Small group personal training (SGPT) delivers individual coaching to a maximum of six clients per session. Group classes deliver one workout to twelve or more. They look similar on a timetable and they are completely different products, with different pricing, different retention, and different economics. This page compares them properly.
We should declare our position upfront. Gym Owner Network is the SGPT specialist. We run small group gyms, we've mentored 500+ gyms across 16 countries, and we believe 1:6 is the better business for a coach who cares about the product. This comparison shows the working behind that belief, so you can check it against your own gym. For the full definition of the model, start with what is small group personal training.
What's the real difference between the two models?
The difference is what the client is buying. A class sells a workout: energy, atmosphere, a coach running the room. SGPT sells a result: an individual programme, coached rep by rep, in a shared session. Both are legitimate products. Problems start when a gym charges for one while delivering the other.
Here's the comparison at a glance:
| SGPT (1:6 max) | Group classes (1:12+) | |
|---|---|---|
| What's sold | Individual results | A workout experience |
| Programming | Personal to each member | One workout for the room |
| Coach's job | Coach every rep | Manage the room |
| Typical price point | Premium (2 to 4x class rates) | Volume pricing |
| Members needed for £20k/month | Roughly 80 to 100 | Often 200+ |
| Retention driver | Being known and progressed | Atmosphere and habit |
| Owner's growth lever | Price and product quality | Volume and lead flow |
Why does the ratio matter so much?
Because coaching attention divides by heads. At 1:6, a coach can know every member's programme, watch every working set, and adjust on the spot. At 1:12, the same coach physically cannot. Every client added past six halves the attention available to the rest.
This is why we treat 1:6 as a line rather than a preference. Six is the tested ceiling at which the session still qualifies as personal training. 1:12 is a group class with worse coaching economics than an honest class model. And the range between them, eight to ten people priced like small group, is no man's land: too expensive for the class market, too crowded to deliver PT-level results.
Most owners don't choose no man's land. They drift there, one extra spot at a time, because the industry's default advice is more: more leads, more members, more bodies per session. Each added spot looks free. What it actually spends is the product.
Which model makes more money?
Per member, SGPT earns more. Per coaching hour, SGPT earns more. Classes can produce bigger headline revenue at scale, but they require two to three times the membership volume, which means two to three times the acquisition, churn, and space.
Run the maths on a £20k month:
Class model: at £89 a month, you need roughly 225 members. At industry-typical attrition, replacing leavers means finding 15 to 20 new members every single month, forever. Marketing becomes the business.
SGPT model: at £220 a month, you need 90 members. At the 2 to 3% monthly attrition GON network gyms average, that's replacing 2 to 3 members a month. Referrals alone can carry that.
Retention is where the models really separate. Across the GON network, average member lifespan is 18+ months against an industry standard of around 9. Members stay where they're known, and a 1:6 coach knows their people. A 1:12 coach knows the regulars at the front.
Is large group ever the right model?
Yes. A deliberately built class gym, priced honestly for volume, with the marketing engine to feed it, is a real business. Some operators run it brilliantly, and if that's your model and your values, we're genuinely not your mentor. We say the same on our calls: GON works with small group gyms and owners committed to switching to small group. When a large group gym books in and wants to stay large group, we point them somewhere better suited.
The model becomes a problem in two cases:
When it's accidental. The gym drifted to twelve-person sessions to make the numbers work, and the owner, usually a genuinely good coach, quietly hates what the product has become.
When the coaching is the brand. If members joined because of the coaching quality, scaling the room dilutes the exact thing they're paying for. The business grows by breaking its own product.
If either of those describes your gym, the question stops being "which model is better?" and becomes "how do I get back to the model my product deserves?"
How do you move from classes to small group?
The transition is a structured rebuild, not a relaunch. In our mentorship work the sequence is always the same: get clear on your numbers first, sharpen the product, then restructure the model and pricing, then the team, then retention, then marketing. Each stage unlocks the next.
Owners fear this move because it feels like a betrayal of the members who got them here. In practice, done in the right order, most members move with you, because they were staying for the coaching anyway. Sam & Tristan at CTPT Canterbury cut from 110 members at the wrong price down to 30, rebuilt around a stronger model, and grew to 230 members in a facility four times the size. Cut once, cut deep, then build.
Frequently asked questions
Is small group training more profitable than classes?
Per coaching hour and per member, yes. SGPT typically prices at two to four times class rates with materially better retention. Classes can match total profit only at much higher volume, which carries higher acquisition costs and higher churn.
What is the ideal group size for small group training?
Six or fewer per coach. Six is the maximum at which individual programming and rep-level coaching remain deliverable. Past six, the session functionally becomes a class.
Can I run both models in one gym?
You can, and many gyms do while transitioning. Long term, mixed models blur the product and the pricing. The gyms that break through tend to commit to one model and price it properly.
Why do class-based gyms struggle with retention?
The average independent gym keeps a member around 9 months. Class members are loyal to habit and atmosphere, which transfer easily to a cheaper competitor. Coached members are loyal to their coach and their progress, which don't.
The line we'd draw
If you sell coaching, cap the room where coaching survives. That's six. Price it like the premium product it is, and let the gyms built for volume have the volume.