Aforo for academies
Allocate September's places and get your academy's year in order
In September, forty people have signed up for the Tuesday group and the room has eighteen spaces. That's where Aforo starts.
Aforo runs the calendar, payments and student list for an academy that teaches group classes with a regular weekly spot: dance, music, art, theatre or arts and crafts.
It also handles the term, each month's membership and September's pre-enrolment. It was born in 2025 inside a pottery studio, with no previous experience of dance.
What a dance school can use is its engine for recurring courses.
Write to us and we'll reply within one working day. Please note that Aforo works in Spanish: the dashboard, your booking page and the emails your students receive.
Google's first page
Which academy software works if you teach weekly group classes
The top eight results for “software academia” in Spain sell the administration of a training centre: enrolment, student records, marks, school reports, invoicing and communication with families.
They take the class itself for granted. One of the eight is a comparison site, not a program at all.
- 9
- websites read
- the eight on the first page, plus Kydemy, on 26 August 2026
- 0
- allocate places
- none says what happens when more people sign up than there are spaces
- 1
- was born in an academy
- Kydemy, which started out helping a dance school with its admin
Their pages for each type of school carry the name of the discipline and little else.
Playoff Informática's page for dance academies shows dance school logos. It doesn't mention the end-of-year show, levels, age groups or the sibling discount.
Ender's page for music academies says it serves conservatoires and cultural centres. It doesn't mention the instrument, the one-to-one lesson or the recital.
The example Playoff uses to explain its own academic structure is “Inglés B1 lunes 16-17h” (English B1, Mondays 4 to 5 pm). All three pages were checked on 26 August 2026.
The academic year, June to June
Six moments when an academy has money at stake, and what Aforo does at each one. All six are features that are built and in production.
01In June
Pre-enrolment opens and nobody pays anything
You publish the year's groups and each student signs up with their preferred time and two alternatives. Pre-enrolment charges nothing; it only records who wants what.
02In September
Places are allocated by seniority
Aforo ranks everyone who signed up by how long they've been with you and proposes the allocation: who gets into the Tuesday group, who moves to their second choice and who goes on the waiting list.
You confirm it, and then the regular places are issued.
03In October
The whole term is created in one go
Then you take out the long weekend or the week you're closed, without taking apart the rest of the series or pushing anyone out of their group.
04Every Tuesday
The student's spot is a real booking
It takes up capacity, appears on the day's list and gets its reminder.
A student who tells you they're missing one Tuesday stays on the course, and that absence is marked: the mark later decides whether they're owed a make-up class.
05On the 1st
The membership issues its receipt
Arrears are in plain sight, part-payments are allowed and you can waive a month with the reason noted down. Someone who joins on the 12th pays from the 12th.
A payment is recorded when it's made, by card through your Stripe or Redsys account or by hand at the front desk. Aforo doesn't send direct debits to the bank.
06When someone is off
You see what needs cover before there's a gap
You mark the absence and see straight away which classes are left with nobody to teach them.
Aforo doesn't cancel anything on its own; it shows you the affected sessions and you decide. Covering a single class doesn't touch the rest of the series.
The room sets the limit, and four ways of booking fit inside it
If the room has eighteen spaces, you sell eighteen. Two classes at the same time share the room without selling twice the places, and the same goes for pianos, easels or the barre.
The check happens in the database, so two people can't end up with the same spot even if they tap at the same moment.
Regular weekly spot
The place in the group, week after week, with its reminder and the day's list.
Full course
Eight sessions bought in one go that enrol the student in all eight.
Drop-in class
The Saturday masterclass or the Easter intensive, with a set number of places.
One-to-one session
The private lesson, with slots worked out around the room it needs.
All four draw on the same places and share the same calendar, which is what happens in a real academy: the Tuesday group, the eight-session course, the Saturday masterclass and the private lesson.
When we're not your program
Eight reasons not to sign up with us, with what the others do next to each one. If any of them is non-negotiable for your academy, better to know now than in October.
Marks, averages and school reports
- Aforo today
- Doesn't have them, and none are planned
- Of the nine websites
- 6 of the 9 sell them
Certified invoicing (Veri*Factu)
- Aforo today
- Issues receipts and an export with the net amount and VAT for your accountant
- Of the nine websites
- 4 of the 9 sell it
Direct debit through the bank (SEPA)
- Aforo today
- Issues the receipt; payment comes in through your Stripe or Redsys account, or by hand
- Of the nine websites
- 5 of the 9 collect by direct debit
An app with your school's name in the app store
- Aforo today
- Student portal in the browser, with nothing to install
- Of the nine websites
- 4 of the 9 have their own app
Virtual campus, videos and online classes
- Aforo today
- Doesn't have it
- Of the nine websites
- 5 of the 9 sell it
Clocking in and out for your teachers
- Aforo today
- Records absences and holidays, which isn't a record of working hours
- Of the nine websites
- 2 of the 9 advertise it
Trying the program on your own before talking to anyone
- Aforo today
- The way in is a 20-minute demo
- Of the nine websites
- 3 of the 9 offer a trial: Ender 1 month, Playoff 15 days, Kydemy 14
Languages, civil service exams, driving lessons or school tutoring
- Aforo today
- Aforo isn't built for that
- Of the nine websites
- The top 8 results for “software academia” are built for it
The nine websites were read on 26 August 2026: Academity, Acadesoft, AcademyGest, OfiELE, Ender, MN Program, Playoff Informática, the comparison site SoftDoit and Kydemy.
This column says what their pages published that day, not what their software has inside. If any of them has changed, write to us and we'll correct the row.
Kydemy, a case apart
Of the nine, one really is about this. Kydemy was born helping a dance academy, organises what it offers by activity and publishes testimonials with names and schools.
It also gives each school its own subdomain, as Aforo does. Against Kydemy there's no gap in positioning, only differences in how things work.
As of 26 August 2026, its website says nothing about capacity tied to the room or about allocating places by seniority when a group opens. It says nothing either about pricing by type of attendee within the same session.
And it publishes three things Aforo doesn't have: its own app with your school's name, a grading system and a fourteen-day trial.
Four things to ask about
- If you have two premises, tell us. Running more than one location hasn't been checked in the dashboard, and we'd rather answer you in writing than answer you in a hurry.
- Levels are asked for at enrolment and show up on the day's list, but they don't block an enrolment: anyone who wants to sign up for advanced will be able to.
- The program is only in Spanish. There's no Catalan, Galician or English version.
- We move the data from your previous program ourselves, by hand, with a deadline in writing. There's no import button.
Which plan an academy needs
An academy with more than one teacher using the calendar needs the Estudio plan, because assigning permissions starts there. All three come with 0% commission per booking and none has a minimum term. Prices excluding VAT.
- €29
- Taller · per month
- The core: calendar, classes, payments, customers and reports, with Memberships and your dates on your own website.
- €49
- Estudio · per month
- Plus six more modules: Pieces, Passes, Gift vouchers, Coupons, Your own email address and Enrolments.
- €69
- Escuela · per month
- Plus four more: Quotes, Conversations, connection to other tools and Integrations.
What the others cost
Five of the nine websites publish their price, and none of the five goes below Aforo's €29. MN Program also starts at €29 a month.
AcademyGest, from €30 plus €25 for the virtual campus and a €15 sign-up fee. Playoff, from €34.95 excluding VAT for up to 150 active student records.
Ender, from €35 with no limit on students, and Kydemy, from €40 for up to 100 students. Checked on 26 August 2026; AcademyGest points out that its figures don't include indirect taxes.
Three of the nine offer a trial and Aforo doesn't: here the way in is a 20-minute demo.
And the cap, which is the right question
The competition counts students or active records, and Aforo counts nothing: no plan cuts you off by volume. Whether you enrol thirty students or three hundred, you pay the same fee and your calendar never gets locked.
What changes from one plan to another is which extras come switched on. The full table is on the pricing page, and all 58 features are in the full catalogue.
In short
What you need to know about Aforo if you run an academy, in one paragraph.
Aforo is booking and membership software for an academy that teaches group classes with a regular weekly spot: dance, music, art, theatre or arts and crafts.
When you open the new year, pre-enrolment collects each student's preferred time and two alternatives and allocates the places by seniority; you confirm the allocation.
The Tuesday group is a real booking: it takes up capacity, appears on the day's list and gets reminders.
The whole term is created at once, and then the long weekends are taken out.
Each month the membership issues its receipt, arrears are in plain sight and the month someone joins is pro-rated.
The room sets the number of places, so two classes at the same time don't sell twice the spaces.
Aforo (aforoapp.com) costs €29, €49 or €69 a month, plus VAT and with no commission per booking.
It doesn't handle marks, school reports or direct debits, and it isn't built for language schools or driving schools.
Frequently asked questions
Does Aforo work for a language school or a driving school?
No. Aforo is built for academies that teach group classes with a regular weekly spot (dance, music, art, theatre, arts and crafts), and that's where its territory ends.
A language school, a driving school or a civil service exam academy needs student records, marks, school reports and, often, certified invoicing; none of that exists in Aforo.
The programs that dominate the first page when you search for “software academia” in Spain are built for exactly that.
As of 26 August 2026 they are Academity, Acadesoft, AcademyGest, OfiELE, Ender, MN Program and Playoff Informática, plus the comparison site SoftDoit.
If your centre offers accredited or subsidised training, any of them will suit you better than we will, and saying so here saves us both a demo.
Aforo starts where the student stays for the whole year: the place they take in the room, the receipt that repeats every month and the group that's the same every week.
How are places allocated when more people sign up than there are spaces?
By seniority, with a pre-enrolment that proposes and doesn't confirm. You open the round, publish the year's groups and each student signs up with their preferred time and two alternatives; at that point nobody pays anything.
When you close the round, Aforo ranks the sign-ups by how long they've been with you and proposes a complete allocation: who gets into the group they asked for, who moves to their second choice and who is left waiting.
You review and confirm it group by group, and only then are the regular places issued and the memberships start running.
Anyone who misses out stays on that group's waiting list, and when a spot frees up they get the offer with a deadline to accept it.
The first time this round was used, it allocated 57 places in one go, without a single phone call.
That was in a pottery studio, not an academy: it's the only data of our own we have, and we don't dress it up.
Does Aforo send the monthly membership direct debits to the bank?
No. Aforo issues the receipt for each membership and keeps arrears in plain sight, but it doesn't send the direct debit to the bank.
Payment comes in through your own Stripe or Redsys account, or is noted down by hand when someone pays at the front desk.
If your academy lives on the direct debit that goes out on the 1st, that's the first thing you need to know about us, and it's worth comparing.
Of the nine academy software websites that we read on 26 August 2026, five collect by SEPA direct debit.
Aforo does issue the membership every month with its amount, pro-rates the month someone joins and the month they leave, and lets you take part-payments.
It also lets you waive a month with the reason noted down, and it shows you a list of what's still to be collected over the next few days, so that you don't chase anyone from memory.
Which plan does an academy with four teachers need?
The €49 a month one, because of Enrolments. With the €29 plan you already have the calendar, memberships with arrears in plain sight and the day's list from the first day, which is the daily work of an academy.
What Estudio adds is the enrolment rounds: when you open a new group in September, pre-enrolment allocates the places by seniority instead of by whoever writes first.
If you don't open new groups and you only have students on a membership, the €29 plan is enough for you.
Neither of the two has a cap on bookings: whether your regular weekly timetable generates two hundred of them or two thousand, the price doesn't move.
And there's no minimum term: plans can be switched at any time, without penalties or paperwork, and the change applies from your next monthly payment.
Does Aforo keep my students' marks and school reports?
No, and there are no plans for it to. Aforo doesn't store marks, doesn't calculate averages and doesn't issue school reports.
Of the nine academy software websites that we read on 26 August 2026, six do sell academic assessment.
So if your centre has to assess its students in writing, that's reason enough to choose a different program.
What Aforo does keep for each student is their record, with their history of classes, class passes, memberships and everything they've paid since the first day.
It also keeps the attendance mark for each session, which is what later decides whether they're owed a make-up class or whether a session comes off their pass.
And it stores the answers they gave about their level, age or allergies when they enrolled, which appear on the day's list for whoever is in front of the group.
If your academy teaches one specific discipline, go down a level: software for art, drawing and painting academies, software for pottery studios and bookings for creative leisure spaces.
And if you're still comparing programs against each other: the eleven booking programs compared, with dates, what a booking system for classes should have and how to start an art, music or dance academy.
And the two features an academy uses most, in detail: priority enrolment and memberships with their receipts and arrears in plain sight.
Come and see it with your groups and memberships inside
A 20-minute demo with your real timetables, capacities and memberships. We'll also tell you what doesn't fit. No minimum term and 0% commission per booking.
Write to us and we'll reply within one working day. Please note that Aforo works in Spanish: the dashboard, your booking page and the emails your students receive.