Most fitness businesses lose a third of their members every year, but boutique studios say they keep three in four

A 2022 claim doing the rounds says the average fitness or wellness business loses about a third of its members annually, while boutique studios reckon they hang onto three-quarters or more. This includes practices like yours, if you run memberships, sessions or classes of any kind.

Page updated: 13 Aug 2026

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Training practices that lean on community and personal relationships apparently beat the big chains on keeping people, though nobody involved has shown their working.

Original Research	A fitness industry resource claims boutique studios comfortably beat the average on member retention
Source	https://www.nexscale.ai/resource-hub/fitness-member-retention-benchmarks-2026
Overview	The page collects retention percentages for gyms and studios and argues a small lift in retention has an outsized effect on revenue, published by fitness technology company NexScale on its own resource hub.
Year	2022
Publisher	Brand, NexScale
Relevance to Wellbeing	Retention numbers speak directly to training and studio-based practices trying to justify a community-first approach, though the figures aren't independently sourced.
Our Verdict	Too early to tell The numbers are plausible enough to quote informally, but there's no named survey or method behind them.
Our Summary	The line about a 5% retention lift unlocking 25-95% more profit is a handy one for client conversations. The boutique-beats-big-box framing supports the community-first pitch quite neatly. No survey, sample size or original publisher is named anywhere on the page. The figures are US-weighted and dated 2022, despite being packaged as a "2026 benchmark".
Our Geo View	Applies broadly to all countries.

Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow

Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

Coaching: this matters because clients who feel part of something rarely leave for a cheaper app.
Therapy: this matters because a private practice built on trust already has the retention edge these numbers describe, whether or not anyone measured it properly.
Training: this matters because a personal trainer competing with a big chain gym can point to numbers like these, hedged or not.
Alternative Healing: this matters because healers relying on repeat visits benefit from any evidence that small and personal beats big and impersonal.
Clinical: this matters because clinics juggling patient numbers might find the profit-per-retention argument useful when budgeting for follow-up care.
Retreat/Centre: this matters because centres depending on repeat bookings can borrow the boutique-retention story, provided they don't quote it as gospel.

Where this came from

A fitness technology company publishes its own retention figures for gyms and studios, calling them 2026 benchmarks despite the underlying numbers dating from 2022.

NexScale resource hub, dated 2022 and presented as a 2026 benchmark report. No original study, press release or academic source could be traced.

Credibility flags: no methodology disclosed, no sample size given, no named survey behind the figures; this is a brand publishing its own unattributed claims.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

43%

Practice fit, 100How new, 10How solid, 0

Marked down mainly on how solid the method is, since nothing is disclosed, and again on how current the figures are, though it's marked up for fitting neatly into training and studio-based practice.

It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

Quote the boutique retention figure as "an industry estimate", not as established fact.
Put the 5% retention, big profit line in a newsletter, but keep the hedge word in.
Brief your team not to name NexScale if a client asks where the number came from.
Say "no verified study behind this one" before anyone else spots it.
Use the boutique-versus-big-box angle in copy, but pair it with your own client numbers where you have them.

Who this is most useful for

Practice type	Relevance	Recommended action
Coaching	Medium	Use the belonging angle in testimonials, skip the exact numbers.
Therapy	Medium	Reference retention informally, not as a cited stat.
Training	High	Use the boutique comparison directly in marketing copy.
Alternative Healing	Medium	Borrow the small-beats-big argument, drop the percentages.
Clinical	Low	Best left out of clinical marketing given the lack of method.
Retreat/Centre	High	Strong fit for repeat-booking pitches, hedge the source when using it.

Best before

Best before: revisit this one if NexScale ever publishes an actual methodology, or swap it for a verified retention survey once Sunlight Creations sources one.

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