5 Best Vagaro Alternatives for Beauty Salons (2026)

Short answer: The best Vagaro alternative for beauty salons is SupaDay — it includes online booking, SMS reminders, commission tracking, staff scheduling, and POS on the Grow plan at $14/user/month, capped at $99/month. No add-on fees for the features beauty salons use daily.

Beauty salons — esthetician studios, lash bars, brow studios, med-spa-lites — have different needs than a 10-chair hair salon. Your services are longer, your clients rebook on tighter cycles, and your team is usually smaller. You don't need enterprise salon software. You need something that handles booking, reminders, and payments without overcomplicating things.

Vagaro can technically run a beauty salon. But you end up paying for a platform built for high-volume hair salons while the features you actually need — SMS, client management, a simple booking page — either cost extra or get buried in a cluttered interface.

Why beauty salons leave Vagaro

• Built for hair salons, not beauty — Vagaro's interface, marketplace, and default workflows are optimized for quick-turnaround hair appointments. Beauty services (facials, lash extensions, brow sculpting) run 45-120 minutes and need a different flow.
• SMS is a paid add-on — $20/month extra for marketing texts. Beauty salons rely heavily on rebooking reminders and "time for your fill" messages. Paying extra for that is frustrating.
• Website builder costs extra — another $20/month. Many beauty studios rely on Instagram and a simple booking page — Vagaro makes you pay for both.
• Check-in app is another add-on — $10/month on top of everything else.
• Too much for small teams — a 2-3 person esthetician studio doesn't need inventory management, payroll integration, and a branded app. But the dashboard is full of those features anyway.

Quick comparison

1. SupaDay — best all-around for beauty salons

Price: $14/user/month (Grow, capped at $99/month) · $22/user/month (Business, capped at $149/month) · 30-day free trial

SupaDay gives beauty salons the features Vagaro charges extra for — all included on the Grow plan. No add-ons to buy, no surprise bills.

What stands out for beauty salons:

• Online booking — branded page where clients pick their esthetician, choose their treatment (facial, lash extensions, brow sculpt, chemical peel), and book 24/7. Clients only see services their chosen provider offers. Perfect for studios with multiple specialties.
• SMS reminders — 500/month on Grow, 2,000 on Business. Automatic reminders before each appointment. For beauty services with 2-4 week rebooking cycles, a "time for your refill" text is worth its weight in gold.
• Recurring appointments — lash fills every 2-3 weeks, facials every 4 weeks, brow maintenance every 3 weeks. Set the pattern once and the system books the series. Each appointment gets its own reminder.
• Commission tracking — flat rate per esthetician or custom rates per service. Lash extensions might earn a different rate than a basic facial. Tips tracked separately.
• Staff scheduling — each team member sets their own hours and time off. The booking page updates automatically.
• POS checkout — card, cash, check, gift card, store credit. Split payments and tip handling.
• Review management — automatically request Google reviews after each visit. Available on Business plan. Beauty clients research heavily before booking — reviews drive new business.
• Works on any device — full browser experience on your reception desk, tablet, or phone.
• Marketplace coming soon — client discovery marketplace on the roadmap, without 20% commission.

3 estheticians on Grow = $42/month. Never more than $99.

Best for: Beauty salons and esthetician studios that want booking, SMS, commissions, and reviews — without paying for add-ons. Try free for 30 days →

2. GlossGenius — best for solo estheticians

Price: Standard $24-28/month · Gold $48-56/month · Platinum $148-168/month

GlossGenius is the prettiest booking app in the beauty space. Solo estheticians and independent lash artists love it — setup takes minutes, the client booking experience is polished, and the card reader is sleek. It's designed for one person managing everything from their phone.

The limits show with a team. Commission tracking needs Platinum ($148-168/month). Management is mostly app-only — no full desktop experience for a front desk. You can't embed booking on an existing website. But for a solo beauty professional who wants their brand to look premium, GlossGenius delivers that aesthetic.

Best for: Solo estheticians, lash artists, or brow specialists who want a beautiful, simple booking app and don't need team features.

3. Fresha — best if you want new clients through a marketplace

Price: $19.95/month (solo) or $14.95/user/month (teams) + 20% marketplace commission on new clients

Fresha's marketplace can put your beauty salon in front of clients actively searching for estheticians, lash studios, and skincare treatments in your area. The platform is clean, modern, and the booking flow is smooth.

The trade-off is 20% on every new marketplace client (minimum $6). A $150 lash set sends $30 to Fresha on the first visit. Beauty services tend to have higher price points, so that commission adds up faster than it would for a quick haircut. SMS is limited to 100 free/month — not enough for a studio doing 40+ appointments per week.

Best for: New beauty studios building a client base who need marketplace discovery and can absorb the commission cost.

4. Square Appointments — best free starting point

Price: Free (solo) · Plus $49/month per location · Premium $149/month per location

Square's free tier works for a solo esthetician who just needs basic booking and payments. No monthly cost, no commitment. If you're renting a room in a salon and just starting your client list, this gets you running.

Everything beyond basic scheduling costs more. A second team member means $49/month. Commission tracking is locked behind Premium at $149/month. SMS is a paid add-on. The interface is built for retail and restaurants, not beauty services — it works, but it doesn't feel like it was made for you.

Best for: Solo estheticians testing the waters who need something free right now and plan to upgrade later.

5. Mangomint — best for high-end beauty studios

Price: Essentials $165/month · Standard $245/month · Unlimited $375/month

Mangomint is the premium choice. The interface is gorgeous, automations are smart, unlimited SMS is included, and support is excellent. For a high-end beauty studio with consistent revenue, Mangomint makes your operations feel as polished as your treatments.

The price is real — $165/month minimum, plus $75/month for Mangomint Connect if you want integrated calls and texts. No website builder. A 3-person esthetician studio would need to justify that cost against the alternatives. It works best when your average ticket price is high enough that the software cost is a small percentage of revenue.

Best for: Established, high-revenue beauty studios that want the best software experience money can buy.

Which alternative should you pick?

For most beauty salons with 2-5 team members, the question is whether booking, SMS, and commissions are included or cost extra. SupaDay includes all three at $14/user/month. Vagaro charges separately for each.

The bottom line

Vagaro is a hair salon platform that beauty salons make do with. If you're tired of paying for features designed for 10-chair salons while getting charged extra for the SMS and booking tools your beauty studio actually needs, SupaDay is built for businesses like yours →.