The Best Free Class Management Software for Scheduling

If you run a dance studio, gymnastics club, or swim school, your timetable is your business. It decides which classes run, who teaches them, how many kids fit in the room, and how much money comes in each week.

We looked at and compared three class scheduling platforms that are built for class management and free to start:

• Class Manager – free software, with a small fee only when a parent pays online

• Coacha – free for life (Coacha Lite), up to 50 members

• Bookwhen – free forever, capped at 50 bookings a month

"Free" means different things

First of all, are they actually free? Not all free plans are equal:

1. Free software, paid transactions. The whole product, no caps, but a percentage fee when a parent pays online. This is how Class Manager works.

2. A capped free tier. Real class management software with a ceiling. Coacha Lite stops at 50 members. Bookwhen's free plan stops at 50 bookings a month and can't take payments at all.

3. An appointment booker wearing a class label. Tools like Picktime, Setmore, Calendly, and Google Calendar. These are good for one-to-one bookings, but none of them run a register, handle a term, or manage family accounts.

Most "best free class scheduling software" lists lean on that third group. They shouldn't.

The three platforms at a glance

Ratings from Trustpilot and Capterra. Prices and limits checked against each vendor's pricing page on 28 August 2026.

1. Class Manager: the free plan with no ceiling

Best for: clubs expecting to grow, and anyone collecting fees by cash or bank transfer.

There's no free "tier" here, because the whole product is free. No subscription, no cap on students, venues, or staff. You only pay 2.7% + 20p when someone pays online, and that already covers the payment processor. Cash, bank transfer, or standing order payments cost nothing.

What it does that the others don't:

• Multiple teachers per class. Assign a lead, an assistant, and a cover teacher to the same session.

• Clash alerts that warn instead of blocking. Double-book a teacher or room, and you'll see a message naming the class, teacher, and room involved, then a choice: go back and edit, or save anyway.

• Limitless communication options: send emails or 1:1, group, or broadcast messages within chats, all managed inside the portal.

• Skill tracking built into the class. Set your own milestones, mark each child's progress, and choose whether parents see the details or just the grade.

• Automated billing is included in the software, so everything is wrapped up in one easy-to-use space. 

You can also copy a whole season in one click, set capacity limits, and run waiting lists.

Where it falls short:

• Lowest rating here: 4.4/5 versus 4.9/5 for the other two. 

• Bookwhen works out cheaper once you're processing a lot of money online (see the maths below).

2. Coacha: the free plan for a club with fixtures

Best for: sports clubs under 50 members that play matches.

Coacha Lite is free for life for up to 50 members, and it's generous for a free plan: unlimited classes, automatic registrations, a member portal, apps for iOS and Android, and your own branding. Safeguarding and emergency contacts are included at no cost.

Coacha also handles something neither of the others do: fixtures, team selection and player availability. If you run netball, football or cricket, that's not a bonus feature; it's half the job.

Where the free plan stops:

• No direct debit or automatic subscriptions on Lite, so you can't collect termly fees without upgrading.

• Only 100 emails a month, which is tight for 50 families.

• One staff role, so coaches and admins have the same permissions.

• Reporting is limited.

Go over 50 members, and the price jumps from £0 to £36 a month (the advertised £18 is a three-month introductory offer for new customers only). Card payments cost an extra 2.5% + 20p.

Reviewers rate Coacha 4.9/5 across 83 reviews. Common complaints are around the mobile app and having to re-select search filters each time you move between registers.

Not the right fit if: you need to bill inside the software for free, or you'll pass 50 members this year.

3. Bookwhen: cheapest once you're taking real money

Best for: free events and taster sessions. Also worth checking for larger paid clubs.

Bookwhen's free plan is £0 forever, with 50 bookings a month, one team member, and one booking page to embed on your site. It's the clearest pricing of the three, with every limit published.

The catch: the free plan is for free events only. It can't take a payment.

• No fees on the free plan, so for a club charging fees, it's really just a registration form.

• No registration and no waiting list until the Standard plan (£19 + VAT = £22.80/month).

Where Bookwhen wins: it charges no platform fee of its own. You connect Stripe directly and pay Stripe's rate, 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards, 1.2 points cheaper than Class Manager's 2.7%.

Bookwhen Lite costs £14.40/month including VAT. Rough maths: above about £1,200 a month in online fees, Bookwhen Lite plus Stripe works out cheaper than Class Manager. If you need Standard for a register and waiting list, that crossover moves to around £1,900/month.

But: Lite caps you at 300 bookings a month and two team members, and gives you no register.

At 4.9/5 from 179 reviews, Bookwhen has the most reviews of the three. The recurring complaint: it's hard to switch a child between classes.

Not the right fit if: you move children between groups often, or you need a register without paying £22.80/month.

What happens when your free plan runs out?

Nothing dramatic, which is part of the problem. Your data and booking page stay live, but new bookings stop, or a feature quietly locks, until you upgrade. The real cost is the enquiry you turn away in week three of term, and no pricing page shows you that.

• Coacha stops at member 51. Jump: £0 to £36/month.

• Bookwhen stops at 51 bookings each month. Lite costs £14.40 inc VAT.

• Class Manager has no wall. Cost rises with what you collect, not how many children you teach.

Work out which limit you'll hit first, then check the price on the other side of it.

Why most "free class scheduling" lists get it wrong

Search this topic and the same names keep appearing, most of them appointment schedulers rather than class management tools:

• Picktime's free plan allows two classes, excludes recurring bookings, attendance tracking, and waitlists, and only takes PayPal.

• Setmore's free plan covers four users and unlimited appointments, but excludes recurring appointments, which a weekly class is.

• Google Calendar, Calendly, and Koalendar are calendars and booking links. Useful, but not for class management.

None of these hold a family account, produce a register, or bill a term.

Also worth knowing: ClassForKids, Membermeister, Jackrabbit, iClassPro and Mindbody don't have a free plan at all, which is why they're not in this comparison.

Clashes: the thing nobody tests for

Any of these platforms will schedule a class. The real test comes when a coach calls in sick, a child changes group, and two classes both want the same room.

Neither Coacha nor Bookwhen documents any clash or double-booking detection on their feature pages. That doesn't mean their software can't do it, just that it isn't published, so ask them directly if it matters to you.

Class Manager checks three things at once and names each one: the class it collides with, the teacher already booked, and the room already in use. For example: "The same teacher (Dana Mercer) and room (Room 1) are already booked at this time. Would you like to continue anyway or adjust the details?"

Then it lets you save anyway, on purpose, because real timetables need overlaps: a coach supervising two apparatus, a room turning over in ten minutes, a trainee shadowing before taking a class solo. Software that blocks those bookings is software you end up fighting.

Which one should you pick?

• Under 50 members, collecting cash, playing fixtures: Coacha. Nothing else here does team selection.

• Running free tasters or workshops: Bookwhen, for a clean, free booking page.

• Charging fees and planning to grow: Class Manager, unless you're already taking more than around £1,200/month online with simple scheduling needs, in which case run the Bookwhen maths first.

Want to find out more about Class Manager or make the switch? Class Manager's support team can help import your student data, configure classes, and align the portal with your existing studio processes for a smooth transition. Ready to see how it all works? Create your free account or book a demo with our team today.

Learn more about how Class Manager can help you here:

• How to Encourage September Enrolments for Your Class-Based Business

• 9 Studio Bottlenecks Class Management Software Can Fix

• Football Registration Software: How to Streamline Signups, Payments, and Data for Your Club

• 7 Payment Friction Points Killing Class Studio Revenue (And How To Fix Them Fast)

• Class Management Software With A Dedicated Parent Portal

• Why Class Manager Is The Best Class Management Software For New Class-based Businesses?

• Why Class Manager Is the Best Option for Your Management Software?

• Automated Emails for Trials, Enrolments & More: Let Class Manager Do the Chasing

• Reporting Software for Dance Studios: How to Turn Class Manager Data into Smart Decisions

• The Benefits Of Utilising Automated Trial Emails for Studio Owners

• The Benefits of Skill Tracking Inside Your Studio Management Software

• Prepare Your Class-Based Business for a Successful Start in September