Vagaro Review

Pros

• Incredibly easy to use
• Customizable calendar
• Great customer management tools
• 24/7 support

Cons

• Add-ons can get pricy
• Software can lag with too many apps

What Is Vagaro?

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.

Vagaro Pricing

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.

Extra Costs & Fees

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:

• Text & Email Marketing: Reach new customers with updates and promotions.
• Live streaming: Host classes or web series online with this unique function
• Check-in app: Allow customers to check in themselves with a unique QR code
• Online Shopping Cart: Sell all of your products online, including gift cards, and save credit cards for future use
• Branded App: Another unique feature allows you to create your own branded experience for customers
• Payroll: Manage your employees and pay them quickly with in-house payroll
• Accounting integrations: Access QuickBooks or Xero to run your books

Businesses That Would Benefit From Vagaro

Vagaro is an almost ideal solution for most types of appointment-based businesses, but it’s a real standout for:

• Businesses looking for a cost-effective, scalable point of sale system
• Salons or spas wanting an all-in-one point of sale solution with deep features
• Appointments-based businesses that want simple software that is easy to train employees on

Vagaro Features

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 Use

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 Service & Support

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.

Payment Processing With Vagaro

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.

User Reviews

Negative Reviews & Complaints

• Software can be buggy: A handful of users complained that Vagaro’s software had a tendency to run slowly, especially when they were adding apps or using a large number of features.
• Many features are add-ons: As we’ve mentioned, Vagaro’s base package of features is relatively simplistic, and if you are looking to use add-ons to upgrade the system, it can get expensive, which is something that users find frustrating.
• High processing fees: Multiple users expressed disappointment in the fact that Vagaro’s rates can add up quickly if you’re making a large number of sales.

Positive Reviews

• Ease of use: Many of the positive reviews of this product point out how streamlined its interface is and how simple it is to customize your calendar and organize your appointments.
• Client friendliness: Additionally, users reported that Vagaro makes it very easy for clients to book their own appointments and to pay online for services.
• All-in-one services: Vagaro users like how customizable the product is and that you can choose to pay for any add-ons you want. They also appreciated just how many additional features were available.

How Vagaro Compares To Other Systems

Vagaro Vs. Square Appointments

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.

Final Verdict

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.

Service-Based POS Review Methodology

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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Square is an industry-leading point-of-sale and payment processing provider. Sign up for a free account and get a complimentary card reader for use with Square POS. Start For Free.