Coachway vs Kahunas: Which Is Better in 2026?

Comparing Coachway and Kahunas means comparing two opposite pricing philosophies: one bills you per client, the other charges a flat fee no matter how big you grow. Both promise an all-in-one coaching platform with a branded client app. This guide compares them fairly, category by category, with real pricing (as of July 2026) and an honest winner in each area. At the end we also show a third option that may make more sense for coaches in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

Overview: Coachway and Kahunas at a glance

Coachway

Coachway (coachway.io) is a newer European platform with a Nordic focus. Its pitch is simplicity: one plan with every feature included - workout builder with an 1,800+ exercise library, a meal planner that ships 1,100+ recipes and 3,900+ ingredients natively, check-in forms, automations, lead management, messaging, team roles, a coach app and a brandable client app (your logo and colours). It connects to your own Stripe account on every plan and offers a 14-day trial with no contracts and cancel-anytime terms. The interface is available in six languages: English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and German.

The weak spot? The pricing model. EUR 69/mo covers only your first 5 clients, then every additional client costs EUR 9/mo. At 25 clients that is roughly EUR 249/mo, at 50 clients roughly EUR 474/mo - several times what rivals charge for the same roster. As a young platform it also has a small public review footprint, so independent signals on app quality and support are still thin.

Kahunas

Kahunas (kahunas.io) is built by Kahunas FZE, based in Sharjah, UAE, and founded by Mark Fox around 2020. It is bootstrapped and focused on online coaches who want their own branded app and a strong client-accountability system (custom check-in forms, habit tracking, progress photo overlay). Coach-side support is consistently praised - Trustpilot 4.8 out of 5 (over 400 reviews), Capterra 4.9 out of 5 (around 60 reviews). Pricing is flat: Essentials $35/mo (25 clients), Growth $69/mo (50), Ultimate $99/mo (unlimited clients plus a branded iOS and Android app with its own app store listing, no setup fee).

The weak spot? The client app sits at around 3 stars (App Store UK 3.2 out of 5 across 137 reviews; Google Play around 3.0 across 210 reviews), with reviews citing crashes and mid-workout data loss. The nutrition module is weak (food-data complaints, no MyFitnessPal or Cronometer integration). There is no calendar or session booking, and cancellation requires 48 hours or more notice before renewal under UAE law.

Side-by-side at a glance

Category by category: the detailed breakdown

1. Pricing and how it scales

This is the deciding category, because the two models diverge fast. Coachway charges EUR 69/mo which includes your first 5 clients, then EUR 9/mo for each additional client. That is transparent, but do the maths as you grow: 15 clients is about EUR 159/mo, 25 clients about EUR 249/mo, 50 clients about EUR 474/mo. Kahunas charges $35/mo flat for up to 25 clients, $69 for 50 and $99 for unlimited - and the $99 Ultimate tier includes a branded app with its own app store listing, the cheapest white-label deal on the market. Annual billing takes another 25% off. Coachway offers a 14-day trial and cancel-anytime terms, while the Kahunas trial auto-converts to paid and cancellation needs 48 hours or more notice before renewal.

Winner: Kahunas, decisively, for any roster above a handful of clients. Coachway only stays competitive if you deliberately keep a tiny, high-ticket client list.

2. Workout builder and content library

Coachway ships a modern workout builder with an 1,800+ exercise library included on the single plan. The Kahunas builder is functional but simpler, with limited tempo, RIR and superset options - it suits coaches focused on habits and consistency rather than deep periodization. Neither matches the programming depth of the category leader Trainerize (see our Trainerize vs Kahunas comparison), so if advanced periodization is your whole business, look there first.

Winner: Coachway, narrowly, on bundled content - with the caveat that as a young platform there is little independent feedback on how the builder holds up in daily use.

3. Nutrition

Coachway treats nutrition as a first-class module: 1,100+ recipes and 3,900+ ingredients ship natively, so you can build meal plans without third-party tools. Kahunas includes nutrition in every tier, but it is the module users complain about most: poor food data, no ability to build and save meals properly, and no MyFitnessPal or Cronometer integration at all.

Winner: Coachway.

4. Branded app and client experience

Here the definitions matter. Kahunas Ultimate gives you a true white-label app - your own listing in the App Store and Google Play under your brand, with no setup fee. Coachway includes a brandable client app on every plan, but branding means your logo, colours and email templates inside the Coachway app rather than your own store listing. On quality: the Kahunas client app is its known weakness at around 3 stars, with crash and data-loss reports, unreliable Apple Health sync and no Apple Watch app. Coachway's app has too small a public review base to judge yet.

Winner: Kahunas if you want a real app store listing under your name and accept the quality risk; Coachway if included-by-default branding on a smaller roster is enough.

5. Business tools

Both platforms include automations and lead management. Kahunas adds its signature accountability system: custom check-in forms, habit tracking and progress photo overlays, which is why online-only coaches love it. Coachway counters with team roles on the base plan and payments through your own Stripe account from day one (2.4% fee if you use their payment system instead). Note that Kahunas has no calendar or session booking, so hybrid coaches need a separate scheduling tool, and neither platform records cash or bank-transfer payments - a common scenario in our region.

Winner: a tie - Kahunas for accountability-driven online coaching, Coachway for small teams that want roles and their own Stripe from the start.

6. Support, languages and contracts

Kahunas coach-side support is consistently praised (Trustpilot 4.8 out of 5 across 400+ reviews), but the strict cancellation terms sit under UAE law and Dubai courts. Coachway offers cancel-anytime terms with no binding period, and it is the only one of the two that speaks anything other than English - six languages, aimed at Nordic and German-speaking coaches. Neither supports Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian.

Winner: Coachway for contract fairness and languages; Kahunas for proven support quality.

The third option: Trainera

Coachway and Kahunas fight over pricing models, but they share the same blind spots: no Balkan language support, no local pricing, and no way to track the bank-transfer and cash payments most coaches in our region actually receive. And the strengths they compete on - all-inclusive features, branded apps, accountability - Trainera (trainera.fit) matches or beats, then adds what both leave out. Trainera is a platform for personal trainers, online coaches and gyms or studios. It runs on web, iOS and Android and includes everything in one price, with no add-ons and no per-client fees.

Everything included, at a flat local price

Trainera covers client management, a workout builder with a drag-and-drop calendar and a video exercise library (supersets, circuits, progression), nutrition plans with a meal library and per-meal macros, real-time chat, and progress tracking. AI training-plan, nutrition and single-workout generation, AI food-photo analysis, barcode scanning, AI shopping lists and weekly AI insights are all included. Unlike Coachway, the price does not climb with every client you sign: plans are flat and local. In the US it is $19.99/$49.99/$99; in Bosnia Starter starts at 19.99 KM/mo (10 clients), Pro 44.99 KM (30), Business 84.99 KM (100); HR and ME are in EUR, RS in RSD. There is also a free plan. At 25 clients that is a fraction of Coachway's ~EUR 249/mo.

Payments the way clients actually pay

Trainera supports Stripe (card), PayPal, bank transfer (with a request, approve and decline flow) and cash tracking, with no fee just to enable payments. You can run subscriptions or one-time coaching invoices and offer free enrollment. Coachway routes card payments through your own Stripe, Kahunas takes no commission - but neither tracks cash or transfer, which is decisive in markets where most clients pay that way.

A full gym and studio module

Neither Coachway nor Kahunas offers session booking or gym management. Trainera includes a full gym and studio module: multi-trainer management, member numbers and check-in, membership packages with flexible billing cycles, group training slots and reservations with capacity limits, staff roles, equipment inventory, gym transactions, and gym-to-trainer and gym-to-client chat. Each gym gets its own white-label theme and custom domain. Solo coaches get Calendly-style appointment booking with two-way Google and Outlook calendar sync in the base price.

A real white-label app, plus getting found

Trainera ships a true white-label native app under your own brand - like Kahunas Ultimate, but without a $99/mo tier requirement, and paired with a client app that also has a native Apple Watch app, iOS Live Activities and home-screen widgets. Every trainer gets a public branded web page, a listing in the trainers marketplace and a per-trainer SEO blog engine, so the platform brings you clients instead of only managing them. Accountability is covered with a deeper gamification layer: XP and levels, 40+ achievements, workout and nutrition streaks and weight milestones.

Local language and support

The interface is in 21 languages - including Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, which neither Coachway (Nordic languages) nor Kahunas (English only) offers - with local support. Omnichannel messaging connects WhatsApp Business, Facebook Messenger and Viber into one inbox.

Where Trainera concedes

To keep this fair: if you coach in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish, Coachway's native-reviewed Nordic localization is ahead. And on wearables, a competitor deep in the Garmin ecosystem may reach a tracker Trainera does not yet (Garmin is on the roadmap); Trainera already syncs Apple Health, Google Health Connect, Fitbit, Polar, Google Fit and Huawei Health. Everywhere else - price at scale, payments, the gym module, languages for our region, marketplace and AI - Trainera wins.

If you want to compare directly, see Trainera vs Kahunas and Top 5 Kahunas Alternatives.

All three options side by side

Recommendation by use case

• Coaching in a Nordic language or German, with a small high-ticket roster? Coachway.
• Big online roster, want the cheapest branded app store listing and praised support? Kahunas.
• Working in BS/HR/SR/ME, running a gym or hybrid model, or just tired of per-client fees? Trainera.

Conclusion

Coachway and Kahunas solve different problems. Coachway gives you everything on one plan with fair contracts and Nordic localization, but its per-client pricing punishes growth - the exact moment your software should be getting cheaper per client, it gets more expensive. Kahunas is the value king at volume with the cheapest white-label deal around, but its ~3-star client app, weak nutrition and strict UAE cancellation terms are real costs. Trainera takes the best of both - flat all-inclusive pricing, a true white-label native app, strong accountability - and adds what neither offers: local pricing and languages, cash and bank-transfer tracking, a full gym module and a marketplace that brings you clients. Try it free and compare for yourself.

Related reading

• Trainerize vs Kahunas: Which Is Better in 2026?
• Trainera vs Kahunas: Honest 2026 Comparison
• Top 5 Kahunas Alternatives in 2026
• Trainera vs Trainerize: Honest 2026 Comparison
• Best Personal Trainer Software in 2026: Honest Review