WellnessLiving has earned its place in the fitness and wellness software market. It covers scheduling, memberships, payments, marketing automation, and client management, and for many gym owners and studio operators, it works.
But a growing number of users are now looking for a WellnessLiving alternative, and the pattern behind those searches is consistent: price hikes after signing, features moved behind paywalls, support that takes days to respond, and a cancellation process that is frequently mentioned on review sites.
The software itself is capable; it’s the customer experience that gets complicated. This guide covers where WellnessLiving performs well, where it falls short, and whether Activity Messenger is a better fit for your business.
For many owners, WellnessLiving was the move away from Mindbody. It offered more for less, and the feature set was compelling. The frustration tends to build later, and it follows a recognizable pattern:
📈 Price increases after signing. Several long-term users report that rates went up in the second year, new features were bundled in at an added cost whether they wanted them or not, and tools they’d been using were moved behind new paywalls.
🔧 Features that don’t always work as advertised. Onboarding promises don’t always match the day-to-day reality. Bugs surface and persist. The custom app, in particular, has drawn complaints from users who paid for it and found it didn’t function reliably.
🐌 Support that moves slower than the problems. What used to be responsive customer service has shifted. AI handles more of the initial intake, and getting a human on a real issue can take days.
🔒 Contracts that are easy to get into, hard to get out of. WellnessLiving operates on annual auto-renewing contracts. Cancellation requires 30 days’ written notice before the renewal date, and multiple reviewers report that even documented notice was ignored.
| Feature | Activity Messenger | WellnessLiving |
| Online Registration & Payments | ✅ | ✅ |
| Class & Appointment Scheduling | ✅ | ✅ |
| Membership Management & Auto-Billing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Attendance Tracking | ✅ | ✅ |
| Staff Management | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mobile-First Experience | ✅ | ✅ |
| Digital Waivers & Form Builder | ✅ 80+ question types | ⚠️ Basic forms only |
| Email Marketing & Campaigns | ✅ | ✅ Business plan and up |
| Bulk SMS | ✅ | ✅ |
| Two-Way SMS | ✅ | ⚠️ Pay-per-use add-on |
| Abandoned Cart Recovery | ✅ | ❌ |
| Canva Integration | ✅ | ❌ |
| ChatGPT Integration | ✅ | ❌ |
| Bulk Certificates | ✅ | ❌ |
| Event Ticketing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Surveys & Post-Session Feedback | ✅ | ⚠️ Via forms only |
| Gift Cards | ✅ | ✅ |
| Loyalty & Rewards Program | ❌ | ✅ |
| Branded Client App | ❌ | ✅ Add-on |
| Advanced Reporting | ✅ | ✅ |
| Multi-Location Support | ✅ | ✅ Enterprise plan |
| Pricing | From $99/month, no contracts | From $69/month, annual contract |
| Capterra Score | ⭐ 4.8/5 | ⭐ 4.4/5 |
| Canadian Data Hosting & Bilingual | ✅ | ❌ |
WellnessLiving launched as a lower-cost alternative to Mindbody and built a loyal user base by offering a wide range of features for fitness and wellness businesses.
Class scheduling, appointment booking, waitlist management, and event coordination are all covered. The Book-a-Spot feature lets clients reserve specific equipment, useful for gyms with squat racks, reformers, or spin bikes that need their own calendar.
Reserve with Google integration means clients can book directly from search results without visiting your website first. Plus, the client-facing Achieve app lets members book sessions, manage memberships, and check in from their phone.
👉 Activity Messenger covers scheduling, booking, and mobile check-in as well. Access control technology is also available, both software and hardware, to make the experience even more seamless.
Auto-pay billing, recurring charges, family accounts, and automated renewal reminders are handled well. Membership structures support drop-ins, punch passes, unlimited plans, and hybrid combinations.
👉 Activity Messenger handles memberships and auto-billing too, with the addition of Interac e-transfer as a payment option for Canadian organizations.
On the Business plan and up, WellnessLiving includes an AI-assisted Marketing Suite with email and SMS automations, drip campaigns, lead capture, and re-engagement flows for lapsed clients. One-way SMS notifications are included in the plan; two-way conversational SMS through the Message Center is billed per message as a separate add-on. WellnessLiving also offers direct mail postcard campaigns, which is uncommon in this space.
👉 Activity Messenger covers email marketing, bulk SMS, and two-way texting within the base plan, without separating them into tiers or add-ons.
The built-in loyalty program lets clients earn points for attendance, purchases, referrals, and online reviews, with a leaderboard that adds a light competitive element. For studios where community and retention are a big part of the culture, this is a bonus. Activity Messenger doesn’t currently offer a loyalty program.
WellnessLiving has invested in AI-powered features beyond basic automation. ISAAC surfaces business insights from your data, and CAASI serves as a 24/7 front-desk agent that engages leads and books clients without staff involvement. These are worth noting, though they’re newer additions, and user feedback on reliability is still limited.
👉 Activity Messenger takes a different approach, with a built-in ChatGPT integration that helps staff draft emails, SMS messages, and survey content directly in the platform, without switching tools or starting from a blank page.
Depending on the plan, reporting covers sales, attendance, payroll, client retention, and marketing performance. For multi-location operations, the Enterprise Cloud consolidates reporting across facilities in real time. The QuickBooks integration keeps accounting clean without manual exports.
👉 Activity Messenger includes reporting across every module in the platform: registration numbers, email open rates, SMS delivery, survey results, attendance, waiver completion, and payment status are all visible from a single dashboard. Because everything runs on the same platform, the data connects automatically, so there’s no need to cross-reference exports from separate tools to get a complete picture of how your programs are performing. It also integrates with QuickBooks and Sage.
The billing concerns that appear most often in WellnessLiving reviews aren’t about the starting price. They’re about what happens after the first year.
“One year after I joined them, they raise the rate that I had agreed to. A couple years later, they rolled out their forms, which whether I wanted it or not added more money that they take every month. The most recent, was taking features that I had already been paying for and putting it behind a paywall but I can only access if I pay them another $50 per month… At times, I’ve waited over a week to hear back from a human being when I had an issue. This company had good potential, and went the wrong direction.” — Jeff R., Owner, Health and Fitness
Features that were part of the original subscription have moved to higher tiers or standalone add-ons. The branded white-label client app, for example, is an add-on cost on top of the monthly plan. Customers need to carefully review the pricing page and ask questions during their demo to ensure it’s clear exactly what they’re getting without extra fees.
“Disappointing and frustrating. I was overpromised on features that are unorganized and don’t function. Tech support comes literally 3 days after my call, text, and email requests for immediate help. I have lost members and clients during this time.” — Sally G., Owner, Health and Fitness
When a payment error or booking glitch affects clients in real time, a multi-day wait for support is a real operational problem. WellnessLiving has shifted toward AI-first support intake, which handles simple queries but often fails to resolve technical issues that need a human.
Several reviewers describe submitting tickets that received only automated responses, with no human follow-up for days.
“Once I decided to leave WellnessLiving, the cancellation process was a complete nightmare. There is no information about how to cancel listed anywhere… I sent the notice on February 26th and it is now April 21st and they still have not processed the cancellation. I’ve tried emailing and calling the support number and I get NO response.” — Katie G., Owner, Health and Fitness
WellnessLiving operates on annual auto-renewing contracts. Cancellation requires 30 days’ written notice before the renewal date, and there’s no way to submit that notice directly through the platform.
Multiple reviewers report that documented notice was either ignored or not processed, resulting in continued billing well beyond the intended end date. For smaller studios evaluating a long-term software commitment, this is worth factoring in before signing.
One-way SMS notifications are included in the Business plan and up, which covers booking confirmations, session reminders, and marketing messages. But if you want clients to be able to reply, that’s a separate product.
Two-way conversational SMS runs through WellnessLiving’s Message Center and is billed per message as an add-on. For studios and gyms that rely on back-and-forth text communication for things like booking changes, last-minute cancellations, or client questions, that cost adds up quickly, and it’s easy to assume it’s included until you look at the billing.
WellnessLiving has a form builder that handles intake forms and basic waivers during registration and booking. What it doesn’t have is an active waiver management system.
There are no automatic reminders for unsigned documents, no centralized dashboard tracking which participants have signed and which haven’t, and no way to send a waiver by SMS or QR code outside of a booking flow.
For gyms, studios, or wellness centres that collect health declarations or liability waivers as part of their standard operations, most end up relying on a separate tool to fill the gap.
When a prospective client starts a registration or booking and doesn’t complete it, WellnessLiving has no native way to automatically follow up. There’s no triggered email or SMS to bring them back, no record of how far they got, and no way to recover that registration without manual intervention.
For businesses running seasonal programs or multi-week class enrolments where conversion rates directly affect revenue, this is a meaningful gap.
WellnessLiving has no bulk certificate generation or delivery. For martial arts schools tracking belt levels, swim programs marking progression, or gyms and studios recognizing program completions, this has to be handled entirely outside the platform. It’s a small thing, but for programs where milestone recognition drives re-enrolment, the absence is noticeable.
Activity Messenger organizes itself around the participant journey from first registration through re-enrolment, with every tool sharing the same data so nothing has to be exported, duplicated, or managed in a separate login.
With Activity Messenger’s online registration, participants land directly on a branded form, fill it in, pay, and they’re done. There is no account creation required and no confusing portal navigation. An account is created in the background for future reference, so the next time someone registers, they just enter their email to receive a login code.
The form adapts based on selections like age, program type, and day, so families only see what’s relevant to them. Multiple children can be added in one pass, sibling discounts apply automatically, and payment plans are easy to set up.
The form builder supports 80+ question types, conditional logic, and legally binding e-signatures. You can send waivers via email, SMS, or QR code, and automated reminders are sent to anyone who hasn’t signed. Every document is stored in a centralized dashboard linked to each participant’s profile, so there’s no scrambling on the first day of class.
Bulk SMS in Activity Messenger isn’t an add-on billed by the message. It’s part of the same platform where your registrations, waivers, and client data live. You can cancel a class, send a reminder, follow up on an unsigned form, or run a seasonal promotion, all from one place.
Two-way texting means parents can reply, which cuts down on incoming calls. SMS open rates run close to 90%, making it the most reliable channel for anything time-sensitive.
When someone starts a registration and doesn’t finish, Activity Messenger tracks it and automatically sends a follow-up by email or SMS with a direct link back to where they left off. Customize the timing, the message, and add an incentive if you want. Over a full season, the recovered registrations are measurable.
Set them up once:
With Activity Messenger, these tedious admin tasks can be automated, so you can focus more on the rest of your business.
The email suite includes audience segmentation, open rate tracking, and direct Canva integration, so you can design on-brand campaigns without leaving the platform. Target last season’s families who haven’t re-enrolled, announce early-bird pricing to specific age groups, or set up a welcome sequence that fires the moment someone registers.
Recognizing progress matters, especially in programs where milestones keep participants motivated. With Activity Messenger, you can generate and send personalized certificates in bulk without exporting data or designing each one manually. Canva integration makes it easy to create professional designs, and bulk delivery means you can celebrate an entire group in just a few clicks.
🏋️ You need a loyalty program, branded client app, or Reserve with Google. WellnessLiving covers these. Go in with clear contract terms and a documented understanding of the renewal process.
📋 Waivers, health forms, and intake documents are a regular part of your operation. Activity Messenger handles these natively, with automatic reminders and a centralized dashboard. WellnessLiving’s form tools are more limited.
📱 You need two-way SMS to have real conversations with clients, not just send notifications. Activity Messenger includes two-way texting as part of the platform. In WellnessLiving, two-way SMS via the Message Center is billed as an add-on, in addition to your plan.
🔄 Recovering incomplete registrations matters to your enrolment numbers. Activity Messenger has built-in cart abandonment recovery. WellnessLiving doesn’t.
💳 You want to try a platform without a year-long commitment. Activity Messenger is month-to-month from $99/month. WellnessLiving is annual with documented cancellation friction.
🇨🇦 You’re a Canadian organization with data residency or bilingual requirements. Activity Messenger hosts data in Canada and runs fully in English and French.
Activity Messenger is a strong option for businesses that want registration, waivers, bulk SMS, email marketing, automations, and certificates in one platform without annual contracts. For businesses that specifically need a loyalty program or branded client app, WellnessLiving still covers those, though the contract terms are worth reviewing carefully.
For most of what the Business and BusinessPro plans cover, yes. The main gaps are WellnessLiving’s loyalty and rewards program and the branded white-label client app, which Activity Messenger doesn’t offer. Instead, Activity Messenger takes the mobile-first approach for its forms and registration.
The most common reasons people search for a WellnessLiving alternative include mid-contract price increases, features moved to higher-cost tiers, slow support response times, and an annual auto-renewal contract that’s difficult to exit. The software features themselves are mentioned less frequently as the reason for switching.
Yes, Activity Messenger is used by swim schools, gymnastics clubs, dance studios, camps, spas, fitness studios, and recreation departments. The registration, waiver, SMS, and automation tools apply across business types. If you want to explore whether Activity Messenger suits your use case or organization, book a demo for a personalized walkthrough of its features.
Yes, Activity Messenger is month-to-month with no annual commitment and no auto-renewal. You can cancel at any time without a 30-day written notice requirement.
WellnessLiving has a lot going for it. The feature breadth, the loyalty and rewards system, the client app, and the marketing automation tools can be useful for fitness and wellness businesses that need all of that in one place. If those features are the priority and you go in with a clear understanding of the contract terms, it may still be a fit.
But if you’re looking for a platform where the monthly price is what you pay, where two-way SMS is included rather than treated as an add-on, where cancelling doesn’t require a 30-day notice and a paper trail, and where waivers, certificates, and abandoned cart recovery are built in rather than left to external tools, Activity Messenger is worth a close look.
