grappl.club vs Combat Control
Combat Control is the other Australian product built for jiu-jitsu, and it's good. It's also further along than we are on billing, messaging and grading rules — we're not going to pretend otherwise.
The structural difference is the bill. On top of the monthly plan, Combat Control takes 2.5% of the member payments that run through it. We take a flat monthly fee and nothing else.
Combat Control figures are its published pricing as at September 2026; check with them for current numbers before you decide. We haven't published a price list yet — we're onboarding gyms one at a time and quote directly.
| Combat Control | grappl.club | |
|---|---|---|
| Base plan | A$79 / A$129 / A$179 per month, banded by student count | One flat monthly price, every feature included |
| Cut of member payments | 2.5% platform fee on payments processed through it, on top of the plan and on top of Stripe's own fees | None — and when billing ships it will be paid into your account with no platform percentage |
| On A$20,000 of member payments a month | A$500 a month in platform fee alone, before the plan and before Stripe's fees | A$0 |
| Price as you grow | Moves up a band as your student count grows | One price; we'll tell you if that ever changes |
| Contract | Month to month | Month to month |
Attach the techniques you're teaching to each class on the schedule, then open any student and see which of them they've actually been in the room for. Combat Control lists curriculum as unshipped; today it isn't there.
A 2.5% fee scales with your gym, not with the software's cost to run. The bigger you get, the more it takes. A flat fee doesn't do that.
Define the statuses your gym actually uses and keep coach notes against a student's profile. Combat Control covers injury reports; it doesn't let you shape the pipeline around how your academy talks about people.
Gi, no-gi, open mat, kids and competition team. It's a small thing that means comp-team attendance is separable from general classes.
Two academies use grappl.club to run their actual front desk. Every change gets used on a Tuesday night before anyone else sees it.
The honest part
We're a small product built by one Melbourne jiu-jitsu gym. These are real gaps today, not features hidden behind a sales call. If one of them is how your gym runs, don't switch yet.
Combat Control does Stripe BECS direct debit. We do none — no direct debit, no invoices, no payment tracking. This is the gap, and it's the next thing we're building. Until it ships, our no-platform-fee line is a commitment about how we'll price it, not a shipped feature.
Combat Control has an eligibility engine with IBJJF defaults. We store belts, stripes and dated promotion history and show time on belt, but we won't tell you who's due — you still read the list yourself.
Combat Control ships a lead pipeline, SMS and a set of automations. We have an enquiry form and nothing that sends to members.
Combat Control imports your roster. We don't have an importer yet, so moving 150 students with belt history isn't a button you can press — ask us before you commit to a switch.
Every student is a separate record, including siblings in the kids program.
Neither product has a native app. Combat Control at least has a member web surface; we have none. Your members' only touchpoint is the kiosk at the door.
Combat Control has health scores, cohorts and MRR. We have dashboard counts, a per-student attendance heatmap, on-time rate and techniques seen.
Combat Control has two roles. Anyone we give a login to sees everything.
If you're choosing today and you need direct debit, SMS and a grading eligibility engine right now, Combat Control will serve you better than we will. We'd rather say that than sell you a switch you'd regret.
If you already collect payments another way, want lesson plans tied to your timetable, and don't want a percentage of your gym's revenue leaving with every payment, that's the case for us.
Leave your email and we'll show you the product as it actually is.