Run your school,
not your software.
Kihon is a modern management system for martial arts schools. Members, billing, scheduling, attendance, and rank tracking that just work, on the web, in your pocket on iPhone, on the iPad at your front desk, and up on the TV in your lobby.
I built Kihon after years inside a multi-location school, watching the existing software fail at the basics. So it is honest by design: published pricing, every feature on every plan, and your data yours to take anytime. And it is fast on the devices a school actually uses.
One system for the whole school
A martial arts school is really four jobs, and usually the same person. Kihon runs all four.
The funnel
Turn strangers into students. Leads, trials, Decision Day, and enrollment, with a pipeline that is honest about what actually converts.
See it live ↗Most software covers one corner. Kihon runs the whole building, because it was built by someone who works in all four.
See the actual app
Real screens from the live demo, on every device your school runs. Tap any one to open it.
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Owner dashboardRevenue, retention, and what needs attention, rolled up on their own. -
Up on your info screenPromotions, schedules, and reminders, looping in the lobby. -
The whole family, one viewOne household, split billing, every child's rank and attendance. -
Front-desk check-inA fast iPad kiosk that keeps working when the Wi-Fi drops. -
Grading day, done rightEligibility, registrations, and bulk promotions from one screen. -
Billing you can proveKihon flags revenue at risk before it costs you, with the evidence to back it. -
The management book, digitizedOpening and closing checklists and retention calls, every duty timestamped. -
Every belt ladder, your wayEach program's ranks, requirements, and grading rules, all school-defined. -
Curriculum gaps, caughtTheme each week's classes, and Kihon flags who has not trained a skill.
Sound familiar?
What school owners say about the software they pay for today
Billing you can't trust
Double charges, missed charges, and members billed after they cancel. Owners end up auditing their own billing system every month.
Hidden fees and lock-in
Unpublished pricing, required add-ons, rising processing fees, and year-long contracts you can't leave even when the product fails you.
Apps stuck in 2010
Dated, spreadsheet-like interfaces with settings scattered everywhere. Mobile apps that crash, or don't exist at all, while your front desk runs on an iPad.
Families as an afterthought
On the big platforms, parents register each child separately, with separate payments and no single view of the whole family's ranks and attendance.
Belt cycles done by hand
Grading bolted on, not built in: eligibility in one tool, attendance in another, testing day run off a clipboard. So owners end up tracking rank in a spreadsheet next to the software that was supposed to handle it.
No proof when it counts
A parent disputes a charge or claims they never signed, and you have nothing to show for it. Chargebacks you should win, lost for lack of a record.
How Kihon fixes it
The fundamentals, done right. Tap a card to watch it work, or jump into the live demo.
Real drawn signatures with validation (a dot or empty box is rejected), and an evidence record frozen with every contract. When a parent disputes a charge, Kihon bundles your evidence into one PDF you can send.
Watch · 57s See it live →One main contract per member: a second is refused at signing. End it in Finances and the plan, the contract, and its add-ons stop together, and no one is charged after their last day.
Watch · 59s See it live →Published prices, month-to-month, cancel online anytime, no phone call. No required add-ons, no surprises on your statement. You only pay for members who are actually members: when a contract runs out and they stop coming, they leave your bill on their own, and anyone who may have quietly left is listed so you can let them go today.
Watch · 60s See it live →A term-aware revenue forecast that shows which month your committed revenue rolls off into month-to-month, so you see renewal storms months ahead instead of after they hit. Worth a call lists anyone who missed the days they normally train, that same week, and Needs attention flags any payment whose retries are done.
Watch · 60s See it live →A fast web app in any browser, an iPad check-in kiosk you install to the home screen that keeps working even when the Wi-Fi drops, and info screens for any TV. The Kihon Staff app for iPhone and iPad is on the App Store, and everything else runs on the open web, with nothing to download.
Watch · 57s See it live →Gamified missions teach each role its own part of Kihon: the front desk learns lead capture and the register, instructors learn check-in and grading, the program manager learns the pipeline and curriculum, and the owner learns the business. Your team learns by doing, and they finish it.
See it live →One household, one payment method, one registration flow. Every child's rank, attendance, and schedule in a single view, with split payments handled cleanly.
Watch · 57s See it live →Attendance-driven promotion eligibility, bulk promotions, and testing events with registration.
Watch · 61s See it live →Export your members, agreements, billing history, and attendance any time, with no exit fee.
Watch · 59s See it live →Parents sign children out on an iPad with their own PIN. An unsigned incident report comes up first and gets signed before the child goes home, so the paperwork never gets left behind.
Watch · 54s See it live →Price, term, freezes, holds, notice and the exit fee are written from the plan itself, so those terms on the paper are the numbers Kihon bills. Linked clauses fill in the medical card and the pickup list at signing, and families see the cost of leaving before they ask.
Watch · 60s See it live →Families pay into your own account with the payment processor and payouts land in your bank, so Kihon never holds your money. Absorb card fees or pass them on as a capped line in the contract, take bank payments, and let a second payer cover their share of the tuition.
Watch · 60s See it live →Build your own belt ladder and draw every belt your way. Stripes can count themselves from attendance, Kihon knows each member's next belt and starts the count over when they earn it, and curriculum runs per belt or on a rotation, with weekly themes that show the gaps.
Watch · 60s See it live →The full demo is live, no account needed: run a grading day, check a member in at the kiosk, try to sign a contract with a dot.
Simple, honest pricing
One plan. Everything included. You pay for the members you actually serve.
$79 floor · $249 cap · month to month · plus sales tax
Billed on your average active members, so one busy or quiet day never spikes your bill. Trials, prospects, and frozen members are free. We even flag members who have left, so you pay less.
| Feature | Kihon, every plan | Typical platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts with real, validated e-signatures | Included | Paid add-on |
| Dispute packet to fight chargebacks | Included | Varies |
| Family accounts & split payments | Included | Higher tier |
| Multiple locations | Included | Higher tier |
| Belt ranks, tips & testing events | Included | Varies |
| Automations & lifecycle journeys | Included | Higher tier |
| Check-in kiosk and info screens on any TV | Included | Add-on |
| Member portal | Included | Add-on, about $39 a month |
| Staff seats | Unlimited, included | Charged per seat |
| Data export, no exit fee | Included | Varies |
| Two-way SMS | Published prices, no surprises | Often a paid add-on |
| Payment processing fee | Published, never hidden | Hidden, rising |
| Contract length | Month to month | Annual lock-in |
| Support | One level, not tiered | Tiered by plan |
| Setup, migration & training | Done with you, $99 for founding schools | Extra fee, often DIY |
Bought one tool at a time, the same pieces run $150 to $486 or more a month at published prices, before card processing. Zen Planner, fully equipped, is about $486 a month. Those are typical ranges for comparison, not quotes from any one provider.
SMS is optional, at published prices: a one-time $99 setup that covers the carrier registration, $2.60 a month to keep your number registered, and a cent per message segment. Kihon Payments runs your billing at a published rate, 0.5% for founding schools on top of the card processor's own fees, with nothing buried anywhere. That is the whole price list.
Founding schools get a locked rate, for good
We are taking just 25 founding schools, because the founder works with every one. You lock in founding pricing for as long as you stay. Your enrollment fee is $299 with a $200 founding credit, so you pay $99, and if you ran a paid Pilot, its $49 is credited as well. The founder guides your setup, trains your staff live, and answers your support email himself, and you get a direct say in what gets built next. We would rather earn your stay every month than trap you in a contract.
Claim a founding spotFounding pricing is locked for as long as your account stays active. Limited to the first 25 founding schools. The $249 cap is a founding-school benefit. Schools that join later pay the price published when they join.
Or start today: run a real Pilot for $49
The Kihon Pilot is the full platform with up to 3 of your real contacts, every feature included, no subscription and no auto-renewal. One-time $49, non-refundable, and credited in full toward your enrollment fee if you join. You set up your school, read and sign a plain-language Pilot Agreement, and pay by card, all in about five minutes.
Start your Pilot for $49This is a real purchase. Your card is charged $49 once, when you sign.
Or have it all done for you: Kihon Done For You, $5,000
Everything a parent sees when they look you up, done by hand and run from Kihon: a new website on your own domain, your Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and Facebook listings, your review pages and a business email, then 90 days of coaching to grow from it. Switching to Kihon? Every member, household, contract and belt is moved in for you too, live within 30 days of your member list, or your next year of Kihon is free.
See what is includedAlready on Kihon? It fits any time, not only when you join. Every Kihon feature is already on your plan, and this is one person's hands-on work, so only four Kihon schools a quarter.
Most of the big names got bought.
Most of the big names in martial arts school software are now owned by private equity or rolled into larger groups. Then prices drift up, support gets slower, and the product starts serving next quarter's numbers instead of you.
Kihon is independent and founder-owned. It's built so you rarely need support, and when you do, you reach a real person who can fix it, not a ticket in a queue. We grow by keeping schools happy, not by hitting a number for someone who bought us.
What Kihon believes
Some promises do not fit in a price table. Trials are free, and freezes are free, both ways. We do not charge you for your own coaches. When it matters, you can prove it. And Kihon is built for the family, not just the front desk.
Questions schools ask
The honest answers, before you even ask.
Kihon is modern management software for martial arts schools: members, billing, attendance, rank and belt tracking, messaging, and grading day. It runs on the web, on iPhone, on an iPad front desk, and on the TV in your lobby, and it is built for owner-operators who also teach.
Whether you call it martial arts school management software, a studio CRM, or a gym platform, the best one is honest about pricing, treats a family as one account, gets belts and grading day right, and lets you export your data and leave any time. Kihon is built around exactly that: a dollar per active member per month with a published cap, every feature on every plan, family billing, real grading day tools, and free data export, on the web, on iPhone, on an iPad front desk, and on the TV in your lobby.
Yes. Instead of stitching together billing software, a class scheduling tool, separate membership management, a check-in app, and waivers, Kihon runs all of it in one place, whether you call your place a school, a dojo, or a studio. Every feature is on every plan, the fee is published, and you can export your data and leave any time.
One dollar per active member per month, with a 79 dollar floor and a 249 dollar cap, billed month to month, plus sales tax where it applies. Trials, prospects, and frozen members are always free, and we even flag members who have left so you pay less. Coming aboard is a one-time 299 dollar enrollment fee that covers a guided setup done with you and live training for your staff. The first 25 founding schools get a 200 dollar credit, so the fee is 99 dollars. A paid Pilot is 49 dollars, credited in full toward the enrollment fee, so a founding school that ran a Pilot joins for just 50 dollars more.
Kihon Payments runs your billing at a small, published fee, with nothing buried anywhere. Your school stays the merchant of record, so Kihon never holds your money, and you can export your billing history any time, at no cost.
No. Kihon is independent and founder-owned. Most of the big platforms in this space have been bought by private equity or rolled into larger groups, which is usually when prices climb and support slips. Kihon grows by keeping schools happy, not by hitting a return for someone who bought it.
No. Month to month. Cancel anytime online, with no notice and no fee. Your service runs to the end of the month you are in, one final bill covers that month, and nothing comes after it.
Yes. Your enrollment fee covers setup done with you: a guided setup call, help while you move your members in, and live training for your team. If you would rather hand it all over, Kihon Done For You ($5,000, one time) moves every member, household, contract and rank for you, plus everything your current platform lets you take, and gets you live within 30 days of your roster. And once you are on Kihon, you can export your members, payments, attendance, rank history and signed agreements from it anytime, and there is no fee to leave.
Yes, and it is where Kihon shines. Rank ladders, tips and stripes, attendance-based eligibility, and a grading day flow with bulk promotion and a full audit trail. It was built for martial arts from the start.
Yes. A fast web app, an iPad check-in kiosk for the front desk, info screens on any TV, and the Kihon Staff app for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. Families have their own app, Kihon Portal, on the App Store and Google Play, and the portal works in any browser too.
Yes. Households are core to the data model: family billing, sibling discounts, and split billing across two households for divorced parents.
Yes. Two-way texting and a free in-app chat channel are built in, with texts billed at a published price. Attendance-triggered journeys reach a quiet student by chat or email and put them on a call list for your staff, without you remembering to do it.
Whether you run a BJJ gym, a karate school, a taekwondo dojang, or a kickboxing gym, Kihon fits, because rank systems are per school and you build your own ladder. Built first for martial arts, with yoga studios and gyms coming later.
Yes. A full live demo with sample data is available now, and early access is open to founding schools.
Yes, that is the Kihon Pilot: the full platform with up to 3 of your real contacts and every feature included, for a one-time $49. It is non-refundable, it never auto-renews or converts into a subscription on its own, and if you join afterward the whole $49 is credited toward your enrollment fee. You buy it right on this site, set up your school, sign a plain-language Pilot Agreement, and pay by card.
Get early access
Tell us where to send your personalized demo. Everything past your email is optional, and founding schools get a say in what gets built first.
You're on the list
Thanks. I read every signup myself, so if you asked for a personalized demo I will be in touch soon. In the meantime, the full live demo is open with a real school's data to explore.
Explore the live demoReady to try it for real today? Start your Pilot for $49, up to 3 of your real contacts, credited toward your enrollment fee if you join.