Chocka vs Momoyoga: a New Zealand alternative that pays into your own Stripe

Chocka vs Momoyoga at a glance

Three of those rows are gaps on our side, not theirs. We have put them in the table rather than at the bottom of the page, because you would find them in week one anyway.

The big difference: the 5% you do not have to pay

Momoyoga’s pricing page is admirably direct about this. The Free plan’s fee line reads:

and the footnote spells it out:

So on Momoyoga’s free plan, a payment is charged twice: Stripe takes its transaction fee, and then Momoyoga takes 5% of the payment on top.

Chocka’s free plan works the same way structurally — we take a platform fee too, and Stripe still takes its own cut either way. Ours is 2%. On our paid plans it is 0%: you pay a flat monthly and nothing per booking.

Here is what that difference looks like on a studio turning over NZ$3,000 a month in bookings:

• Momoyoga, Free plan — 5%: $150 a month ($ 1800 a year)
• Chocka, Launch — 2%: $60 a month ($720 a year)
• Chocka, Grow — 0%, flat $49/month: $49 a month ($588 a year)

Stripe’s own processing fee applies in all three and is not included — it is Stripe’s, and it is the same wherever you go. This is the platform’s cut, and only the platform’s cut.

Where the money actually goes — and this is the part that surprised us

We assumed, when we started writing this page, that Momoyoga and Chocka both simply paid into the studio’s own Stripe account, and the only difference was the percentage. That turned out not to be right, so here is the accurate version.

Momoyoga has two ways of taking payments. The one that comes as standard is “Online Payments via Stripe Connect” — their integrated option. Using your own Stripe account is the other one, and their support site classes it as a “custom payment integration”, alongside Mollie and PayPal. Custom integrations cost extra:

reduced to “$12 per month” if you are billed annually. And they are not available on every plan:

Which means that on Momoyoga’s Free plan, using your own Stripe account is not an option at all. You are on their integrated Stripe Connect, and their support site describes what happens to the money there:

with a further note that “The first payout can take up to +1 week.”

On Chocka, there is one way payments work and it is the same on every plan, free included. Your customer pays; the charge is made on your own connected Stripe account; the money lands in your Stripe balance and pays out on your Stripe schedule. Our fee is taken as a Stripe application fee at the moment of the charge — which is why we can put 0% on the paid plans and mean it, and why we are never in a position to hold your money for a week. It is not our money to hold.

When the money is yours from the first second, you are the one with the merchant relationship, the one Stripe pays, the one who sets the payout schedule, and the one who can walk away without a settlement conversation.

What you pay for the features you actually need

Most studios do not switch over a percentage. They switch when they want two specific things: their own brand on the page, and recurring memberships.

On Momoyoga, both of those live on Plus. Their pricing page lists “Recurring memberships” and “Branding” together in the Plus column, at €59/month billed annually.

On Chocka, both of those live on Grow, at NZ$49/month.

The plans side by side

• Free: Chocka Launch, $0 + 2% per booking · Momoyoga Free, €0 + 5% per online payment
• Entry paid: Chocka Grow, NZ$49/month (NZ$490/year) — 0% fee, recurring memberships, your branding with no platform badge, all 24 themes · Momoyoga Standard, €29/month billed annually (€39 monthly) — unlimited memberships and class passes, waitlists, booking windows, donation payments
• Next tier: Chocka Thrive, NZ$99/month (NZ$990/year) — custom domain, multi-staff logins and roles, advanced reporting · Momoyoga Plus, €59/month billed annually (€79 monthly) — recurring memberships, branding, promo codes, customizable emails, Mailchimp, multiple full-access accounts
• Top tier: Momoyoga Custom, €179/month billed annually — branded mobile app for yogis. Chocka has no equivalent.

And on GST. Chocka’s paid-plan fees are GST-inclusive — $49 and $99 are what you pay, and if you are GST-registered you can claim that GST back like any other business expense. Worth a word with your accountant rather than taking ours. Momoyoga’s published prices exclude VAT for EU customers, and their support site says customers outside Europe are billed in US dollars; what that means for your GST is a question for them.

On that €179 tier, one thing needs saying honestly. Momoyoga’s top plan buys you a branded mobile app in the app stores. Chocka does not have a mobile app at all, so we are not going to pretend we do it cheaper. What Chocka gives you at NZ$99 is a fully branded booking site on your own custom domain — your name in the address bar, your colours, no badge. For most studios that is the thing they actually wanted when they asked about an app. For some it genuinely is not, and if you are one of them, Momoyoga’s Custom plan does something we cannot.

We will move you over — a managed migration, free

The reason most people stay on a platform they have outgrown is not loyalty. It is the mental image of a weekend spent copying names into a spreadsheet, and the fear of a customer turning up to a class that no longer exists.

So we do it for you. Included on Grow and Thrive. On the free plan we will help where we can, but we cannot promise a queue position.

What we bring across

• Your customer list. Everyone, with their contact details.
• Passes and remaining credits, and gift balances — as far as your current platform lets us get them out.
• Your class schedule and class types, rebuilt on Chocka.
• Upcoming bookings carry across, so your customers keep the classes they have already booked.

What does not come across: historical bookings and past transaction records do not become live records on Chocka. We can hand them to you as a file to keep, but your new system starts clean.

To be clear about what this is: it is us doing it, by hand, for you. It is a service, not a button. That is the point.

How the switch actually goes

The work on your side is short and the work on ours is the fiddly part, which is the arrangement we wanted.

From you we need an export from your current platform, your class schedule confirmed, and your Stripe account connected. Then we build it, you check it before anyone sees it, and you go live on a date you pick — usually the start of a week.

We will give you a date once we have seen your export, rather than a number on a marketing page. Every studio’s timetable is a different amount of work, and a promise made before we have looked at your data is not worth much.

Where Momoyoga is still the better choice

There are three, and we would rather you heard them from us.

They have a mobile app and we do not. Momoyoga includes a free iOS and Android app for members on every plan, including the free one, and a fully branded app on their Custom plan. Chocka is a website — a good one, on your own domain, that works properly on a phone. But it is not in the App Store, and if your members expect an app icon, that is a real difference.

They have Mailchimp and we do not. Momoyoga’s Plus plan includes a Mailchimp integration. If your marketing genuinely runs through Mailchimp lists, that is a workflow you would be giving up. You can still export your customer list from Chocka in one click and import it, but that is a manual step, and a manual step is not an integration.

They do video and we do not. Online teaching and video on demand are on every Momoyoga plan, free included. Chocka does not do video at all. If a meaningful part of your business is on-demand content, we are not the right tool.

Questions people actually ask

Can I keep using my own Stripe account?

You sign in with the Stripe details you already have — same Stripe identity, same business, same bank account. What matters for your money is unchanged: charges are made on an account in your business name, funds settle in your balance, and we never hold them. That is true on every Chocka plan, at no surcharge.

Will my customers be disrupted?

Very little. Their bookings, passes and credits carry over. Two things do need them to act: everyone sets a password once, and recurring members re-authorise their card.

Do you move my passes and gift card balances?

Yes, as far as your current platform lets us export them. Remaining credits and gift balances are granted to each customer when they claim their account. If your platform will not release something, we will tell you before we start rather than after.

What happens to my recurring members?

We set up your membership plans on Chocka and move the member records. Each member then re-joins with a pre-filled link — they confirm and add their card, so billing runs through your own Stripe from then on. Chocka does not migrate stored cards; PCI-compliant card-data migration between processors does exist, but it needs your current provider’s cooperation and is not something we offer today. Some members will need chasing; we will show you exactly who.

Will my members be charged twice, or pay more than they do now?

Not without your say-so. We agree the start date for billing on Chocka with you before anything runs, and nobody is charged on Chocka for a period they have already paid for on your old platform. We are not yet promising an automatic price match on migrated members — we will not promise that until we have seen your data export. What we will do is show you every member’s price before a single charge goes out.

What does the migration cost?

Nothing. It is included on Grow and Thrive. On the free plan we will help where we can.

Do I have to sign a contract?

No. There is no minimum term and no notice period. Your data is exportable in one click, on any plan, at any time — including on the way out.

The short version

Momoyoga is a good tool with a 5% platform fee on its free plan, an integrated payments option that holds funds for seven days, and your-own-Stripe as a paid add-on on its middle tiers.

Chocka is a New Zealand booking platform where the money goes into your own Stripe account on every plan, the free tier costs 2%, the paid tiers cost nothing per booking, and we will move you over ourselves.

We do not have a mobile app, Mailchimp, or video. You now know that before you signed up rather than after.