Vagaro is a business management software with POS system that can streamline your calendar, appointments, and payments. Could it be right for you?
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Lead Staff Writer
Last updated onUpdated
REVIEWED BY
Managing Editor
| Total Rating | 4.5 |
|---|---|
| Pricing4.2 | |
| Ease Of Use4.8 | |
| Features4.8 | |
| Customer Service4.7 | |
| User Reviews4.7 | |
Pricing Range
$30/moContract Length
Month-to-monthEquipment Cost
$100-$750Table of Contents
Vagaro is a point of sale system primarily made for appointment-based businesses like salons and spas. It has a simple pricing structure and is an all-in-one system for businesses of nearly all sizes. It can help simplify many of the processes that can be tedious and time-consuming.
| Pricing4.2 |
|---|
| Software Plans 4.4 |
| Hardware Options 4.8 |
| Payment Processing Fees 3.3 |
Vagaro likes to keep things simple. If you are operating from a single location and need just one bookable calendar, you will pay $30/month for one bookable calendar plus $10 per month for each additional calendar. This makes it easy to add employees or calendars as your business expands. There is also a free trial that you can utilize to see if you like what Vagaro has to offer, which helps improve its score in our pricing ratings.
The basic software includes the transfer of your data from other software, online booking, invoicing features, and much more. If you are operating from multiple locations, you can call Vagaro directly and ask for a custom quote. There are also no long-term contracts when signing up with Vagaro.
Vagaro offers a wide variety of premium services that can be accessed for an additional cost. If you need a number of these features, the cost can add up quickly, but you will only pay for what your business needs. Here are a few of the services that Vagaro offers at an extra cost:
Vagaro is an almost ideal solution for most types of appointment-based businesses, but it’s a real standout for:
| Features4.8 |
|---|
| Register Features 5.0 |
| Booking/Calendar Management 5.0 |
| Admin Management 4.5 |
| Invoicing 4.9 |
| Niche Features 4.3 |
Vagaro has a rich feature set that helps vault it to a very strong score in our ratings, giving customers everything they might need out of a service-based point-of-sale system. Not all of these features are free, however.
You can put together a very solid basic system with what’s included, but you will likely need at least some of what are labeled as premium features, which will push your cost up. Here are some of the standout features that Vagaro offers:
Online Booking:
Create a completely customizable booking system for whatever type of business you run. Accept appointments and clearly show your business’s cancellation policy. You can also set up an online widget that you can customize to include whatever information you’d like. Your personalized app can also set up wait-list functionality. If you need it, you can also set up a live chat function and implement no-show policies.
Vagaro Marketplace:
You can list your business with Vagaro to allow customers to search for you and find you. You can set up discounts, coupons, and promotions as well through the marketplace.
Notifications:
Create appointment reminders to reduce n0-shows and help your customers out. These can be set up either through email or text. You can also create push notifications or notifications through your app.
Customer Management:
Vagaro comes with extensive customer management that allows you to track and store customer information. This can include individual preferences or allergy information that can be used to create unique customer profiles. The management system can also be set up to include memberships and offer loyalty points or discounts for customers.
Calendar:
Create a customizable calendar that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. You can sync your calendar with Google or Apple calendars and easily change around appointments with a single click. Employees can also access the calendar to see their schedules or put in time off requests.
Online Store:
Let your customers pay online and offer buy now, pay later deals. Your online store comes with built-in marketing tools, custom shipping options, and analytics.
Inventory Management:
Track your inventory from anywhere, including low-stock alerts. Get reports to find out what items are selling well and where your profit margins stand. Management comes with automated purchase orders, and you can upgrade to advanced inventory at any time.
Invoicing:
Link invoices to customers’ profiles and allow customers to pay them from anywhere. You can also set up automatic reminders for customers to ensure on-time payments.
Vagaro Capital:
If you’re short on start-up funds, you can apply for loans directly through Vagaro, and they make it easy with a fixed upfront cost no matter how much you are applying for.
| Ease Of Use4.8 |
|---|
| Initial Setup 4.7 |
| Customization 5.0 |
| Everyday Use 4.7 |
The Vagaro interface is clean and sleek and prioritizes simplicity. This makes it easy for business owners and employees to use. Its calendar system is color-coded, and appointments can be switched around and modified easily. I liked how easy it was to set up customer profiles that included pictures and personalized information.
Setting up Vagaro is a snap, as you can upload any previous information you have from other software. Entering your bank information and setting up payments was also a quick process. Most online users have also praised Vagaro for how simple it is to use and how well it specifically caters to appointment-based businesses.
| Customer Service4.7 |
|---|
| Personal Support 4.7 |
| Self-Service 4.6 |
Vagaro offers 24/7 customer support to all of its customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia over the phone. You can also contact them via email or live chat.
Vagaro’s website also features an extensive array of articles that are more helpful than many websites’ generic offerings. You can probably find an answer for almost anything you’re looking for, and there are also a handful of videos online.
Vagaro comes with its own built-in payment processing system. They offer one rate for smaller merchants (those who sell under $4000 monthly and another for larger merchants. Those flat rates for card-present transactions is 2.75% for small merchants and 2.2% + $0.19 per transaction for larger merchants while the keyed-in transaction rate is 3.5% + $0.15 per transaction for small merchants and 3.0% + $0.19 per transaction for larger merchants. There is also a small monthly fee for larger merchants.
Contract & Commitment
There are no contracts when signing up for Vagaro. You can pay for your services on a month-to-month basis, and you can cancel at any time.
Vagaro definitely has a deeper feature set than Square Appointments offers. However, Square’s pricing is simpler and ultimately may be a bit more affordable, depending on how many add-ons you plan on using. Like Vagaro, Square also had payroll services and built-in processing. It also is known for its ease of use, making it easy for both employees and clients. Vagaro’s software is tailor-made for salons and spas and the perfect solution if you do a little legwork beforehand to calculate just what services you plan on using.
Overall, Vagaro offers excellent point of sale services with very few red flags for appointment-based businesses. It’s incredibly simple to use, even with a deep feature set, and it has one of the better calendar mechanisms we’ve seen. It would be nice if it included a few more features in its base package, as its low entry-level pricing is a little deceiving. But that being said, you can easily budget what you’d like to spend on your software and pick your add-ons accordingly.
If you need some of the best salon-based integrations, this may be the right software for you. Vagaro can handle multiple locations and has virtually everything a service-based business could ask for.
We evaluate and test each software system that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key software characteristics in order to generate our granular product ratings.
For service-based POS software in particular, we have a 68-point rubric we use to evaluate the system in terms of its pricing, ease of use, features, and user reviews. These points are based on attributes relevant to the appointment or service-based POS niche—such as the availability of features like online scheduling, subscription services, calendar functionality, and marketing tools.
Our rating system also takes into account attributes that are desirable for POS systems and cloud-based software in general, such as the availability of monthly pricing plans, free trials, and transparent software contracts.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
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