Wellhub (formerly Gympass) for companies: what it is and alternatives

Wellhub —the brand that until 2024 was called Gympass— popularized a benefit many companies now take as standard: access to a network of gyms and wellbeing apps through a single corporate plan. It's a good solution to a specific problem. But when an HR team evaluates it, it's worth asking a broader question: is the problem "giving people a gym," or is it "offering a wellbeing proposition each employee values"? This guide explains what Wellhub is, how the model works, and how to evaluate it against the alternative of a flexible benefits scheme —without overselling in either direction—.

What is Wellhub (formerly Gympass)?

Wellhub is a corporate wellbeing benefits platform that gives a company's employees access to a network of gyms, studios, fitness apps, meditation, and mental health, through a subscription the company fully or partially subsidizes. The employee chooses which gyms or apps to access according to the contracted plan, and the company pays per use or a monthly fee.

Its proposition is concrete: it solves the logistics of offering gym access as a benefit without the company having to negotiate with each chain. It works well for organizations that want a turnkey wellness benefit and whose main goal is physical activity and wellbeing.

How does the corporate wellbeing benefit work?

The model has three parts: the company contracts a plan, defines how much it subsidizes, and the employee activates their access and chooses where to use it. The value for the company is twofold —an attractive benefit to attract and retain, and a signal that it cares about the team's health—.

But the model has a structural limit: it's single-purpose. It solves physical wellbeing, not the rest of a person's needs. And needs vary: for one person the gym is key; for another with kids, what matters is health, education, or food; for a third, saving at the supermarket. A single benefit, however good, speaks well to part of the team and little to the rest.

Wellhub vs. flexible benefits: how to choose?

The decision isn't "Wellhub yes or no," but what problem you want to solve. If the goal is exclusively physical wellbeing and the company already has the rest of its benefits proposition covered, a dedicated service like Wellhub does the job well.

If the goal is an integral value proposition —each employee receiving a budget and deciding how to use it across health, education, food, transport, wellbeing, and more—, then a flexible benefits scheme is more efficient: it covers the gym case (an employee can allocate their credits to wellness) and also all the others, with a single provider, a single budget, and a single management platform. Instead of adding one more single-purpose benefit, everything is unified into a system that respects that people's needs differ.

A simple way to see it: Wellhub answers "how do I give my team a gym?"; flexible benefits answer "how do I give each person what they value most, including the gym?".

What to evaluate when comparing wellbeing options?

When evaluating Wellhub, flexible benefits, or other alternatives, it's worth looking at:

• Needs coverage: does it solve only wellness or the full value proposition?
• Freedom of choice: does the employee choose according to their life stage, or receive a uniform benefit?
• Consolidation: is it one more provider to manage, or does it integrate with the rest of the benefits on one platform?
• Measurement: can you see adoption and real usage to justify the investment?
• Cost-impact: does the benefit reach the whole team or only those who use a gym?

The right question isn't the provider, it's the strategy

Wellhub is a good solution for the problem it solves. The underlying decision for an HR team isn't which gym provider to choose, but whether the wellbeing strategy should be an isolated benefit or part of an integral value proposition each employee can adapt to their life.

Maslow takes the second approach: a flexible benefits platform where wellbeing —including access to gyms and health apps via corporate subscriptions— coexists with health, education, food, and discounts, under a single budget and single management. This way the gym stops being a benefit that serves part of the team, and becomes one more option within a proposition that speaks to everyone.