I actually am the owner of an Anytime Fitness franchise in IL. Even though they are a very rapidly growing franchise, i have learned since we opened, that many are very different. My gym is setup nicely, we have a hammer strength half-rack, smith mahcine, dumbells up to 100, LifeFitness Machines, and LifeFitness Cardio, plus we built a room for group fitness classes. Our gym is very comparable, in size (5K sqft) to cardinal, fitness 19, fitness advantage, world gym, etc.............pricing? I can say for certain that each one has their own model, very dependent on local competition, area, etc.............so it doesnt surprise me the rates vary as that is very common.........With our gym, we have been getting many members from the big box gyms, as 90% of people that go into an LA Fitness, Lifetime Fitness, you name it any big box gym are there to use the cardio, machines, and free weights. Most people do not use the swimming pools, moutain climbing, etc that are at the big box gyms and most people get stuck paying the high price at those clubs because you are paying for all the upkeep of the overhead.
But big advantages of Anytime overall: is the reciprocity (using any club worldwide with the key fob) the 24 hours, especially if you are in an area of lots of shift work. By no means is it a hard core gym and really it is more of a market for gym newbies, at least my club has been, and they do vary from location to location with equipment, look, and pricing.
Finally on SNAP I would say similar in the fact they are open 24/7 and have a key fob or something similar, but really much more basic than Anytime. Usually or at least the ones I have seen and talked with people about are generally about 1/2 the size of most Anytime Fitness locations.............
Hope this helps with the initial post, overall, location dependent, as alot of the clubs are different as far as layout and pricing, by no means a hardcore environment, but most are sufficient, at least I can say ours is, to get a complete workout that is complete with a solid mix of free weights, machines, cardio and fitness classes........
peace