Akada Dance is shutting down and migrating its studios to Studio Pro. If you got that letter, you're already about to move software — and that's the one moment where the switching cost of going somewhere else is actually zero.
I'm James. My wife and I run a dance studio; I built the software you're reading about. This page isn't a sales pitch. It's the things I'd want to know if I were you.
Every studio owner I've talked to who stayed on the same software for 8+ years said the same thing: they knew for years it wasn't a great fit, but the pain of switching was worse than the pain of staying. So they never left.
Right now, that math is different. Your data is coming out of Akada either way. Your front-desk staff is going to learn a new interface either way. Your families are going to be told about a new portal either way. That's a real one-time cost — and it's already sunk.
The only question left: which product is the right destination? Studio Pro is the convenient default because the migration is already lined up. That doesn't mean it's the best fit for your studio.
A checklist for whichever software you look at next. Not just Presently — anyone.
Sign up as a fake family. Go through the enrollment flow. Would your parents complain about that experience? If the answer is "yeah, kind of" from software you're supposed to pay for indefinitely, you'll be right back here in three years.
Not the marketing rate. Ask for a sample transaction breakdown: card + software fee + platform fee + anything else. If they can't give you a clear number, that's the number.
Month-to-month vs. annual. Some vendors will match the length of your Akada contract and roll it over. If you're getting migrated involuntarily and then getting locked into another year, you've traded one dependency for another.
A support rep reading from a script? A founder who ran a studio? A ticket queue? None of these are wrong — but you should know which one you're getting.
Ask directly: "If I decide this isn't working in year two, what does an export look like?" You've just been through this with Akada. Do it early enough that the answer matters.
Ask specifically: "how does tuition get posted every month?" On Studio Pro (inherited from DSP), an admin opens Tuition & Statements, clicks Post Tuition to Accounts, picks "Monthly Tuition" from a dropdown, types the memo, sets the due date, clicks Post — every first of the month, every year. Software that makes you do the same 6-click ritual 12 times a year isn't automating anything. Presently posts monthly tuition automatically from a schedule you set once when the season is created.
Here's the honest version. Presently isn't the right fit for every studio — but it might be right for yours.
Not sure which side you fall on? That's what the 30-minute call is for.
Here's what the switch actually looks like. Not marketing language — the real steps.
Not a sales demo. What was working in Akada, what wasn't, what your families expect, what your front-desk needs. If Presently isn't the right fit I'll tell you and point you elsewhere.
Akada gives you a CSV export as part of the shutdown. Send it to me and I'll clean and import families, students, classes, enrollments, and ledger history myself — free, part of onboarding.
Standard trial is 30 days. For Akada migrations I'll extend it as far as we need — nobody should be racing a clock against a shutdown they didn't ask for.
A live walkthrough, plus a written cheat sheet for the front-desk. Presently is intentionally simple enough that most admins are productive in an hour — but you deserve a proper handoff.
You decide when to send the "we're on new software" email to families. I'll help draft it if that's useful. If Akada is still accessible during the transition, we can parallel-run.
Built and run by James Winter, half-owner of a dance studio in Pennsylvania. Started because the existing options weren't good enough for our own studio. Now serves multiple studios across the US. Small team, month-to-month pricing, no venture-capital pressure to hit growth targets.
Maybe. Studio Pro is a mature product with a large customer base, and if your studio depends on QuickBooks integrations or a specific costume-vendor sync they have, they're probably the right call. We wrote an honest comparison you can read: Studio Pro vs. Presently →
Payment methods can't be migrated across platforms — that's a Stripe / PCI compliance thing, not a Presently limitation. What we can do is send families a welcome email with a one-click "save your card" flow the moment we cut over. It's a small ask, and families understand once we explain why.
We're always month-to-month, so there's nothing to match — you're not signing away a year. If you were 4 months into a paid Akada year when they shut down, tell me on the call and I'll credit you the equivalent so you're not paying twice.
Cancel. Export your data cleanly (we don't hold it hostage). The only loss is the migration effort, and I'd rather find that out early than trap you.
Migrations are painful either way. Since you're already going through it, spend 30 minutes finding out if there's a better home for your studio than the one that was assigned.