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Adminished vs GymDesk (2026)

Quick verdict: GymDesk is a mature, US-origin product built for established martial arts academies with 100+ members who want belt tracking, QR check-in and a front-desk point of sale. Adminished is UK admin software, built for the things a UK club working with children is accountable for: DBS and safeguarding tracking, consent signed per child, UK GDPR with a public Security page, and Gift Aid with the HMRC report. It runs your martial arts club and your Scout night, dance school or tuition centre on one login — and it's free to start, under 20 students.

Feature comparison

What GymDesk does well

• Belt and rank tracking. GymDesk has proper grading progression built in, including stripe tracking and promotion history. For a BJJ or karate school where belts are central to the member journey, this is a genuine advantage that Adminished currently does not match.
• QR-code check-in. Members scan a QR code on arrival — no staff input needed. For a busy academy with 50+ people walking through the door in a short window, this scales better than manual attendance.
• Point-of-sale. GymDesk includes a POS system for selling merchandise, supplements, or event tickets at the front desk. If you run a pro shop or retail any products, this is included out of the box.
• Mature, well-rounded platform. GymDesk has been built specifically for martial arts schools over a number of years. The feature set is deep, and for a well-established academy it is a genuinely capable tool.

What Adminished does well

• Safeguarding built in, not bolted on. Adminished records and tracks DBS status and expiry per person, captures consent, emergency contacts and medical notes at sign-up, and keeps a communication audit trail. The things a club working with children is personally accountable for are part of the core, not an add-on. GymDesk is a US product with no native DBS or safeguarding tracking.
• UK GDPR you can prove — before you sign up. Adminished is ICO registered, stores data in the UK, and publishes a Security page that lists the UK GDPR basis, every sub-processor (Stripe, Resend, Cloudflare), bcrypt password storage, per-club data isolation and a 30-day deletion guarantee. It's the page you forward to a parent or a council without a second thought. GymDesk gives a UK club none of this natively.
• Gift Aid and the HMRC report. If you're a charity or Scout group, Adminished captures Gift Aid declarations the moment a parent signs up, tracks who's eligible, and produces the report you hand to HMRC. There's also a free Gift Aid calculator to show the found money. GymDesk has no equivalent.
• A register that doesn't charge for absences. Mark each child present, late, excused or no-show in one tap — and excused and no-show are recorded without charging a fee, so a sick child never lands on a parent's bill by mistake. Your safeguarding record and your billing both stay honest.
• Coach payroll worked out for you. Adminished totals the sessions and hours each coach actually taught, multiplies by their rate, and exports a clean CSV for whoever does your books. (It does the maths and the export; it is not PAYE/NI/RTI filing.)
• Free to start, no card. Clubs with up to 20 students pay nothing — every feature is included, you only pay when you outgrow the size cap. GymDesk has no free option; you commit to a USD subscription from day one.
• Parent self-onboarding via join code. Parents sign themselves up with a unique code — no re-keying their data — so the parent portal is live from the moment a student joins.

Who should use GymDesk

GymDesk suits established martial arts academies — particularly BJJ, MMA, or Muay Thai gyms — with a hundred or more active members and the budget for a USD monthly subscription. If belt progression tracking, QR check-in throughput, and a built-in point-of-sale are non-negotiable, GymDesk is built for exactly that. It is most at home in the US market but works fine in the UK if you are comfortable managing GDPR obligations yourself.

Who should use Adminished

Adminished is the right choice for UK clubs that take their duty of care seriously and don't want to manage compliance on the side. If you run karate, kickboxing, gymnastics — or a Scout group, dance school or tuition centre alongside it — and you need DBS and safeguarding tracking, consent signed per child, UK GDPR you can point a parent or council to, Gift Aid for the HMRC report, and a register that doesn't bill no-shows, Adminished does all of that out of the box. The same login follows you across every activity you run, so you never outgrow it or switch tools. It's free under 20 students, then £19/mo for 75 and £49/mo for 200. It is not the right tool if belt-grading progression is a daily workflow today — that's where GymDesk is stronger — but for the safeguarding and admin a typical UK club lives by, it holds up well.

Frequently asked questions

Does GymDesk work in the UK?

GymDesk is a US-based product and can be used in the UK, but it is not built with UK compliance in mind. Pricing is in USD, there is no native DBS or safeguarding tracking, no Gift Aid declarations or HMRC report, and UK GDPR obligations — such as UK data residency and a published sub-processor list you can show a parent or council — would need to be handled separately. Adminished puts all of that in the core and publishes its Security page openly. For most UK clubs, particularly those working with children, the difference is meaningful administrative overhead either way.

Is GymDesk free?

No. GymDesk does not offer a free plan. Pricing starts at around $75 per month (USD), billed monthly. There is typically a trial period, but ongoing use requires a paid subscription from the outset. Adminished offers a permanently free plan for clubs with up to 20 students — every Adminished feature is available on Free; you only pay when the club outgrows the size cap (£19/month for 75 students, £49/month for 200).

Does Adminished have belt tracking for martial arts?

Not currently. Adminished does not have a native belt or rank tracking feature. Student profiles store key information and class history, but grading progression is not tracked in a dedicated belt system. If rank tracking is central to how you manage your academy, GymDesk or a specialist martial arts platform may suit you better at this stage. It is something on our roadmap — if it matters to you, we would welcome your feedback.

Which is better for a small BJJ club?

For a small BJJ club — say, 30–60 members, owner-operated, based in the UK — Adminished is likely the more practical choice. You get DBS and safeguarding tracking, consent signed per child, UK GDPR with a public Security page, a register that records excused and no-show without charging, and coach payroll, plus class scheduling, attendance and a parent portal. It's free under 20 students, then £19/mo for 75. The main trade-off is belt tracking, which GymDesk does and Adminished does not — if you track gradings on a spreadsheet already, switching that one piece is a small workaround. If your academy is larger and belt progression tracking is a daily workflow, GymDesk is the more capable tool for that specific need.