Swim Central is Swimming Australia's national platform for club membership and competition entry — not day-to-day class booking, invoicing or lesson management. ClassBase is a configurable activity engine that runs that side of the job for swim schools, clubs and activity providers — bookings, registers, a parent portal and private venue hire for any activity you teach, on flat monthly pricing with GoCardless bank Direct Debit.
14-day trial · No credit card · Published pricing · No sales call required
About this page: points about Swim Central come from publicly available information, accurate as of August 2026 — Swimming Australia's Swim Central page, Masters Swimming Australia's Swim Central guide, and the Swim Central support portal. Both platforms develop continually, so details may change — please check those sources for the latest. This page describes what ClassBase does; it does not claim Swim Central lacks any feature we haven't verified.
If you searched for a “Swim Central alternative,” here's the actual difference between the two.
A configurable activity engine with the depth a serious operator needs — flat pricing, bank Direct Debit and hands-off venue revenue, built in.
Bookings, payments, registers, waiting lists and parent messages work the same whatever you teach — swim, dance, gymnastics, football and more. Add the skills framework that fits each class.
Rent your space out when it would otherwise sit empty — pool lanes, a dance studio, a sports hall or a court. Customers book and pay online and get their access code automatically, so it runs completely hands-off: an extra revenue stream on the same platform as your classes.
Collect fees by bank Direct Debit, with Stripe card payments supported too. The waiting list can trigger Direct Debit mandate setup automatically when a place is offered.
Starter £25, Pro £49, Enterprise £79 per month +VAT. No per-swimmer fee, email included at every tier — the price is the price whatever your enrolment.
The import wizard auto-detects SwimBiz exports and brings customers, classes, attendance and waiting lists across from a CSV file — most schools are running within the hour.
Swim England and STA frameworks are built in, alongside custom frameworks for any other activity you run — marked on any device, visible to parents through the portal.
No. Swim Central is Swimming Australia's national platform for club membership and competition entry — memberships run to 31 December each year, payments are processed via Stripe, and it uses a family/parent-group model (a Primary Account Holder with Dependants). Competition results are handled separately, via Results Central. It's a governing-body registration system, not day-to-day class booking, invoicing or attendance software — which is what ClassBase does.
Not exactly, and that's worth being upfront about — they solve different problems. Swim Central is Swimming Australia's national membership and meet-entry system; ClassBase is a configurable, multi-activity engine that runs the day-to-day admin clubs and schools need — bookings, invoicing, registers, a parent portal, waiting lists and private venue hire, for swim, dance, gymnastics and anything else you teach. Many providers use a governing-body system like Swim Central alongside a day-to-day platform like ClassBase.
ClassBase is priced on three flat monthly tiers — Starter £25, Pro £49, Enterprise £79 (+VAT) — with no per-swimmer fee, and email included at every tier.
Yes. ClassBase collects recurring fees via GoCardless bank Direct Debit and also supports Stripe card payments. The waiting list can trigger Direct Debit mandate setup automatically when a place is offered, so a new family is paying without any manual chasing.
Yes — ClassBase offers a free self-serve trial with no credit card and no sales call required, so you can set it up with your own data and see whether it fits before committing to anything.
Swim Central handles your national membership and meet entry. ClassBase runs the day-to-day admin for your classes and lessons — here's how providers get set up.
Configure your timetable, pricing and payment methods. Most schools finish this in a single session — and you can start a free trial to try it first.
Bring your customer and student list across from a CSV export, so you're not starting from zero.
Invite parents to the portal. They log in, see their child's classes, and manage bookings and payments from day one.
Set up and explore with your own data at no cost, with no card and no sales call. See the difference before you commit to anything.