Custom fitness app development, no per-member fees.
Off-the-shelf fitness platforms charge per member, per month, on features you didn't ask for and can't change. A gym growing from 500 to 5,000 members doesn't save money on Mindbody. It pays more, for the same rigid product. RaftLabs builds custom iOS and Android fitness apps for gyms, personal trainers, fitness studios, and wellness brands. Fixed price. Your brand, your logic, your pricing. No per-member fees compounding as you grow.
iOS and Android fitness apps built to your workflow, not a SaaS template
No per-member monthly fees: you own the platform outright
Wearable integrations with Apple Watch, Garmin, and Fitbit via HealthKit and Google Fit
Class booking, member check-in, workout tracking, and nutrition in one app, one brand
Fixed price quote before development starts
50K users in 6 months Community appยท4.9/5 on Clutch Mobile
Bring the problem, the current workflow, or the existing code. We reply with a practical next step within one business day.
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The brief
Start with what is not working.
Good software decisions begin with the constraint, not a list of features or a preferred technology.
01
Gym paying $2 per member per month for a SaaS platform you can't customise?
02
Fitness brand with 50,000 followers and no owned app to monetise that audience?
03
Personal trainer managing client programs across three tools because no single platform does everything?
Plain answer
RaftLabs builds custom fitness apps for gyms, personal trainers, studios, and wellness brands in the US, UK, Ireland, and Australia. Builds cover workout tracking, class booking, gym management, nutrition planning, and wearable integration through Apple Watch, Garmin, and Fitbit. A first version launches in 10-16 weeks from $30,000, with no per-member SaaS fees.
What to remember
Custom iOS and Android fitness apps built to your workflow, not a SaaS template
Projects start at $30,000 with a fixed price quote agreed before development starts
A first version launches in 10-16 weeks, then grows through follow-on phases
Wearable integrations supported include Apple Watch, Garmin, and Fitbit via HealthKit and Google Fit
You own the platform outright with no per-member monthly fees compounding as you grow
RaftLabs has shipped iOS and Android apps since 2015 and holds a 4.9/5 rating on Clutch
The bigger you get, the more you pay for the same app.
A gym opens with 500 members and a SaaS platform that feels affordable. Two years later it's at 2,000 members, paying $2 per member every month, for the same rigid product it started with.
Growth didn't earn the gym a better app. It earned the SaaS vendor a bigger invoice.
The platform captured the upside. The gym carried the risk.
A custom app flips that. You pay once to build it, then you own it.
Own the platform, stop paying per member.
A gym paying $2 per member per month at 2,000 members is spending $48,000 a year on a platform it doesn't own. That number climbs with every new member. The SaaS vendor captures your growth. You capture the product risk.
A custom fitness app is an asset. You own the code. You set the pricing. You add the features your members actually ask for. The per-member fee disappears.
According to Grand View Research, the global fitness app market was worth $12.1 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a 13.4% CAGR to $33.6 billion by 2033, with North America holding the largest share at nearly 40%. Gyms and wellness brands that own their platform capture that growth directly, instead of funding a SaaS vendor's expansion.
RaftLabs has shipped production software since 2015 for clients across the US, UK, Europe, Canada, and the UAE. Those are relationships, not fitness case studies. Our closest first-hand proof is our own community platform, EventRaft, which grew to 50,000 active users in six months: group challenges, social feeds, and push campaigns are exactly the engagement layer a fitness app needs to fight churn between sessions.
This works when members already have to pay per head.
Everything on the left should already be true for your business. Even one thing on the right, and a custom build isn't the right move yet.
A fit
01
You run a gym, studio, or training business with enough members that per-member SaaS fees are now a real line item.
02
You already have a membership, class, or coaching model in place: bookings, tiers, or recurring billing.
03
You want to own the platform and the member relationship, not rent them from Mindbody or Trainerize.
Not a fit
01
You're pre-launch with no members or paying clients yet.
02
You're happy adapting your business to whatever a SaaS template allows.
03
You need something live in a few weeks for the lowest possible upfront cost.
The number in the project brief is the number on the final invoice. Scope changes are priced separately, in writing, before any additional work starts.
02
You own everything
Source code, App Store accounts, server infrastructure, and all third-party API contracts transfer to you at handover. No vendor lock-in, no ongoing licence fees to us.
03
The team that scopes it ships it
The people who assess your product in week 1 are the same people shipping it in week 14. No bait-and-switch after the contract is signed.
04
No per-member fee compounding
SaaS fitness platforms charge per member as you grow. A custom app costs once, then operates at infrastructure cost, and at 2,000 members the saving covers the build cost inside 24 months.
05
Your business logic, not a template
Mindbody and Trainerize are built for the average gym. Your class waitlist logic, your membership tiers, and your coach assignment rules get designed into a custom app from day one.
06
Built for App Store compliance
Fitness apps face specific Apple requirements: HealthKit data disclosure, in-app subscription rules, and privacy nutrition labels. We handle all of it, so there's no last-minute compliance scramble before launch.
07
Wearable integration on day one
Apple Watch, Garmin, and Fitbit are scoped and built as first-class features, not afterthought add-ons, with HealthKit compliance and data disclosure handled to meet App Store requirements.
08
Scope locked before we start
We write the product brief, you sign it off, then development starts. Changes after sign-off go through a change request, so your scope and your budget stay under control.
What would you build if you owned the platform?
Tell us your membership model, your current tools, and the features your members keep asking for. We'll scope the app and give you a fixed price.
How it works
From scope to App Store submission
Week 1
01
Scope and brief
We map your member workflow, feature priorities, and integration requirements. You leave week 1 with a written product brief and a fixed-price quote. Development starts only after you sign off.
Weeks 2-4
02
Design and architecture
UI design in Figma, approved screen by screen before any code is written. Technical architecture decided and documented: stack, third-party integrations, data model. No surprises in the build.
Weeks 5-14
03
Build and iterate
Working build on TestFlight and Android beta within the first two sprints. Bi-weekly demos. QA runs in parallel with every sprint, not after the build is complete.
Final 2 weeks
04
Submit and launch
App Store and Google Play submission handled by us. We manage review cycles, respond to Apple and Google queries, and deploy to production. Post-launch support included for 8 weeks.
Where you land in the price range depends on scope, not negotiation:
Focused MVP, $30,000-$55,000
One main use case on one platform, for example a personal trainer client programming app for iOS.
Dual-platform build, $55,000-$100,000
iOS and Android with class booking, workout tracking, and a coach dashboard.
Full gym platform, $100,000-$160,000
Member portal, admin dashboard, payment processing, and wearable integration.
What it costs
Fitness apps, starting at $30,000.
One main use case or a full gym platform, the number in the project brief is the number on the final invoice. Scope changes are priced and agreed separately.
Off-the-shelf platforms charge per member, per month, for a product you don't own. Start with the core app, priced from $30,000, and it pays back against subscription costs within two years, then runs at infrastructure cost only.
Starting investment
Starts at $30,000
A first version goes live in 10-16 weeks. Source code ownership and App Store and Google Play deployment included. Start with the core use case, then add features as your member base grows.
No hourly billing
Once we scope your first phase, that price is locked in writing. No hourly billing, and scope changes are priced and agreed in writing before any additional work starts.
Ownership
Source code, App Store accounts, and all third-party API contracts transfer to you at handover. No vendor lock-in, no ongoing licence fees to us.
We build six main types. Workout tracking apps: structured programming, exercise libraries with video demos, sets and reps logging, progress charts, and coach-to-client assignment. Gym management apps: class scheduling, member booking, digital check-in, membership tiers, and automated payment processing. Personal training apps: client onboarding, weekly program delivery, progress photos, messaging, and habit tracking. Nutrition and meal planning apps: macro tracking, food databases, meal plan builder, and hydration logging. Corporate wellness apps: step challenges, team leaderboards, wellbeing check-ins, and HR dashboard reporting. Wearable-connected apps: Apple Watch, Garmin, and Fitbit integration via HealthKit and Google Fit, pulling heart rate, sleep, activity, and workout data into your platform. Most builds combine two or three of these areas into a single product.
Three reasons. First, cost structure: Mindbody charges per location and per booking type; Trainerize charges per client per month. A gym with 1,000 members paying $2 per month pays $24,000 per year for a platform it doesn't own and can't modify. A custom app built for $45,000 pays back in under two years and then operates at infrastructure cost only. Second, differentiation: a generic SaaS app means your members see a product identical to your competitor's. A custom app is your brand, your onboarding flow, your community features. Third, features: Mindbody will not build the specific class waitlist logic, the coach-to-client messaging format, or the loyalty reward integration your business needs. You either adapt your business to the tool or build the tool to fit your business.
Mobile platforms: iOS (Swift, React Native) and Android (Kotlin, React Native). Wearables: Apple Watch via HealthKit, Google Fit for Android, Garmin Connect IQ, and Fitbit Web API. Payment processing: Stripe, Braintree, and Apple Pay / Google Pay. Push notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification Service. Video hosting: Mux and Vimeo for exercise demo libraries and coach-uploaded content. Booking systems: calendar-based class and appointment scheduling built custom, or integrated with existing systems via API. CRM integration: HubSpot and Salesforce for gym operators who manage leads and renewals separately from the member app. The exact stack is confirmed in the project brief so you know every vendor dependency before development starts.
We launch a first version in 10-16 weeks, then grow it in later phases. A focused v1 (one core feature set, one platform, for example workout tracking on iOS) lands near the 10-week end. A dual-platform iOS and Android v1 with two to three integrated feature areas (class booking plus workout tracking plus wearable sync) lands near the 16-week end. A full gym management platform is not a single build: we ship a validated v1 first, then add the member portal, coach tools, and deeper integrations in follow-on phases. Scope is locked and the v1 timeline is committed in the project brief before development starts. App Store and Google Play submission (1-3 days for Android, 1-7 days for iOS) is built into the schedule.
A focused MVP, one main use case on one platform (e.g. personal trainer client programming app for iOS), typically runs $30,000-$55,000. A dual-platform build with class booking, workout tracking, and a coach dashboard typically runs $55,000-$100,000. A full gym management platform with member portal, admin dashboard, payment processing, and wearable integration typically runs $100,000-$160,000. The cost model is fixed price: the number agreed in the project brief is the number on the final invoice, scope changes are priced and agreed separately. All builds include source code ownership and deployment to the App Store and Google Play. The fixed price is agreed at the end of week-one discovery after the full feature scope has been mapped.
Yes. App Store (Apple) and Google Play (Android) submission, metadata, screenshots, and review management are included in every mobile build. We handle the technical requirements, privacy policy formatting, app review submissions, and rejection responses if Apple or Google raises a query. For fitness apps specifically, we account for HealthKit data usage disclosures (required by Apple for any app accessing health or fitness data), in-app purchase compliance, and subscription billing rules. Post-launch, we provide the first two rounds of App Store update submissions as part of the project warranty period. We budget for one Apple review cycle in the project timeline, and handle any reviewer queries directly so the launch date isn't delayed by admin.
Work with us
Tell us where the work is stuck.
Bring the rough workflow, half-built product, or messy brief. We will map the smallest useful first move, then send scope, timeline, and price in plain English.
Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
