Martial arts school management software
Protect your roster.
Reclaim your evenings.
Software that flags students going cold before they quit.
Read-only demo with sample data. Under two minutes, no signup. Dojo Forge is in beta, built school by school.
Your whole school on one screen
Attendance, belts, families, and alerts when students start going cold, handled from one screen instead of a filing cabinet. Built by an instructor.
Best for schools that have outgrown spreadsheets. Brand-new dojos can wait; established schools should not. Claim a founding spot.
Read-only live demo with sample data
Your school ready in about two minutes
Personal cell for founding schools
You forge black belts.We forge your admin work.
Out of the filing cabinet
Built for schools that run on belts, classes, families, and testing, not a generic gym CRM with a karate skin. Your school is ready in about two minutes, and a guided checklist walks you through the rest. No IT department required.
Our signature feature
Cold-student alerts
Students cool off before they quit. Repeated misses get flagged, and anyone unseen for two weeks lands on your follow-up list before they go cold for good.
Ready for belt exams
Who is past minimum time-in-rank, listed for your next belt exam without digging through the drawer.
Schedule and events
Weekly classes and one-off events in one calendar, with downloads families can subscribe to.
Roll call in seconds
Mobile-friendly attendance, mat-side or front desk. Every tap feeds the heat readings below.
Heat readings, not guesswork
Show-up rates by class and by student, hot streaks and cold spells, from last week back to last year.
Your families will love this
Built for the families too
Dojo Forge gives every family its own window into the school: belt progress, attendance, events, absences, and waivers in one place.
What families see today
- Belt progress and time to the next test
- Attendance history for each child
- Upcoming events, with who is in and who is eligible
- One-tap absence reporting that shows up on your roster
- Notes from the instructors
- Digital waiver signing, stored and exportable
Where it is heading
The portal is on its way to being the one place parents go for everything about their child's training. Next, and included for founders at no extra cost:
- Text and push notifications for closures and schedule changes (in beta)
- Training videos, right in the portal (planned)
- A pro shop, right in the portal (planned)
How the portal stacks up
What parents can do on each platform.
| For your families | Dojo Forge | Open Black Belt | Gymdesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belt progress, per child | YesTime to next test | PartlyCurrent rank only | YesIf the school enables it |
| One family login for several children | Yes | NoOne member per login | Yes |
| Attendance history | Yes | PartlyLast 50 sessions | Yes |
| One-tap absence reporting onto your roster | Yes | No | No |
| Notes from the instructors | Yes | No | No |
| Digital waiver signing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Yes Partly No
Based on each company's public site and help docs, September 2026. Tell us if something changed and we'll fix the table.
Meet the Founder
Built by an instructor, for instructors
Nic Lockleair
Founder of Tarnished Labs. Former martial arts instructor, now the one person building Dojo Forge.
Dojo Forge is built by me: no sales team, no support queue. I answer every question myself, and founding schools get my personal cell number, so if you get stuck setting up, I'm a text away. When you book a call, the person on the other end is the person who builds the software.
Founding Membership
Limited founding cohort (10 schools)
Join early and we build around your school. Everything that works in the live demo today, running on your own roster, with no setup fee. Founders get what ships next at no extra cost. After the first 10, new schools pay the full $500/month rate.
9 of 10 founders spots left
Works today
In the live demo now
- Attendance and cold-student alerts
- Belt exams and time-in-rank lists
- Family portal (progress, absences, waivers)
- Schedule, events, and dues tracking
- Guided setup checklist, no setup fee
Coming next
On the roadmap for founders
Included for founding schools at no extra cost as each piece ships. Not required to run your school on day one.
Online dues and family autopay
Card payments and family autopay, paid out to your school's own bank account, with receipts and retries on failed payments.
Automatic lead follow-up
Every new enquiry gets an email reply within seconds, then friendly check-ins for two weeks. It stops as soon as the family replies, so you take it from there.
Mobile app
Dojo Forge on iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets, for staff and families.
Check-in kiosk
A tablet at the front door where students check themselves in, even when the internet drops.
Your school, ready in minutes
Sign up and your school is ready in about two minutes. A guided checklist walks you through your classes, belts, and students.
30 days free, no money down
Your first 30 days are free, starting the day you sign up. Your card is not charged until that month ends.
$250/month for year one
After the free month you pay $250/month for the rest of year one, locked against the $500 standard rate. After year one, the standard rate applies.
Nic's personal cell number
Stuck on setup? Bugs, questions, and feature requests go straight to the person who builds the product.
30 days free, then Standard price $500, founding price $250/month
Founding rate for your first year. Then $500/month. No setup fee either way.
- Cancel anytime, including during the free month
- Card on file, not charged for 30 days
- Founding rate written into your terms
- Stripe checkout
This offer is only available to the first 10 schools. 9 spots remaining.
Your school's data is encrypted and never sold. Read our privacy policy or how we protect it.
Set up your school in a few minutes. Secure checkout by Stripe; your card is not charged until your 30 free days end. Cancel anytime. Your founding rate lock is written into your terms and conditions.
Free roster check
What is your roster leaking?
Students rarely quit loudly. They miss a class, then two, then stop coming. Put in your numbers and see what that quiet drift costs a year.
Dues walking out the door each year
$64,800
36 students a year, about 45% of today's roster, each taking a year of dues with them. Keep just 2 students a year and Dojo Forge pays for itself.
Math: quits per month × 12 × monthly dues × 12 months.
FAQ
Why $250/month when the standard rate is $500?
Founding schools pay $250/month for the rest of their first year instead of the $500 standard rate. Dojo Forge stays flat per school after that: one price, every student, every family, every instructor. And the cold-student alerts exist to protect the thing that actually costs you money. One student who quietly quits takes more revenue with them in a year than the difference in software price.
I already run everything on Excel and paper. Why switch?
A filing cabinet does not flag students who are about to quit. A spreadsheet can hold your roster, but it will not notice that a kid has missed three Tuesdays in a row and put them on your follow-up list before they go cold for good.
Is this finished software?
No, it is a beta, and that is the honest pitch. Everything in the live demo works today. Roadmap features ship as they are ready. Founding schools get the early rate because they help decide what we build next.
How hard is this to set up?
Not hard, and you do it yourself. Sign up and your school is ready in about two minutes. A guided checklist walks you through your classes, belts, and students, and you can import your roster from a spreadsheet. Founding schools get Nic's cell, so if you get stuck, he is a text away.
Do you handle billing and payments?
Dues tracking is live today: membership plans, paid-through dates, front-desk payments, and overdue flags. Online dues and family autopay, paid out to your own bank account, are built and in beta. Founders get them at no extra cost as they roll out.
Can I see it before I talk to anyone?
Yes. The live demo is open: two minutes, no signup, sample data. Click through the same dashboard, roll call, and heat readings a real school would use.
What do parents get?
Their own portal: belt progress, attendance history, upcoming events, one-tap absence reporting, notes from the instructors, and digital waiver signing.
What happens after the first year?
Your first month is free, and your founding rate of $250/month covers the rest of your first year (eleven monthly payments). After that, the standard rate of $500/month applies. Cancel anytime before then if it is not the right fit.