can take their fitness training business to another level by leveraging these technologies.    

• Virtual coaching classes: Virtual coaching classes are becoming popular among fitness enthusiasts.  It is suitable for both clients and personal trainers as they can carry out training sessions from anywhere. A personal trainer can also determine whether they want to conduct a one-to-one session or a group. 
• Wearables:  Wearables could reduce a lot of strain of monitoring the client’s performance. A wearable device can collect valuable metrics about the client’s performance and growth over the period. It can help the personal trainer to make changes in the training program for the client.  Wearables are already contributing to the fitness industry, and in future, they can see more applications.  
• Virtual Reality: VR technology is popular for gaming, and it brings a whole new level of excitement among gamers. It could do the same for fitness enthusiasts and can make exercise more fun and less strenuous. A personal trainer can guide them to various training programs through interactive VR sessions.
• Artificial Intelligence:  Artificial intelligence technology is already transforming the fitness industry and some of its applications include diet planning, clear insights on training programs, personalized experience, etc. Besides that, health clubs are using them to capture more leads and drive more sales.  With the advancement in AI technology, the fitness industry could see more such AI applications for delivering better customer services and assisting coaches in training the clients.

The average cost of the best personal trainer software could be anywhere around $3/month to $139/month or more.  The price of the software varies based on the features, the number of clients, and software deployment.  Some software vendors provide free plans, but their features are usually limited. Few offer premium features, but the cost is worth the investment. So, the cost purely depends on the features of the software.

• Best personal trainer software for startups and small businesses: Personal trainers working solo or running a coaching business on a small scale are committed to deliver a perfect fitness regime to their clients.  They also have to see that the client adheres to the fitness program and follows all the training sessions as per the plan.  Personal trainer software could assist them in managing all their activities and track client’s performance.  If you run a similar set-up, but have budget constraints, no worries, there are lots of personal trainer software for small businesses and startups that are cost-effective and efficient. The Workout Coach at a starting price of $3/month is the best personal trainer software for small businesses and startups. The software has a user-friendly interface with all the necessary features such as record workouts with mobile apps, detailed reporting, managing all customers with a single app, etc.  It is completely free for trainers. Coachific at a price of $4/month is another personal trainer tool that accommodates unlimited clients and coaches.  The software pre-built templates, coaching content, and wizards to build targeted nutrition and exercise programs. It offers a free trial.  Other personal trainer software that startups and small scale businesses can add to their list are The Training Notebook, Fit Ferret, Trainerize, CoachAccountable, etc.  Some of these tools also offer the best free personal trainer software with limited features. 

• Best personal trainer software for mid-size and large scale businesses:    Personal trainer software for mid-size and large scale businesses comes with a bit of advanced features. The cost increases a bit due to the features and facilities.  PTminder at $40/month well qualifies as the personal trainer software for mid-size and large scale businesses.  It covers a range of features such as calendar scheduling, payments, client management, nutrition planning, client assessment tools, etc. Another alternative that personal trainers can consider for their mid-size or large-scale businesses is Wellyx at a price of $50/month. The software has taken care of all the personal trainer requirements and designed to increase the business. Other tools that can help mid-size and large-scale organizations in managing their fitness business include TrainerMetrics, WellnessLiving, and BridgeAthletic. If trainers have exclusive needs such as automatic billing, payment, and lead capturing, they can use a high-end personal trainer tool such as PushPress at $139/month. Another alternative can be  Zen Planner.  

• Free and open source personal trainer software:  Free and open source personal trainer software provides the facility to build new features without worrying about the development costs. Free and open source personal trainer software can turn out as a good option for startup and small business as it is free to use or comes at a minimum price.  

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The outlook of people towards health and fitness has been changing over the years.  They are now more conscious about their diet, exercise, and fitness level.  In their quest to achieve a perfect athletic body, personal trainers are acting as a driving force. They ensure that clients get through a perfect training program and achieve desired results. However, personal trainers who are well-versed in athletic training, injury prevention, and planning diets could find it difficult to justify their work when they have to manage other administrative work in parallel, such as membership management, payment collection, and building brand reputation.  They can spend more time dealing with administrative work than paying attention to their client’s training program. It could adversely affect their training business and their reputation. Personal trainer software can help trainers to avert such scenarios and streamline all their routine activities. If you are a personal trainer looking for a robust software solution to manage daily tasks, then do not miss to check the list of best personal trainer software prepared by GoodFirms’ expert team.