After months of design, engineering, and iteration with real studio operators, Zack Design is proud to launch SessionHQ — the modern check-in platform for class-based studios. It is the most ambitious product we have ever shipped, and it now runs nightly check-ins at our founding partner Havana on the Hastings in Port Macquarie.

What SessionHQ does

SessionHQ replaces the spreadsheets, paper sign-in sheets, and duct-taped Mindbody workarounds that most small studios tolerate because the alternatives are too expensive, too clunky, or too generic. We built it by sitting at the front desk on a Tuesday night and asking, “what actually needs to happen here?”

The answer, it turns out, is:

• Members walk in and check in fast. PIN pad, NFC wristband tap, or QR scan from their phone. No app install required. No “where’s my card.”
• Passes just work. Class packs, casual rates, unlimited passes. Credits deduct automatically on check-in. Cards-on-file auto-renew the moment a pack runs out.
• Payments happen where the student is. Square integration handles card payments inline. PCI-compliant. No raw card numbers ever touch our servers.
• Admins see the truth. Tonight’s attendance, revenue, unpaid check-ins, LTV, retention cohorts — all updating in real time.

No per-member fees. No transaction surcharges on top of Square. One flat monthly subscription.

The technology behind it

SessionHQ is a serious piece of software infrastructure. A quick tour of the stack:

• Next.js 16 & React 19 on the frontend, with Tailwind 4 and a custom 19-primitive design system (not shadcn — we wanted the ownership).
• Cloudflare Workers via OpenNext for the runtime. Global edge deployment, sub-100ms cold starts, one Worker cron handling pass-lifecycle, database backup, prune, and retention sweeps.
• Supabase for auth, Postgres, realtime, and row-level security. Every tenant-owned table enforces auth_tenant_id() at the database layer — a studio cannot see another studio’s data, period.
• Square for payments, with Supabase Vault for token storage and PCI-safe tokenisation.
• Resend for lifecycle email, Sentry for observability, R2 for storage, Playwright and Vitest for 800+ tests across unit, integration, and E2E.

Multi-tenancy, GDPR-readiness (consent capture, data export, right-to-erasure, full audit trail), idempotency, rate limiting, feature flags — all in from day one, not bolted on later.

Why we built it

We have spent 20+ years building software for other people. SessionHQ is different: it is our product. We own the roadmap, the pricing, the customer relationship. We decide which features matter. We eat the bug reports.

It is also a proof point. We believe small businesses deserve software that is as thoughtfully engineered as anything the enterprise market gets — without the enterprise price tag, the 12-month implementation, or the 400-page MSA. SessionHQ is our demonstration that a small, focused team can ship serious SaaS.

Founding partner: Havana on the Hastings

SessionHQ did not launch in a vacuum. It launched with a customer.

Havana on the Hastings is Port Macquarie’s Latin dance community — Cuban salsa, bachata, urban kiz, and rueda (the dance that brought founders Mike and Kellie together). They run on passes, practicas, and real connection, with the warmth of a studio where “everyone starts somewhere” is not just a slogan but a weekly reality.

They were already operating on the pass system that SessionHQ is built around. Partnering with them meant we did not have to guess what studio operators needed — we had one telling us, in real time, what worked and what did not. Every feature in SessionHQ has been stress-tested at their front desk on a Tuesday night.

If you are in Port Macquarie and want to dance, drop in. Absolute beginners are welcome every week.

What’s next

SessionHQ is onboarding new studios now. If you run a dance studio, gym, yoga or pilates studio, martial arts school, or climbing gym — or if you know someone who does — we would love to talk.

• Visit sessionhq.org to see the product.
• Request access on the site, or book a 15-minute demo via [email protected].
• Founding-studio pricing is locked in for the studios who sign on before general availability.

This is the start of something we are going to spend years building on. Thanks for being here for the beginning.