Which Dance Studio Software is right for you?
Some of us still remember the days of our class rolls being in hand-written books, with a column to tick off for attendance, and another column to tick off when (or if) the weekly envelope of cash would arrive with little Suzy. Thankfully those days are behind us, with a Dance Studio software package being THE NUMBER 1 technological tool that every dance studio must have from day 1. Ask any studio owner and they will tell you that it is the most valuable piece of technology they spend money on.
In this blog post, we will look at some commonly asked questions around studio software and compare 3 leading dance studio software packages on the market, Jackrabbit, DanceBiz and Dance Studio Pro.
I’m just starting out and every dollar saved is vital to me...is this something that I can afford to spend money on?
We’ve all been there. Contrary to popular (i.e. parent’s) belief, starting out a dance studio is an expensive exercise. Locking yourself into a lease/purchasing a premises, possibly construction costs, dance floors, mirrors, sound systems...the list (and the expenses) seems to go on forever.
You’re over budget, have already compromised on other items you wanted to have in your dream studio and there still seems like so much more to spend money on. You know the basics of a spreadsheet...it couldn’t be that hard to maintain spreadsheet records could it.
YES IT COULD!
Don’t even think about it. Even if you are an Excel Power user (which 90% of Excel users aren’t) going down this path will see you spending at least 10 x the amount of time maintaining your spreadsheets than you would in studio software. This is valuable time that you should be devoting to building your business.
I’ve been looking at lots of different Dance Studio software packages, why can’t I find the PERFECT one for my studio?
Stop. Looking. Now. No studio software package will fit every single one of your wants and needs perfectly (at least during the free trial) and you will drive yourself crazy trying to seek that perfection. If this sounds like you, head back to the package that was the best so far and go for it! If you haven’t even started looking yet then see our comparison below and make your choice from those three.
I’ve managed until now without Studio Software...what else can it do besides maintaining the class rolls and accounts?
In short...everything! Studio software packages make maintaining all of your student, class and payment records a breeze. The amount of other things that they can help with in the day to day running of your studio is honestly unbelievable. A small number of tasks that studio software makes easier are:
- Track uniform and costume inventory and payment
- Organise recital orders to minimize/eliminate dancers performing in back to back routines.
- Take online payments
- Track students skill development
- Track staff hours through online portals/apps
JACKRABBIT VS DANCE STUDIO PRO VS DANCEBIZ
My personal opinions on these three packages come from the time spent looking at Dance Studio Pro and DanceBiz over the last couple of months, and I am very familiar with Jackrabbit, having used it in a dance studio for nearly 10 years.
Often the first thing people comment on with Jackrabbit is the price so we’ll start there too. I firmly believe that with Jackrabbit you get what you pay for. It is more expensive than the others, starting at USD $45 p/m (it scales up with student numbers), but you are getting a thoroughly well designed and structured package that can grow with your studio. You can run reports on all facets of your studio that are able to be exported into easy to work with formats. Their customer service has always been great, but they have really taken it to a new level in the last year or so and are constantly releasing updates and improvements to the system.
The Parent Portal is a great example of this. It used to be a clunky, and pretty ugly system tbh. But it is now a GREAT system, with a really nice interface that allows parents to pay their account, view their timetables, enrol in classes and MUCH more.
If you sign up wit Jackrabbit you will be paying a premium on other packages, but in my opinion you are getting a vastly superior product.
Again, the first thing people comment on with DSP is the price, and at USD $39 p/m for unlimited students it is easy to see why. One word of caution before signing up with DSP is to check whether all of the functionality that is drawing you towards this package is included in the $39 p/m as some of their functionality are paid add-ons.
If you’re going from not using studio software at all to using DSP you will find it hard to fault it. It does all the basics well and with a minimum of fuss. The amount of information available at your fingertips with their reports is amazing...there is pretty much a report on anything you could imagine. If a report that you want is not there, DSP are also very responsive and pro-active in creating more reports. While this seems like an amazing feature, I do feel that there is almost too many reports available as new reports are often added without much thought to how it fits into the overall system. The reports are also exported as .csv/excel with a format that make them fine to print, but almost impossible to work with outside of DSP.
In short, if you are looking for a cost effective, easy to use system that you won’t really need to export data from then it is hard to go past DSP
Again, the first thing people comment on with DSP is the price, and at USD $39 p/m for unlimited students it is easy to see why. One word of caution before signing up with DSP is to check whether all of the functionality that is drawing you towards this package is included in the $39 p/m as some of their functionality are paid add-ons.
If you’re going from not using studio software at all to using DSP you will find it hard to fault it. It does all the basics well and with a minimum of fuss. The amount of information available at your fingertips with their reports is amazing...there is pretty much a report on anything you could imagine. If a report that you want is not there, DSP are also very responsive and pro-active in creating more reports. While this seems like an amazing feature, I do feel that there is almost too many reports available as new reports are often added without much thought to how it fits into the overall system. The reports are also exported as .csv/excel with a format that make them fine to print, but almost impossible to work with outside of DSP.
In short, if you are looking for a cost effective, easy to use system that you won’t really need to export data from then it is hard to go past DSP
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