Best Kids Activity Booking Software (2026): 6 Platforms Compared

Choosing Kids Activity Booking Software

Kids clubs, after-school providers, dance schools, and activity centres need software that handles class scheduling, parent payments, and waitlists. Many providers still manage this with spreadsheets and bank transfers. Dedicated software cuts admin time considerably, especially when you are juggling multiple class types, age groups, and term dates.

This guide compares six platforms used by kids activity providers: ClassForKids, LoveAdmin, Bookwhen, Pembee, and Jackrabbit Class are specialists built for this market, each with a different niche — general workshops and events, UK childcare voucher support, or established gymnastics and dance studios. Bizzly is a broader platform that covers class operations, billing, and website building in one place. Competitor data below comes from public pricing pages verified in May and July 2026; Bizzly details were checked against the product in July 2026.

What Matters for Kids Activity Providers

Class scheduling and capacity

You need to set up classes by age group, day, and time, with capacity limits per session. When a class fills up, a waitlist should capture interest automatically rather than requiring parents to email you.

Parent payments and billing

Parents expect to pay online. Monthly subscriptions, termly payments, and pay-as-you-go options each suit different business models. Reliable automated payment collection is especially important for ongoing weekly classes because it reduces the admin of chasing individual parents.

Attendance tracking

For safeguarding and operational reasons, knowing who is in each session matters. Digital attendance registers replace paper sign-in sheets and create a searchable record. This is important for Ofsted-registered providers.

Trial sessions and tasters

Many activity providers offer free or discounted trial sessions to attract new families. Software that handles trial registration, follow-up, and conversion to full membership saves manual chasing.

Online presence

Parents search Google for “kids football classes near me” or “gymnastics for children [town]”. A professional website with class details, pricing, and instant booking converts more of those searches into sign-ups.

Feature Comparison

Platform Reviews

ClassForKids

Best for: Children's class and activity providers who want a specialist booking and management platform.

ClassForKids is built specifically for kids activity providers: swimming schools, football coaching, gymnastics, dance, and after-school clubs (Bizzly's answer for football clubs is its kids football club software, and for dance schools its kids dance school software). It handles class scheduling, online booking, parent payments, attendance registers, and waitlist management. The platform is well known in the UK kids activities market.

The booking experience is designed around how parents actually search: by activity type, age group, day, and location. Trial sessions can be offered with automatic follow-up to convert trial families into paying members.

ClassForKids now publicly lists UK pricing from £34.99 for the Standard plan, plus a Bespoke plan (POA). They also list free onboarding and a free trial. If you are comparing total cost, still check the latest payment-processing or transaction-fee details directly on their pricing and payments pages.

• Pricing: From £34.99/month (UK Standard) + Bespoke plan (POA).
• Strengths: Purpose-built for kids activities, attendance registers, waitlists, trial management, parent booking experience
• Limitations: No website builder, exact total cost depends on your payment setup

LoveAdmin

Best for: Gymnastics clubs, dance schools, swim schools, and larger activity providers who need attendance, assessments, and membership management.

LoveAdmin serves activity providers, sports clubs, and membership organisations. For kids activity providers specifically, it offers class scheduling with capacity management, attendance registers, waitlist and trial management, customisable registration forms, and an award scheme tracking feature (useful for gymnastics and martial arts grading).

The pricing model is £35/month for the Activity Providers plan, plus an implementation fee and a 3% platform fee on all transactions processed through the system. The implementation fee covers full system setup, training, and customisation. This is a different model to the flat monthly pricing of Bizzly. At higher transaction volumes, the 3% fee adds meaningful cost. A provider processing £5,000/month in parent payments pays £150/month in platform fees on top of the £35 subscription.

LoveAdmin does not include a website builder. You get a branded booking page but need a separate website for your full online presence.

• Pricing: £35/month + implementation fee + 3% platform fee. VAT extra.
• Strengths: Attendance registers, award scheme tracking, waitlists, trial management, full setup and training included
• Limitations: 3% platform fee on transactions, implementation fee, no website builder

Bookwhen

Best for: Workshop, event, and general class providers who want a simple, genuinely free way to get started.

Bookwhen counts bookings as transactions rather than attendees, so one parent booking three children into a term counts as a single booking against your monthly limit — worth knowing when comparing plan caps to a rival's. The free tier covers 50 bookings a month but only for free events; taking payment requires the Lite plan and up. Registers, waiting lists, and membership-style billing only appear from the Standard tier, which is where most kids clubs would actually need to sit.

Bookwhen has a strong reputation for support and takes no cut of your payments — your payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal, or WorldPay) charges its own processing fee separately. It offers a 20% discount for charities and non-profits.

• Pricing: Free ($0, 50 bookings, free events only), Lite ~$16, Standard ~$29, Plus ~$59, Enterprise on application. No cut of your payments. Two weeks free, no card. Figures as of July 2026 — confirm directly.
• Strengths: Genuinely free tier, simple and quick to set up, no platform fee, choice of payment processor, strong support reputation
• Limitations: No website builder, no per-child family records, email-only communication with no SMS listed, monthly booking caps on every tier, registers and waiting lists only from Standard, no payments at all on the free tier

Pembee

Best for: UK after-school clubs, holiday camps, and forest schools that take Tax-Free Childcare or childcare voucher payments.

Pembee is built specifically for UK children's activity businesses, with registration forms, registers, monthly subscriptions, session passes, and term and instalment billing with sibling discount rules built in. Tax-Free Childcare and voucher support with direct HMRC-account payment is a genuine point of difference from every other platform in this comparison, including Bizzly.

Pricing is two flat tiers plus a 0.59% application fee on Stripe payments, on top of Stripe's own processing rate. The detail most clubs miss when comparing headline prices: waitlists sit on the Premium tier, not Standard, so a club that needs waiting-list management should budget for £70/month rather than £30.

• Pricing: Standard £30/month, Premium £70/month, plus a 0.59% application fee on Stripe payments. 30-day free trial, no card. Figures as of July 2026.
• Strengths: Tax-Free Childcare and voucher support, term and instalment billing, built-in sibling discounts, mobile-markable registers, low percentage fee
• Limitations: Waitlists and custom domain are Premium-only, no website builder, no SMS listed, no WhatsApp assistant

Jackrabbit Class

Best for: Established gymnastics, dance, and swim studios that need deep class operations and skill or grading tracking.

Jackrabbit is built for structured, multi-class studios rather than casual after- school clubs. Skill tracking and evaluations, staff and parent portals, and tuition pro-rating with discount rules are genuine strengths that neither Bizzly nor any other platform in this comparison matches — if grading and progress tracking are core to how you run classes, Jackrabbit is the closest fit here.

Pricing is unusual: instead of a feature tier, Jackrabbit bills on the total number of active and inactive students in your system, sampled on a random day each month, starting at $49/month for up to 100 students and rising to $245/month above 3,001. An alternative PayPath option removes the monthly fee entirely in exchange for a 1.25% technology fee added to what parents pay at checkout — worth thinking through before you put that charge in front of families.

• Pricing: From $49/month, tiered by student count (0–100 to 3,001+). PayPath alternative: $0/month + 1.25% passed to parents. Card-free trial plus a 90-day money-back guarantee. Figures as of July 2026, USD.
• Strengths: Skill tracking and evaluations, staff and parent portals, tuition pro-rating and discount rules, 90-day money-back guarantee
• Limitations: Fee grows with total roll including inactive students, steep learning curve, no website builder, USD pricing

Bizzly

Best for: Small activity providers who want flat monthly pricing, a built-in website, and subscription billing without transaction fees.

The parent-facing booking calendar on a live Bizzly kids-club site — real-time availability across multiple locations, down to the time slot.

Bizzly is a general platform rather than a kids-only specialist, but it covers the class-operations essentials alongside booking, subscription billing, payments, and website building. Children sit as profiles under one parent account, custom profile fields gate places by age band or level, and registration forms capture medical, consent, and emergency details. The Standard plan at £29/month includes 200 monthly bookings, 3 calendars (one per activity type or location), and automated invoicing. There are no platform fees on top of the monthly subscription.

For a small provider running 5 to 10 weekly classes, Bizzly offers a simpler and cheaper alternative to specialist tools. Parents can book online, pay by card, and manage their bookings through a customer portal that also handles pausing, plan changes, policy-driven cancellation with a live refund quote, and credits. Registers, waitlists, and free trial sessions are built in, and billing and booking are one system, so a child can only book what an active plan, pack, or credits cover. The website editor means you can create a professional site without paying for a separate Wix or Squarespace subscription.

The gaps are real: no assessment or award scheme tracking, and no per-student progress or lesson-notes journal (the nearest equivalent is a note saved against each attendance mark). Parents also cannot reschedule themselves on the web portal — they cancel and rebook, or you move them from the admin calendar. If structured grading is essential to how you run your business, a specialist tool is the better choice.

• Pricing: Base £19, Standard £29, Pro £49/month. No platform fees. 14-day free trial, no credit card.
• Strengths: Flat pricing with no transaction fees, drag-and-drop website editor on every plan, subscription plus term and season billing, payment-gated booking quotas, registers, waitlists and trials, WhatsApp AI assistant, HubSpot CRM
• Limitations: No award scheme or grading tracking, no per-student progress notes, no parent self-serve rescheduling on the web portal

Pricing Comparison

How to Choose

Small provider running a few weekly classes

Bizzly at £19 to £29/month gives you booking, payments, and a website without transaction fees. The simplicity and lower cost make it a good fit for providers with straightforward scheduling needs.

Gymnastics club or swim school with grading

LoveAdmin's award scheme tracking and assessment features are built for this use case. The higher total cost (subscription + 3%) is justified if you need structured progression tracking across classes and students.

Multi-activity provider needing attendance registers

All three handle attendance digitally, so compare the workflow rather than the checkbox. Bizzly gives you a per-session day register with Present, Late, and Absent marking, a note against each mark, a printable register sheet, and a cross-session roster with filters. Register access is its own staff permission, so a coach can take the register without seeing billing.

Provider who needs a website and booking in one

Bizzly is the only platform in this comparison that includes a full website builder. ClassForKids and LoveAdmin give you booking pages but not a standalone site. If your current setup involves paying for both a website and a booking tool separately, Bizzly consolidates those costs.

Summary

ClassForKids, LoveAdmin, Bookwhen, Pembee, and Jackrabbit Class are specialist tools built for the kids activity market, each strongest in a different niche: Jackrabbit and LoveAdmin for grading and assessment tracking, Pembee for Tax-Free Childcare and voucher payments, Bookwhen for a genuinely free entry tier. Bizzly covers registers, waitlists, trials, and term and season billing too, and pairs them with flat pricing, no percentage fees, a website editor on every plan, and a WhatsApp AI assistant. The right choice depends on whether a specialist feature — grading, vouchers, or a free tier — is essential to how you run your business, or whether you would rather run booking, billing, and your website on one platform.

See how Bizzly works for kids activity providers on the kids clubs industry page, or compare plans on the pricing page.