FitBUILDER vs SugarWOD: Which Platform Is Right for You?

50% of gym memberships get cancelled within 6 months. So, CrossFit® Affiliates need to do everything they can to retain clients.

Creating fitness challenges, encouraging clients to complete the workout of the day (WOD), and fostering a real sense of community can all have a major impact on retention.

FitBUILDER and SugarWOD are two platforms that help you share and create WODs, track client performance and leaderboards, and encourage social interaction.

To help you decide which platform is right for you, we dug into the nitty-gritty details. In this guide, we dive into the key differences between these two platforms. We also compare them side by side for key features so you can be sure you’re not missing out on anything you need.

What’s in this guide:

• The main difference between FitBUILDER and SugarWOD
• FitBUILDER vs SugarWOD: Feature comparisons
• FitBUILDER vs SugarWOD: Customer reviews
• FitBUILDER vs SugarWOD: Pricing

The main difference between FitBUILDER and SugarWOD

Both FitBUILDER and SugarWOD have features to help you create a library of reusable exercises and circuits to streamline your programming. These platforms make it easy to create workouts, develop a WOD calendar, track clients’ performance and progress, and display workout details on a mounted TV during class.

Either platform can be a fit for CrossFit workouts or other programs that prioritize high-intensity intervals and strength training.

However, the way that these platforms are offered is very different. SugarWOD is a stand-alone product for gym owners and coaches. The only features available are those that improve the workout experience.

FitBUILDER, on the other hand, is an add-on feature offered by WellnessLiving, a business operations platform for gyms, fitness studios, and CrossFit Affiliates. You can use WellnessLiving to manage point-of-sale, membership billing, staff schedules and more. This way, your front-end system (FitBUILDER) and back-end system (WellnessLiving) are fully integrated.

If you use SugarWOD as your front-end system for workouts, you’ll need separate software for managing the back-end of your business. This can lead to integration failures and technical complexity.

FitBUILDER vs SugarWOD: Feature comparisons

Let’s dive into the most important features and compare them side by side.

Exercise management

Both FitBUILDER and SugarWOD include exercise creation and management features so you can add new exercises—complete with descriptions, images, videos, and categories. You can review your library of exercises and search for specific ones. However, SugarWOD lacks exercise tagging. You can’t add tags or filter exercises by tags, making it harder to sort and find what you’re looking for.

Whiteboard

With FitBUILDER and SugarWOD, you’ll get a whiteboard feature that allows you to display content on your smart TV. You can showcase workout videos and details, as well as a leaderboard of your top-performing clients.

The feature is very similar across both platforms, but SugarWOD lacks an automated timer. With FitBUILDER, you can include an automated countdown and timer for the entire workout so that trainers can focus on demonstrating exercises and engaging clients.

Circuits and benchmark categories

Circuit training is a must. Both software offer features for adding circuits and managing benchmark categories.

When we compare FitBUILDER versus SugarWOD in more detail however, we find some features lacking. SugarWOD doesn’t include tags or filtering for circuits. You also can’t assign circuits to benchmark categories. Images and videos are also absent for circuits, which can lead to a lackluster workout experience.

Workout management

With both platforms, you can effortlessly add exercises and circuits to create a WOD and add it to your calendar. If you have multiple gym locations, you can use the same WOD for all locations or create a unique WOD for each one.

Both solutions make it easy to define the number of sets for each exercise and circuit, set up scoring metrics for each workout, and add coach’s notes. But WellnessLiving’s FitBUILDER provides some helpful functionality that SugarWOD lacks. With FitBUILDER, you can duplicate workouts to easily adjust them and fill your calendar. You can also add tags to workouts, save workouts as favorites, save routines, and reorder routines.

Mobile apps

Both FitBUILDER and SugarWOD offer no-code mobile apps for clients, meaning you can use these platforms to easily launch your own app without hiring a development team. The apps make it easy for clients to view the day’s workout, log their workout results, view their entire logbook, and comment on friends’ results.

Both platforms also offer staff mobile apps so your staff can access the day’s workout as well.

Sales and marketing

Here’s where WellnessLiving’s FitBUILDER and SugarWOD really split apart. SugarWOD doesn’t offer back-end operations features. But WellnessLiving is one of the most robust, customizable gym software available.

Here are some key features you’ll find in WellnessLiving:

• Membership sales
• Automated monthly billing
• In-person point-of-sale
• Product inventory management
• Email marketing
• SMS marketing
• Client segments
• Behavior-based triggers
• Push notifications (for the client app)

Payroll and staff management

By the same token, SugarWOD also doesn’t include features for managing your staff. However, if you use FitBUILDER alongside WellnessLiving, you’ll unlock everything you need.

All of these important features can be found inside WellnessLiving:

• Staff clock-ins (only when onsite, using the staff app)
• Staff schedules
• Payroll processing
• Task management
• Staff-wide announcements

FitBUILDER vs SugarWOD: Customer reviews

FitBUILDER is an add-on for WellnessLiving, which has 4.3 stars on Capterra out of 472 reviews. WellnessLiving is rated 4.4 stars on G2 out of 129 reviews.

SugarWOD is rated 4.2 stars on Capterra out of 5 reviews but is not rated on G2. As you can see, there’s not as much data available, so WellnessLiving wins out in terms of the volume and quality of online reviews.

FitBUILDER vs SugarWOD: Pricing

SugarWOD’s pricing is based on the number of athletes that you have at your gym. Keep in mind that this is the price you’ll pay for their WOD tracking and interactivity features on top of your main business operations platform.

• 61 – 75 clients: $93
• 76 – 100 clients: $104
• 101 – 125 clients: $139
• 126 – 150 clients: $157
• 151 – 175 clients: $171
• 176 – 200 clients: $187
• 201 – 250 clients: $207

Additional plans are available if your member base doesn’t fit within those tiers.

For WellnessLiving’s FitBUILDER add-on, you’ll pay a flat rate of $99 per month regardless of how many athletes you have training at your CrossFit Affiliate gym. WellnessLiving has a variety of base plans to fit any business need so you’ll never overpay for your back-end software.

All in all, both platforms are great for improving the workout experience, but if you don’t want to hassle with tech stack integrations, WellnessLiving and the FitBUILDER add-on are a better choice.

To learn more about how FitBUILDER can help you boost client retention and streamline programming, request a demo.