Baseline: What are you actually Paying?

What is Baseline?

Baseline (fka Statstak) is a facility management tool. They offer website hosting (through their product) and the ability for businesses to host lessons bookings, cage rentals, packages and more.

Overall the full feature set that Baseline offers is included in The Futures App’s offering. TFA offers booking tools that enable Youth Sports organizations to fully manage their facility and websites that are professionally designed by our in house team and deployed in days.

In our opinion there is not even a product comparison, ours is superior, BUT, if you feel like there is product parity there most definitely is not price parity….

Price Positioning

Baseline trades a low SaaS fee for a $2.79 fixed transaction fee that destroys margin at the session sizes facilities actually operate at. TFA charges a fair SaaS fee with a fixed fee of $0.70, 4x lower per transaction, so your payment costs scale predictably, not punitively.

Their pitch (what you’ll hear)

• “Our base plan is free”

• “We’re all-in-one: scheduling, memberships, payments, AI, keyless entry”

• “Voted #1 in customer service 2 years in a row”

• “No negotiated deals: same transparent rate for everyone”

The fee trap

Baseline: 3.9% + $2.79 per transaction TFA: 4% + $0.70 or 4.9% + $0.70

The fixed fee is the kill shot. At small transaction sizes (where facilities actually live) $2.79 vs $0.70 is $2.09 per transaction, every transaction, forever.

Effective rate comparison at common transaction sizes:

TFA is 2.5–3.5 percentage points cheaper at the $60–$100 range. On session-based facilities, that’s the entire transaction range.

The script:

“Their base plan is free but that $2.79 fixed fee means a $75 session booking costs them 7.62% in processing. We charge $0.70 fixed. That’s $2.09 less on every single transaction. On 400 sessions a month, that’s over $10,000 a year, just from the fixed fee difference alone before you even get to the percentage rate.”

Annual fixed-fee delta by monthly transaction volume

This is fixed-fee delta only the % rate savings stack on top of this.

Annual total cost comparison (avg $85 transaction)

UX / product objections to raise

Customer-facing booking experience:

• Baseline’s booking pages are dark-themed, operator-focused UI, not designed for parent-facing conversion

• Pricing not visible without login, creates friction before a family commits

• Scheduling, registration, and booking are fragmented across separate nav items

• First impression looks like “SaaS software,” not the facility’s brand

Now What?

If you are a facility, the fact of the matter is your services are likely $60-$150 per session, which means your blended rate is between 8.55% and 5.67% per transaction. You get outside of that range a touch if you are on a higher priced membership model, but this is the math you must figure out.

Frequently asked questions

What is Baseline?

Baseline (formerly Statstak) is a facility management tool. It offers website hosting through its product and lets businesses host lessons bookings, cage rentals, packages, and more. Its full feature set is included in The Futures App’s offering, which adds professionally designed websites built by an in-house team and deployed in days.

How do Baseline and The Futures App payment fees compare?

Baseline charges 3.9% + $2.79 per transaction; The Futures App charges 4% + $0.70 or 4.9% + $0.70. The fixed fee is the key difference: $2.79 versus $0.70 is $2.09 more on every transaction, forever. At the $60–$100 sessions where facilities actually operate, TFA is 2.5–3.5 percentage points cheaper.

Why does Baseline’s fixed fee matter so much for facilities?

Because facilities run small transactions. A $75 session on Baseline’s 3.9% + $2.79 costs 7.62% in processing, while the same booking on TFA’s $0.70 fixed fee is far lower. That $2.09 difference per transaction compounds: on 400 sessions a month it’s over $10,000 a year from the fixed-fee difference alone, before the percentage rate even factors in.

How much can a facility save on fixed fees by volume?

The annual fixed-fee savings grow with volume. At 200 monthly transactions, the difference is about $5,016 a year; at 400, about $10,032; at 600, about $15,048; and at 1,000, about $25,080. That’s the fixed-fee delta only — the percentage-rate savings stack on top of it.

What’s the problem with Baseline’s booking experience?

Baseline’s booking pages use a dark-themed, operator-focused interface that isn’t designed for parent-facing conversion. Pricing isn’t visible without logging in, which adds friction before a family commits; scheduling, registration, and booking are fragmented across separate nav items; and the first impression looks like SaaS software rather than the facility’s own brand.

How do I figure out what I’m actually paying as a facility?

Start with your session prices. Most facilities charge $60–$150 per session, which puts the blended rate between 8.55% and 5.67% per transaction on Baseline. You get slightly outside that range on a higher-priced membership model, but that’s the math every facility has to work out to understand its true payment cost.

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