# Vagaro review (2026): is it worth $30 a month?

> Booking, payments and marketing for salons, spas and studios

Checked Oct 24, 2026 · graded Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA.

Vagaro is booking and business software for salons, spas, medspas, barbers, fitness studios and wellness practices. It covers the calendar and online booking, checkout with its own card readers, memberships and packages, forms and SOAP notes, inventory, payroll and email marketing, and lists each business on the Vagaro consumer marketplace. The price starts with one bookable calendar and rises with each calendar added.

- **Category:** Salon, Spa & Studio Booking
- **Made by:** Vagaro, Inc.
- **Website:** https://www.vagaro.com/pro
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Who should skip it:** Watch out: $23.99 a month lasts 6 months, then one calendar is $30 and each added calendar $10, up to seven.
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 24, 2026

## Pricing

As of Oct 24, 2026, Vagaro is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $30 per month for 1 calendar, after $23.99 a month for the first 6 months.

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 30-day free trial.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One location | $30 per month for 1 calendar, plus $10 per added calendar | Advertised at $23.99 a month for the first 6 months. Calendars beyond seven cost nothing extra; 1,000 emails a month and a marketplace listing are included. |
| Multiple locations | Custom | Features chosen per location, with SSO, data lake exports, a dedicated success manager and data migration, through sales. |

Read from https://www.vagaro.com/pro/pricing on Oct 24, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Vagaro before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **$23.99 a month for the first 6 months** (Other savings): Vagaro's pricing page shows a one-calendar account at $23.99 a month for the first 6 months, against the regular $30. Source: https://www.vagaro.com/pro/pricing

## Key features

- **Online booking and calendar:** Clients book through Vagaro's marketplace, a website widget, Google, Apple Maps, Instagram, Facebook or Alexa, with waitlists, classes and resource scheduling.
- **Checkout and card readers:** Take Apple Pay, Google Pay and cards on Vagaro's own readers and terminals, offer Affirm pay-later plans, and sell memberships, packages and gift certificates.
- **Forms and SOAP notes:** Intake forms and SOAP notes sit on each client profile, which also tracks history, retention and loyalty points.
- **Vera AI assistant:** Vera helps write marketing and service descriptions, answers client messages, and its Fill My Books feature promotes open slots to Vagaro's customer network.
- **Payroll and team access:** Vagaro Payroll pays staff and booth renters, tracks hours and time off, and access levels set what each employee can see at each location.
- **Multi-location tools:** Sync services, clients, classes, products and pricing across locations, with SSO and SCIM, APIs and webhooks, and exports to Power BI, Salesforce and other tools.

## Good for

- Salons, spas and barbers that want a low entry price
- Fitness and Pilates studios that run classes alongside appointments
- Multi-location brands that need payroll and data in one place

## Worth knowing

- The $23.99 price lasts 6 months; after that one calendar costs $30 a month and each added calendar $10, up to seven.
- The pricing page calls its model à la carte but gives no prices for extras such as text marketing, a branded app or a MySite website.
- The free card reader requires signing up for Vagaro Merchant Services, which advertises processing rates from 2.2%.
- Multi-location pricing is quoted by sales, with each location priced by the features chosen for it.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 24, 2026. Vagaro covers booking, checkout, memberships, forms and SOAP notes, payroll and email marketing for salons, spas and studios, and lists you on its consumer marketplace. The entry price doesn't stay put, though: $23.99 a month lasts 6 months before it's $30, each added calendar is $10, and extras like text marketing and a branded app have no price on the page.

- **Value for money: B.** One calendar is $30 a month after an introductory $23.99 for 6 months, level with this category's cheaper quarter ($29.99). Each added calendar is $10 up to seven, so five people pay $70, but extras like text marketing have no published price.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** No free plan, but a 30-day free trial. The listing doesn't say whether it needs a card.
- **Features: B.** Booking from its marketplace, Google, Apple Maps and Instagram, classes and resources, checkout with Affirm, memberships, forms and SOAP notes, payroll and multi-location tools. That's the whole booking job, for salons and studios alike.
- **Ease of use: C.** No rating for the business app is on record, since the App Store listing found is the client-facing app. You set up services, staff and payments before taking bookings.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with QuickBooks, Xero, Affirm, Google, Apple Maps, Instagram, Facebook and Salesforce, and APIs and webhooks for multi-location accounts. No desktop app.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Vagaro's own pages on 24 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among salon, spa and studio booking apps

- Vagaro's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 12 of the 15 other salon, spa and studio booking apps we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on value for money (B, above 12 of 15) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $23.99 a month, against a middle price of $49.45 for the category: 2 of the 13 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/service-booking

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Vagaro you would be making newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 12 of the 15 other salon, spa and studio booking apps we grade. It costs $287.88 a year.

- You could make: Appointment booking, class booking, forms and inventory: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox.
- You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, QuickBooks, Xero and Affirm among them.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: Hooks into the device itself: widgets.
- You could not: What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: single sign-on and SCIM.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

QuickBooks, Xero, Affirm, Google, Apple Maps, Instagram, Facebook, Salesforce

**Tags:** Appointment booking, Class booking, Email campaigns, Forms, Inventory, Payroll, AI features

## Alternatives

- [GlossGenius](https://toolgpa.com/tools/glossgenius): Booking, payments and marketing for salons, spas and medspas. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/glossgenius-vs-vagaro)
- [Fresha](https://toolgpa.com/tools/fresha): Salon and spa booking with a consumer marketplace for new clients. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fresha-vs-vagaro)
- [Booksy](https://toolgpa.com/tools/booksy): Booking app and marketplace for barbers, salons and beauty pros. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/booksy-vs-vagaro)
- [Mindbody](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mindbody): Studio, gym, spa and salon software with a consumer booking app. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mindbody-vs-vagaro)
- [Boulevard](https://toolgpa.com/tools/boulevard): Booking, checkout and marketing for salons, spas and medspas. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/boulevard-vs-vagaro)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 24, 2026:

- https://www.vagaro.com/pro/pricing
- https://www.vagaro.com/pro/about-us
- https://www.vagaro.com/pro/online-booking
- https://www.vagaro.com/pro/branded-app
- https://www.vagaro.com/pro/pos-hardware/credit-card-reader

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/vagaro
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).