When it comes to running a successful dance studio, your team knows that you’ll need all hands on deck. However, even with everyone on your team working diligently towards your goals, you might find yourself overwhelmed with everything on your plate.
Rather than overextending your staff, use dance studio software that streamlines all of your operations. The right software makes it easy to smoothly manage your business, allowing you to strengthen relationships with your students and boost retention rates—leading to more revenue to fuel your growth.
Here’s our roundup of the top 10 dance software providers to help you find the perfect tool for your business:
- DanceStudio-Pro: Best Dance Studio Software Overall
- HubSpot: Best Dance Studio Software for General Marketing
- QuickBooks: Best Australian Dance Software for Budgeting
- ChoreoMaker: Best Dance Management Software for Choreography
- Teachable: Best Dance Studio Software for Virtual Lessons
- MailChimp: Best Dance Software for Email Marketing
- Help4Dancers: Best Dance Studio Software for Mental Wellness
- Monday.com: Best Australian Dance Software for Project Management
- Audacity: Best Dance Studio Software for Music Editing
- LightConverse: Best Dance Software for Lighting Design
Backed by the support of a comprehensive dance studio solution, you’ll be well-prepared to take your business strategy to the next level.
1. DanceStudio-Pro: Best Dance Studio App Overall
Overview of this Australian Dance Studio Software
DanceStudio-Pro is the leading dance studio software on the market. As an all-in-one payments, communications, and management tool, DanceStudio-Pro was designed by dance professionals for dance professionals to reduce administrative burden and maximise efficiency.
Since its founding, DanceStudio-Pro has helped over 5,000 dance studios streamline day-to-day tasks so they can meet revenue goals and focus on what matters most: fostering their students’ love of dance. Best of all, DanceStudio-Pro’s platform is fully scalable and will grow with your business.
DanceStudio-Pro simplifies operations for your staff, students, and dance families. With their out-of-the-box mobile apps and user-friendly payment options, your studio will never have to worry about your audience feeling disconnected. Armed with DanceStudio-Pro, you can fuel engagement and raise inspiring revenue numbers year-round!
Top Features
Whether you’ve owned your dance studio for 10+ years or are just starting out, DanceStudio-Pro comes fully equipped with the features you need to transform your business:
Classes
Make registration a breeze for your studio and its families with DanceStudio-Pro’s intuitive class scheduling solution. Using DanceStudio-Pro’s online platform, your dance parents can select the term and class they intend to enrol their students in within moments and electronically sign waivers ahead of time.
On your studio’s side, you’ll get a 360-degree view of each registered student, allowing you to view important information like their payments and charges, communication history, and history of all classes taken. Plus, your teachers can leverage the Class Manager App on their smartphone or tablet to conveniently track attendance and access lesson plans.
Communication
Whether you’re promoting your latest dance fundraiser or want to share an important update with your hip-hop students, DanceStudio-Pro makes it simple to stay in touch with your dance families. Using Robo-Mailer™ and Robo-Texter™, your studio can power off messages in seconds that families can access by email or text.
You’ll also have the option to reach your dance parents with DanceStudio-Pro’s powerful mobile apps: Studio Manager App (designed for studio managers, owners, and teachers) and Portal App (designed for dance parents, guardians, and adult members). With Studio Chat (available with Premier), you can segment messages by classes or groups and get in touch with your dance families in an instant.
Dance family management
The Parent Portal isn’t just advantageous for direct communication! Using this intuitive, mobile-friendly server, dance family members can manage their students’ information on the go. Specifically, they can submit tuition payments, order costumes, view their students’ weekly schedules, and more.
On your studio’s end, you can oversee your dance students by tracking class assignments, absences, medical notes, and any other relevant data points. DanceStudio-Pro also empowers your team to automatically generate reports so you always have the full picture of active and inactive students, with accompanying information like their birthdays, years of membership, and class history.
Tuition and payments
DanceStudio-Pro is specifically designed to make payment collection simple and secure for customers in Australia and New Zealand. This top dance management software accepts all major credit cards and supports BECS for direct debiting dance families with auto-pay. Plus, DanceStudio-Pro integrates with Stripe to protect your clients’ private information from data leaks and safeguard your studio from fraud.
DanceStudio-Pro also empowers dance studios to easily add Goods and Services Tax (GST) to their tuition rates and fees. This way, your dance studio can remain legally compliant with tax provisions in your area and ensure all invoices are accurate.
Concert ticketing and management
Planning a concert shouldn’t feel overwhelming! With DanceStudio-Pro, you can take the stress out of showcasing your students’ talent by defining acts and act managers, creating visual stage flows, and organising music by act. Plus, you can sell all costumes on the Point of Sale system for an easy and convenient payment experience.
DanceStudio-Pro also allows you to seamlessly sell tickets for your concerts from your custom-branded portal to ramp up sales and reach large audiences. Customise ticket limits or allow your parents unlimited purchases to bring in as much revenue as possible!
Pricing
DanceStudio-Pro offers two pricing packages depending on your needs and the extent of features you’ll need. This includes the Essentials package (priced at $45 USD), which comes with all the core DanceStudio-Pro features customers love, and the Premier package (priced at $75 USD), which includes bonus features like individualised user settings, Studio Chat to message parents, and Zapier integrations.
Connect with the DanceStudio-Pro sales team to learn more or try out a free 30-day trial today!
2. HubSpot: Best Dance Studio Software for General Marketing
Overview of this Dance Management Software
HubSpot is a multi-faceted CRM that comes with a full suite of marketing tools to amplify your business. Need a way to organise your email campaigns to prospective students? HubSpot has you covered with its email personalization and lead nurturing capabilities! Hoping to create engaging landing pages? HubSpot comes with user-friendly design tools to bring your vision to life.
This marketing platform is recommended for dance studios with room in their budget to advance their marketing efforts. With HubSpot, you’ll have a series of comprehensive marketing tools under one roof, making it easier to organise your promotional campaigns.
Top Features
HubSpot offers the following features to dance studios:
- Live chat: As soon as visitors land on your dance studio’s website, a HubSpot-powered chat box pops up that allows them to ask questions and receive automated customer support. This is a great way to nurture leads and teach prospective students and families about your business without having to do any work yourself.
- Marketing automation: HubSpot supports your dance studio in creating custom, targeted workflows to move customers down the funnel. Plus, you can automate email drip campaigns, lead scoring, follow-up messaging, and more.
- Dashboards and reporting: Get a 360-degree view into how your marketing strategy is performing at any time with HubSpot’s detailed dashboards and reporting tools. By generating data insights, you can develop an informed marketing plan to boost touchpoints, drive conversions, and strengthen relationships.
HubSpot also offers 24/7 customer support to help familiarise your team with their tools and maximise their platforms. If you have any questions, you’ll get them automatically answered so you can hit the ground running.
Pricing
HubSpot offers several different pricing packages, including a free package with limited features, a Starter package starting at $18/month (USD), a Professional package starting at $800/month, and an Enterprise package starting at $3,600/month. Take their free tools for a spin so you can determine if you want to make an investment.
3. QuickBooks: Best Australian Dance Software for Budgeting
Overview of this Australian Dance Studio Software
Managing your business’s finances can feel difficult and overwhelming, and the founders behind QuickBooks created their platform with this in mind. Quickbooks is an accounting platform that helps businesses manage and pay bills, track finances, send out invoices, set up benefits for your employees, and much more. By pairing QuickBooks with your dance studio software, you can stay on top of your finances and secure a sustainable future.
Top Features
QuickBooks comes with the following key features and capabilities to support your financial management:
- Auto payroll: With QuickBooks, you never have to worry about your staff getting paid on time! Using auto payroll, your employees will automatically receive their paychecks at preset dates or time windows. You can also review and approve each paycheck before they’re sent out.
- Cash flow planning: QuickBooks empowers your business to see all of your balances on one dashboard, eliminating the need for unorganised spreadsheets. This includes your cash flow statements, income statements, and balance sheets. Plus, you never have to make guesses about the current state of your business because this software predicts cash flow up to 90 days in advance.
- Cost tracking calculator: With Quickbooks, you’ll receive instant insights into whether your different offerings are profitable or holding your business back. You can then use this information to inform your revenue plan.
Need to manage your finances on the go? No problem! Quickbooks also offers a mobile app where you can store pictures of receipts, invoice customers, access accounting reports, and more. All of your data will be backed up so you can access it across different devices.
Pricing
QuickBooks has multiple pricing plans available. The Simple Start plan begins at $15/month (USD) and comes with standard capabilities like cash flow tracking and invoicing. However, if you’re interested in a more advanced offering, consider upgrading to the Essentials ($30/month), Plus ($45/month), or Advanced package ($100/month).
4. ChoreoMaker: Best Dance Management Software for Choreography
Overview of this Dance Software
Gearing up to host a concert or new act for an upcoming competition? ChoreoMaker makes it easy to design and plan out choreography for even the most complicated routines. This dance studio software empowers choreographers to record group arrangements and pathways. Then, your choreographer can play this as an animation with the accompanying music to determine what’s working and what isn’t.
Top Features
ChoreoMaker stands out as a top choreography solution because it simplifies the planning process for any number. With ChoreoMaker, your choreographer can:
- Envision routines of all dance types: Whether you’re putting together a breakdancing routine with over 25 dancers or an intimate ballroom routine, this dance software lets you break down and rearrange dances from any discipline.
- Adjust formations: Envision formation lines using grid features so you can figure out the ideal line-up for your routine. You can rotate your formation, customise the floor, and make any other necessary adjustments until you end up with a clear blueprint for a show-stopping dance performance!
- Access user-friendly mobile tools: ChoreoMaker is available as a mobile app so you can choreograph your routines from anywhere, at any time. Simply download this powerful solution from Google Play or the App Store to get started!
Arranging groundbreaking performances doesn’t have to be complicated. ChoreoMaker digitises the whole process so you can effectively work out kinks in your routine and come up with well-designed movements.
Pricing
This choreography solution is cost-friendly and available for $10.99 (USD). Download it where you usually purchase apps on your smartphone to get started.
5. Teachable: Best Dance Studio Software for Virtual Lessons
Overview of this Australian Dance Studio Software
Teachable is a great software option for your business if you’re thinking about hosting virtual dance classes. This online learning platform allows you to build intuitive courses, sell them using a subscription pricing model, and connect with wide audiences throughout Australia and beyond. Because your students can be anywhere in the world, you can leverage Teachable to bring in extra revenue on top of your in-person offerings!
Top Features
Teachable can make virtual courses one of your key business offerings with the following features:
- AI Hub: Need help coming up with curriculum or lesson plans? Leverage Teachable’s built-in AI Hub to ideate and get the creative juices flowing. This is a great tool if you’re planning to teach dance basics in a more traditional class structure, like helping students learn dance vocabulary terms, the history of dance in Australia, or other relevant topics.
- Subscription model: Set up a simple subscription model using Teachable to steadily bring in revenue. Your students will have access to your courses and materials as long as they continue to pay a predetermined fee.
- Tax handling: Teachable handles processing sales tax on your behalf, cutting your accounting work in half.
You can also strategically leverage Teachable to expand your contact list of prospective customers. For example, you might offer free dance resources in exchange for an email address. Then, add these individuals to a “welcome” email drip campaign to introduce them to your studio and potentially bring in more students in person!
Pricing
Teachable offers a few different pricing options to bring your online courses to life. These include a free version where you can try out the software (and earn funds!) before paying, the Basic package that includes foundational tools (priced at $39/month USD), the Pro package with more advanced features ($119/month USD), and the Pro+ that is ideal for fast-growing businesses ($199/month USD).
6. Mailchimp: Best Dance Software for Email Marketing
Overview of this Dance Software
Even as social media and texting expand as key communication tools, email remains a central marketing channel that always drives results you can count on. Mailchimp is the premier dance software for honing your email marketing strategy and empowering your organisation to nurture leads, build strong relationships, and drive conversions. Market your concerts, new classes, upcoming fundraising events, and more with email—the possibilities are endless!
Top Features
This powerful dance studio marketing solution comes with these key capabilities:
- AI-generated insights: Not sure where to start with your next email campaign? Mailchimp analyses your existing subscriber data to suggest content that will resonate with your audience.
- Intuitive email builder: Creating engaging emails shouldn’t be difficult! With Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop editor, you can add a variety of visuals (like images and videos) to your email content to catch the eye, as well as headings, body text, and any other relevant features.
- Comprehensive data reporting tools: Mailchimp provides detailed reports of how your email marketing strategy is performing at any given moment so you can turn data insights into action and make necessary adjustments.
Remember, the most successful dance studios take a multichannel approach to increase touchpoints with customers and keep your studio on everyone’s radar. Use email to point people to your website, social media accounts, and any other relevant platforms so you have a higher likelihood of driving conversions.
Pricing
Mailchimp has a one-month free trial available for its Essentials and Standard packaging, priced at $13/month USD and $20/month respectively. There is also the Premium package (priced at $350/month USD) which is recommended for businesses eager to scale fast. Check out the Mailchimp pricing page for more information.
7. Help4Dancers: Best Dance Studio Software for Mental Wellness
Overview of this Dance Management Software
Physical and mental wellness is essential to any dancer’s success at your studio, and the creators behind Help4Dancers designed their software with this in mind. This forward-thinking tool uses the expertise from psychotherapists and counsellors to offer a variety of questionnaires, resources, and advice to holistically support your dancers.
By adding this tool to your toolkit, you show your dancers that you truly care about them and want them to be both physically and mentally fit.
Top Features
Help4Dancers comes with the following comprehensive features to support your students:
- A variety of wellness-focused audio and video content: Help4Dancers houses a wealth of resources developed by mental health professionals and advocates, including advice on injury prevention and maintenance contributed by osteopaths and physiotherapists. It also offers mental wellness information from therapists.
- High-quality written content: Along with audio and video content, Help4Dancers comes with health check-in questionnaires, daily affirmations, worksheets, and more written resources to help dancers focus on their mental health.
- Strength and conditioning sessions: As part of their holistic approach to wellness, Help4Dancers also comes with physical training sessions led by professional coaches. This will ensure your dancers’ mind and body are ready for what’s to come!
Help4Dancers also has a mobile component so your dancers can prioritise their wellness wherever they are. Make sure to supplement these teachings with your own lessons on wellness in your in-person classes!
Pricing
Help4Dancers is free to download on the App Store and Google Play, but there is a subscription fee to access their resources. Encourage your students to download this tool today to become emotionally strong and confident!
8. Monday.com: Best Australian Dance Software for Project Management
Overview of this Dance Software
Monday.com is an all-in-one project management platform designed to boost your team’s productivity, optimise workflows, and organise your day-to-day operations. Using this dance studio software, you can easily create tasks that align with your greater business goals, assign respective point people, set deadlines, and much more. Whether you’re planning out your next dance fundraiser or hosting your year-end concert, Monday.com streamlines the entire process.
Top Features
Monday.com comes with these tools to stay on top of your projects and bring them from ideas to action:
- Automated workflows: Monday.com ensures your projects continue to pick up steam by automatically passing tasks off to the next relevant team member. This takes the guesswork out of when your employees or volunteers should start their work and keeps motivations high.
- Data-based insights: Using real-time dashboards, you’ll always have the full picture of how your team is performing and what you can do to optimise your project management. By centralising all of your most important data in one place, you never have to dig to find performance metrics! You can then use these insights to hone your approach as needed.
- Custom forms: Monday.com offers a user-friendly form builder so you can create important forms for your students and dance families, including waivers, dance registration forms, late tuition notices, and more. Customise your prompts for your forms and set deadlines so your dance families can act promptly.
Monday.com also has 200+ integrations so you can easily sync this platform with your central dance studio software and any other tools.
Pricing
Monday.com offers a limited free version that may work for small teams that only want to use this tool to supplement their existing project management. If you want access to this platform’s more advanced capabilities, you could choose from the Basic plan ($8 USD per team member every month), Standard ($12 USD per team member every month), Pro ($19 USD per team member every month), and Enterprise (custom quote).
9. Audacity: Best Dance Studio Software for Music Editing
Overview of this Dance Management Software
One of the most important elements of a strong dance routine is the music. To help you create inspiring tracks that will complement your dance numbers, leverage Audacity’s intuitive music editing tools. This comprehensive and simple software can be used by people who don’t have any music editing experience and will help them grow into audio production experts!
Top Features
Audacity has these built-in capabilities to make arranging your music as easy as possible:
- Variety of audio effects: Audacity empowers users to get creative with sound and plug in several different effects to turn a regular tune into a show-stopping track. For example, you can change the duration of audio clips while maintaining proper pitch, align audio clips with the musical tempo of your project, add sound effects, and more. Since this platform is designed with beginners in mind, it’s simple and quick to make adjustments.
- Exporter: Audacity allows your dance studio to easily export your completed audio file and save it to your files for safekeeping. A best practice is backing up your file using a flash drive or data cloud.
- User-driven forum: Have questions or looking for inspiration from fellow users? Audacity hosts a user-driven forum where users can build community and learn from one another.
Whether you need a fun and original beat for your hip-hop class or an attention-grabbing sound effect for your Halloween number, Audacity has you covered.
Pricing
Audacity is a fully free tool and is available to download from their website. Encourage your dance teachers and choreographers to try out this editing solution the next time they need a specific sound.
10. LightConverse: Best Dance Software for Lighting Design
Overview of this Australian Dance Studio Software
LightConverse takes your lighting design to the next level for your performances and concerts, empowering your team to accurately map out lighting effects throughout the routine. Their 3D technology, realism, and speed allow you to effectively piece together what your number will look like and how you can optimise it without having to do any work offline. This solution is advanced and recommended for dance studio professionals with technical know-how and experience.
Top Features
This lighting design platform comes with a variety of tools to put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to effectively planning your showcases, including:
- Theatre visualisation: LightConverse uses fast and realistic visualisation techniques to inform your lighting design. Use their digital lighting tools to play around with your options and see what will most enhance your dance routines.
- Virtual 3D mapping: Model your theatre or competition site using 3D rendering and mapping. This gives you the most accurate picture of what your dance number will look like, which you can work with to create the right lighting choices.
- Real-time accurate beam focus: LightConverse uses accurate lighting design tools so you can understand exactly how different lighting decisions will affect the look of your performance.
If your dance studio often uses complicated lighting displays in your routines, LightConverse can be a good software solution to add to your toolkit.
Pricing
Get in touch with the LightConverse team to learn more about pricing options for this powerful lighting software.
Wrapping Up
There are many dance studio software solutions on the market. However, investing in a fully comprehensive platform like DanceStudio-Pro can help you meet all of your needs and take your business to new heights in no time. Soon enough, you’ll be shattering your business goals, strengthening customer relationships, and boosting retention!
Eager for more information on optimising your dance studio? Explore these additional resources:
- Premier Dance Studio Software for Australian Studios: Take a look at the specific features and solutions that make DanceStudio-Po the best software on the market.
- Tips for Dance Studio Owners: 9 Best Practices for Success: If you’re a dance studio owner, read this guide to learn how to effectively manage your business and improve results.
- Dance Studio Marketing: 12 Ideas to Promote Your Business: A strong marketing plan can help you amplify your reach and increase student acquisition rates. Check out our favourite ideas to boost your marketing efforts.