Business Strategy
The Real Cost of Running an Online Wellness Business
What Nobody Tells You About the Cost of Going Online
When wellness teachers first consider moving online, the conversation usually focuses on revenue, or how much you could make. But before you get there, it helps to understand what you'll actually spend.
The good news: running an online wellness business is genuinely affordable compared to a physical studio. No rent. No equipment lease. No front desk staff. But there are real costs, and a few surprises if you're not looking for them.
Here's a clear-eyed breakdown of what to expect.
Your Core Platform: $0–$179/Month
Your teaching platform is the biggest fixed cost, and the one worth spending on. This is where students experience your work, where content lives, and where payments process.
At Marvelous, plans range from $79/month (Essentials) to $125/month (Solo) to $179/month (Pro). Annual plans drop those numbers to $66, $104, and $149/month respectively.
What to watch for: platforms that charge transaction fees on top of the monthly fee. A 5% transaction fee on $3,000/month in revenue is $150/month. That is often more than the platform itself. Marvelous charges no transaction fees, which matters as your revenue grows.
Video Hosting: Often Already Included
If your platform includes video hosting (Marvelous does), you may not need a separate video solution. But teachers who started on YouTube or Vimeo sometimes keep paying for separate hosting unnecessarily.
If you do need separate video hosting:
Vimeo: $12–$75/month billed annually ($20–$125 month to month), depending on storage and features
Wistia: Free plan, paid from $79/month billed annually
Mux or Bunny: Usage-based, often cheaper at scale
Before signing up for separate video hosting, check whether your platform already covers it. Many teachers pay for both when they only need one.
Email Marketing: $0–$79/Month
Marvelous includes basic email sending, enough for class reminders and announcements to your students. If you want sequences, segmentation, or a growing newsletter list, you’ll want a dedicated tool. You need a way to stay in touch with your students. Email is still the highest-ROI channel for wellness businesses. Open rates are higher, it's more direct, and it doesn't depend on an algorithm.
Most wellness businesses can start on a free tier:
Kit (formerly ConvertKit): Free up to 10,000 subscribers, paid plans from $33/month billed annually
Mailchimp: Free up to 250 contacts, paid plans scale with list size
Flodesk: From $19/month billed annually, scaling with list size (good for visual brands)
Start free and upgrade when you hit the list limits. Most wellness teachers won't need paid email marketing for their first year.
Scheduling Tools: $0–$40/Month (If You Need One)
If you run live classes or private appointments, you may need a scheduling tool. This depends on your model:
Memberships and on-demand content only: You probably don't need one.
Live classes with registration: Marvelous handles this natively.
1:1 appointments: Calendly (from $10/month billed annually) or Acuity Scheduling.
Studio-style class scheduling with waitlists: OfferingTree (from $26/month billed annually) or Momence (custom pricing, free trial).
The shortcut: match your tool to your actual model. A yoga teacher with a membership library doesn't need enterprise-level class scheduling software.
Recording Equipment: One-Time Cost, Not Monthly
The tech anxiety around recording often outweighs the actual cost. You don't need a studio setup to start.
A workable beginner setup:
Camera: Your smartphone (seriously). Or a decent webcam for $80–$120.
Microphone: Blue Snowball or similar USB mic: $50–$70
Lighting: A $40 ring light makes a significant difference
Yoga mat + clean background: You already have this
Realistic starter investment: $150–$250 one-time, mostly if you don't already have a decent phone. You can always upgrade, but the content matters more than the camera.
Design and Branding: $0–$50/Month
You'll need images, graphics, and something that looks cohesive. You don't need to hire a designer to start:
Canva Free: More than enough for most wellness businesses. The paid Pro plan adds brand kits and stock photos.
Unsplash + Pexels: Free stock photography that doesn't look cheap.
Logo: Canva templates or a one-time hire on Fiverr ($50–$200) is fine to start.
Payment Processing: 2.9% + 30¢ Per Transaction
This one is unavoidable. Stripe (which powers most wellness platforms including Marvelous) charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. On a $125 monthly membership, that's about $3.93 per payment, or roughly $47/year per member.
Some platforms add their own fees on top of this. Marvelous does not. You pay only Stripe's standard rate.
What a Realistic Monthly Budget Looks Like
For a wellness teacher with a membership and a few courses:
Platform (Marvelous Solo, annual): $104/month
Email marketing (Kit free tier): $0
Design (Canva free): $0
Scheduling (not needed for memberships): $0
Stripe fees (at $2,000/month revenue): ~$62
Total: ~$166/month
At $2,000/month revenue, your overhead is roughly 8%. That compares to 30–50% for most physical studios when you factor in rent, utilities, and staffing.
The Hidden Cost: Your Time
The real cost no spreadsheet captures is your time. How you spend it matters as much as the tools you choose.
Wellness teachers who feel burned out online usually aren't spending too much money. They're spending too much time on the wrong things: trying to be everywhere on social media, rebuilding a website for the third time, managing a complex funnel they don't need yet.
The business model that's actually sustainable: one clear offer, one way to find you, one platform that handles the rest. Keep it simple long enough to see what works, then expand from there.
Keep Reading
Ready to see what all of this looks like in one place? Marvelous brings your content, memberships, and payments together, with no transaction fees and no technical headaches. Start your free trial today.
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