Primary sources first
Pricing and fees come from each vendor’s own public pricing and product pages. Where a fee is not published directly, we say so and rely on third-party migration guides, clearly attributed.
COMPARISON METHODOLOGY
How we compare Sodal to everyone else.
Comparing studio software honestly means showing your work. This is how we gather competitor figures, how we attribute the ones we did not measure ourselves, and the rules we hold ourselves to on every comparison page. Figures and capabilities verified June 2026.
THE RULES WE FOLLOW
Six rules on every comparison page.
These are not aspirations. If a comparison page breaks one of them, the page is wrong, not the rule.
Qualified superlatives only
We say “among the providers we reviewed,” not “the only one” or “no one else.” Our review is a snapshot of the providers we looked at on the as-of date, not a claim about every product that exists.
Attribution for third-party claims
Figures we did not verify from a primary source are marked “reported” and pointed at their source. We never present a reported figure as if we measured it ourselves.
No loaded language
We describe fees and policies in neutral terms. A data-export fee is a data-export fee; a marketplace commission is a marketplace commission. We do not equate a discovery-marketplace commission with a payment markup.
Where the competitor wins, we say so
Sodal is not the cheapest option, nor the most feature-mature. Every comparison page names where a competitor is the better choice. An honest comparison is the only kind worth publishing.
We keep figures current
Vendors change their plans. We carry a visible as-of date and update figures when we re-verify them. If something here looks out of date, the as-of date tells you when we last checked.
THE FIGURES WE PUBLISH
Every competitor figure, with its source and wording rule.
These are the competitor figures we stand behind, the wording rule for each, and where the figure comes from. Verified June 2026; we update them as vendors change their plans.
| What we cite | The figure | How we state it |
|---|---|---|
| Arketa platform fee | 3% on top of standard Stripe processing (≈ $7,200/yr on $240k card volume) | From Arketa’s own published pricing. The cleanest payment-fee comparison; stated as a platform fee on top of Stripe, not as a processing rate. |
| Momence platform fee (Pro plan) | 2.5% on the $60/mo Pro plan (≈ $6,000/yr on $240k) | From Momence’s own pricing. We state it as a “2.5% platform fee,” never “over Stripe” and never as a blended processing rate. |
| Mindbody marketplace | Your studio is listed publicly in a consumer app with 3M+ users | From Mindbody’s own materials. Stated plainly: it is a discovery marketplace your studio appears in. |
| Mindbody app commission | 20% (cap $30) on clients acquired through the marketplace app (reported) | Attributed as reported. It is a marketplace commission on discovery clients, not a universal payment markup; we never equate the two. |
| Mindbody data-export fee | ≈ $500 within 30 days of cancellation, regional (reported) | Attributed as reported. We do not call it a “ransom” or use loaded language. |
| Sodal | Your own Stripe, 0% platform markup | True today. Stripe’s standard processing fees still apply; Sodal adds no percentage or per-transaction markup. |
Competitor figures are drawn from each vendor’s own pricing and product pages, except where a figure is marked “reported,” which is attributed to third-party migration guides. Mindbody’s marketplace commission and data-export fee are reported figures, not figures Sodal measured. Sodal’s 0% platform markup is true today; Stripe’s standard processing fees still apply.
See the comparison for yourself.
Read the side-by-side comparison, or bring your current setup and we’ll walk it with you, figure by figure.