Vagaro Reviews

Pros

One of the standout features of Vagaro is its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for business owners and their staff to navigate the system and complete tasks quickly. The platform also offers a mobile app, which allows businesses to manage their operations on-the-go.

Cons

While Vagaro offers a wide range of features and benefits for businesses, there are some aspects of the platform that users have criticized. One common issue that users have reported is a lack of flexibility in customizing the software to suit their specific needs.

Pros

Very easy to use and easy to follow. Within 2 days of use we felt comfortable using the whole system and learn more each day

Cons

There are still a few spa options that need added - couples massages, random scheduling where a provider is added for one shift rather than all Tuesdays, closing for holidays and 2 way texting option

Alternatives Considered

Booker, Book4Time and Meevo

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

While Zenoti has a lot of options it is difficult to manage from the back end and requires coding knowledge for their online webstore.

Switched From

ZENOTI

Pros

Absolutely NOTHING! They take forever to answer a phone call if you contact support! Which will be very often once you start using their system! They’ve always had issues solving the issues you calling in regards! The worst nightmare I made a decision to use Vagaro in my business

Cons

TERRIBLE customer service, Unreliable devices, unreliable software, reckless team who does not care how frustrated you or you clients are with their system! Undelivered Services, and they've always had issues when trying to solve " the issues" you contact them in regard . They only charge money for everything you sign up for, but support for their terrible device can take up to 6 months with out any solving to the issues.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling and ZENOTI

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

digital forms, cheaper processing fees then! square now offer even better EMR and lower competitive processing fees for Medical Spa

Switched From

Square Payments

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Because they're cheaper! however they're only cheap in customer service and quality! they're no longer cheaper than any other company.

Pros

The interface is easy to navigate and is much more client-user friendly than other booking software. And Daily Deals are great!

Cons

Vagaro still doesn't have a lot of little features/extensions that would make doing business even easier, but they keep adding new things, which is helpful.

Alternatives Considered

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

Booker's interface was very rudimentary. The site was regularly down for maintenance, making it difficult to schedule or check out clients standing in front of us! And the cost kept going up for no additional features or services.

Switched From

Booker

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Vagaro had better features.

Pros

I really like the service and appointment feature allowing clients and customers to select their desired service and and schedule based on their availability

Cons

Client glitches in system sometimes info that they register with online conflicts with my input of their information bland then they don’t receive online communications

Alternatives Considered

Calendly

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

Wanted something more nitche and multi purpose

Switched From

Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Better for my industry and growth

Pros

So easy. I was a Mindbody user and this is infinitely better. More accesible for small business, easier to use, better interface. I love it.

Cons

nothing so far! I think they are one of the best.

Pros

Vagaro is a comprehensive software solution that offers a wide range of features for managing appointments, bookings, and payments in the beauty and wellness industry. Its user-friendly interface, extensive customization options, and seamless integration with other applications make it a standout product in its category. Additionally, the Real-time Updates and Availability Management features help businesses streamline their scheduling and increase customer satisfaction.

Cons

occasional technical issues such as slow loading times and glitches in the scheduling system. Additionally, while Vagaro offers a comprehensive set of features, I have noted that the learning curve can be steep for certain aspects of the software.

Pros

1. The way it manage all the subscription in a single room 2. User friendly for users that just entered into the business word3. A lot of customization options are there in the app

Cons

1. trouble shoot errors are there .2. Some features works only in laptops with desired graphic card and ram

Pros

Vagaro offers an easy-to-use platform for managing appointments and scheduling. The interface is user-friendly, with helpful reminders and notifications. The app integrates seamlessly with popular payment methods, making it convenient for customers to book and pay for services.

Cons

Despite its many features, Vagaro can be slow to load at times and may not always function optimally. Some users have reported difficulties navigating the app, and customer support can be slow to respond.

Pros

As the platform is simple to use and straightforward, businesses may start operating right away. All of the necessary data and tools are easily accessible, and the interface is attractive and well-designed. Vagaro offers a number of features and tools that may be adapted to particular industries, making it adaptable to the requirements of various businesses. This implies that companies might develop a solution that is ideal for their own requirements.

Cons

Vagaro is typically easy to use, although certain firms could experience a learning curve when first utilizing the platform. To guarantee that enterprises can utilize the platform efficiently, further training or support may be necessary.

Pros

SO USER FRIENDLY! Our stylist's were so intimidated by getting a new software, especially after using the same, outdated one for over 15 + years. Many of them aren't the most tech-savvy individuals, but it took hardly any time at all the train them on the system. They LOVE having the ability to see their schedules from the personal smart phone/ tablet when they aren't at work. Our client's LOVE their texting reminders.

Cons

One of the main things I do wish were able to be customized would be on the daily ticket sheets we print each day. I would like to edit the amount of history for each client that is shown so that multiple pages do not print out for each client. The font is small and so i have to print it to be larger and then it ends up printing multiple unnecessary pages out.

Alternatives Considered

Meevo

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

We really wanted the stylist's to be able to see their schedules at home, and also wanted the texting reminder's available to our clients.

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Price point was much better fit for our salon, as well as user- friendliness & easily navigable.

Pros

I love how easy this app is..
My clients LOVE the reminders and I LOVE I don't have to send them!
Through COVID this company has been amazing!!!

Cons

I love everything
I haven't had any issues at all..

Alternatives Considered

Square Appointments

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

The salon I was in switched to this and we all went in on it and i have been happy with it.

Switched From

Square Appointments

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

very easy to use. The price is great ..and the appointment reminders are awesome

Pros

Vagaro keeps all of my client information, services, products, reports and finances very well organized. I've used this software for over 5 years now and my favorite thing is, it's forever changing (for the better of course). I honestly have no complaints with the way it runs, however, if I'd like to see a change all I have to do is make a request and they take it under consideration. Obviously not every suggestion can be accommodated; but for the most part it just keeps getting better and better for a very reasonable price.

Cons

I wish when a customer decides they want to opt-out from receiving email marketing from one salon it wouldn't affect another. When a different business uses vagaro but the client has been to someone else and chose not receive email marketing they don't receive mine.

Alternatives Considered

Booker

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Convenience at first. Where I was renting it was already being used. Now I own my own spa and don't share with anyone but continue to use it because I'm extremely satisfied with customer service and fuctionality.

Pros

We were looking for one single system that could do everything for our business. Point of sale, booking, inventory, online booking, excellent reporting, custom forms, email/text marketing, etc. Vagaro has it all. It's one complete package that we can access remotely and via our phones at any time.

Cons

While this software was made mostly for Salons with numerous Stylists (Service Providers), it took a big of tweaking and being creative when setting it up for us. With us being a Sauna Studio, clients don't book people, they book actual rooms. There was a little bit of a learning curve on how to set that up properly but it works brilliantly now. I wish there was a little more customization on some deep settings, but all in all, I can't complain at all.

Alternatives Considered

ZENOTI

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

We wanted one program to do everything, and after researching Vagaro and trying the Free Trial, it was absolutely what we wanted...and more.

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Zenoti was way, way too expensive for a small business such as us and YoureOnTime didn't offer recurring payments (for memberships). They look to be great products (especially YoureOnTime), but they just didn't fit our needs 100%.

Pros

I love the confirmation and waitlist features the most, because it prevents me from having to physically keep track of client's and my schedule openings. I like having everything integrated in the software; i.e., scheduling, payments, confirming, color coding, the waitlist, etc. Also their Customer Service Support is outstanding!!

Cons

I really wish the software would have an Add-on feature. I don't like having to integrate the Add-ons into my actual services, because it put the Add-on as a separate scheduled appointment. The other feature I don't really like is having to pay for Marketing and Texting features, of which there are different tier levels. Wight Massagebook it was all included. These are my biggest dislikes of the software.

Pros

The Customer service has quick response and my customers find it user friendly

Cons

Well first of all I know over 1000 stylist use this yet our industry is not listed in the pick an industry choice. So in case you don't know it is called the beauty industry, not cosmetics and not consumer services.
Any how I do wish the reports were more streamlined some how I do feel like I always need to go to a different screen to find out different reports.

Alternatives Considered

SalonBiz and Rosy

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

To include retail sales and better service options.

Switched From

DaySmart Salon

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Recommended by my salon coach [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]

Pros

Cost affordable
All the features that are available
Easy to use
Clients love the reminders that they can get

Cons

I haven't found anything yet. Using the marketing tools can be challenging for a new comer, but for the most part I don't have anything to complain about.

Alternatives Considered

BEAUTY PRO, Salon Booking, Salesforce Sales Cloud, DaySmart Salon and Rosy

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

This product is more affordable and much more user friendly. The updates are all taken care of without additional costs and without down time to the program during regular business hours. So many features available without extra add-on costs. Vagaro has been a huge benefit to our business!

Switched From

DaySmart Salon

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Cost, features and ease were the top reasons.

Pros

The only thing I like about Vagaro was cancelling. I miss a few features versus our new system, but overall the system does not have a lot of pros besides being able to color code services.

Cons

The software itself is slow, buggy and we had multiple problems with it. After repeated calls to customer service they blamed it on our internet service which I upgraded with no change. I called back and they blamed my computer, to which I upgraded memory to make the computer faster. I continued to have issues. We just cancelled in January and they continue to bill me monthly, even after repeated attempts to get them to stop. Customer service takes an hour to get through to a person and they are not helpful.

Alternatives Considered

Square Appointments

Switched From

Booker

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

I wish I hadn’t. I now have square and though all the features aren’t 100% how I’d want them I pay less and I process a credit card in seconds and jump from day to day with ease!

Pros

The customer service. The majority of reps are great and very helpful. I also love the a la carte pricing, it makes it so much more affordable and you can add what you need as you grow. I also love how they are consistently adding new features. I also feel like they listen to user feedback and implement changes. Vagaro University on Youtube is great! The electronic forms are a lifesaver to help enforce our cancellation/refund policy. Thanks to Vagaro I could run my business with peace of mind and be seen as more professional by the public.

Cons

I wish the logging in part was faster for the client and also it feels like the experience is more on vagaro than our brand. I would like the option to create a brand app more affordable. Also, if a client already has an account from another user, it erases the information placed it by me and makes me start all over. I would also like the client to add their mailing address and date of birth on their intake. The mailing address is an important aspect of our marketing. I wish the star rating on employees could be a feature that could be turned off or on. At times, it makes it hard for newer therapists to get bookings.

Alternatives Considered

Mindbody

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

MindBody was terrible. The monthly price was ludicrous and expensive. They raised prices four times in one year without notice. All the "bells and whistles" they offered were so hard to use that it wasn't worth it. It was way too expensive for a start up. I hated the learning curve.

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Outstanding customer service, the learning curve was a quarter of what MindBody was. The price was so reasonable for a solo provider which is how I started.

Pros

I liked that this system was super simple and straight forward. It is very easy to switch over to Vagaro from another company which is what we did. The ease of use is definitely a plus but it also was a reason why we left. It was not very detailed on other aspects that we needed more options and attention on.

Cons

I love a software company that has a well developed app for it's salon users. This is important for the team because they use this every hour to see and check their schedules. I think also the reports should have been more detailed and intricate but they may have improved that at this time. I don't think anything was difficult to use but because of it's ease of use, it meant that the software didn't really allow for as much information and details as we needed at the time to run a salon aiming towards growth. Things were hard to find or figure out because it wasn't provided in the reports or we had to add other features from outside companies to make up for lacking features.

Alternatives Considered

Boulevard and Phorest

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

We were looking to find the right fit for our needs so that we could hit our growth and potential goals.

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

I ended up choosing Vagaro originally because I thought the ease of use was a huge selling point. However, we ended up switching over to Boulevard in the end.

Pros

I like that fact that clients can schedule anytime. I also like the fact that on my voice mail I inform new and existing clients of the website. This is very helpful because I can't always answer the phone. This gives the clients more option and the ability to look at my schedule and make an appointment that meets the clients needs.

Cons

It was difficult using the Merchant Services to take payments. The price was in line with some of the other providers such as Square. Before taking payments from clients, I wanted to make sure it work. I used my debit card to charge $1.00. After I did that and started taking payments they froze my account, noting that I violated the Merchant Service agreement. It took several months to get this resolved. I had to find out which company Vagaro was using to process Merchant Services. I had to call so many times as well as write and mail out demand letters to get my founds. I found that it was less expensive going with one of the major processors such as First Data and Fiserv Merchant Services. I also was not impressed with Vagaro's customer service. I had issues with their Merchant Services as well as some other customer services issues. As I have been using Vagaro for the past decade I would have hoped that their customer service would be much better. Don't expect much from the customer service team or the management.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale, Inspire, Mindbody, GlossGenius, Schedulicity, Rosy and Square Appointments

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

Schedulicity was not providing what Vagaro was offering.

Switched From

Schedulicity

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Vagaro had the best system.

Pros

Vagaro iseasy to use, easy to train, and offers fair pricing.

Cons

If a client has a Vagaro profile but is new to my salon I have no choice but to accept their existing profile because you can not use the same email for a new profile. That should be an option as some clients may need a new profile for these services vs other service they obtain elsewhere

Alternatives Considered

Rosy

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

At the time, Phorest has some things to work out being that their were difference between UK and US based salons. Also their pricing was much higher.

Switched From

Phorest

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Ease of use. We are a new salon, first time salon owner. This was our transition from an appoint book with manual entries. The training and support Vagaro provides is great.

Pros

I own a salt therapy spa. The color coded calendar is really nice. It is easy to book clients into classes and appointments. Checking clients out is not perfect, but ok most of the time).

I will put the rest of my complaints here, since it limits characters in the Cons. Clients cannot use the same email if they have used another Vagaro merchant. Families also can't use the same email on different profiles.

We have a client who has been with us for over a year. She recently went to work for a massage therapist who uses Vagaro. Now, we are locked out of her account and cannot even change to a different email she gave us. The answer from Vagaro was to have her use our work computer to sign into her employee Vagaro account and make changes on our system. When I told tech support that is unprofessional and ridiculous to have my clients making changes to their account on our system, I was told that's not unprofessional at all. Uhm! Yes it is. I asked to speak to a Vagaro manager, was told they don't work on the weekends and that I couldn't leave a message to get a call back. I was told I would be responsible for calling back myself.
I am also not happy that I cannot give permissions to my employees that I need them to have. I need them to be able to upload excel sheets for certain things. That is only a manager permission. What's going to happen when I open other locations? I pay employees to get things off my plate so I can run my business.

Cons

I don't think this system is good for a business with several employees.

I do not like that we can not make family relationships. We sell family memberships and need for one person (usually the parent) to sign everyone out under the one membership. However, the way it is set up, we check the parent out and the have to comp the kids. That makes it look like we do a lot of comping of sessions. It makes me wonder how a fitness facility using Vagaro does their family memberships?

Scheduling a client for a recurring class is also not very friendly. You can only schedule them for 20 classes and no more. I have clients that come 3 times a week faithfully. There is no way for a reminder to add them back in. However, you can book recurring appointments forever. It should be consistent for classes as well.

We have had trouble with client profiles duplicating themselves. We can't figure out why that happens. Then, merging the clients is a problem. Half the time we try to do that, it doesn't let us, because it says they are the same person.....very confusing and difficult to deal with.

I'm not totally happen with the merchant processing. On more than one occasion, we've had clients try to pay for services or retail with a gift card they got. When we try to use it, it won't process. The answer that we got from Vagaro is that about 50% of the time, the merchant bank doesn't allow certain gift cards to be used. As a small business owner, that is very embarrassing.

Pros

Online booking was a nice perk, although if a client didn't know how to book the first time(new online website) they would add themselves again so deleting a profile found to be quite an ordeal.

TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE customer service. I've been a user for the past 2 months and can't wait to find a new software company. It started great, so much easier that square appointments, online booking, the works! Wow... no. The booking service works okay, when it wants to open. I have better luck on my phone but being that I have an iPhone X I don't have a headphone jack so to swipe a card I use my iPad. It never works the first, or usually the second time so I have to pull out he reader and plug it back in. Any issues or questions I have leads to me having to wait on hold for customer service for 20+ minutes or waiting for an email response. There are a ton of hidden fees every month that we're never discussed(of course in the fine print but never but an agent) for card processing and I am beyond disgusted at how they are handeling a gift card order I purchased for my new, small business. I paid for perfect gift cards that were designed incorrectly because of me, but because I was told the wrong information by their team during the beginning stages of the ordering process. They are beyond condescending and unwilling to work with me in this issue and even went to the length the add up what both orders plus shipping would cost me if I decide to fix my issue

Cons

I was willing to get past the slower, unreliable point of sale and I can't start to explain how much time and effort went into setting this up and transitioning from another booker is so I'm so discusted to have to do it again due to in my opinion an easy fix by the company. I still can't believe how this matter was handled and how I was spoken to over a small order of gift cards.

Pros

The online booking feature is a MUST with our clients, they absolutely love it. Also, the fact that you can have your website attached, a beautiful website at that. The ease of entering in all of our services into the service menu, our prices, and individual time intervals per service and per provider. But, the BEST thing about vagaro, is the ease of paper work. We do our daily tally and weekly tally sheets, and vagaro makes that absolutely a breeze. I am part owner, salon manager, and reception and I do all of the employees paperwork and money handling, and vagaro is absolutely amazing and makes the process so much easier than other software I've used over the years. The transaction list, to be able to go through all checkouts for the day, to be able to refund, charges, cash, and checks all separated into categories. It's just amazing. The checkout through vagaro is nice as well, you can put in the tip amount, check, cash, or charge, without using their merchant services, which is a benefit because you have an actual layout of each customer, each transaction, whereas on the credit card machine, which is completely separate, you can only see customer, and how much paid, including tip. Since, we opened this salon, we have only had vagaro, and we will continue to only have vagaro. It's the best salon and spa software that is available. No matter the size of salon, or services offered. This system works for everyone. Also, the text message updates they send out when theyre down.

Cons

There are really only a few things that I like the least about Vagaro. One would be, the system issues, especially with the credit card processing. When we first opened we were using vagaro as our merchant as well for our credit cards, and we had nothing but issues. Even now, I get the texts whenever there is a software malfunction, and it seems most of the malfunction is with credit card processing. So, we ended up having to buy an actual credit card machine and go with a different merchant provider, and now all of that is resolved. The next thing I like the least is, you can't separate your business at all. We have both tanning and a hair/nail salon. So, our tanning hours are slightly different from our hair/nail hours, and there is no way on vagaro, or our website, to separate and add additional hours. The last thing I like the least, is that Vagaro really only allows you to add services, there's no where for us to list our prices for tanning on our website, unless we take a picture of the menu and post it in our pictures, which would be out of place.