Mariana Tek vs Arketa for Pilates Studios
Choose Mariana Tek if
- Your revenue comes from classes and sessions in the room
- You want a branded app on any plan, not only the top tier
- You need billing and payouts you never have to think about
Choose Arketa if
- You sell on-demand video or an online membership alongside the studio
- You are opening soon and need to launch in weeks, not months
- You can absorb a payment delay without it hitting payroll
| What matters | Mariana Tek | Arketa |
|---|---|---|
| Reported monthly cost | $300 to $800 | $200 to $699 |
| Custom branded app | Included on any plan | Top tier only (Studio Suite) |
| On-demand video and digital | Limited | Core strength, unlimited on every plan |
| Group classes and appointments | Yes, appointments launched May 2026 | Yes, but bugs concentrate here |
| Card processing | Rate negotiated, not published | Standard Stripe rates on studio plans |
| Payout reliability | No reported pattern of delays | Owners report holds of 2 to 3 weeks |
| Time to launch | Three to six weeks | Days to weeks |
| Owner | Xplor Technologies, software only | Venture backed, also runs its own studio |
| Our pilates rating | 4.0 / 5 | 3.3 / 5 |
The Short Answer
Mariana Tek is the better choice for any pilates studio whose revenue comes from the room, because Arketa’s documented problems are with money and stability rather than features. Choose Arketa only if you are building a digital business alongside the studio, since its on-demand video and content tools are genuinely better than Mariana Tek’s.
This is not a close contest on features. Both platforms schedule classes, take payments and give your clients an app. The gap opens on something less glamorous and more important: whether the software pays you on time and behaves the same way every week.
Read our full Mariana Tek review and Arketa review for the detail behind each rating.
Which Costs More, Mariana Tek or Arketa?
Arketa is cheaper to start and Mariana Tek is more predictable. Arketa studio plans pay standard Stripe rates with no platform surcharge, which is better than most of this market, but owners report renewal increases arriving without notice, including one of 70 percent.
Arketa publishes one price. Its Individual plan is $49 a month billed annually, aimed at solo teachers, and it carries a 3 percent transaction fee on top of Stripe. That surcharge does not apply to studio plans. Every studio tier is quoted on a demo, as is all of Mariana Tek’s pricing.
| Cost element | Mariana Tek | Arketa |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | None | $49 a month, solo teachers only |
| Studio pricing | Quote only, $300 to $800 reported | Quote only, $200 to $699 reported |
| Studio tiers | Quoted, not named publicly | Core, Growth, Suite |
| Card processing | Rate negotiated, not published | Standard Stripe rates on studio plans |
| Custom branded app | Included on any plan | Studio Suite, the top tier |
| Marketing automation | Xplor Growth, sold separately | Studio Growth tier and above |
| Contract | Annual, quote based | Annual, with reported renewal rises |
Give Arketa credit on processing. Passing through standard Stripe rates on studio plans is genuinely competitive, and it is a better deal than several platforms we review that add their own percentage on top of every card payment.
The renewal pattern is what makes the lower entry price unreliable. Studio owners on Capterra describe annual plans being raised without notice, with one owner reporting she was given no proof that notice had ever been sent. A separate report on G2 describes an increase of 70 percent with insufficient time to find a replacement. A price you cannot forecast is not really a lower price.
Note also where the branded app sits. On Mariana Tek it comes with any plan. On Arketa it requires Studio Suite, the top tier, so the feature that matters most to a client-facing pilates brand is the one that pushes you to the most expensive option.
Ask for the renewal terms in writing before you sign: what the cap on annual increases is, how much notice you get, and what the cost is to leave mid-contract. If the sales team will not put a number on the cap, treat the entry price as a first year figure only.
Winner: Arketa on year one, Mariana Tek on what you actually end up paying
Can Both Handle Group Classes and Private Sessions?
Both handle group classes and private sessions. Arketa has done it longer, but its recurring bugs concentrate in exactly this area, while Mariana Tek’s appointment booking is only three months old and stable.
This is the question that matters most for a pilates studio, because the model needs both. Group reformer classes fill the timetable and privates carry the margin.
Arketa should win this on paper. It grew out of a marketplace for individual teachers, so one to one booking has been in its DNA from the start, and it handles group classes, workshops and appointments in one place.
The problem is reliability. The consistent negative theme across Arketa’s reviews is bugs and gaps affecting day to day class operations. One owner wrote that the software is very unstable, constantly having bugs and that support is slow to fix anything. Another described issues reappearing after being reported as fixed. A booking system that works most weeks is not the same as one that works.
Mariana Tek’s Appointments launched in May 2026 after a six month programme in which around half the participating studios were pilates businesses. It handles one to one sessions, duets and small groups. It is new, and that is a real caveat, but new and stable beats mature and buggy when the thing at stake is your Saturday morning schedule.
Winner: Mariana Tek
Which Has the Better Custom App?
Mariana Tek has the better custom app overall because it is included on any plan and both the client and staff sides work well. Arketa’s client-facing app is beautifully designed, but its operator app rates 3.1 out of 5 and the branded version requires Studio Suite, its top tier.
Give Arketa its due here. Design is its strongest suit, and the app your clients see is genuinely well made. Reviewers praise how the booking experience embeds into their own website and how in-person, virtual and on-demand sit side by side. The Suite tier also bundles a branded website and Apple TV and Roku displays, which no other platform we review offers.
The split matters though. Your clients use one app and your team uses another. The Arketa app that staff live in every day is rated well below the one clients see. Ask on the demo which app your front desk will actually be working in.
The commercial difference is the deciding one. Mariana Tek includes a single branded app as standard on any plan, carrying your studio’s name rather than a shared directory listing. On Arketa the same feature sits behind the top tier, so a small studio that wants its own app has to buy the most expensive package to get it.
Winner: Mariana Tek
Which Has Better Marketing and Retention Tools?
Arketa has better marketing and retention tools for pilates studios that sell digital content, because on-demand video and online memberships are built into the core product. Mariana Tek’s marketing lives in a separate product called Xplor Growth with no published price.
Retention decides whether a pilates studio works. Memberships are expensive, the local audience is small, and one client who stays two years is worth more than three who try you for a month.
Arketa’s answer is to give clients more ways to stay connected between visits. On-demand libraries are unlimited on every plan, including the $49 solo one, and virtual classes and digital memberships are core to the platform rather than bolted on. Reviewers consistently name this as what they like most. For a studio selling an online membership alongside the reformer schedule, that is a real retention engine and Mariana Tek has nothing equivalent.
Its campaign tools sit one tier up. Email and text campaigns, automated workflows, lead pipelines and one to one texting arrive with the Studio Growth plan, which Arketa marks as its most popular. So the automation is tier-gated, but at least you can see which tier it lives in.
Mariana Tek’s marketing tools are capable. Xplor Growth covers email campaigns, two way SMS, landing pages and milestone rewards that suit pilates well. But it is a separate product with an unpublished price, so you cannot weigh it while shortlisting.
If your retention plan is purely in-studio, this section is close to a draw. If it involves digital content at all, it is not.
Winner: Arketa
Which Platform Is More Reliable?
Mariana Tek is more reliable, and it is the most important difference between the two. Arketa owners report payouts held for two to three weeks, billing failures affecting members, and bugs that return after being reported as fixed.
Software bugs are irritating. Software that sits on your money while payroll is due is a different category of problem, and that is what Arketa’s recent reviews describe.
“They have also made payouts nearly impossible, and have held my money for 2-3 weeks now.”
The same reviewer reported her annual plan being raised without notice. Others describe billing problems costing them members, and a sales process that overstated what the product could do. One owner put the underlying complaint sharply, writing that the customers are the test subjects in a live environment.
There is a pattern in the timing. The negative reviews cluster after the middle of 2025, the same period in which Arketa raised its Series A and grew headcount quickly. That is a company under strain rather than a company that has always been this way, which matters if you are judging where it will be in a year.
Mariana Tek is not flawless. Its onboarding gets consistent praise and its ongoing support gets mixed reviews, with some owners describing issues that dragged on. But there is no comparable pattern of held money or billing failures.
Winner: Mariana Tek
Who Is Behind Mariana Tek and Arketa?
Mariana Tek is owned by Xplor Technologies, a software group serving around 25,000 customers, which sells software and nothing else. Arketa is a venture-backed startup that has also opened its own pilates and strength studio at 31 Bond Street in Manhattan.
Arketa announced the studio on its own Instagram account and positions it as a place to test features and innovate. Its website also tells studio owners that its team has run studios themselves, which it offers as a reason to trust the product.
There is a fair case for this. Software built by people who work a front desk is usually better software, and plenty of good companies use their own product in the real world. Arketa is open about it rather than hiding it.
Two things are still worth weighing. The first is focus. A company whose reviews currently describe held payouts and recurring bugs is also spending money and leadership attention on opening a physical studio in one of the most expensive retail markets in the world. Whether that is confidence or distraction is a judgement, but it is a fair question to ask on a sales call.
The second only applies to a small number of readers, and it applies sharply. If you run a pilates studio in lower Manhattan, your software vendor is now a competitor in your catchment area. Most studio owners are nowhere near Bond Street and this will not affect them at all. If you are, it is worth thinking about.
Mariana Tek’s ownership brings a different set of trade offs, covered in our Mariana Tek and Momence comparison, since both belong to the same parent company.
Winner: Mariana Tek
Which Pilates Studios Should Choose Mariana Tek?
Choose Mariana Tek if your income comes from classes and sessions taught in your studio, and you need the software to be boring and dependable.
Mariana Tek fits your studio if
- Nearly all your revenue is taught in the room
- Payroll depends on payouts arriving on schedule
- You want a branded app without a separate monthly charge
- You run more than one location, or plan to
- You want a price that does not jump at renewal
- You are joining a franchise network, since several already run on it
The trade offs are real. Mariana Tek costs more to start, takes three to six weeks to implement, and its appointment booking is the youngest part of the platform. If you need to open in a month, that timeline is a genuine obstacle.
Which Pilates Studios Should Choose Arketa?
Choose Arketa if digital content is part of your business model, or if you are opening imminently and need to be taking bookings within days.
Arketa fits your studio if
- You sell on-demand video, an online membership or hybrid classes
- You are launching soon and cannot wait weeks to go live
- Design and the look of your client experience matter more than depth
- You want booking embedded directly into your own website
- Your cash position can absorb a payout arriving late
That last point is not a throwaway. Before you sign, work out what happens to your business if a payout lands three weeks after you expected it. If the answer is that payroll is at risk, this is the wrong platform for you regardless of how good the app looks.
Bottom Line
Mariana Tek wins for most pilates studios, on reliability rather than a clean sweep of features. Arketa is the better platform for studios building a digital business alongside the studio, and the cheaper one in year one, but its recent reviews describe money problems that a studio owner cannot afford to gamble on.
Arketa genuinely wins two things. Its on-demand and digital tools are better than Mariana Tek’s, and it gets you live faster and cheaper. If your business plan involves selling content as well as classes, that is not a small advantage.
But most pilates studios earn their money from reformers and instructors in a room. For those studios, the deciding question is not which platform looks nicer. It is which one pays you on time and works the same way every Saturday. On that question the evidence is one-sided.
Neither platform was built specifically for pilates. If that is what you want, our rankings of the best pilates studio software cover the ones that were.
Common Questions About Mariana Tek and Arketa
Is Arketa cheaper than Mariana Tek?
Arketa is cheaper to start, and its studio plans pay standard Stripe rates rather than a platform surcharge on top. It is not reliably cheaper over time, because owners report renewal increases arriving without notice, including one reported rise of 70 percent. Arketa publishes only its $49 solo plan; all studio pricing on both platforms is quoted on a demo.
Does Arketa charge a transaction fee on top of Stripe?
Only on its Individual plan, which is aimed at solo teachers and carries a 3 percent fee on top of Stripe. Studio plans pay standard Stripe rates with no Arketa surcharge, which is more competitive than several platforms in this category.
Why do Arketa reviews mention held payouts?
Multiple studio owners on Capterra report Arketa holding their money for two to three weeks, with one describing payouts as nearly impossible. The complaints cluster in reviews from 2025 and 2026. If your studio runs a tight payroll cycle, model what a delay of that length would do before you sign.
Does Arketa run its own pilates studio?
Yes. Arketa has opened a pilates and strength studio at 31 Bond Street in Manhattan, announced on its own Instagram account, and positions it as a space to test features. For studios outside that area it makes no practical difference. For a studio in lower Manhattan, the software vendor is now a local competitor.
Which is better for selling on-demand classes?
Arketa, clearly. On-demand video libraries, virtual classes and digital memberships are core to the platform, and reviewers consistently name this as its strongest feature. Mariana Tek is built around the studio floor and has nothing equivalent.
Does Mariana Tek charge extra for a branded app?
No. Mariana Tek includes a single branded app on any plan. Arketa puts its branded app in Studio Suite, the top of its four tiers, alongside a branded website and Apple TV and Roku displays. A small studio that wants its own app has to buy Arketa’s most expensive package to get one.
How long does each take to set up?
Arketa is much faster. Owners describe setup with no hoops to jump through, going live in days or a couple of weeks. Mariana Tek implementations typically take three to six weeks and sometimes longer, though the onboarding support during that period gets consistent praise.
Neither of These Was Built for Pilates
Mariana Tek and Arketa are two of the eight platforms we tested. One was built for boutique fitness at scale, the other grew out of a marketplace for individual teachers. Our rankings show which platforms were actually built for pilates studios, what each one costs, and where each one falls down.
See the Best Pilates Studio Software