An honest, opinionated 10-minute read. Real pricing maths, a workflow comparison, three real-world scenarios, a weighted verdict, and a 5-step migration guide.
Last checked 3 June 2026 — based on publicly available information from PT Distinction's pricing page.
PT Distinction has, for years, been the connoisseur's choice in online coaching apps. Built in the UK, with a feature set that genuinely outstrips most competitors — AI Program Builder, Smart Meal Planner and AI Assistant are all included from the $19.90 Basic tier — it's the platform a lot of experienced online coaches quietly recommend when nobody's paying them to.
The product depth is real. The exercise library, periodisation tools, habit tracking, video coaching, integrations with wearables and the breadth of customisation are all category-leading. If you've been online coaching for five years and you want the most powerful pure-coaching app on the market, PT Distinction is hard to argue with on features alone.
Where it gets interesting is the pricing model. Every tier comes with a client cap — 3 on Basic, 25 on Pro, 50 on Master. Above the cap, you pay per client per month: $6 each on Basic, $2.40 on Pro, $1.60 on Master. It's transparent — printed right on the pricing page — but it's also a tax on growth. The faster you grow, the more often you're upgrading tiers or paying per-head.
REPs Pro is £59/mo (founding, was £79/mo) and includes the full software platform — directory profile, verification, CRM, bookings, payments, programmes, check-ins, nutrition, client portal and REPs AI. No paid add-on stack or per-client charges. No per-client fee, plus a verified public profile on the register clients actually search. PT Distinction wins on raw coaching depth; REPs Pro wins on discoverability, AI breadth, and a cost curve that doesn't penalise scale. Verified (£99/yr) is a separate public register listing, not coaching software, and is not included in this comparison.
Credit where due: PT Distinction's add-on bill is the simplest of the three platforms on this page. There's no separate branded-app fee, no AI add-on, no payments add-on. Extra trainers are genuinely free. The base tier already includes the AI Program Builder, Smart Meal Planner and AI Assistant — that's a real strength.
The wedge is the per-client meter. Every client above the tier cap is a recurring monthly charge: $6 on Basic, $2.40 on Pro, $1.60 on Master. Think about what that means for a 12-week coaching block — the shortest serious package most coaches sell. A 12-week client above the Basic cap costs an extra $18 on top of the tier ($6 × 3 months). Three of those clients above the cap is $54 of pure per-client surcharge per quarter — nearly the entire monthly price of REPs Pro, before you've added a fourth.
Scale it up and the curve gets steeper. A coach with 10 clients on Basic pays $19.90 + 7 × $6 = $61.90/mo. A coach with 30 clients on Basic pays $19.90 + 27 × $6 = $181.90/mo. The natural move is to upgrade — but Pro ($59.90) caps at 25 then charges $2.40 per extra, and Master ($89.90) caps at 50 then charges $1.60. There is no tier on PT Distinction where adding the next client is free.
REPs Pro doesn't add a per-client fee. Whether you have 5 clients or 500, the price is £59/mo. The platform's incentive and your incentive point the same way: sign more clients. Use the calculator below to see exactly where the lines cross.
Move the slider to see how each platform's monthly bill changes as you grow. PT Distinction's figure includes the base tier plus the always-on add-ons a serious coach actually needs. The REPs side shows the tier you'd sit on — every feature in that tier is included.
Every feature in this comparison is included in REPs Pro — directory profile, verification, CRM, bookings, payments, programmes, check-ins, nutrition, client portal and REPs AI. No paid add-on stack, no per-client charges.
Verified (£99/yr) is a separate public register listing, not coaching software. See /pricing for the full ladder.
No marketing fluff — the actual workflow. Where PT Distinction needs a paid add-on or a third-party app, we flag it.
They don't — PT Distinction has no public register. Lead generation is entirely your problem.
Excellent onboarding flow with custom forms, automated welcome sequences, and habit setup. Your monthly bill goes up by $6 (Basic), $2.40 (Pro), or $1.60 (Master).
Best-in-class programme builder. AI Program Builder is genuinely good and is in the base tier. Periodisation, deload weeks, auto-progression — all polished.
Customisable check-in forms, photo and biometric comparisons, AI Assistant for messaging help. Strong feature set in the base tier.
Verified profile + branded client portal
PT Distinction coaching app
The right answer changes with where you are in your career. Here are three honest pictures.
10 clients on Basic, deep coaching app needed
The Basic tier's $19.90 sticker is misleading at this client count. Seven extra clients at $6 each pushes it past $60/mo. REPs Pro is £59/mo flat, with a verified public profile included.
25 clients, sitting exactly at the Pro tier cap
If your roster is stable and fits cleanly inside the Pro cap, $59.90 for a feature-dense app is competitive. Pick PT Distinction if discoverability isn't the bottleneck; pick REPs Pro if you want the verified register profile on the front.
50 clients on Pro tier
Above the cap, the per-client charge bites again. REPs Pro stays at £59/mo, plus your verified register profile keeps bringing in new enquiries instead of just managing the ones you already have.
Public discoverability is weighted highest because that's the real difference between a register and a piece of private software. Everything else is balanced.
| Criterion | Weight | REPs | PT Distinction |
|---|---|---|---|
Price transparency PT Distinction is honest, but per-client maths is real | 15% | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Public discoverability Verified register vs no public profile | 20% | 5/5 | 1/5 |
AI as operating layer Cross-platform AI vs strong but contained AI suite | 15% | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Coaching delivery depth PT Distinction is best-in-class for pure coaching | 15% | 4/5 | 5/5 |
Payments included Both include payments with no separate platform fee | 10% | 5/5 | 5/5 |
UK fit (GBP, GDPR, register) Both UK-built; REPs is the register | 10% | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Cost curve as you scale Pro stays £59/mo vs per-client fee above cap | 15% | 5/5 | 2/5 |
| Weighted total | 100% | 97.0 /100 | 67.0 /100 |
| Feature |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility · Get discovered | ||
| Found by clients searching the public register | Searched by the public daily | Bring your own clients |
| Industry-recognised REPs credential | REPs verified since 2009 | |
| Verified qualifications & insurance | Checked by humans | Self-declared |
| CPD tracked on profile | ||
| Reviews on the public record | ||
| Operations · Run your practice | ||
| Lead pipeline (profile, IG, website) | Basic CRM | |
| Bookings + deposits + Stripe payouts | Deposits, subs, payouts | |
| Clients CRM (one record per client) | Basic | |
| Focused inbox + quiet hours | Chat only | |
| Coaching · Deliver the work | ||
| Programme builder + video library | ||
| Nutrition planning + food database | Replaces MyFitnessPal | |
| Weekly check-ins with photos & metrics | ||
| Branded client portal (web + mobile) | Included | From Pro tier |
| AI · The operating layer | ||
| AI Business Command Centre | ||
| Weekly 'next move' growth card | ||
| AI programme writer | AI Program Builder | |
| AI nutrition planner | Smart Meal Planner | |
| AI check-in summariser | ||
| AI lead scoring + reply drafts | ||
| AI client risk & plateau alerts | ||
| AI content studio (posts, captions, lead magnets) | ||
| Pricing · What you actually pay | ||
| Every feature included in your tier — no paid add-ons | No add-on stack | Per-client charges |
| No platform commission on bookings | REPs takes no booking commission | |
| No per-client charges | $1.60-$6 per extra client | |
| Growth · Compound the practice | ||
| Revenue & retention insights | Basic reports | |
| Automated client follow-ups & win-backs | ||
| Renewal forecasting & churn risk | ||
Last checked 3 June 2026.Based on publicly available information from PT Distinction's publicly available pricing page. Pricing and features may change — see our comparison methodology or request a correction.
You don't have to rebuild everything. Five steps, one weekend, zero client downtime. Run both platforms in parallel for the first week as a safety net.
From the client area, export your client list as CSV. Capture names, emails, package details and current programme assignments.
Drop the CSV into REPs' onboarding importer. Auto-match, deduplicate, draft profiles. Nothing notifies your clients until you publish.
Use the REPs AI Programme Builder — paste in your PT Distinction programme structure and it recreates it in seconds. Much faster than rebuilding manually.
Replace your PT Distinction booking link with your REPs profile URL across Instagram, your site, email signature and Google Business. Keep the old link live for a fortnight.
Run both in parallel for one billing week. Confirm every client has accepted the REPs invite, then cancel. No add-ons to unwind — extras for trainers are free on PT Distinction.
PT Distinction is one of the most feature-rich coaching apps on the market — AI Program Builder, Smart Meal Planner, and AI Assistant are included from the $19.90 Basic tier. The caveat is the per-client meter: every client above the cap costs $6/mo (Basic), $2.40/mo (Pro) or $1.60/mo (Master). A standard 12-week client on Basic adds ~$18 of extra recurring spend; three of them above the cap effectively eats most of a month of REPs Pro. If your roster is small, stable, and sits inside a single tier cap — and you don't need a public register — it's a strong product.
Each tier includes a client cap (3 on Basic, 25 on Pro, 50 on Master). Beyond that you pay per extra client — $6, $2.40 or $1.60/month depending on tier. A coach with 50 clients on Pro pays $59.90 + 25 × $2.40 = $119.90/month. REPs Pro is £59/mo flat with no per-client fee.
PT Distinction is the more feature-dense private coaching app. REPs Pro is a verified public register plus operations and AI in one platform at £59/mo. If clients finding you matters, REPs wins. If you're roster-full and want pure feature density, PT Distinction is reasonable.
Yes — AI Program Builder, Smart Meal Planner and AI Assistant are included on the Basic tier. REPs ships AI across more surfaces (lead scoring, content, churn risk, weekly growth cards) and includes them in Pro.
REPs Pro is the UK-built alternative that combines public discovery, verified credential, operations, coaching delivery and AI in one platform at £59/mo — without per-client charges.
No separate platform fee on payments. Standard payment-processor fees still apply through Stripe. REPs is the same — no platform commission on payments, and no commission on bookings either.
Yes — adding more trainer logins is genuinely free, which is unusual in this category. On REPs, multi-coach setups can run as separate Pro seats; ask us about Studio if you need shared clients and reporting across coaches.
Yes. Export your CSV, import to REPs, run in parallel for a week, then cancel. See the 5-step migration guide above. No add-ons to unwind on the PT Distinction side.
Yes — a full 1-month free trial on every plan. REPs Pro also includes a 30-day free trial, and is £59/mo founding (was £79/mo), with the full software platform included.
Start free, get REPs verified, and run your whole practice on one platform. Founding pricing locked for life on paid plans — before public launch.
Last checked: 3 June 2026. Based on publicly available information collected from PT Distinction's publicly available pricing page (source). Competitor pricing and features may change. Read our comparison methodology or request a correction.