Best Vagaro Alternatives for Salons and Spas in 2026

Before you compare Vagaro alternatives, go and look at the staff rota on the back-room wall. Read it as a price list. On Vagaro, your own name costs $30 a month. Every stylist, therapist or nail tech after you adds $10, up to seven calendars. The receptionist costs nothing, because Vagaro doesn’t count the front desk. And if you ever pin an eighth name up there, that one is free too.

That rota is your Vagaro bill, give or take the add-ons. It is also the clearest way to see whether something else would suit you better, because every alternative on this page reads the same rota differently. Some charge per person. Some charge per location and don’t care how many names are on the wall. Some count the receptionist. Some won’t tell you the price until you’ve had a demo.

In this guide, we’ll look at what Vagaro costs in 2026, read straight from its pricing page, the real reasons salons and spas leave (and the reasons that turn out not to be reasons), what Vagaro still does better than most of its rivals, nine alternatives with their prices dated, what each would cost a five-stylist salon, where DMly fits and where it would be the wrong choice, and how to switch without dropping a booking.

The Best Vagaro Alternatives at a Glance

The best Vagaro alternatives depend on how your salon is built: Square Appointments for a flat price per location, GlossGenius for a flat price up to nine staff, Timely for per-stylist pricing with texts included, Mangomint or Boulevard for a premium salon or spa, Booksy for a solo barber or stylist, Phorest or Zenoti for larger teams happy to get a quote, and DMly if your clients already book and ask questions on WhatsApp or Instagram.

Here’s the same answer as a table, starting from the shape of your business rather than the brand.

Every price on this page was read on the vendor’s own pricing page on 13 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars unless we say otherwise, and several of these companies show different prices in different countries, so check the page from where you are.

How Much Does Vagaro Cost in 2026?

Vagaro costs $30 a month for one bookable calendar at one location, shown at $23.99 a month for your first six months, plus $10 a month for each extra bookable calendar up to seven, after which more staff are free. Add-ons are charged on top. That’s from Vagaro’s US pricing page, read on 13 October 2026.

A few definitions from Vagaro’s own FAQ matter here:

• A bookable calendar is for someone who performs services and needs their own schedule. Admin staff, like the front desk, don’t count.
• The calendar charge stops at seven. Vagaro says each bookable calendar licence costs $10, “up to seven licenses”, and once you reach seven you can add more employees at no extra cost.
• The intro price is time-limited. The $23.99 is labelled an exclusive rate for the first six months. After that, the one-calendar price is $30.
• There’s a 30-day free trial, but it doesn’t include email marketing, text marketing or the branded app.
• You can cancel any time with no fee, Vagaro says, though the price card also prints “Exclusions apply” beside that line.

On our reading of that FAQ, a salon with five bookable calendars pays about $70 a month before add-ons, and a salon with seven or more pays about $90. Vagaro’s page has a team-size selector, so check your exact number there before you compare.

What’s included, and what’s an add-on

Vagaro’s included list is long, and it’s worth reading before you decide anything is missing. Every plan includes payments, a calendar with resource management, waitlists, memberships, packages and gift certificates, 1,000 free emails a month, loyalty programmes, client records, SOAP notes, inventory tracking, invoices, Daily Deals, unlimited notifications and appointment reminders, online booking through Vagaro, Instagram, Facebook and Apple Maps, and a free listing on the Vagaro Marketplace.

The add-ons are where the bill grows. Text marketing starts at $20 a month, a Vagaro website (MySite) is $20, payroll is $34 a month plus $5 per employee, and a branded app for your clients is $100 a month. The full list is in the figure above.

The card reader small print

Vagaro offers a free card reader when you sign up for Vagaro Merchant Services, its card processing. The terms on the same page say you must process with Vagaro for at least 12 months after activation, and if you stop before then, you agree to pay a $150 early cancellation fee. Vagaro’s processing rates aren’t printed on the pricing page, so ask for them in writing if you’re comparing.

Does Vagaro charge marketplace fees?

No. Vagaro’s FAQ answers this directly: you can connect with new and existing clients through the Vagaro Marketplace at no additional cost. That’s a real point in Vagaro’s favour, and it’s different from some alternatives. Booksy charges a one-time 30% of a Boost client’s first visit, up to $100, and Fresha charges a one-time fee on brand new clients who find you through its marketplace. Keep that in mind before you leave a marketplace that’s sending you clients for free.

Why Salons and Spas Look for a Vagaro Alternative

Most salons look for a Vagaro alternative for one of four reasons: the price moves after six months and with every new hire, the add-ons stack up, the free card reader ties you to Vagaro’s processing for a year, or your clients talk to you on WhatsApp and Instagram rather than inside a booking app. Here’s each one, plainly.

1. The price moves twice

The first move is the calendar. Month seven, the $23.99 becomes $30. The second move is hiring. Every new stylist or therapist adds $10 until you reach seven calendars. Neither is unfair, and Vagaro tells you both up front. But if you budgeted on the intro price for a one-person studio and you’re now a four-person salon, your software line has gone from $23.99 to about $60 without you changing anything else.

2. The add-ons decide the real number

A salon that wants text marketing, a website and payroll for five people is adding $20, $20 and $59 to the base. That’s another $99 a month on top of the calendars. Again, these are honest published prices. The question is whether you’d pay less somewhere that bundles the same things, or whether you need them at all.

3. Your payments are tied to the reader

If you took the free reader, you’re committed to Vagaro Merchant Services for 12 months or a $150 fee. That’s not a reason to stay forever, but it is a date to check before you plan a move.

4. Your clients aren’t messaging you in Vagaro

This one matters most outside the US, where WhatsApp is how people talk to businesses, but it’s growing everywhere. Vagaro handles booking buttons on Instagram and Facebook and has its own messenger, Vagaro Connect. But if your clients send a voice note on WhatsApp asking “can you fit me in Thursday?”, or DM your Instagram after a Reel, the booking system and the conversation live in two different places. Somebody on your team copies details across by hand, and the chat that should have become a booking sometimes doesn’t.

Reasons that aren’t really reasons

• “Vagaro takes a cut of marketplace clients.” It doesn’t, according to its own FAQ.
• “I’ll pay a fee to leave.” Vagaro says you can cancel any time with no fee. The exception to check is the card reader commitment above, plus the “Exclusions apply” note on the price card.
• “It doesn’t do reminders.” Unlimited notifications and appointment reminders are included on every plan.

What Vagaro Still Does Better Than Most Alternatives

Vagaro is hard to beat if you rely on its free marketplace for new clients, want card hardware, payroll and product inventory in one system, or want a consumer app your clients already have on their phones. Be honest with yourself about these before you move.

• A free marketplace. Vagaro lists your business on its marketplace at no extra cost. Look at where your last fifty new clients came from. If a real share found you by browsing Vagaro, that’s demand you’d be giving up.
• Card hardware. Vagaro sells its own readers, terminals, receipt printers and cash drawers. If you run a busy front desk with walk-ins, that matters.
• Payroll and rent collection. Payroll is an add-on, but it lives in the same system as your bookings, and Vagaro pairs it with rent collection for multi-location businesses.
• Retail inventory. Inventory tracking is included, and it syncs across locations.
• A consumer app. Clients can find and book you in the Vagaro app, alongside every other Vagaro business near them.
• Breadth. SOAP notes, forms, classes, live stream, Daily Deals, an AI assistant called Vera, and SSO and webhooks for larger groups.

If three or more of those are central to how you run, the best Vagaro alternative may be a better deal on Vagaro itself: drop the add-ons you don’t use and keep the rest.

Nine Vagaro Alternatives, With Prices Read at Source

Of the nine Vagaro alternatives below, seven publish a price you can read today (GlossGenius, Mangomint, Boulevard, Square Appointments, Timely, Booksy and DMly), Fresha shows prices in your local currency, and Phorest and Zenoti are quote only. Each entry says how the price is counted, because that’s what decides whether it’s cheaper than Vagaro for you.

1. GlossGenius: best flat price for a small team

GlossGenius prices by team size band, not per person. Standard is $28 a month (or $24 billed annually) for businesses just starting out. Gold is $56 a month ($48 annually) for teams of up to nine staff. Platinum is $168 a month ($148 annually) for teams of ten or more.

Card processing is a flat 2.6% on every plan, with no extra fee for tap to pay, card on file or manual entry, and instant payouts cost an extra 1.8%. Deposits, card on file, waitlists, Google booking and reviews, memberships and packages are on the feature list. Payroll is an add-on at $40 a month plus $6 a seat, and an AI receptionist called Reception is $50 a month.

Pick it if you have two to nine stylists and want one flat software price. Think twice if you process a lot of card volume and can get a lower rate elsewhere: GlossGenius makes its money on processing, so compare your monthly card total at 2.6% against what you pay now.

2. Mangomint: best for a premium salon or spa that wants polish

Mangomint charges $120 a month per location plus $10 per user. A user is anyone with a profile, including front desk staff, which is the opposite of Vagaro’s rule. Add-ons are a phone line at $70 a month, marketing from $30 a month, and payroll at $50 a month plus $8 per worker.

Processing is 2.45% + 15 cents in person and 2.90% + 30 cents for virtual payments. Mangomint says there are no contracts, onboarding and data transfer are free, and you can take your data with you if you leave.

Pick it if you run a busy salon or spa with a front desk and want salon-first software with published pricing. Think twice if you’re a small team on a tight budget: five users at one location is $170 a month before add-ons.

3. Boulevard: best for spas and med spas growing past one location

Boulevard’s Essentials plan is $143 a month for one location with up to five providers (its word for bookable calendars), 250 free texts and 1,000 free email blasts. Premier is $234 a month per location with unlimited professionals, and Prestige is $328, both shown as limited-time fall pricing for new customers (normally $293 and $410). Enterprise is by consultation.

Pick it if you’re a premium spa, med spa or salon group and want a polished client experience across locations. Think twice if you’re under five providers and price-sensitive: Essentials costs more than Vagaro at every team size up to seven calendars.

4. Square Appointments: best if you want a price per location, not per person

Square Appointments in the US is Free at $0 a month per location (aimed at solo professionals), Plus at $49 a month per location and Premium at $149 a month per location. The paid plans have a 30-day free trial and you can cancel any time.

You pay in card fees instead. In person, it’s 2.6% + 15 cents on Free, 2.5% + 15 cents on Plus and 2.4% + 15 cents on Premium. Online, it’s 3.3% + 30 cents on Free and 2.9% + 30 cents on the paid plans. Plus adds cancellation policies and no-show fees, multi-staff booking and a waitlist, and Square lists appointment deposits too.

Pick it if you already use Square for retail or want a flat price that doesn’t care how big your team is. Square also runs Square Go, a free US marketplace app where clients find and book beauty and personal care businesses. Once your online booking is on, you’re listed at no extra cost. Think twice if you’re counting on it to replace what Vagaro’s marketplace sends you: Square Go is iPhone only for now and doesn’t take payments in the app yet.

5. Timely: best if you want texts included per stylist

Timely charges per bookable staff member. On its Rest of World price list in US dollars, billed monthly, Build is $26 per staff, Elevate $39 and Innovate $47 at one staff member. At five staff, the page’s own counter shows totals of $122, $155 and $191 a month. Each plan includes texts per staff member (100, 200 or 350 a month), with extra texts at 20 cents. Timely’s structured pricing data lists the UK from £22.

Every plan says “No new client fees”, there are no contracts, and part-time staff are charged at the full-time rate. Deposits and cancellation fees are on every plan, the waitlist starts on Elevate, and automated rebooking reminders on Innovate.

Pick it if you’re in the UK, Australia or New Zealand, or want a predictable text allowance per stylist. Think twice if you have a lot of part-timers, since each one costs the same as a full-timer.

6. Booksy: best for a solo barber or stylist

Booksy is $29.99 a month plus tax with every feature included, and extra users are $20 a month each. It includes 2,000 free marketing texts a month, and appointment confirmations and reminders are always free. Booksy’s own marketplace boost, Boost, has no monthly fee but takes a one-time 30% of a Boost client’s first visit, up to $100.

Pick it if you work alone and want the Booksy app’s reach. Think twice if you have a team, because $20 per extra user overtakes Vagaro’s $10 per calendar quickly. We’ll look at Booksy on its own in a separate guide to Booksy alternatives.

7. Fresha: a marketplace with local-currency pricing

Fresha charges per bookable team member and shows its prices in your local currency. When we read it from Nigeria, a one-person business was NGN 6,800 a month and teams were NGN 4,500 per bookable team member. Fresha charges a one-time fee on brand new clients who find you through its marketplace, and nothing on returning clients. We’ve covered Fresha properly in our guide to the best Fresha alternatives for salons and spas, so we won’t repeat it here.

8. Phorest: best for an established salon that wants a partner

Phorest publishes four plans (Starter, Grow, Ultimate and Elite) with full feature lists but no prices: every plan says “Request a quote”. All plans include unlimited devices and unlimited staff, and Phorest describes them as perfect for salons with three or more staff. Starter includes online booking with deposits and automated email and SMS reminders; two-way SMS is on Elite.

Pick it if you’re a growing salon in Ireland, the UK or the US and want marketing help and a success manager. Think twice if you want to compare on price without a sales call.

9. Zenoti: best for spa chains and multi-location groups

Zenoti’s pricing page lists plans for salon and spa, med spa, fitness and barbershop, each with a “Get a Quote” button and no published price. It’s built for larger operations, with payroll and commissions, inventory, marketing automation and a set of AI agents.

Pick it if you run several spa locations and need one system for all of them. Think twice if you’re a single salon: it’s more than you need.

And DMly: best if your bookings start in a chat

DMly is our product, so read this entry with that in mind. It isn’t a like-for-like Vagaro replacement. It’s a messaging platform for WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, SMS and live chat, with appointments, deposits, reminders, a client CRM, loyalty and gift cards built in. It suits a salon whose clients already message it to book.

DMly is $29, $65 or $149 a month billed yearly ($39, $79 or $199 billed monthly), with 3, 6 or 15 team seats. Seats are for people who log in. Your stylists don’t need a login to be bookable, because staff members are set up separately and a staff member doesn’t need a DMly account. There’s a 7-day free trial with no card, and you pay Meta’s WhatsApp message rates directly, with no markup from DMly. We cover the fit in detail below.

What each Vagaro alternative charges you for

This is the rota test from the top of the page. It’s the column that decides whether a tool gets cheaper or dearer than Vagaro as you hire.

Cheaper Than Vagaro? What a Five-Stylist Salon Pays

For a five-stylist salon at one location, billed monthly, the published software prices run from $49 a month (Square Appointments Plus) to $170 (Mangomint), with Vagaro at about $70 once its intro rate ends. That’s software only: card processing, texts, WhatsApp messages and add-ons come on top, and they can change the order.

How we got each number, so you can redo it for your own rota:

• Square Appointments Plus: $49 per location, whatever the team size.
• GlossGenius Gold: $56 billed monthly, covering up to nine staff ($48 billed annually).
• Vagaro: $30 plus four extra calendars at $10, on our reading of its FAQ. Your first six months on one calendar are $23.99.
• DMly Growth: $79 billed monthly ($65 yearly) with six seats, enough for five stylists and an owner to log in. If only you and a receptionist log in, Starter at $39 monthly ($29 yearly) covers three seats.
• Booksy: $29.99 plus four extra users at $20, before tax.
• Timely Build: $122, from the staff counter on its pricing page at five staff.
• Boulevard Essentials: $143 for up to five providers at one location. A sixth provider means Premier.
• Mangomint: $120 plus five users at $10. A receptionist adds another $10.

Two things that table isn’t. It isn’t like for like: Square, GlossGenius and Mangomint bundle card processing into the relationship, while DMly runs payments through a gateway you connect. And it isn’t the whole bill. For a salon taking $20,000 a month by card, a 0.2% difference in processing is $40 a month, which is more than the gap between several of these subscriptions.

Is DMly a Good Vagaro Alternative for Your Salon?

DMly is a good Vagaro alternative if your bookings start in a chat on WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger and you want the booking, the deposit, the reminders and the client record in the same place as that conversation; it’s the wrong choice if you need a marketplace, card hardware, payroll or deep retail inventory. Here’s what that means in practice.

What you’d use every day

• Staff calendars. Each stylist has their own working hours and timezone, and the services they offer. Clients can pick a stylist or choose “Anyone available”, or you can hide the choice and let DMly assign one. Each stylist can connect their own Google Calendar, so a dentist appointment in Alex’s diary closes Alex’s slots and leaves Sam’s alone. Our guide to connecting Google Calendar to your booking system walks through it.
• A booking page. A public page where clients pick a service, a stylist and a time, in any of 16 languages, which you can share as a link or embed on your website. See how to build an online booking page for the setup.
• Deposits and no-show fees. On a service set to Pay before booking, you can take a deposit from 1% to 99% of the price, and the booking page shows the client what they pay now and what’s due at the appointment. A No-show fee can go on any service, and it’s charged only when you mark the booking a no-show. Our walkthrough of accepting appointment deposits or full payment has the details.
• Reminders on the client’s channel. Reminders go out at the times you set on each service, on WhatsApp or whichever channel the client uses. On WhatsApp, reminders outside the 24-hour chat window use an approved message template, so get those approved before you rely on them.
• Bookings inside the chat. A booking flow or an AI assistant can offer real times, book, reschedule and cancel without anyone leaving WhatsApp or Instagram. The AI Reply step is on every plan, with 500, 5,000 or 20,000 AI replies a month depending on plan. Here’s how a hair salon builds a WhatsApp booking bot.
• A client CRM. Every client’s chats across channels, bookings, payments, tags and notes in one profile, with saved lists that update themselves for win-backs and offers.
• Loyalty and gift cards. Clients earn points per visit or per amount spent, and when they reach your threshold DMly creates a reward coupon and sends it to them. Gift cards are sold from Finance, activated once paid, and redeemed by your team against an invoice. Our guide on creating a salon loyalty program covers the setup.
• Instagram, without a Facebook Page. Business and Creator accounts can connect through Instagram Login, so comments and DMs from your Reels land in the same inbox. See Instagram automation for salons.
• Payments through your own gateway. Stripe, PayPal, Paystack, Flutterwave, Monnify, Razorpay, MyFatoorah or Mercado Pago. You pick which one charges under a default gateway setting, and the money lands in your own account.

If you want the bigger picture of how these fit together for a salon, our guide to WhatsApp automation for salons follows a client from first message to rebooking, and how salons reduce no-shows with deposits and WhatsApp reminders goes deeper on the money side.

Where DMly is the wrong choice

We’d rather you didn’t switch and regret it. DMly is the wrong Vagaro alternative if any of these are central to your business:

• You rely on a marketplace. DMly doesn’t have one. Nobody browses DMly to find a salon. Your clients come from your own Instagram, Google profile, website and word of mouth.
• You need card hardware at the desk. DMly doesn’t sell readers or terminals. If a client pays on your own card machine, you can tick Payment taken in person when you book them, but the card machine is yours to arrange.
• You run payroll or commissions through your booking system. Neither is documented in DMly.
• You sell a lot of retail. DMly tracks products with a stock count and a low-stock alert, and products can carry variants such as sizes or colours for AI ordering in the chat, but its docs describe nothing like barcode scanning or ordering from suppliers. A salon with a serious retail wall should keep a proper retail system.
• Your clients expect a consumer app. DMly clients book on a web page or in the chat. There’s no DMly app for them to download and browse.
• You need clinical charting. SOAP notes and treatment charting aren’t documented in DMly, so a med spa should look at Boulevard, Zenoti or stay on Vagaro.
• You’re in the US and want to send promotions on WhatsApp. Meta currently doesn’t deliver WhatsApp marketing messages to US phone numbers at all. Booking confirmations and reminders still work, and DMly can send texts through your own Twilio or Plivo account, but a US salon’s offers will go by SMS, email or Instagram rather than WhatsApp.

Some salons keep Vagaro for the marketplace and the card reader and use DMly for the conversations. That’s a reasonable setup if most of your new clients still come from Vagaro, but you’d be paying for two systems, so be sure the chat side is earning its keep.

How to Switch From Vagaro Without Losing Bookings

To switch from Vagaro safely, check your card reader commitment first, build your services and staff in the new tool, import your client list, move upcoming appointments by hand, run both systems for a week or two, and only cancel Vagaro once every booking link points to the new page. Here’s the same plan week by week. The DMly steps are specific; for other tools, ask the vendor how each step works on their side.

Week 1: check what you’re leaving

• Find your Merchant Services activation date. If you took the free reader and you’re inside 12 months, leaving Vagaro’s processing early means the $150 fee. Sometimes it’s cheaper to wait a month or two.
• Export your client list. Ask Vagaro support for the export and what it includes. You want names, phone numbers with country codes, emails and any notes you rely on.
• Ask about cards on file, gift certificate balances and package credits. These are the things that don’t move by themselves. Saved cards in particular usually can’t follow you to a different processor, so ask Vagaro directly what’s possible, and plan to collect new card details or deposits as clients rebook.
• List every upcoming appointment for the next six to eight weeks.

Week 2: build the new salon

In DMly, services go under Offerings, Services, with their duration, buffers, price, payment mode and reminder times. You can import services by CSV, but staff, working hours and booking rules are set up by hand, so give yourself an afternoon. Import your clients by CSV (the header needs name, country code and phone), connect WhatsApp and your payment gateway, set your deposit percentage and no-show fee, and book yourself a test appointment from your phone to see exactly what a client sees.

Week 3: move the bookings and tell people

Message your regulars before anything changes, so a confirmation from a new system doesn’t surprise them. Then re-enter upcoming appointments by hand from the calendar. Two DMly specifics: a booking you add on a Pay before booking service sends the client a payment link unless you tick Payment taken in person, so tick it for anyone who’s already paid or will pay at the desk. And don’t try to replay old appointments through the API, because DMly’s docs warn it sends real confirmations and reminders. Keep your history in the export file instead.

Week 4: switch the links, then cancel

Change the booking link everywhere it lives: your Instagram bio, your Google Business Profile, your website, your WhatsApp profile, the QR code at the desk. Watch a few days of reminders go out and land. Only then cancel Vagaro. If the Vagaro Marketplace was sending you new clients, plan for that flow to stop and give those clients another way to find you.

Salon Software Like Vagaro, Matched to Your Market

The right salon software like Vagaro changes with where you are and how your clients reach you. These six salons are illustrative, not real customers, but the prices are the published ones above.

• A six-tech nail salon in Houston with lots of walk-ins and a busy card machine. Square Appointments Plus at $49 a month keeps the software flat as the team grows, and the in-person card rate drops to 2.5% + 15 cents. If a good share of new clients come from the Vagaro app, staying on Vagaro at about $80 for six calendars may still be the better business decision.
• A two-chair brow and lash studio in Bengaluru whose clients DM on Instagram and WhatsApp. US-dollar salon software built around card readers fits awkwardly. DMly Starter with Razorpay as the gateway, a 20% deposit on longer treatments and WhatsApp reminders keeps everything where the clients already are.
• A braiding studio in Lagos with four-hour appointments, where one no-show loses half a day. Deposits are non-negotiable. DMly takes them through Paystack, Flutterwave or Monnify, the booking page shows what’s due at the appointment, and the no-show fee usually goes out as a payment link the moment you mark it.
• A day spa in Manchester with three therapists and two rooms. Timely, priced in pounds per staff member with texts included, or a quote from Phorest. If clients mostly WhatsApp to book, DMly alongside a desk card machine is worth a trial.
• A barbershop in Dubai where nearly every booking starts as a WhatsApp message. DMly with MyFatoorah as the gateway, a booking flow inside WhatsApp, and Arabic on the booking page (it’s one of the 16 languages, and it reads right to left).
• A med spa in Los Angeles with injectables, consent forms and charting. Boulevard or Zenoti, or stay on Vagaro, which includes SOAP notes and forms. DMly isn’t built for clinical charting.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Vagaro alternative for a small salon?

For a small salon with two to nine stylists, GlossGenius Gold ($56 a month, or $48 billed annually) and Square Appointments Plus ($49 a month per location) are the most predictable, because neither price rises when you hire. Timely suits a salon that wants texts included per stylist. If your clients book through WhatsApp or Instagram, DMly is worth a trial.

How much does Vagaro cost per month in 2026?

Vagaro’s US pricing page shows $30 a month for one bookable calendar, at $23.99 for the first six months, plus $10 for each additional bookable calendar up to seven. On our reading, five calendars is about $70 a month and seven or more is about $90, before add-ons such as text marketing (from $20), payroll ($34 plus $5 per employee) or a branded app ($100).

Does Vagaro charge a fee for marketplace bookings?

No. Vagaro’s FAQ says you can connect with new and existing clients through the Vagaro Marketplace at no additional cost. By comparison, Booksy’s Boost takes a one-time 30% of a new client’s first visit, up to $100, and Fresha charges a one-time fee on brand new marketplace clients.

Is there a free Vagaro alternative?

Square Appointments Free costs $0 a month per location and is aimed at solo professionals, but you pay processing on every card payment (2.6% + 15 cents in person, 3.3% + 30 cents online). Everything else on this list has a monthly price or a free trial rather than a free plan.

Can I take deposits and no-show fees without Vagaro?

Yes. GlossGenius, Square Appointments Plus, Timely and Phorest all list deposits, and several list cancellation or no-show fees. In DMly, a Pay before booking service can take a deposit of 1% to 99%, and a no-show fee can go on any service, charged when you mark the no-show. Both need a connected payment gateway.

Will I lose my clients if I leave Vagaro?

Not if you export them first. Ask Vagaro for a client export, then import it into your new system. What usually doesn’t move by itself is saved cards, gift certificate balances, package credits and appointment history, so ask Vagaro about each before you cancel.

What are the best Vagaro alternatives for spas?

For a single day spa, Mangomint and Boulevard are the strongest salon-and-spa products with published prices, and Timely suits a smaller spa that wants texts included. For several spa locations, look at Boulevard Premier, Zenoti and Phorest, the last two by quote.

Can DMly replace Vagaro completely?

Not for every salon. DMly covers booking, staff calendars, deposits, no-show fees, reminders, a CRM, loyalty and gift cards, all tied to WhatsApp, Instagram and your other chat channels. It doesn’t have a marketplace, card hardware, payroll, a consumer app or clinical charting, so salons that depend on those should stay on Vagaro or pick one of the other alternatives.

What happens to my free Vagaro card reader if I leave?

Vagaro’s terms say the free reader requires you to process with Vagaro Merchant Services for at least 12 months after activation. If you stop before then, you agree to pay a $150 early cancellation fee. After 12 months, that fee no longer applies.

Choosing Between Vagaro Alternatives: The Rota, Repriced

Go back to the rota on the wall and price it three ways. On Vagaro, it’s $30 plus $10 for each bookable name up to seven, plus the add-ons you actually use. On a per-location tool like Square or a team-band tool like GlossGenius, it’s one number, whoever’s on the wall. On a per-person tool like Timely, Booksy or Mangomint, every name costs something, and on Mangomint the receptionist does too.

Then add the line the rota doesn’t show: where your clients come from and where they talk to you. If the Vagaro app sends you new clients for free, that’s worth more than any saving on this page. If your clients already book by WhatsApp message and Instagram DM, the best of these Vagaro alternatives is the one that puts the booking inside that conversation.

If that’s you, you can start a 7-day DMly trial with no card, set up one service with a deposit, and send the booking link to your next five WhatsApp enquiries. You’ll know within a week whether the chat is where your salon’s bookings belong.