// Manifesto
Clay started because every booking platform we tried treated studio owners like leads to be milked. Annual contracts. Surprise transaction fees. Members repackaged for ClassPass. Aggregator subdomains in the URL bar. We refused, then we wrote our own.
// Story
Clay App is a product of Alt F Awesome, an independent studio in Amsterdam. We build software for boutique gyms, pilates studios and EMS operators across the Netherlands and the EU.
We host on EU infrastructure: Next.js on Vercel Frankfurt, Payload CMS and Postgres 16 on Render Amsterdam. Member data never leaves the continent. GDPR isn't a checkbox on our roadmap — it's the architecture.
Stripe is the source of truth for billing, the CMS is the source of truth for everything operational. The two reconcile through an idempotent webhook pipeline that has its own deduplication ledger — because retries should never charge twice.
We bill monthly. We publish our pricing on the homepage. If we ever change either of those, you'll find out before your next invoice — not buried in a footer somewhere.
// Trust & data
Studios run on uptime and trust, not vibes. Here's what's actually wired in — with the engineering primitives behind each promise so you can audit it yourself.
Front-end on Vercel Frankfurt, Payload CMS and Postgres on Render Amsterdam. Member personal data never leaves the continent. Card data is handled by Stripe under PCI DSS — we only store Stripe customer IDs.
Vercel Frankfurt · Render Amsterdam
Every Stripe event is signed and deduplicated against a `ProcessedStripeEvents` ledger — retries never cause double-charges. Bookings deduct credits first, verify capacity, then commit. Oversells roll back and refund the credit automatically.
Webhook idempotency · Atomic bookings
Tenant isolation is enforced in Payload access functions (`readByTenant`, `writeByTenant`, `injectOrganization`) on every business collection — not just hidden in the UI. A trainer in studio A cannot read studio B's bookings, members or revenue. Ever.
Payload access fns · organization scope hook
Stripe is the source of truth for billing — if you leave Clay, your subscriptions keep running on your own Stripe. Members and bookings export to CSV from the admin. After cancellation we hold data for 30 days so you can take everything, then permanently delete.
CSV export · Stripe Connect · 30-day delete
Verified against the internal production-readiness audit (April 2026). The full verdict is published in our docs — ask if you want a copy.
Cancel any month from the admin. Your Stripe subscriptions keep running on your own account when you leave — we just stop the Clay invoice.
You pay Clay's fixed monthly price. Members pay standard Stripe NL rates. We add 0% on top of either side. The optional Stripe Connect `application_fee_percent` is yours to set if you operate a chain.
Your member list is yours. We don't push them to ClassPass or Urban Sports Club, ever. We don't run an aggregator marketplace. We don't have a Clay App where your members 'discover' competing studios.
Pricing on the homepage in three tiers. No 'contact sales' wall, no fake 'only 2 spots left' countdowns, no progress bars that reset. The same humans who write the code answer the support email.
// Parent
Independent studio in Amsterdam building tools for boutique fitness, beauty and wellness operators across Europe.
Visit altfawesome.com// Contact
Pricing questions, migration help, partnership ideas — the same humans answer all of them.
We answer within one business day — often sooner. No form loops, no sales pitch.
No demo needed. Free to create your tenant, monthly cancellable, your brand from day one. Connect Stripe Connect when you're ready to take the first booking — we'll never touch the money.
