Comparison
MatCount vs Mindbody
Mindbody is built for the student side of a wellness business, while MatCount is built for the teacher side of a yoga schedule that has to be covered every single day.
Comparison
MatCount vs When I Work: a class is not a shift
When I Work fits hourly teams across many industries, while MatCount assumes a yoga grid where every slot needs a teacher approved for that style and paid per class.
The short answer
When I Work is a general shift scheduler and time clock for hourly teams, and it does that job across restaurants, retail, clinics and gyms. A yoga grid does not behave like a shift board. A Thursday 6pm hot class needs a teacher approved for that style and level, not the next free person, and teachers are usually paid per class rather than by the hour. MatCount starts from that assumption. If your front desk and cleaning crew run on hourly shifts, a general scheduler still earns its place next to it.
MatCount and When I Work side by side
| What you are deciding | MatCount | When I Work |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of work | A class with a style, a level, a room and a named teacher. | A shift with a start time, an end time and a role, across many industries. |
| Who can take it | Only teachers approved for that style and level who marked themselves available. | Role based staffing, which studios can approximate but have to maintain by hand. |
| Pay basis | Per class, or per class plus a per head amount over a threshold. | Built around hourly pay and clocked time as the normal case. |
| Late coverage | One tap request, automatic claim by the first approved teacher who accepts. | Shift swap and open shift models designed for a general hourly workforce. |
| What the record proves | Which teacher taught which class on which date, for pay and for insurance questions. | Hours worked and clock records, which is a different question about a different worker. |
| Front desk and cleaning staff | Out of scope. We stay on the teaching roster. | Squarely what it is designed for. |
| Best fit | A yoga studio whose scheduling pain is classes, styles and per class pay. | A business staffing hourly roles where clocked hours drive the paycheck. |
The right hand side describes where When I Work sits as a category and whose workflow it assumes. None of it stands still, so take the current position from them rather than from here. MatCount is published by MLJ, SASU and this page is written by Jimenez Julien.
Choose MatCount when
- When every class is tied to a style and a level, approvals matter more than who is free on paper.
- When teachers are paid per class rather than by the hour, an hours based schedule creates work instead of removing it.
- When coverage requests arrive at night from a phone, the first tap has to settle it without you refereeing.
- When you need to show which teacher taught a class last March, the record has to be built into the pay run.
Choose When I Work when
- If you also staff a front desk, retail counter and cleaning with hourly employees, a shift scheduler handles those roles properly.
- If you need a time clock and hour records for wage and hour purposes, that is what shift software is built to produce.
- If you run several businesses under one company, one scheduler across all of them is genuinely simpler to manage.
A yoga class is not a shift
Shift software assumes roles are interchangeable inside a role. Any trained barista can take the Tuesday open. That assumption is what makes open shifts and swaps work, and it is exactly what breaks in a yoga studio, where students book a 5:30 slow flow because of who is teaching it.
MatCount treats the teacher as part of the product. Every teacher carries the styles and levels she is approved for, and a request only reaches the people who can actually stand in front of that room. The result is fewer claims you have to reverse, which is the quiet cost of a general tool in this trade.
Front desk staff versus the teaching roster
Many studios really do have two workforces. There is a teaching roster paid per class, often a mix of employees and contractors depending on your state, and there is a small hourly group at the desk and in cleaning. These are not the same scheduling problem and they rarely want the same software.
Nothing stops you from running a shift tool for the hourly roles while the class grid lives in MatCount. What you should not do is squeeze forty weekly classes into a shift board and then hand build the pay run every month from what really happened.
What happens at the pay run
This is where the difference shows up in dollars. An hours based system tells you a teacher was on the clock. A per class studio needs to know she taught the 9:30 vinyasa on the 14th, covered the 6am on the 19th, and had a class cancelled for low attendance on the 22nd, which your policy may or may not pay.
MatCount builds the month from those events, so the totals match the grid and the substitutions. Owners who have moved off a general scheduler usually say the same thing: the schedule was never the hard part, the reconciliation at month end was.
Questions people ask before they choose
Can MatCount track hours for employees?
MatCount records the classes taught with their times, which is what a per class pay run needs. If you must keep formal clock records for hourly staff, keep a shift and time clock tool for those roles and let MatCount hold the teaching roster.
Does MatCount work if my teachers are employees rather than contractors?
Yes. Availability, claims and taught class records work the same either way. Classification itself is your decision with your accountant or attorney under your state test, and MatCount does not make that call for you.
How long does it take to set up a studio grid?
An afternoon is typical for a single location: load teachers, mark the styles and levels each one is approved for, enter the weekly grid and the pay rates. Studios with two locations usually add another hour or so.
Other comparisons on matcountapp.com
Comparison
MatCount vs Momence
Momence suits an owner rebuilding how students book, pay and watch, while MatCount suits an owner whose schedule is fine and whose roster is the part that keeps breaking.
Run this head to head on your roster
A table settles the general question and leaves the specific one open: would your yin teachers still get pinged about hot classes they cannot take. Send over a week of your grid and we will walk one open class from request to claim to the line it produces in the pay run. Twenty minutes, and the comparison stops being hypothetical.