Payment transparency
We literally cannot mark up processing.
If you run a yoga studio, you're probably overpaying $1,500–$4,200 a year on payment processing. Most owners don't know it — because every other platform is designed so you can't see.
The intermediary problem
You think you're paying your processor. You're paying a platform that's paying a processor.
Every other studio platform holds the merchant relationship on your behalf. Your studio isn't the merchant of record with a card processor — the platform is, or a partner they chose is. You can't leave. You can't shop rates. You can't see the spread between what the card networks charge them and what they charge you.
That's not a pricing decision. It's the architecture.
Every other platform
Platform sits in the flow
Wellspring
Software only — never in the flow
Here's what that looks like at the three platforms yoga studios actually shop — all of it verifiable on their own websites:
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Mindbody is a registered ISO of PNC Bank and Elavon. Mindbody Payments runs on Stripe on the backend. Your studio doesn't have a relationship with Stripe. Mindbody does.
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Momence uses Stripe Connect. The "Stripe account" you set up in Momence's onboarding is a Momence-managed connected account. Momence charges 3.9% + $0.30 online — a full percentage point above Stripe's own published rate of 2.9%. The gap is Momence's margin.
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WellnessLiving bundles processing through Paragon Payment Solutions. You sign a merchant agreement via WellnessLiving, not with an acquirer you chose. Paragon layers $16/month gateway + $0.11 per transaction + $199/year maintenance + $189/year PCI compliance on top of the card rate. Miss PCI? Add $45/month.
The same intermediary pattern extends across adjacent-category platforms too — Glofox (fitness) is, in Stripe's own words from their customer case study, a "white-labelled payments solution" built on Stripe Connect; Vagaro (salon/spa) runs as a registered ISO of PNC Bank. It's the industry standard, not a yoga-specific quirk.
None of those are bad companies. They're just not structured to let you see — or change — what your processing actually costs.
Where your money goes
Every card swipe has four cost layers. Bundled pricing hides all four. Interchange-plus shows you three.
Every time a member taps a card in your studio, four layers of cost stack up before the money lands in your account:
Bundled pricing
One opaque number
All four layers blended into a single blended rate you can't decompose.
Layer 4 • Platform markup
~1–1.5% • invisible on your statement
Layer 3 • Processor markup
~0.40% + fixed per-transaction fee
Layer 2 • Network assessments
~0.14%
Layer 1 • Interchange
~2% • 70–90% of total cost
Paid to the bank that issued your member's card. Fixed by the networks.
You see one number. You can't tell which layer is which.
Interchange-plus
Every layer itemized
Layers 1–3 listed separately. No layer 4 — no platform in the flow.
Layer 4 • Platform markup
Not present on your statement
Layer 3 • Processor markup
Itemized • ~0.40% + fixed fee
Layer 2 • Network assessments
Itemized • ~0.14%
Layer 1 • Interchange
Itemized per card category
You can see the exact rate each card fell into.
Line by line. No blended rate. Nothing hidden.
Layer 1
Interchange
Set by the card networks, paid to the bank that issued your member's card. This is the big one: 70–90% of total processing cost. Nobody controls it. Nobody can undercut it.
Layer 2
Network assessments
Visa and Mastercard's own fees. ~0.13–0.15%. Also fixed.
Layer 3
Processor markup
The underlying processor's margin for moving the transaction. On interchange-plus pricing this is itemized: a flat percentage + fixed per-transaction fee.
Layer 4 — the invisible one
Platform markup
The invisible one. This layer only exists when a platform sits between you and your processor. It's the spread between what the processor charges the platform and what the platform charges you. You can't see it on a bundled statement. You can't negotiate it, because you didn't sign for it.
Interchange-plus pricing shows you layers 1, 2, and 3 separately, line by line. Bundled pricing shrinks them into a single blended number and adds layer 4 into the middle of it.
Wellspring doesn't have layer 4. Not because we chose to be generous — because we're not in the payment flow.
The architectural choice
Your merchant account is yours. It always was.
When you sign up for Wellspring, you also sign up for Helcim — directly. Your studio is the merchant of record. Helcim is your processor. Wellspring is the software you run your studio on.
Your statement comes from Helcim, not Wellspring.
You can read every fee on every transaction. Interchange is itemized. The Helcim margin is itemized. There is no fourth layer.
Your rate is set by Helcim, not us.
We can't negotiate it up. We can't negotiate it down. We couldn't add a point on top if we wanted to — the architecture doesn't permit it.
If you leave Wellspring, your Helcim account stays with you.
You don't lose your processor. You don't lose your card vault. We were never in the flow.
We never hold your money.
Funds move studio ↔ Helcim ↔ your bank. Wellspring software never touches the dollars.
Helcim publishes their pricing publicly.
On their own site. Entry tier: interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 card-present, interchange + 0.50% + $0.25 online. ACH: 0.5% + $0.25 capped at $6. $0 monthly. $0 PCI. $0 cancellation. $0 setup.
See Helcim's fee disclosuresThe number on your statement
Most studios processing $20K/month save $1,500–$4,200 a year by switching.
That's not a promise — it's what falls out of the math once the platform markup and the gateway and PCI fees disappear. Your number depends on your volume, your mix of card types, and whether you're currently paying a monthly gateway fee. We built a calculator that uses the same verified rates you just read.
See your exact numberSide by side
Here's a bundled statement. Here's an interchange-plus statement. Look for the difference.
On a bundled statement, one line — one percentage — represents the total of interchange, network assessments, processor markup, and platform markup. You can't tell which layer is which. You can't tell if the platform took 50 basis points or 150.
On an interchange-plus statement, every layer is itemized. You see the exact interchange category each card fell into. You see the processor's markup as a separate line. There is no platform layer, because the platform isn't in the flow.
Side-by-side statement comparison coming soon.
Why we built it this way
Transparency is a practice.
In yoga, asteya — non-stealing — is one of the first ethical vows. We built Wellspring so we literally cannot mark up your payment processing; the architecture honors that vow by design.
See our pricing