How to Build a Fitness Website in 5 Steps: Complete Guide

The online workout industry is having a huge boost now. And it will evolve quickly in the coming years by reckoning with ongoing trends within the industry and responding to increased customer demand.

The global fitness app market size was valued at $1.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of over 17% from 2022 to 2030.

The revenue boost was experienced not only by sports giants such as Nike but also by startups such as Fitternity. Nike Training Club hit a 100% increase in weekly clients, and Fitternity increased its popularity by 200% in terms of corporate requests.

Moreover, 70% of online exercisers are going to maintain or increase their use of online fitness even in post-pandemic times.

As we see it, investing money to build a fitness website in 2023 is not only fashionable but also quite profitable. This guide will provide you with everything you need to know for online success.

How to Build a Fitness Website: The Fitness Market Overview

The health and wellness industry is now a highly profitable market with over $6 billion in value.

And that is only the beginning. As experts predict, the growth per year will be over 31%. By 2027, the online wellness industry is expected to grow to $59 billion.

Source: CAGR, Fitness Market Forecast, WellnessCreatives

Fitness Site Market Report Scope

The market size in 2021	$6 Billion
Forecast period by 2027	$59 Billion with 31% a year
The largest region online suppliers	North America, Europe, Asia Pacific
The largest countries online suppliers	US, Canada, India, UK, Germany, France
Key Companies	Adidas, Appster, Azumio, MyFitnessPal, Nike, Noom
Post COVID-19 Outlook	After the pandemic there are 3 main tendencies: 1) Active web market growth in 2023 2) Popular web trends like virtual training, streaming, Al personalized diet, and ML technologies 3) Increasing investments in this industry by capital venture and investment firms

Source: MarketResearchFuture, RunRepeat, ResearchandMarkets, GrandViewResearch

Regularly, there are three popular devices people use for digital gym activities.

• Smartphones – 67,6 %
• Wearable Devices like Apple Watch and Fitbit – 27,4%
• Tablets – 5%

Source: GrandviewResearch, Statista

Why Do Businesses Need a Fitness Website

According to the Wall Street Journal, there is a trend in the wellness industry to use online or hybrid training and on-demand or live-streaming workout sessions. 

If a brand has an offline business, now it’s time to go digital, providing them with a broader range of opportunities and international growth.

Even an enthusiast like Steve Kamb, founder of Nerd Fitness, developed a famous website out of his desire to be healthy and run his online community. So, whether you’re a big company or a solo gym goer, now it’s your best time.

Here are the main reasons why you need to consider building an online site:

• Additional channel for attracting clients.
• Little competition on the market.
• Growing market.
• Constant users availability.
• Cost saving on equipment, location, and staff.

The gym dropout rate in the first eight weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic started was considerable.

This happened first of all because some gyms are not able to follow sanitary standards. Secondly, due to peoples’ busy schedules and gyms being far-located, gyms weren’t ready. 

Being remote is our reality now. So businesses must be prepared for the new virus pandemic and protect themselves from material losses and their users from the lack of a healthy lifestyle.

3 Ways to Build a Fitness Website

Eager to know how to make a fitness website? Here are three best ways businesses need to know:

• Custom software development;
• Website builders;
• White-label solution.

How to Build a Fitness Website: Custom Development

Custom software development means building software from scratch. It’s usually a long-term project with a unique site design. To create a website for online sports activities from scratch, you can either hire the best team of in-house developers or you can hire an outsourced team.

Pros of Custom Development

• Customization

With custom development, you will be able to create the best gym website that will suit your budget and implement your unique vision, custom domain name, and logo. Oppositely to any ready-made solutions, custom site development has no feature limitations. The only limit would be – the available budget.

• Scalability

Most of the market-ready-made web solutions are built in a way they are hard to scale when the project grows enough. Thus, a company would have to create

• brand new website;
• move all the data to the new platform.

It even would not be a big deal, unless it brings some tech site risks and significant risks of losing positions in the search engines.

Cons of Custom Development

• Time

Depending on the needed features, developing a minimal product version can take at least 3 months. If it is too long to start validating the idea and design, then perhaps you’ll make other choices.

• Cost

A custom web solution is the most expensive way to create a website. Surely, the price would depend on several various factors. But generally speaking, custom site development prices start from $30-40K.

How to Build a Fitness Website: Website Builders

A website builder is a service that allows users to create their fitness website without coding experience and provides ready-made templates with sub-domain. Usually, such web solutions are pretty cheap, have a standard set of free features, and design is very hard to customize.

Pros of Website Builders

• Price 

The huge perk of website builders is the price. Especially if you just would like to try out the idea and design quickly, validate within 2-5 months and then move to some other kind of product.

By contrast, in the long run, website builders can make even more expensive options.

Cons of Website Builders

• Lack of customization

In the best scenario, website builders provide the ability to change for free some basic UI and UX design, create a logo, or add some simple features to the website. As a rule, website builders offer a free sub-domain. Yet, you will still need to pay for a custom domain.

How to Build a Fitness Website: White-Label

A white-label solution is a concept of cooperation between two companies: one produces a product or service, and the second promotes them under its own brand and logo. This allows companies to do what they do best and get maximum profit. 

It also helps companies that want to make a fitness website to save money and time on the development process. The term appeared in the USA in the music industry. Then in 2001, white-label solutions went into software technology.

That said, Sloboda Studio has developed a ready-to-sell fitness web app solution that companies can buy and rebrand as their own one. It is a full product with functionality similar to the Nike Training app.

Our white-label fitness app solution has all core features, including:

• Registration and authorization via Facebook social networking site and Google.
• 3-step profile creation.
• 3 types of sessions: online (Zoom), offline, and recordings (Vimeo).
• Video upload.
• Zoom integration.
• Stripe Connect integration.
• Search & Navigation.
• Listings & Trainers’ Pages.
• Admin panel.

Sloboda Studio White-Label Fitness Apps

All in all, a white-label solution doesn’t require dealing with code or configuring on your own. Instead, fitness businesses get a completely tested and fully-functioning product with their logo and design that they can start using immediately.

Moreover, with our white-label solution, you’ll be able to save 2X money and time on development and get a customizable solution.

Pros of White-Label

• The functionality of the best custom product, one for much less money and development time;
• Ability to enter the market faster and overtake competitors;
• New business opportunities;
• Functional and simple design, including your brand logo.

The in-house experts are freed up for other tasks (for example, related to the promotion of the sports website).

Cons of White-Label

• Opportunity to come across an inexperienced contractor.

How to Build a Fitness Website: 5 Core Steps

Building a workout website can be challenging if you don’t know where and how to start. Before starting the site, companies need to think about the next crucial steps.

Step 1. Conducting Research and Discovery

It’s the most critical stage in web development that contributes to working out the success of an online endeavor. Make sure that it includes the following substeps:

• researching and describing the end-users;
• finding the pain points of users;
• collecting info and establishing the tech requirements;
• identifying a website goal;
• analyzing the web resources and social networks of competitors;
• buying a domain name;
• planning a unique content strategy.

At this step, choosing a secure domain name is necessary to help customers easily find you online. Usually, the domain name is the same as your fitness business. Various domain name generator tools exist if you still need help finding it.

There are many sports platforms on the market, and the main goal is to bypass the competitors using some unique options and functionality. If companies have trouble with it, spending some time on the discovery phase will help bring some focus and clarity to the matter. 

Step 2. Choosing the Suitable Monetization Model

A monetization model refers to the way how a fitness website business will earn revenue, generate profits, and produce a higher than average ROI (return on investment). Here 5 revenue models which businesses can use to monetize their fitness websites.

Subscription

The most popular monetization model for a website is a subscription-based revenue model. Within this monetization model, a user pays a monthly or annually recurring fee.

What do fitness websites offer for a subscription fee?

• Premium content: workout videos of any kind, ‘how-to’ articles, and recipes.

• Video calls: like at the actual gym where a customer buys a limited membership according to which you can participate in a limited number of classes of different types, you can offer the same. By purchasing a subscription, clients will be able to participate in group or personal training sessions a limited number of times.

• Activity log: the feature that we previously mentioned is a personal and customized package. There are 2 ways to create such a package: either having a trainer create a package for a user after finding all details and goals or creating a simple algorithm that can set up, for example, weight and activity goals according to a user’s questionnaire.

Freemium

The Freemium revenue model stands for offering users 2 types of website usage – free and premium. Premium features may include workout videos by top trainers or activity logs. In some ways, freemium is similar to subscription; the only difference is that with a freemium model, a website offers not only paid but also some free services.

Commission

The commission is a revenue model where a user pays a fee for each payment transaction. Usually, commission-based models are used by websites for fitness that offer online workout sessions or live streams. A commission fee can be charged from:

• a customer;
• trainer;
• either side.

Advertising

Unlike subscription, commission, or freemium, advertising is usually an additional revenue source for sports websites. This model has relatively low profitability and a high distraction level. Users often get annoyed when they see too many ads or can just get drawn away from your website too soon.

Fitness websites typically partner with companies selling fitness- or workout- or health-focused products. Partner companies advertise their products on a website by paying a fee depending on a click-through rate or a per-view.

Sponsored Content

Another additional revenue stream is publishing sponsored content. Gyms and workout studios provide websites with valuable content and get visibility on your website. 

Common types of sponsored content may vary:

• Free customized online training; 
• PDF program; 
• Sports videos;
• Live video workouts; 
• Online group training.

Step 3. Creating a Website Layout and Implementing Functionality

User experience (UX design) and user interface (UI design) are major concepts in building any website to make sure its design is appealing, functional, and user-friendly.

As a rule, free tools are available when creating a fitness site with website builders. But they are often underwhelming due to the lack of functionality, limited security, and basic design that can’t impress.

Therefore, the better option would be to hire a dedicated development team or search for a supplier with significant experience in building websites on platforms such as Clutch and GoodFirms, where companies can find portfolios and real feedback from clients.

Based on your needs and project requirements, the vendor will assign a team of designers, developers, QA specialists, and other team members.

In the case of a website layout, designers will develop the fitness website structures, a comfortable navigation system, design components, brand logo, and elements within the web pages.

At the same time, developers will add necessary features and interactivity to the website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Design and development usually go hand in hand since any changes in the design of a website affect the site development process and vice versa.

Step 4. Testing at Every Stage of the Development

As the development proceeds, QA engineers verify that all functionality works the same way in different scenarios and without errors or bugs, as well as make sure the website’s ready for launch.

Step 5. Launching a Fitness Website

Once the website is launched, it’s time to monitor its performance and collect users’ feedback to make improvements.

Also, all websites require regular updates and maintenance. You might consider extending functionality and adding new features to keep up with the times.

Top 5 Types of Fitness Software

The wellness industry is very versatile and includes at least 5 core types of workout software. It grew enormously in recent years due to people choosing a healthier and more active lifestyle. Not only did numerous types of apps have emerged but also different web personal and group coaching websites. 

It’s time for an overview of the most popular types of sports software:

Gym and Club Management Systems

Gym and club management systems are software that gives businesses the functionality to manage:

• schedules;
• memberships;
• facilities. 

This system functionality includes:

• Membership management;
• Administrative task management;
• Class Scheduling;
• Billing; 
• Storing member information to know in a database;
• Automate marketing;
• Notifications.

Sport-focused companies usually use gym and club management systems:

• gyms;
• athletic clubs;
• dance and yoga;
• aerobics;
• swimming and gym centers.

GymMaster Home Page

Examples: Vagaro, GymMaster

Fitness Apps

Workout apps have an enormous impact on people’s health and well-being. According to Flurry, clients become more involved and dedicated to their workout routine and health in general once they start using gym apps.

1) Diet and Nutrition Apps

Diet and nutrition apps are used by people who want to:

• lose or gain some weight;
• eat healthier and keep track of their food diary.

These kinds of apps need to utilize graphics, logo, notifications, and visualization, in general, to keep their clients motivated in using the app.

Lose It App

Examples: Lose It, Fooducate 

2) High-Intensity Interval Training Apps (HIIT)

HIIT apps are used for quick workout sessions, but with high-intensity exercises. This type of app is great for more workout-advanced customers.

Tabata App

Examples: Tabata HIIT Interval Timer

3) Activity Tracking Apps

Activity Tracking Apps are mobile apps that help users track their daily activity by checking out clients’ statistics on their phones, smartwatches, and sports trackers. Usually, these apps are integrated with a GPS to track users’ covered distance and speed.

Nike Run App

Examples: Runkeeper, Runtastic, Nike+ Running

4) Personal Trainer, Studio Apps, or Workout Apps

Personal trainer and studio apps offer customized training programs and personal trainer services. Some studio apps serve only for booking or canceling offline sports sessions. 

Sworkit App

Examples: Aaptiv, Sworkit, Handstand

5) Meditation and Yoga Apps

Meditation and yoga apps provide their yoga lovers with different daily sessions according to users’ levels. They can give clients both recorded videos and live sessions.

Daily Yoga App

Examples: Daily Yoga, Down Dog

6) Running Apps

Running apps help to track users’ running results, including distance, speed, and elevation. Usually, running apps can track users’ results with the help of a phone, smartwatch, or a client’s sports tracker.

Runkeeper App

Examples: Runkeeper, Strava

Fitness Aggregators

Aggregators are a middleman between gyms and customers. They allow users to search for the best gym or program cost-, time-, and location-wise.  

These aggregators collect information clients need to know about gyms and sports centers all over the Internet and offer detailed information on the gyms and their programs.

Usually, aggregators like ClassPass or Gympic offer the features of searching, booking, and paying for the clients’ workout sessions.

With COVID-19, some sports aggregators, like ClassPass started to offer online classes.

ClassPass Sports Aggregator

Examples: ClassPass, Gympic 

Brand Websites

Fitness brand websites are promo websites of a certain brand that wants to promote their business. Typically, this kind of website has general information users need to know about their gym or a studio. Such sites aim to:

• showcase their services and areas of expertise;
• best professional trainers and the timetable of classes.

Phive Home Page

Examples: Phive, Studio Fitness

Fitness Websites

Fitness websites have not only features of brand websites but also offer a range of additional services for workouts and a healthy lifestyle.

While workout apps tend to target a specific niche, like nutrition or activity tracking, online sports sites often specialize in providing clients with as many services as possible. Usually, they include:

• Online personal or group training;
• Live streams;
• Nutrition plan;
• Recorded video training;
• Personalized program.

DailyBurn Home Page

Examples: Omstars, BodyStar, Booyafitness, DailyBurn

Below, we are going to take a closer look at this particular type of software, namely workout website core features. Stay tuned! 

Top Fitness Websites

When gyms worldwide closed due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, many people opted to work out through fitness websites. Even after fitness centers resumed their offline work, customers still choose online training. As a result, digital fitness businesses have benefited from this industry shift.

Below, we compiled a list of the best fitness websites according to the number of estimated unique visitors by Aelieve Website Rankings and the Business Research Company‘s report that identified major players in the online/virtual fitness market.

My Fitness Pal

My Fitness Pal Home Page

MyFitnessPal is a US website and then an app released in 2005. It tracks diet and exercise. The company’s revenue was $7.57 million in April 2021.

Now it’s the most popular fitness platform in the US and UK and the most known software with over 74% global user coverage visits in the world. This website has already received 10,000,000 unique visitors.

ClassPass 

ClassPass Home Page

The New York-based website, ClassPass, offers membership programs from 25,000 studios worldwide. 

The company was founded in 2013 and has raised around $549M in 9 funding rounds. In 2020, ClassPass became the first unicorn startup of the decade.

Active.com

Active.com Home Page

A training website, Active.com, provides users with a variety of classes, sports, and recreational activities, facilities, and venues. It is also an example of a site making 2,600,000 unique visitors. It was founded in 1998 in San Diego, California, and fundraised $15.5M.

Fitternity 

Fitternity Home Page

Founded in 2013, Fitternity is now one of the largest websites in India. It has raised $7.5M in 6 funding rounds. The site offers online classes, pre-recorded workout videos, and personal online coaching.

When the pandemic broke out in 2020, Fitternity saw a 3x growth year on year. The website experienced an increase of 200% in corporate bookings and revenue of $16 million.

Planetfitness.com

Planetfitness.com Home Page

An online training site, Planetfitness.com, offers a wide selection of workouts, working under the “bring the gym to you” concept to help users reach their fitness goals. As of June 2022, Planet Fitness’s revenue was $0.749B, with an over 53% increase year-over-year. The website has received 2,600,000 unique users. 

10 Core Features to Build a Fitness Website

Registration

With registration, you’ll be able to collect some basic info on your users and target them later in case they haven’t tried your website services yet.

Registration feature includes login and signup. Both these features don’t need to be too complicated. The uncomplicated way out is to have a social media integration on the site. It can be either Facebook social networking site, Google, or both.

Classpass Home Page

User Profile

A user profile needs some basic settings, like changing the password or your contact information. Users will want to have the ability to view

• their previous classes;
• their billion information;
• upcoming classes.

Active User Profile Page

Search

Users can search by type of training, studio, or personal trainer. This is tightly connected with what type of fitness software you are offering. 

You can either partner with studios that have already selected professional trainers with the qualifications to coach customers or your online training software can include free independent trainers who have the skills to offer their services on the website.

Classpass Home Page

Trainer’s or Studio’s Page

The trainer’s or studio’s page is the next thing after users choose a certain personal trainer or class. If you partner with studios, then studio’s pages need to have basic information users want to know about the studio, like

• its description;
• contact form;
• social media accounts;
• reviews and feedback;
• privacy policy;
• class schedule.

Classpass Info Page

Red Diamond Yoga Schedule Page

If your website only partners with personal trainers, then a trainer’s page should have information about:

• trainer’s qualification;
• contact information with social media pages;
• reviews and feedback;
• timetable of available slots.

You need to remember that users often only trust gyms they have been in rather than standalone trainers. So, if you do decide to collaborate with professional trainers, give as much information on each trainer as possible.

Omstars Trainer’s Page

Plus, reviews and feedback usually work like a charm. As an additional trust booster, you can ask a trainer to make a video about themselves, their experience, and some things where they work out in a group or individually.  

Red Diamond Reviews Page

Booking

The booking feature on fitness websites usually includes choosing the best slot, leaving notes if necessary, and then paying for the class. 

Online websites often use an escrow payment system. With it, the money is charged from a user’s card before the class but transferred to a trainer’s bank out only when the class is finished. Meanwhile, money is stored in a payment provider, like Stripe for example.

Video Call or Live Streaming

Video calls and live streams are probably the main things why people would use the software for online training. With a video connection, trainers can have live communication with a customer as if they were offline. Trainers can

• pinpoint if users are doing everything right;
• correct users while showing the exercise or a position with their example.

Video calls can be either group or individual. If you plan to have group sessions, make sure your website can handle multiple users connecting to one video call. Plus, probably not only one trainer is going to have a call immediately. Usually, several professional trainers can have their classes with their groups at one moment.

Omstars Schedule Page

Communication

In case, trainers and clients have any additional questions or want to change their classes. The messaging system enables them to communicate with each other.

Activity Log

In brief, an activity log is a plan that users follow to make their training more effective.

It is not enough to have only videos with exercises to make a change in someone else’s lifestyle. The workout websites need to offer a complex plan that users can follow. The plan should consist of exercises, nutrition, and overall daily activities. 

Several ways to motivate users to stick to the plan:

• Goals: one of the first things users want to do on a website is to set up their own goals like losing weight or eating healthier food. After users choose their goals, it is worth asking how many times a week can a user work and for how long. Then, a sports website can offer daily and weekly goals. 

• Calendars and notifications: users need to have calendar reminders about their upcoming events. Don’t let them forget about their goals.

• Progress analytics: people tend to get even more motivated when they see some progress. And visualization like graphics and diagrams are very helpful here.

Online Store Page

Video Tutorials

Giving free access to some of the video tutorials on sports websites will encourage users to use them more frequently and at the same time will gain users’ trust.

Besides, if you choose a subscription revenue model or freemium, then premium video tutorials will be the source of your monetization, either the main or an additional one. 

Alo Moves Home Page

Blog

Besides having video tutorials as an additional source of value, educational content can help users be more engaged and knowledgeable about health and wellness.

Alo Moves Blog Page

Having a blog will bring you traffic, which may result in a higher number of customers.

Our Expertise

Sloboda Studio has created a white-label solution and fitness websites for sports center owners, startuppers, and gym service providers who want to have a workout website with broad functionality.

Here are a few examples of fitness and wellness websites Sloboda Studio worked on.

Uniting Health

A social network platform, Uniting Health, supports wellness and inspires people to participate in real-world healthcare and wellness social activities.

Uniting Health Home Page

For this project, our team has built the MMP (minimum marketable product) with many essential solutions, including:

• Registration system
• Custom authentication and authorization system
• Admin console development
• In-app messaging system
• News and notification box
• Membership page
• ACH payment methods through Stripe

As a result, the Sloboda Studio team turned the prototype into the MMP of the social network where companies can register, add employees, and organize events through the platform.

MyDailyLifestyle

A web application, MyDailyLifestyle, automates the flow for the coaches in creating different tasks and providing lifestyle and wellness advice for users to live healthier lives.

MyDailyLifestyle Home Page

For this project, the Sloboda Studio team created an exercise scheme template from scratch, changing the registration flow and introducing a new feature of sleep advice.

Also, we developed new functionality for the MyDailyLifeStyle web application, such as:

• New program registration form
• Personalized exercise scheme
• Schedule grouping algorithm

The project is still ongoing. We plan to introduce new features like auto mailing and a “smart action” system to display only relevant information on the coach “dashboard”.

As of now, Sloboda Studio helped MyDailyLifestyle to introduce a new type of service, automate manual tasks, and simplify the registration process.

Many famous companies use MyDailyLifeStyle’s services, including Shell, Abbott, HTM, Rabobank, and Securitas.

What Is Necessary to Build a Fitness Website

To build a fitness website, you’ll need a domain name, web hosting, and a content management system like WordPress. Additionally, consider incorporating features such as user registration, workout tracking, nutrition information, and an intuitive design that reflects the fitness industry’s aesthetics and branding.

Conclusion

In 2022, the number of sports website users increased to 86.3 million, with the health industry revenue predicted to reach $59 Billion by 2027.

Whether you are a fitness influencer or workout studio owner, creating a website can help you grow your business and set it apart from the competition. Here are extra tips on how to build a fitness website:

• Do competitors’ research;
• Select the best ways to create a fitness website;
• Decide on the domain name;
• Hire a dedicated developers team; 
• Single out only the core features and design;
• Choose a white-label solution, a website builder, or custom software development.

Sloboda Studio has been on the market for over 13+ years, building websites and apps for modern businesses.

We have created a pre-made fitness website that is customizable and scalable. If you’re a workout, yoga, or sports center owner or a startupper, our white-label solution will be able to create an additional channel for attracting new customers and maintaining your current ones. 

Overall, Sloboda Studio’s white-label web app will help companies to:

• digitalize their offline business;
• launch a website faster and at a lower development cost;
• stay on a reasonable budget;
• have a fully-tested product;
• get access to tech expertise.

If you have any questions regarding the details of the custom website development or Sloboda Studio’s fitness white-label solution, book an expert consultation.