Mindbody Reviews

Pros

There is a wide variety of ways that you can structure contracts and payments. The feature that allows you to attach PDF documents to each client helps towards operating in a more paperless manner.

Cons

Refunds and returns are a bit confusing. The product could also be improved with a better attendance system. They should improve the attendance feature. The sign in app apparently doesn't work and we have used a different sign in software.

Pros

This has been a life saver when it comes to booking !!!! Super easy to use

Cons

This is one software dont believe has any cons

Pros

Easy to use, very intuitive. Set up took almost no time at all.
MindBody allows me to schedule Personal Training Sessions and Group Training Sessions, deal with Point of Sale transactions and even track inventory.
The software is flexible enough to handle multiple users and expand when needed.
The software will also take into account independent contractors.
Most functions are very user friendly and mistakes are easy to correct.

Cons

I use MindBody to process my merchant services and processing transactions over a weekend, especially a holiday weekend, can result in a longer than expected delay before the bank receives the funds.
It can take time to put together information for sales tax, most of my business, 95%, is service related.
All transactions are recorded, it's just a matter of remembering which questions to ask to get the correct answer.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Mindbody

Switched From

Pros

I appreciate client accounts and organizational setup

Cons

Their lack of ethics, stealing from their clients by advertising their own products to your client base, the u reliability of the app and scheduler, the unreliability of payment processing, the additional fees from payment processing, the costs, the customer service, gaslighting customers and [sensitive content hidden] to avoid taking responsibility for their failures, etc

Pros

GREAT customer service. Whenever I have a problem, I can call and the problem is usually sorted out straight away.

Cons

I've been with them since 2008, and in the last 4-5 years the price went up considerably. They offered me a deal to re-sign and I was very happy with it!

Pros

It is very user friendly and can get to the detail needed to successfully manage clients.

Cons

When you ask for software upgrades or make suggestions you never know if you are heard and if something will be done. There really is no voice to say we hear you. I would also suggest MB periodically reach out to different levels of users and ask for specific software feedback.
Also do not like that you are only allowed to update branded app photos once a year and you cannot send out push notifications that are not active purchasing links.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Mindbody

Pros

I liked the ability to create multiple classes and the easy student enrollment. They also have great technical support.

Cons

The software was slightly pricey, however, it is a good all-in-one platform for managing students and classes.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Mindbody

Reasons for Switching to Mindbody

Pros

Online booking
Marketing suite with automated emails
Appointment confirmations
Personal branded app
Membership and package management

Cons

Customer support is terrible
Nobody ever seems to understand how to fix the recurrent problems with the software
There are constant glitches
All automated emails are routed to spam
Credit card processing is severely delayed by up to 5 days
It is lavishly expensive for what you get

Pros

It was a very easy to use app and has what you need - schedule, account info, able to book directly on the app.

Cons

You need a separate mind body account for each of the venders.

Pros

The app is the one thing that is great about this product. I think it's why there are so many users.

Cons

The cost is far too high for a small business such as mine. When you factor in the exchange rate as well, almost my whole profit was going to rent and scheduling software.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Mindbody

Pros

Booking was easy after the initial set up was figured out.

Cons

Designed to set up your individual business. Just a lot to learn and many different alternatives to run your business.

Pros

I like that I could easily integrate the schedule with my calendar on my iPhone. I also liked the easy of customizing my schedule.

Cons

The price was too high for a solo practice.

Pros

I like that it has an app and that our clients can easily sign up. Also, the billing makes it easy for a small business like ours.

Cons

We have been using MINDBODY for the last 3 years. I just think it is okay and think there are so many other products out there that have come out that might be better. My biggest gripe is the cost. I wish it scaled more with how big our fitness business is. We have a small business and don't do a lot of volume but in order to get the marketing features we have to pay a huge premium. I also was bothered that that they just increase costs by a lot after we used it for a year and never gave any training about the new features that we HAD to pay for. I don't like that their actual internal network and app don't help get new clients. DON'T ever pay for that feature as it takes a percentage from the sale. You are much better off doing your own sales and marketing.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Mindbody

Pros

Biggest name. Expensive with huge amount of functions one does not know what to do with.

Cons

Over Pericles, 3-3.5 times the price of competition.
Poor admin support, you get everyone answering your questions without reading into any previous email exchange.
Extensive function but don’t offer the most basic one like sending an automatic payment receipt (invoice) to clients. “Sorry you need to do this manually” not for $470/month, I won’t be.
Impossible to cancel omg, they make you run around like crazy just for a cancellation. If you need to give 30 days notice to cancel, you will need another 30 days on top at least to get through the number of useless emails they keep sending you and the number of security questions they ask is more than a bank would.

Pros

I like that they had a marketplace with other business', and that you can run a new client special that people can easily see.

Cons

I switched from wellness living to mindbody in January of this year. I thought it would make my life easier, but it has done quite the opposite. First off may I start with the fact that mindbody allows you to set up late/no show fees but does not charge the customer automatically. I would manually have to go in and do that myself. Also, the fact that they must be in a contract for them to even store a credit card to charge is ridiculous to me. Also, every time I call for help, I am told I must do everything myself in front of a laptop, half the time people spend forever trying to figure out what’s the issue and then just never solve it and send me a bunch of emails on step by step how to do it myself. Not very convenient. Another issue I have is that all my emails that get sent out for campaigns and advertising just go to all my clients spam folders. Which defeats the purpose because they can never see them, and apparently you must have a domain email instead of a Gmail for this to even be reversed. Having all my advertising emails go to client’s spam folder is HUGE and is super bad for the business. Their only advice is to buy a domain email, which Is much too late for my business to change my email now. OR to ask every individual client to add the email I have as a contact, which there is no easy way to do. You think oh just send them all an email to ask them. Oh, wait they still wouldn’t be able to see it. I also created a new client form that I wanted people to be required to sign just once for the remainder of their visits, and apparently, I would have to individually send it to ALL MY EXISTING CLIENTS for them to sign it. Which once again is a ridiculous request. To be honest I am highly disappointed with the software switch so far, and as a business owner I can't say I’m sure that I would recommend it. It has not at all been convenient for me, I must figure out everything on my own and every time I call for an issue I am placed on hold for an hour with the situation and then I get sent emails on how to fix it, and then I just never end up figuring it out. I think I spend even more of my time as an owner on the phone with customer service than I did with my last software, which is really disappointing. 90% of the time I get the answer from customer service, that they don’t know what the issue is. And I am like, well I don’t either considering I am just the owner of my own business? Then they just send me steps on how to fix it on their best guess of what the issue is. I don’t even see the point in customer service at this point.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Mindbody

Switched From

Pros

I consider MindBody on the computer, and a mobile device two different software experiences. What I enjoy the most about MindBody on the computer, is the ability to resize the window, which allows you to control the amount of information on the screen. What I like most about the MindBody software on a mobile device is the ease of use, and straight to the point UI.

Cons

What I like least about the MindBody software on the computer is the outdated feel and UI. Some menus feel cluttered, while other menus are mostly blank and could contain more information or a drop-down menu and some tabs feel hidden too. A lot of our staff members state that they can not understand the software at first glance and have a difficult time navigating the UI. Simply put, the software should be as easy as, I want to do A, B and C, and should be able to not have to dig through tabs and menus to do it.

Another thing I like least about the software is location management. Our business has two locations using Mindbody, and there is not an easy eay to switch between both accounts, without having to completely log out of the account and log back into the other one.

What I like least about the MindBody software on a mobile device, is the business app, it can sometimes look outdated as well. The schedule tab in day view looks cluttered at first glance. The client tab is mostly blank when it could have a "most recently added" tab, or "clients that checked in today" or "Clients that checked in this week" tab.

Pros

- If most of your business is direct debit based, and if you can get your customers into their paysafe (netbanx) system, then the transaction charges seem competitive (plus an extra monthly fee).
- There are lots of features
- It has a custom app that looks pretty

Cons

- The app will also advertise any of your competitors on mindbody when people look for you
- You feel like you are dealing with a big company that doesn't ultimately care about you or your business, just your money
- Legally dubious "No Refund" policy will be enforced regardless of the reason you ask. Contact your consumer ombudsman if they try this
- Inflexible back end - jack of all trades approach

Pros

The sheer range of things this program can do is extremely impressive. Having just one program that can do so much is a huge plus in terms of simplicity and frugality. Specifically, it is very nice to have a POS, scheduling software, and online booking all in one. You can have two computers set up at your gym that can handle everything. Extremely convenient.

Customer service is pretty good. I never had to wait on hold for longer than a few minutes. Sometimes the help takes longer than seems necessary and is difficult to follow, but I think that is more than fault of this somewhat convoluted software than the actual customer service itself.

The software is easily accessible from anywhere. Surprisingly, their mobile platform is actually pretty good!

Cons

The main Con in a word is Convoluted. Everything is multiple steps, navigating the software can be difficult, and the layout is not intuitive in the slightest. I strongly dread training new employees on this software. It usually takes me about two hours just to go through everything with them...It's a headache. Like anything else, it's not too bad once you learn it, but learning it is not fun.

The POS is a little clunky. Processing is a bit slow- this was an issue even on a new computer. At my former employer, we actually ended up buying a different POS because we were so tired of putting up with the one built I to Mindbody. We still used the Mindbody one for class and competition registrations, but everything else (open gym admissions, merchandise, snacks, and drinks) went through the other system.

Pros

I generally found their tech support team helpful and generally trying their best to sort out the issues you're facing. Although it often meant spending hours on the phone waiting for them.

Cons

Not user friendly at all, neither from the customer's perspective nor from the admin side. Initially we had about 30% of the registration not going through due to the sign up process not functioning properly on the customers side. This is after spending £1500 on 2 months of onboarding with MindBody!!!!

The software often wouldn't function fully on Safari.

Simple tasks made extremely complicated on the admin side. For example: if you have to change a date of an event, you have to remove every person registered from the event and refund their account. Until you do that the software doesn't let you change the date. Once you removed and refunded everyone you can change the date of the event. Once you change the date of the event you have to individually re-register each person back in. The process of doing the unregistering and reregistering someone takes a couple of minutes each. This is just one example of many.

Pros

The actual customer interface is pleasing to look at. Customer support had a fairly long wait most days, but when you did get through to someone, they could usually solve the problem or let you know there was nothing they could do to help.

Cons

I was contacted by a Mindbody sales rep who said their software would be "perfect" for doing online reservations for my business. I'm more than a bit disappointed in their software. This is a classic example of a very poorly designed system that has been endlessly fixed and patched.

Here is my biggest complaint. The software allows a client to purchase more seats than what are available in a workshop scheduled for a particular date. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT AN ONLINE RESERVATION SYSTEM ALLOWS MORE SEATS TO BE SOLD THAN ARE AVAILABLE? Really, it's true. It is really and unbelievably true. Happens to us week in and week out and I have to call customers to apologize and fix the mess.

Every month I have to schedule my classes and get them into the system. Because the software is so clunky, it takes a lot of time, multiple screens and it is prone to errors. I've recently switched to a new software system and what takes me 10 minutes now used to take me an hour with Mindbody.

Training employees to use the system is extremely difficult. I finally gave up and just did the work myself.

Their latest 25% price increase had me running for the door.

There are other reservation systems out there that you can find on this review site. Don't waste your time with this one.

Pros

Nothing. I know that a lot of other businesses use Mindbody and from the perspective of using it to book classes at other studios, I thought Mindbody was quite good. However, using it as a business owner, I found it very non intuitive and clunky.

Cons

It didn't help me run my business. You've probably tried other apps that seem like they will be great, and then they fall short. Mindbody is one of those apps.

Pros

The only pro I can think of is the integrated merchant processing. Even then it's not really a pro because if you want to use another processor it's not gonna happen.

Cons

Work Item 506732 - [Public API][Verified][GetClientServices][Business App] Unable to check out appointments with services that are associated with a service category relationship

This issue was first reported to Mindbody on July 31st and to-date nothing has been done to resolve it. We continuously call and email the company to only be told the following and I quote "Compensation: We discussed our Terms of Service, and how they do not grant compensation for work items such as these. The compensation you were given was related to your experience, and not associated in anyway with a loss of revenue, or increase in cost associated with this work item. Because you have already been compensated for your experience with this issue, there will be no additional or ongoing compensation applied to your account.
Internal Communication: I have reached out to our Developers for the most current information about this issue that they can provide to us. When they reply to me, I can relay that information to you. You will also be proactively notified via email when the issue is resolved."

This is fine and all but Mindbody will not sit here and continue to charge us full price for less than half of a product. Literally when teachers cannot check out lessons properly the system doesn't know to bill for the lessons. That means an overall decrease in revenue and a break down of the billing system.

Pros

Nothing. I'm only using it now because I have 10 years worth of data and setup. I'll bail as soon as another company offers a data migration tool.

Cons

MindBody has is a despicable and and unethical company. Recently removing features that were available in the essentials version before creating a "Pro" version to extort existing customers to pay double the cost.

This company is trying to force people to upgrade by removing features that already existed in our current version. Features that made our jobs as studio owners a bit easier so we could use our resources elsewhere, like running our businesses.

Honestly, this company is the WORST. If they had any integrity or valued their customers at all they could have at least grandfathered in those features for businesses like myself that have been using their software for TEN+ YEARS instead of using sleazy extortion tactics to try to force us to pay for a version of software with features we don't need or will ever use.

I'm roped in already, but I'm dumping this company the second one of their competitors realizes the opportunity and cleans up their glitches and offers a migration tool for our data. In the meantime, anyone starting a new studio who's shopping for software should STAY AWAY from MindBody Online.

Pros

For wellness and fitness enterprises, Mindbody provides a wide range of features. Its complete platform makes customer administration, class registration, and appointment scheduling simple. The software's user-friendly interface and adjustable options make it simple to customize to the particular requirements of each organization. Customers are drawn to and kept by Mindbody thanks to its powerful marketing tools, which also include customer interaction tools and automated email campaigns. Data-driven decision-making is made possible by the reporting and analytics capabilities, which offer insightful information about business performance. For both clients and businesses, Mindbody offers simplicity and flexibility thanks to its mobile app and connectivity with a number of payment processors.

Cons

The pricing structure of Mindbody is one of its drawbacks because it can be prohibitively expensive for independent or small wellness businesses. It may take some users some time and effort to completely understand the initial setup and learning process and make use of all the features of the software. Although Mindbody provides a wide range of functionality, some particular needs or specialized wellness enterprises may call for more customization or integration with specialized software. There have been reports of sporadic technical problems or sluggish customer service response times, which could affect user experience and business operations.

Pros

It is a functional tool if you have hundreds of extra hours to set it up, understand its glitches and manage around its shortcomings.

Cons

We have been using Mindbody for 5+ years. I don't believe the software is designed by anyone who actually uses it because it is the opposite of human centered design. I am writing this review because we have spent 6-7 months trying to set up payment for another site and their team has given us nothing but the run around.

During the pandemic, they withheld funds for no reason at all and made all their users write for "Permission" to get money they got from clients who had paid for services.

The Credit cards fees are hidden and contain numerous hidden fees and on top of that they can't eve make software easy to use.

So many examples of things that could be simplified:
Cancelling someone's recurring class scheduling is a ridiculous 9 click(!) process for no reason at all.

The tool looks different and functions different in every different place. From the software, Online APP or imbedded tools on your website. They all can do some things and not others. ZERO CONSISTENCY in look or functionality.

Billing with online tools can't be targeted to a location. Only charges run by staff in the software can be designated to a location.

Scheduling people into classes is also a process that takes numerous extra steps and time.

Every day, you spend an hour "checking out" appointments to find the few that might have billing issues instead of having something easier to use that would check out appointments that have billing already.

ZERO RESPONSIVENESS to feature requests.