StudioLAB and Presently: a real comparison.
I'm James, half-owner of a dance studio. StudioLAB and Presently are both newer dance studio platforms. Both bet that studios deserve modern, focused tools. The differences come down to how each team prioritizes and what they ship deeply.
If you're evaluating both, this is meant to help you pick well.
What StudioLAB gets right
What StudioLAB does well.
Modern, clean interface.
Like Presently, StudioLAB is built for the modern web. The interface is approachable and not the dense form-and-grid look you get from legacy tools.
Studio-focused.
StudioLAB is built for dance and arts studios specifically, not a general class-business tool retrofitted for studios. That focus shows up in the right places.
Active development.
StudioLAB is shipping. Both of us are in the "build the future" phase rather than the "maintain the past" phase, which is good for customers either way.
Where Presently is genuinely different
Real differences, honestly:
1. Built by a working studio owner.
Presently is built by me and my wife while we run our own dance studio. Every recital crisis, every parent email, every tuition edge case shows up at our studio first and gets fixed in the product. That tight feedback loop is real.
2. Deeper recital lineup tooling.
Both products handle events. Presently's lineup editor is one of the deepest in the industry: drag-to-reorder, live back-to-back conflict warnings, multi-show events with separate matinee/evening lineups, intermissions inline, PDF and Excel exports including per-number student rosters, missing-classes audit. Compare side-by-side on your specific recital workflow.
3. No payment markup.
Presently uses Stripe Connect directly. You pay Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢, we take nothing extra. Verify StudioLAB's payment processing structure — if they take a slice, that's real money over a busy month.
4. Predictable, à la carte pricing.
Presently is $49/$99/$149 month-to-month based on student count, with optional $9/mo add-ons for event management, costume management, and live chat. Lean studios stay lean. Studios that need extras pay for those specifically.
Side-by-side
Not a checkmark table. Real differences, in prose.
Who's building it
Modern studio-software team.
Built and run by a working dance studio owner.
Recital tools depth
Event tooling present; verify depth against your needs.
Drag-to-reorder lineup, conflict warnings, multi-show events, PDF/Excel exports, missing-classes audit.
Pricing
Check current StudioLAB pricing for your size.
$49, $99, or $149/month by student tier. Optional add-ons. No payment markup. Month-to-month.
What switching actually looks like
Migrating studio software is real work. Here's how we'd handle it:
A 30-minute call.
Not a sales demo. What's working in StudioLAB, what's broken, what scares you about switching.
Migration during a quiet stretch.
Not during recital, not during enrollment. Usually late summer or mid-winter. I run the data import personally.
Parallel run before cutover.
Keep StudioLAB available read-only for 30 days while Presently is primary. We fix anything missing before the full switch.
Extended trial if you need it.
Standard trial is 30 days. I'll extend it on a case-by-case basis. Nobody should be racing a clock.
Questions worth asking
How do I pick between two modern options?
Free trials of both, two afternoons each with your real data. Pay attention to what your front desk team prefers — they're the ones living in the software all day.
Can you import my StudioLAB data?
Yes. CSV exports work cleanly. I run the import personally.
How small is your company?
Small. My wife and I run a dance studio; I'm the developer.
What if it doesn't work out?
Month-to-month, cancel anytime. Clean data export.
Want to talk it through?
The best next step isn't signing up — it's a 30-minute call with me to see if Presently actually fits. Two studio owners comparing notes.