How to Value a Yoga Studio in 2026

Yoga studios are one of those businesses where the financials and the emotional reality of the owner rarely match up. I've sat across the table from studio owners who were convinced their eight-year-old community studio was worth $600,000 because "people love it here." They weren't wrong about the love. They were wrong about the math. A buyer doesn't pay for loyalty that walks out the door with the founder.

I've worked on yoga studio transactions from single-location community studios to regional chains, and the patterns are consistent. If you understand what actually drives yoga studio valuation, you can build a business that trades at the top of the range instead of bouncing along the bottom. Let me walk you through how these deals really work.

The Dominant Methodology: SDE With a Revenue Sanity Check

For single-location yoga studios — which is the vast majority of the market — valuations are built on Seller's Discretionary Earnings. I cross-check that against a revenue multiple to make sure the two don't diverge wildly, but SDE is the anchor.

The ranges I see in the market today: independent single-location yoga studios trade at 1.5-2.5x SDE, with the median sitting close to 1.9x. As a sanity check, revenue multiples land at 0.3-0.8x annual revenue. When the SDE and revenue math diverge significantly, one of the two numbers is usually wrong — typically it's undiscovered owner add-backs or an owner taking below-market comp.

Multi-location yoga platforms are a different animal. Once a business has 3+ studios, a real management team, and $500K+ of EBITDA, it starts attracting institutional attention. These transactions clear at 4-6x EBITDA, sometimes higher if the brand has regional recognition. Yoga has not consolidated the way cycling or HIIT has, so strategic premiums are rare but possible.

Why Yoga Is Harder to Value Than Other Fitness

Yoga studios carry two structural disadvantages that make them trade at lower multiples than CrossFit, F45, or boutique cycling businesses of the same revenue.

First, teacher dependency. In most yoga studios, students book classes based on the teacher, not the studio. If your most popular teacher leaves and takes her Friday morning vinyasa class to a studio three miles away, you can lose 15-20 members overnight. Buyers know this. They underwrite to a world where your best teachers quit during the transition, because it happens. The only real defense is a deep bench and a brand that transcends any single instructor.

Second, the class pass economy. ClassPass and Mindbody's third-party booking platforms have trained yoga consumers to drop in rather than commit. That pushes recurring membership penetration down industry-wide. A studio where 60% of revenue comes from monthly unlimited memberships is in the minority, and that studio will trade materially higher than one where 55% of revenue is class packs and drop-ins.

Together, these dynamics mean yoga studios need to work harder to earn a good multiple than almost any other fitness category.

The Metrics That Actually Move the Multiple

When I'm building a valuation opinion for a yoga studio, here are the numbers I want to see.

Active monthly unlimited members. Not total members on file, not names in Mindbody. Active auto-renew unlimited members who've been billed in the last 30 days. For a typical neighborhood studio, 150+ is healthy, 250+ is strong, and 400+ starts looking like a real business. Anything under 100 and buyers worry about sustainability.

Monthly recurring revenue (MRR). The percentage of total revenue coming from recurring unlimited memberships. Top-of-range studios get 55-70% of revenue here. Bottom-of-range studios are under 40%.

Retention (90-day and 12-month). What percentage of new members are still members 90 days later? Twelve months later? Healthy yoga studios see around 60-70% at 90 days and 35-45% at 12 months. Below that, you have a leaky bucket that costs acquisition dollars to constantly refill.

Teacher training revenue. A 200-hour or 300-hour teacher training program can add $60K-$150K per year of high-margin revenue. Buyers value this, but they apply a modest discount because TT enrollment is lumpy and somewhat dependent on the lead instructor's reputation. Don't expect it to trade at the same multiple as your membership revenue.

Retail and ancillary. Apparel, props, workshops. This should be 5-12% of revenue in a well-run studio. If it's zero, you're leaving margin on the table and a sophisticated buyer will notice.

What Destroys Yoga Studio Value

I've watched dozens of yoga studio deals fall apart or get repriced. The same issues show up every time.

The founder is the brand. If your Instagram following is larger than your studio's, and your name is on the schedule for the 6am Saturday class that sells out in 30 seconds, you're the product. Nobody wants to buy a product that's about to leave. The fix is slow — intentionally transferring authority and visibility to other teachers over 12-18 months before you sell.

Rent as a percentage of revenue. Yoga studios are space-hungry and rent-sensitive. I want to see occupancy costs under 15% of revenue. Above 20% and the math stops working for buyers, especially when their SBA loan payment layers on top.

ClassPass dependency. If 25%+ of your revenue is coming through ClassPass, a buyer will heavily discount it. ClassPass revenue is lower-margin, the relationships aren't yours, and the platform can change economics overnight. I've literally seen a studio's effective per-class revenue drop 35% in one quarter because of a ClassPass pricing change.

Deferred capital expenditure. Worn floors, old sound systems, beat-up props, a leaky roof in a studio-owned building. Buyers estimate upgrade costs and subtract them from offer price, dollar for dollar.

Who Actually Buys Yoga Studios

The buyer pool for yoga studios is narrower than most owners expect, and understanding it shapes how you prepare and position the sale.

Teacher-owners are the most common buyers. A senior instructor ready to run her own shop, financed by SBA. They're emotionally invested, price-sensitive, and typically pay 1.5-2.0x SDE. They also close slowly because most are first-time buyers.

Operator-owners without yoga backgrounds are rarer but pay better. A local entrepreneur buying a cash-flowing business they can run professionally. These buyers pay 2.0-2.5x SDE and close faster, but they demand stronger systems and a teacher base that doesn't rely on the departing owner.

Regional multi-unit operators buy bolt-on studios in markets they already serve. These are the best buyers for mature single-location studios with strong MRR. They pay 2.2-2.8x SDE and move fast.

PE and family offices only show up for multi-location platforms with $500K+ EBITDA. In 2026, there are a handful of active consolidators but nothing like the roll-up energy in cycling or HIIT.

How to Maximize Your Studio's Value Before You Sell

If you're 18-36 months from selling, these are the moves that actually shift the multiple.

Shift revenue to unlimited memberships. Retire your class packs or reprice them so that unlimited is the obvious value. Every point of MRR percentage helps.

Build a bench of teachers. Develop at least three instructors who can carry prime-time classes without you. Make sure students know their names. Put them on the website.

Reduce ClassPass share. Renegotiate your ClassPass cap or cut it entirely if your direct channel is strong enough. Buyers want to see you own the customer relationship.

Clean up the books. Three years of tax returns that tie to your P&L, clear owner add-backs, and a simple list of what a new owner will and won't inherit. Surprises kill deals.

Lock in the lease. A five-to-ten-year lease with renewal options at fair market rent is essential for SBA financing and adds real value.

The Bottom Line

Yoga studios can be wonderful businesses and terrible investments simultaneously. The difference between a studio that sells for 1.5x SDE and one that sells for 2.5x is almost entirely operational: recurring revenue percentage, teacher bench depth, facility quality, and whether the owner has managed to step out of the center of the brand. Every one of those levers takes 12-24 months to move. If you're thinking about selling in the next three years, start now.