Kahunas vs FitBudd: the honest comparison.

Per-seat volume pricing vs a cheap, scaling start.

It is worth being honest from the start: both of these are capable, well-regarded platforms, and the overlap on the core checklist is real. Both give you a client app, a workout builder and exercise library, nutrition tracking, check-ins, in-app messaging, progress tracking, and payments through your own Stripe or PayPal with no commission taken on your client sales. So on raw features they are closer than they look at first glance. The difference is how they price and how they handle the branded app. Kahunas bills per seat: USD 5 per seat a month below 25 seats, USD 2.50 from 25, USD 2 from 50, USD 1.50 from 100, USD 1 from 200 and USD 0.50 from 1,000, with features unlocking by seat tier and the branded web app reserved for rosters of 200 seats and up. FitBudd leans the other way, toward a low entry price and per-client scaling: it starts at USD 15 for 2 clients and adds a small fee per additional client, and its signature differentiator is a fully white-labelled standalone app published on your own App Store and Google Play listing on the Super Pro tier. Neither approach is wrong. The right one depends on whether you value a per-client price that keeps falling as you grow, or a cheap start with a deeply own-listing app once you commit.

This comparison is built from each provider's own published pricing and feature pages, checked on the dates shown, and Coachway is a competitor of both. If you want the full feature checklist behind these criteria, our online coaching platform guide walks through the entire stack, and the companion piece on the best workout builder software for online coaches goes deeper on the programming side.

Pricing: per-seat tiers vs low entry plus overage.

The two price very differently. Kahunas bills per seat, where a seat is an active client or a team member who is not archived; you as the owner and your leads never take one, and the minimum is 3 seats. From 3 to 24 seats you pay USD 5.00 per seat a month, with the workout builder, nutrition plans, check-in forms, messaging, payments and packages, and wearables. From 25 seats the price drops to USD 2.50 and adds recipes, automations, leads, and Zapier and Make. From 50 seats it is USD 2.00 and adds team seats and priority support, from 100 seats USD 1.50 with challenges and communities, and from 200 seats USD 1.00 with the branded web app (checked 11 November 2026, Kahunas branded app page). If a bigger tier costs the same or less, Kahunas bills that one and you keep the spare seats, so 20 clients cost USD 62.50, 50 clients USD 100 and 100 clients USD 150 a month. Yearly billing is 20 percent off, and Kahunas offers a 14-day free trial. The appeal here is volume: the more clients you add, the less each one costs.

FitBudd matches the USD 15 headline entry price and then uses per-client overage. Starter is USD 15 per month for 2 clients, then USD 4 per additional client. Pro, its most popular plan, is USD 79 per month for 20 clients, then USD 2 each over 20, and is where branded in-app theming and a branded website begin. Super Pro is USD 149 per month for 20 clients, then USD 2 each, and adds the fully standalone white-label app on your own store listings, with a USD 75 one-time setup fee. There is also a custom Elite tier. FitBudd offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required and lists yearly plans (Pro's yearly works out to roughly two months free). Because the per-client fee compounds, the math depends heavily on how many clients you have.

The honest takeaway: do the math on your actual client count. On a handful of clients the two are close, and FitBudd Starter is slightly cheaper around 10 clients. From about 20 clients the Kahunas per-seat price comes in under FitBudd's overage (USD 62.50 at 20 clients against USD 79 on FitBudd Pro, USD 150 at 100 against about USD 239), and the gap widens as you grow. On the branded app it runs the other way: FitBudd's standalone app on Super Pro carries a one-time setup fee plus your own developer accounts but works from 20 clients, while the Kahunas branded web app starts at 200 seats and has no store listing. For a different model again, Coachway uses per-client pricing, EUR 69 per month for up to 5 active clients plus EUR 9 per additional active client, with training, nutrition, and check-ins in one; payments run through your own Stripe account, and Coachway takes 2.4% per transaction, plus Stripe's own fees. You can sanity-check that math against current Coachway pricing.

The feature differences that actually matter.

• Pricing structure. This is the clearest split. Kahunas bills per seat and the seat price drops at 25, 50, 100, 200 and 1,000 seats, so your bill rises with your roster while the cost per client falls. FitBudd starts at USD 15 but charges USD 2 to 4 per additional client on top of its plan. On a small caseload they are close; from around 20 clients Kahunas is the cheaper of the two.
• Branded client app. Both reserve the branded app for a higher level, but the path differs. On Kahunas, from 200 seats (USD 1.00 per seat a month, so at least USD 200 a month) the branded app is your logo and brand colour on the web app, plus your own yourname.kahunas.app address, email domain and menu. It installs from your link, with no App Store or Google Play listing, and below 200 seats clients use the Kahunas-branded web app (checked 11 November 2026, Kahunas branded app page and its Kahunas 2.0 post). On FitBudd, branded in-app theming starts on Pro (USD 79), while the fully standalone own-listing app is on Super Pro (USD 149) and requires a USD 75 one-time setup fee plus your own Apple and Google developer accounts. FitBudd gets you an own-listing app at a much smaller roster; Kahunas ties its branded web app to volume.
• Client caps and scaling. Kahunas has no client caps: you pay per seat (an active client or a team member), with a 3-seat minimum, and features such as recipes, automations and leads unlock from 25 seats and team seats from 50. FitBudd's tiers cover 2 or 20 clients and then charge per extra client. Coaches planning to grow may prefer Kahunas's falling seat price; coaches with small or slowly growing client bases may prefer FitBudd's low entry.
• Trial and entry. FitBudd offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, which is longer than Kahunas's 14-day trial. If you want more time to evaluate before committing, FitBudd gives you the longer runway. Both let you test the core workflow before paying.
• Payments. Here they are closely matched. Both integrate Stripe and PayPal, both let you keep the client billing relationship, and both take no commission or platform fee on your client payments (standard Stripe and PayPal processor fees still apply on either). Neither has a clear advantage on payments.
• Language. Kahunas's website is in English (kahunas.io, checked November 2026); confirm its in-app languages with Kahunas. FitBudd's client app lists seven languages in the App Store (English, Danish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish), none of them Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish. If your clients need the app in their own language, confirm it with each provider before you commit.

Which should you pick?

The decision comes down to a few honest questions: do you want a per-client price that falls with volume or a cheap start, how many clients do you have, how important is a fully standalone own-listing app, and how long do you want to test first? Here is the fair way to land it.

• You want the price per client to fall as you grow. Kahunas. It bills per seat, from USD 5 a seat below 25 seats down to USD 1 from 200 and USD 0.50 from 1,000, so 50 clients cost USD 100 a month and 100 clients USD 150.
• You want the cheapest possible start on a small caseload. It is close. FitBudd Starter is USD 15 per month for 2 clients and the Kahunas 3-seat minimum is also USD 15; at 10 clients FitBudd Starter is a little cheaper (about USD 47 against USD 50).
• You have a large client base. Kahunas. Its per-seat price falls with volume, so it comes in well under FitBudd's overage: USD 150 against about USD 239 a month at 100 clients.
• You want a fully standalone app on your own App Store and Google Play listing. FitBudd, for most rosters. It makes the standalone app the centerpiece on Super Pro (USD 149 for 20 clients, with a USD 75 setup fee and your own developer accounts), while Kahunas has no store listing and offers its branded web app from 200 seats (at least USD 200 a month). Pick based on your roster size and whether you need an app under your own App Store and Google Play listing.
• You want the longest free trial to evaluate. FitBudd, with a 30-day no-card trial, gives you more time than Kahunas's 14-day trial.
• You want training, nutrition, and check-ins in one and a client app in your clients' own language. Coachway is built for this: training, nutrition, and weekly check-ins in one workflow, 1,100+ recipes and 3,900+ ingredients built in, your own Stripe, and a client app in eight languages, the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and German versions reviewed by native speakers rather than machine-translated.

Still weighing it up? Our walkthrough on choosing an online coaching platform turns this into a step-by-step shortlist, and our Coachway vs Kahunas and Coachway vs FitBudd comparisons go deeper if either of these is on your shortlist next to Coachway.

Already on Kahunas and weighing a move? Read what changed in Kahunas 2.0 and our guide on how to switch from Kahunas, or see the Coachway offer for coaches leaving Kahunas: free migration by our team in one day and your first month free.

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