Looking for a GymMaster alternative?
GymMaster runs the business side well — access, billing, admin, and 28 years doing it in New Zealand. Here’s what it doesn’t do, and what moving over actually involves.
What GymMaster does well — say this first
GymMaster is the highest-rated NZ-native gym platform in the category — 4.7/5 from 165 reviews— and that’s not a fluke. Twenty-eight years of local operation means deep support relationships and a lot of gyms who’ve genuinely never had a problem with it.
Its Professional plan covers up to 1,300 members on one plan, and if your gym has no access hardware at all, GymMaster’s one-vendor model — their hub, their readers, their install — is a genuinely tidy way to get access control and admin software from a single company.
If any of that is what you need, GymMaster is a reasonable choice, and this page won’t pretend otherwise.
What tends to drive gyms to look elsewhere
Three gaps show up repeatedly in why gyms go looking for something else:
Nothing happens between visits
GymMaster manages bookings and billing well. It doesn’t give your members anything to open between sessions — no AI companion, no nutrition tracking, no way for them to see their own progress. Members get a booking screen; the relationship stops at check-in.
The branded app is a separate line item
A member app under your own gym’s name is +$200/month plus a $600 setup fee on top of the plan price. On PATO, your gym’s branding — logo, colours — is built into the member app on every plan, no extra charge.
Door hardware only works with GymMaster
Access control runs on GymMaster’s own hub and RFID/Bluetooth readers. If a gym already has smart locks, GymMaster can’t connect to them — they’d need replacing. And if a gym ever leaves GymMaster, those readers stop working with anything else; they only ever spoke to GymMaster.
Where PATO is different
| GymMaster | PATO | |
|---|---|---|
| Member AI companion | ❌ | ✅ |
| Owner AI assistant | ❌ | ✅ |
| Nutrition tracking | ❌ | ✅ Dukgest, 11K+ verified foods |
| Exercise library with coaching data | ❌ | ✅ 2.9K+ movements, with contraindications |
| Gamification and rewards | ❌ | ✅ 58 badges, 10 levels, real rewards |
| Engagement automation | ❌ | ✅ dual-mode, unattended |
| Branded member app | +$200/mo + $600 setup | Included on every plan |
| Access hardware | Proprietary — GymMaster hub and readers only | Connects to locks you may already own, via Seam |
| Commission on member payments | Via their processing | 0% |
Add it up properly: GymMaster Advanced plus their branded app runs $410–476/month. PATO Runner is $249/month, app included, and we take nothing from what your members pay you.
What we don’t do yet
We don’t have lead management or a CRM pipeline — that’s on the roadmap. Right now PATO is the system that keeps the members you’ve already got. If finding new members is your main problem today, we’re not the whole answer.
Switching from GymMaster
It’s a spreadsheet, not a migration project. We take a CSV export of your members, map the columns, remove duplicates, and show you exactly what’s going to land before anything is committed. Most gyms are running on PATO the same week.
Your existing access hardware:if you’re on smart locks GymMaster couldn’t connect to, they very likely work with PATO through Seam. If you’re on GymMaster’s proprietary readers, those are tied to GymMaster specifically and won’t carry across — worth factoring into the timing of a switch alongside any hardware you’d need to replace either way.
FAQ
No — it’s the highest-rated NZ-native platform in the category, and for admin and access alone it’s a solid choice. The gap is what happens with your members between visits, which isn’t what GymMaster was built to do.
If it’s a smart lock — Salto, August, Yale, Schlage and a few hundred others — very likely, through our Seam connection. GymMaster’s own proprietary readers only ever worked with GymMaster and won’t transfer to any platform.
Most gyms are live within a week. We map your CSV export, remove duplicates, and confirm everything before it’s committed — you see the result before anything changes for real.
No — your member data comes across as part of the CSV migration.
Some gyms keep their existing booking system and add PATO for the engagement and AI layers alone. Talk to us about what that looks like for your setup.