DojoExpert Review (2026): Pricing, Features & Honest Verdict

TLDR

DojoExpert is martial-arts-specific school management software with QR-code attendance, belt and rank tracking, and automated billing. It does the core dojo admin job at a price that undercuts US rivals, starting at 14 euro a month. Best for: budget-conscious martial arts school owners. Price: From 14 euro/mo, 14-day free trial, no permanent free plan. Rating: 6.4/10.

What is DojoExpert?

DojoExpert centralizes the day-to-day admin of a martial arts school. Students check in to class via QR codes in a mobile app, instructors track belt and rank progression against grading requirements, and the system automates membership payments and invoicing. It is genuinely built for martial arts, with belts, grading requirements, certificates, training plans, and competition results as first-class features, rather than a general gym platform with martial arts bolted on.

The software is built by LINK LAB Ltd, based in Croatia, and the homepage dates the product to 2011. It is GDPR-compliant and shows prices in either euros or US dollars. That niche focus and low price are its identity. We dug into how it positions against broader studio tools like Mindbody and Zen Planner, and the answer is consistent: DojoExpert trades polish and breadth for a martial-arts-shaped feature set at a fraction of the cost.

The longevity is worth a note. A tool that has been running since 2011 in a niche this small has clearly found a sustainable base of school owners, and that maturity shows in the feature coverage even where the interface has not kept pace. The flip side is that the product carries the visual habits of an older era, which is the single most common complaint and the thing a prospective buyer should set expectations around before signing up. You are buying durable, specific functionality, not a modern SaaS experience.

What Are DojoExpert’s Key Features?

QR-code attendance

Students check in through QR codes using the iOS and Android apps, and the system supports class booking and registration. For an instructor running back-to-back classes, this removes the manual roll call and keeps an accurate attendance record automatically. It is the feature most owners will use every single session. Accurate attendance data also feeds the rest of the system, since grading eligibility often depends on a minimum number of classes attended, so the QR check-in is not just a convenience but the foundation the belt-progression logic relies on.

Belt and rank tracking

This is the part general gym software cannot match. DojoExpert supports custom belt systems with requirement tracking, progress monitoring, certificates, training plans, and grading management. If your school runs structured belt progressions and formal gradings, having that modeled natively is the main reason to choose a martial-arts-specific tool. A general gym platform treats every member as a flat subscriber, but a karate or BJJ school needs to know who is ready to test, what requirements they have met, and what certificate to issue when they pass. DojoExpert speaks that language out of the box, which saves owners from bending generic software into a shape it was never built for.

Payments and billing

DojoExpert integrates with Stripe, PayPal, and GoCardless to automate charging and generate invoices. Having GoCardless in the mix is a plus for schools that prefer direct debit over card payments for recurring memberships, since it lowers fees and reduces failed renewals. The capability is there, but it is also where users report the most friction. Getting the billing and integrations configured takes real time and is not plug-and-play, so budget some setup effort and expect to lean on support during the initial configuration rather than breezing through it yourself.

Mobile apps, languages, and extras

There are web and mobile apps for both admins and students, with prices shown in euros or dollars. Beyond the basics you get bulk email, class feedback comments, online classes, and competition result tracking. Competition result tracking in particular is a nice touch for clubs that compete, since it keeps a record of student achievements alongside their grading history. The breadth is decent for the price, even if individual features are not as deep as pricier rivals.

How Much Does DojoExpert Cost?

DojoExpert starts at 14 euro a month. Pricing scales by member count rather than by feature tier: Basic is 14 euro a month for up to 100 members, Pro is 24 euro a month for up to 1,000, and Ultimate is 33 euro a month for unlimited members. All plans include 5 dojos or locations, extra locations cost a fifth of your account price each, and yearly billing saves 20 percent. There is no permanent free plan, but a 14-day free trial runs with no contract and no credit card required.

Some third-party aggregators quote a per-user figure around $16 to $20 a month, but the official site lists the flat euro plans above, and those are authoritative. Read the aggregator numbers with caution.

Against US competitors, the gap is enormous. Zen Planner starts at $99/mo and add-ons can push it past $400, Kicksite starts at $49/mo for up to 25 students, and Spark Membership runs around $199/mo and up. DojoExpert at 14 to 33 euro a month is in a different price class entirely. You give up some polish and advanced features for that, but for a small or mid-sized dojo the savings are hard to ignore. Over a year, the difference between DojoExpert and a US competitor can run to well over a thousand dollars, which for a single-location school is the cost of new mats or a month of rent. That math is the whole reason the product exists, and it is a compelling one for owners who run lean.

Who is DojoExpert Best For?

Use DojoExpert if you run a martial arts school on a budget and want the martial-arts-specific essentials: belt tracking, grading, QR attendance, and payments. It is the right call for single dojos and small chains that cannot justify $99 a month or more for US studio software and value the niche features over a slick interface.

Skip DojoExpert if a modern, polished interface and smooth onboarding are priorities, or if you need heavy sales and retention automation. The interface is dated and Excel-like, migrating an existing member database requires the DojoExpert team rather than a self-service import, and advanced customization is limited compared to pricier tools.

• Good fit: budget-conscious dojo owners who want martial-arts-specific features cheaply.
• Poor fit: schools wanting a modern UI, self-service migration, or strong sales automation.

Best DojoExpert Alternatives

Zen Planner

Zen Planner is polished, feature-rich US gym and studio software starting at $99/mo for the Studio plan. It is far more capable and modern than DojoExpert, with stronger reporting and a better interface, but it is also general rather than martial-arts-specific and much more expensive once add-ons push it past $400 a month. It suits established schools that prioritize features over cost.

Kicksite

Kicksite is martial-arts-focused like DojoExpert and starts at $49/mo for up to 25 students, scaling by student count. It includes unlimited one-way texting and has a more modern interface, which makes it the better pick if communication and UI matter to you. The tradeoff is price: it costs meaningfully more than DojoExpert at comparable sizes.

Spark Membership

Spark Membership is an all-in-one martial arts CRM starting around $199/mo and up, built around lead generation, sales, and retention automation. It is far pricier than DojoExpert and aimed at schools that treat growth and member retention as the priority. If your bottleneck is sales rather than admin, it earns its cost; if you just need to run classes cheaply, it is overkill.

Final Verdict: Is DojoExpert Worth It?

DojoExpert earns a 6.4 by doing exactly what a small dojo needs at a price almost no competitor matches. Belt tracking, QR attendance, and automated payments for 14 to 33 euro a month is genuine value, and the martial-arts-specific feature set beats general gym software for schools that run structured gradings. For a budget-conscious owner, it covers the essentials without the US enterprise price tag.

What keeps the score modest is the experience around those features. The interface looks dated, the billing setup is fiddly, and there is no self-service data import, so getting started takes patience. If you want polish, smooth onboarding, or strong sales automation, Kicksite or Zen Planner justify their higher prices. But if you run a martial arts school, watch the budget, and care most about the core job getting done, DojoExpert is worth a trial. The 14-day trial costs nothing and asks for no card, so the smart move is simply to test it against your real classes and gradings and judge whether the dated interface is a dealbreaker or just a quirk you can live with for the savings.