Pricing a coaching business when your software charges per client

Most coaching platforms now charge in a way that grows with your roster: a base fee plus an amount per client, or price bands by client count. That is reasonable, since a bigger roster uses more of the product. But it changes the arithmetic of a coaching business, and many coaches set their prices without ever working it through.

This guide shows how to treat software as a per-athlete cost, set prices that hold their margin as you grow, and judge whether a tool earns its fee.

Step 1: work out your real cost per athlete

Start with everything you pay that scales with athletes, and everything that does not.

Fixed costs (paid regardless of roster size): your website, insurance, qualifications and continuing education, accounting, a base software fee.

Variable costs (rise with each athlete): per-client software fees, payment processing, any per-athlete extras such as testing or kit.

Then pick the roster size you are planning for and compute:

cost per athlete = (fixed costs / athletes) + variable cost per athlete

An example with round numbers. Say your fixed costs are 150 a month, your software charges a base fee that includes your first five athletes and then 4 per extra athlete, and payment processing takes 3 percent of a 120 monthly fee (3.60).

• At 10 athletes: fixed share is 15 per athlete, plus software and processing. Call it around 22.
• At 30 athletes: fixed share drops to 5 per athlete; the per-client fee and processing stay. Call it around 13.

The pattern matters more than the numbers: fixed costs fade as the roster grows, and per-client costs do not. Above a certain size, your per-client fees are most of your cost per athlete.

Step 2: price from value, check against cost

Cost sets the floor, not the price. Coaching is priced on what it is worth to the athlete: the result, the accountability, the expertise and the time you spend on them. Set the price from that, then check the margin.

A simple test: after costs, does each athlete leave enough to pay for the hours they take? If an athlete needs two hours a month of programming, review and messages, and your target hourly rate is, say, 40, they need to clear 80 after costs. If they do not, either the price is too low or the hours are too high.

That second option is where software earns its keep or does not.

Step 3: count the hours software saves, not just the fee

A per-client fee of a few pounds is small next to a coaching fee. The bigger number is time. For each athlete each month, estimate how long you spend on:

• Writing and rewriting their programme.
• Reading their logs and working out what happened.
• Chasing missing logs and checking in.
• Re-entering or interpreting watch data.

If a tool takes a meaningful share of those hours away, the hours it frees are worth far more than its fee, as long as you spend them on more athletes or better coaching rather than more admin. If a tool costs less but leaves those hours untouched, it is not the cheaper option.

Step 4: build tiers around your time, not features

Many coaches sell one price for everyone and then quietly give some athletes three times the attention of others. Per-client costs make that more expensive. Tiering by time is fairer to both sides:

• Programme only. A structured plan, monthly review, messages answered within a set window. Lowest price, lowest hours.
• Coached. Weekly review, adjustments mid-week, feedback on logs and videos.
• Close support. Frequent check-ins, call time, competition or test-day preparation.

Your software cost per athlete is roughly the same across tiers; your hours are not. Price the tiers on the hours.

Step 5: handle paused and seasonal athletes

Athletes pause: injury, holidays, a busy season at work. Two things to decide in advance:

1. What you charge a paused athlete. A reduced holding fee keeps their place and their history, and keeps the relationship warm. Nothing at all is also reasonable for short breaks.
2. What your software charges for them. Check how your platform counts clients. Some count every athlete on the roster; others count only athletes who are active, for example anyone with a session scheduled or logged in the last month. If yours counts everyone, archive paused athletes promptly or you will pay for them.

Step 6: watch the margin as you grow

As the roster grows, three things happen at once. Fixed costs per athlete fall. Per-client fees stay flat. And unless something changes, your hours per athlete stay flat too, which caps the roster at however many hours you have.

The levers for growing without your margin or your evenings collapsing are:

• Reusable templates and blocks, so a new athlete does not mean a new programme from scratch.
• Logging that athletes actually complete, so you are not chasing.
• A view that tells you who needs attention, so your review time goes where it matters. See the roster and morning briefing.
• Drafting help for programmes, which you then edit rather than write. See AI programme drafting.

When a tool is worth it

A practical test, per athlete per month: hours saved multiplied by your hourly rate, minus the per-client fee. If the answer is clearly positive and you actually use the saved hours well, the tool pays for itself. If it is negative, or the hours saved are hypothetical, it does not, whatever the feature list says.

For reference, Loadout is free for up to two active clients, then 49 USD (about 39 GBP) a month including five active clients and 5 USD (about 4 GBP) for each extra active client, counting only athletes with a session scheduled, logged or commented on in the last 30 days. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.

FAQ

Should I pass software costs on to clients as a separate fee?

Usually not. Athletes buy coaching, not software. Build the cost into your price and keep the price simple.

How many clients can one online coach handle?

It depends on the tier and on how much of your week is admin. The question to ask is how many hours each athlete takes, and how many of those hours the right tools could remove.

Is a cheaper per-client fee always better?

No. A tool that is a little more expensive but saves an hour per athlete a month is far cheaper in practice than one that saves nothing.

Run the numbers on your own roster

Start with your first two athletes on the free plan and see how many hours a block takes. Start free.