Vagaro is a popular beauty and wellness business management solution that allows professionals to manage appointments, staff inventory, and more. Monthly pricing starts at $30 per month for one location and one user, with a base card-present payment processing fee of 2.75%. Each additional team member is $10 a month.

The following article will dive into Vagaro’s various pricing tiers, hardware fees, customer reviews‍, and more to help you decide if it’s the best option for your beauty or wellness business needs. It doesn’t matter if you’re a salon owner, nail artist, esthetician, personal trainer, yoga studio owner, or other professional in the beauty and wellness space - we want to break down whether Vagaro is right for you.

Ultimately, Vagaro has a lot of bells and whistles but their expensive add-ons and high payment processing fees can compound - especially for small business owners. Additional team members cost more and processing fees are specifically higher for businesses making less than $4,000/month, Vagaro is probably not the most cost-effective choice for your business.

To gain a broader understanding of the beauty and wellness software market, including an analysis of offerings that may be more cost-effective, check out our resource center and see how GlossGenius compares to Vagaro.

Vagaro Pricing Details

Vagaro pricing starts at $30 per month (recently increased from $25) for one location, with a base card-present payment processing fee of 2.75%. Each additional calendar you want to add to your plan will run you an extra $10 a month. You can, however, add as many admin employees (employees that do not require a calendar), as you want, free of charge. 

Want to quickly calculate how much Vagaro will cost you? Jump to our Vagaro pricing calculator below.

Let’s take a quick look at the base of how much Vagaro will cost you depending on how many team members you want to onboard:

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Payment processing fees are on top of your base fee. With Vagaro, they can also change based on the size of your business and payment type. If Vagaro considers you to be a “Small Merchant” (processing volume of less than $4,000 per month), then your swiped payment processing rate is 2.75%. If Vagaro considers you to be a “Large Merchant” (processing volume of more than $4,000 per month), your payment processing fee for card swipes is 2.2% + $0.19. 

Confusing? Yeah, we know. There are also different rates if you use a card on file or manually type in a payment type. See a full breakdown here:

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Surprise add-ons, unfortunately, are more common than you’d think in the beauty and wellness software world. Taking a bird’s-eye view of Vagaro’s features, you’ll quickly see that pretty crucial ones, like text marketing, email marketing, and their website builder require additional monthly costs that can quickly add up.

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Vagaro Tier Breakdown

Unlike Square, Vagaro doesn’t have subscription tiers. What does that mean for your business? It doesn’t matter how many employees or calendars you have, you’re getting the same features across the board. Here’s a look at the features now:

Let’s point out some highlights: Just like GlossGenius, Vagaro comes with free data transfer from any previous beauty and wellness software you might be using. 

Vagaro gives you access to a suite of online booking integrations, advanced analytics, automations, and 24/7 live phone service. You also get a base of 1,000 free email marketing messages a month, but you’ll have to pay beyond that threshold.

Vagaro also comes with a free listing service called “Vagaro Marketplace”. In the Marketplace, you can list your business and promote discounts and special offers. You keep 100% of the profits from any bookings you secure through Vagaro Marketplace.

Some customers, however, have called out that they don't receive that many additional bookings from Vagaro’s marketplace - customers coming from a marketplace like Vagaro’s may have less loyalty to use you for repeat business. 

Worth investigating to see if you think it would be beneficial for your business.

Curious to see what people are saying about Vagaro’s features? Check out reviews at the bottom of this article.

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Vagaro Payment Processing Fees

Vagaro’s base processing fees are amongst some of the highest if you are a small business that makes less than $4,000 a month.

2.75% card present and 3.5% card-not-present fees are rather severe for small businesses looking to save money. Consider that there’s no free plan as well,  so you’ll have monthly fees to pay on top of that. 

Check out this comprehensive table that pits Vagaro’s processing rates against competitors in the space:

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Vagaro Hardware Pricing

Vagaro has several POS hardware options:

• Card Reader - $100
• Pay Desk - $650
• Cash Drawer - $120
• QR/Barcode Scanner - $99
• Receipt Printer- $239

Vagaro Add-Ons

Vagaro’s add-ons can come as a surprise to any small business owner in the beauty and wellness space. 

With all the stresses that come with being a small business owner in this industry, surprises in pricing can sting. 

Let’s again map out some of add-ons that are not available in the base version of Vagaro:

• Text Marketing - Starting at $20/mo
• Forms - $10/mo
• Online Shopping Cart - $10/mo
• Website Builder - $20/mo
• File Storage - Starting at $10/mo
• Check-In App - $10/mo
• Branded App - $200/mo
• Payroll - $34/mo + $5/employee

Vagaro Pricing Calculator

If you want to understand how much Vagaro might cost you and your business, try out this calculator:

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Is Vagaro Worth the Cost for Beauty and Wellness Businesses?

Where Vagaro Pricing Makes Sense

If you’ve read our Square Appointments Pricing article, this might sound familiar: Vagaro’s pricing makes sense if you’re a small beauty or wellness business owner not looking for advanced booking tools or email and text marketing solutions. 

Vagaro’s pricing also might make sense if you’re running a one-person business since you have to pay an additional $10 per team member. That racks up to an additional $40 a month if you are a team of five.

Where Vagaro May Be Less Cost-Effective for Beauty and Wellness Businesses

We mentioned above how Vagaro pricing might make sense for you if you’re a one-location, one-person business looking for a basic set of features.

Consider this - even if that is the case, you might be better off looking into software that services those basic needs with a free plan, like Square Appointments.

With Vagaro, payment processing fees are high, but what’s even more noteworthy is how they are significantly higher for businesses bringing in less than $4,000 a month. Pair that with fairly standard features for most beauty and wellness businesses being locked behind add-on prices, and it starts to feel like Vagaro is tailored more for enterprise solutions rather than small businesses.

Solutions like GlossGenius offer specialized features for the beauty and wellness industry, like stylish credit card readers, modern and customizable booking site templates, easy-to-use waitlists, a forms and waivers builder, and marketing tools, at more affordable subscription prices. GlossGenius also offers transparent pricing and one of the beauty and wellness industry’s best payment processing rates. With GlossGenius, you’ll only ever pay a flat 2.6% processing fee, no add-on fees or different rates based on payment type or appointment volume.

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What Customers Are Saying About Vagaro Pricing

The overall sentiment around Vagaro pricing is mixed. Reviewers are generally happy with the features they’ve paid for - but still have concerns around pricing being more expensive than other platforms.

Check out these reviews from small business owners in the health, wellness, and fitness industry to get some outside opinions on Vagaro’s pricing:

Why GlossGenius Is a Cost-Effective Alternative to Vagaro 

Clear Pricing with No Hidden Fees

Time and time again, one of the most common complaints we hear from small business owners in the beauty and wellness space has to do with surprise fees and generally foggy pricing. Vagaro at least is somewhat transparent about the add-ons you’d need to purchase on its pricing page but add-ons can be expensive nonetheless.

Here are some quick links to GlossGenius’ pricing and features.

GlossGenius features simple, clear pricing with no hidden fees. Email and text marketing, for example, are featured on GlossGenius’ base plan, while Vagaro charges at least an additional $20 per month in addition to your plan. 

GlossGenius doesn’t treat core marketing features to beauty or wellness business as optional. For Vagaro, text marketing, forms, custom sites, and photo storage will cost you an additional $60 per month on top of your monthly subscription - GlossGenius offers all of those features in its Standard plan for a flat cost of $24 a month.

Lower, Fixed Payment Processing Fees

Fixed pricing is key to GlossGenius’ pricing. Processing fees are no different. While Vagaro features some of the highest processing fees - even higher for smaller businesses - GlossGenius offers a flat processing fee of 2.6%.

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Unlimited Team Members

Between being charged more for making less than $4,000 a month or charging an additional $10 per member, Vagaro is simply not built for small businesses. 

GlossGenius does not charge additional fees per member. In fact, it supports unlimited team members at no extra cost. You don’t deserve to be penalized for growing your team, or for unforeseen fluctuations in your team size.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Vagaro free?

Vagaro does not offer a free plan. Vagaro pricing starts at $30 per month for one location, with a base card-present transaction fee of 2.75%. Each additional member is $10 a month.

How much is Vagaro per month?

Vagaro offers one basic pricing tier starting at $30 a month. As we mentioned above, each member is an additional $10 a month.

Beyond the base pricing, add-on features must be purchased for additional monthly fees. Some of these add-ons include:

• Text Marketing - Starting at $20/mo
• Forms - $10/mo
• Online Shopping Cart - $10/mo
• Website Builder - $20/mo
• File Storage - Starting at $10/mo
• Check-In App - $10/mo
• Branded App - $200/mo
• Payroll - $34/mo + $5/employee

What percentage does Vagaro take?

Vagaro has a variable processing rate. Processing rates vary based on payment types and whether your business is classified as a “Small Merchant” (processing volume of less than $4,000 per month) or “Large Merchant” (processing volume of more than $4,000 per month).

Here is a table that drills down on individual processing rates:

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NOTE: All prices and feature comparisons are as of August 4, 2024. GlossGenius has no affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement with Vagaro, Inc. or its affiliates. All trademarks, logos and brand names are used for identification purposes only and remain the property of their respective owners.
The Capterra logo is a service mark of Gartner Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner Digital Markets reviews are shared across its different brands sites and constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-users based on their own experiences and do not represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates.