DanceHall vs Acuity Scheduling for Dance Schools

Choose DanceHall for an ongoing dance school if you want enrollment, recurring tuition, pauses, announcements and class materials in one place. Students enroll and pay through a class link, and you manage their classes and billing in DanceHall. Choose Acuity Scheduling when booking classes, managing places and sending appointment reminders cover most of your admin; it also supports subscriptions.

When is Acuity Scheduling enough for a dance school?

Acuity is a good fit when you need students to book classes, receive reminders and pay online. Its booking pages and calendar sync let you manage bookings around your teaching schedule.

As of October 2026, Acuity supports class scheduling with capacity limits and waitlists, intake forms and email reminders. SMS reminders are available on Standard and higher plans. It accepts payments through Stripe, Square or PayPal.

Standard and higher plans also include packages, subscriptions, gift certificates and coupons. A subscription can continue until canceled or end after a set number of payments, up to 23.

If you already use those subscriptions for tuition, Acuity handles the recurring collection. You still need separate tools for bulk student announcements, class recordings and student levels. Acuity does not include bulk announcements, content or video hosting, or student roster management beyond class capacity on any plan.

That leaves you maintaining a student-level list, sending announcements through WhatsApp and storing recordings elsewhere. DanceHall keeps those records and materials with enrollment and payments, so you can manage an ongoing class without maintaining each separately.

How does DanceHall handle enrollment and tuition?

DanceHall gives you a class enrollment link through which a student chooses a class, signs your terms and pays. As of October 2026, this enrollment flow is live, with monthly or quarterly tuition charged automatically to the card on file.

With a manual setup, you send terms, check a Zelle screenshot and enter the payment in a sheet. Acuity already handles online payments and intake forms; a teacher using those features has fewer manual enrollment tasks.

In DanceHall, your routine is:

1. Share the class enrollment link with the student, or the parent enrolling a child.
2. Check the completed enrollment after the student or parent chooses the class, signs your terms and pays.
3. Keep the signed terms with that enrollment. A copy is also embedded in the confirmation email.
4. Track recurring tuition in DanceHall rather than matching screenshots to names in a separate payments sheet.

Payments go to your studio's own Stripe account and bank. Students can pay by card from many countries.

If someone starts enrolling and stops, DanceHall sends reminder emails after 2 hours, 1 day, 3 days and 7 days, stopping when enrollment is complete. Failed cards are retried, and the student or parent receives a link to update the card.

Sibling discounts apply automatically. You can promote a student to a higher class level with one click and choose whether their recurring discount follows them.

Can you pause dance tuition for a break?

DanceHall lets you pause tuition for one student or a whole class, with a chosen restart date or until you resume billing. Acuity's help centre documents editing and canceling a client's subscription, but does not document a subscription pause.

If you cancel a subscription for a break, your routine may include writing a return reminder and asking the student to enroll again. In DanceHall, you select the pause and its restart date without canceling the enrollment.

For example, pause a student for July and set billing to restart on August 1. If the return date is uncertain, pause until you choose to resume. The student keeps their place and access to materials during the break.

For a whole-class break, type or speak a request to Sangs, DanceHall's built-in assistant. Sangs shows a card for you to confirm before pausing the class.

Decide who qualifies for a pause and how much notice you require before accepting requests. The summer tuition pause guide covers how to explain that policy to students.

Where do announcements and class recordings go?

In DanceHall, you send announcements by email or through a class group in the student portal, and post recordings as weekly class materials. Acuity does not provide bulk student announcements or a content and video area.

With WhatsApp and separately stored recordings, you send a class update to the group, then find and share the recording link. In kids' batches, the WhatsApp group can also expose parents' phone numbers to other members.

To send an announcement in DanceHall:

1. Ask Sangs to email the whole school, one class or several classes.
2. Check the recipients and message on the confirmation card.
3. Confirm before the email is sent.

You can also message one student or parent, or post in the portal's class group. That group supports announcements, replies and reactions. Parents can use it without joining a WhatsApp group and sharing their phone numbers there.

Post videos and links by week, then choose which weeks students can see. Sangs can add class recordings to several classes. Videos show each student's own name and email as a watermark, though this does not prevent copying.

When a visible week gains a recording, students receive an email, at most once every two hours for each week of material. That email replaces the separate WhatsApp message announcing the new recording.

How do you switch from Acuity to DanceHall?

Switch at a billing boundary and check existing Acuity subscriptions before starting DanceHall tuition charges. The same student should not have paid subscriptions running in both systems for the same period.

1. List active classes, students, levels, tuition schedules and discounts.
2. Set up the corresponding classes and levels in DanceHall.
3. Choose the last Acuity charge date and the intended first DanceHall charge date.
4. Send enrollment links explaining when the change takes effect.
5. Check completed enrollments and cancel old subscriptions at the agreed boundary.
6. Add class materials and introduce the student portal.

Questions studio owners ask

Is Acuity Scheduling good for dance classes?

Yes. Acuity suits a teacher who needs bookings, capacity limits, waitlists and reminders, with packages and subscriptions available on Standard and higher plans as of October 2026. It can remain suitable if you are prepared to manage student levels, announcements and materials elsewhere.

Can I pause tuition in Acuity Scheduling?

Acuity's help centre documents subscription edits and cancellations, but does not document a pause. DanceHall supports dated or open-ended pauses, so a returning student does not need to enroll again after the pause.

Does DanceHall replace WhatsApp for class announcements?

You can send class announcements through DanceHall instead of WhatsApp: ask Sangs to email the selected classes, check the confirmation card and approve the send. For discussion, students or parents can reply and react in the portal's class group.

Book a short call with the DanceHall team to see it with your own classes.