Vagaro Reviews

Pros

I love the ease of the program and that it is availbe easily by mobile app.

Cons

Extra fees for text marketing, website builder etc.

Pros

agaro’s user-friendly interface and robust scheduling tools make managing appointments effortless, and the automated reminders help reduce no-shows significantly.

Cons

Vagaro's reporting features can be complex to navigate, and the customer support response times can be slow at times.

Pros

Not sure how I feel about it. I have completely mixed views. I signed up for a trial period, when I thought my business would be opening in May, It is now September and I am about to open. The trial period, did not let me obviously try the debit card or payment options. Then from my understanding if you didn't click to continue the trial period, you were no longer getting the service. Yet I am being asked to pay $40.00, $35.00 plus a late fee, for service used in June. But my trial period was end of May to June, so this put me off. THEN they locked me out of my account and are asking me to pay a past due balance of $40.00 but what will happen then, that's just to unlock my account and then are they going to charge me for what more months of NON -USAGE. I sent emails but they bounced back with literally, we've detected key words in your email that this filter system won't allow anyone to respond to. Now imagine if I were up and running and this happened? When I was using the trail period, here is what I somewhat liked:
The landing page
The reminders although I felt like the customer emails were lacking in personal touch and were standard, and seemed very automated to me and "cold." I couldn't figure out how to personalize it. Then the location was neat, but again. The email reminders were a little one liner, reminder but something about them felt off putting. Not sure, I did find the landing page creation challenging but nonetheless they give you a landing page. The add ons are expensive so for a software all of a sudden you can come up to over $200 I get it, but why is there nothing for a start up, entrepreneur? The $50.00 program seemed ideal and overall it seems like a good software but this $40.00 is absolutely offputting to me, so if I pay them and still can't access my account, they would have gained $40.00 for me for after a trial period where I was not using the program? So I don't know. BUT i do suggest doing the trial period. I 've done several with some others and so far, nothing seems to be wowing me or they're way to expensive for my start up.

Cons

Their capacity to shut your account down if there is a missed payment. Imagine running a business and that happens.

Alternatives Considered

Bookeo

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Their 30 day trial was so vital in a new endeavour and entrepreneurship and as a new business owner. I didn't know where to start, and I really liked their description of the product and the free trial and the ease of use, plus the meeting I had with the rep during the Demo, was pretty straight forward but then when I went to use it on my own, it was a little more confusing.

Pros

I always get a real person on the phone.

Cons

Sometimes the connection is bad. But they help me through it.

Alternatives Considered

Kicksite

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Affordability and ease of use was a priority as a father and business owner.

Pros

Using Vagaro is straightforward and it comes well equipped.
It makes scheduling easy and fast and we no longer have issues of double booking.

Cons

Vagaro is smooth and delivers without problems.

Pros

Great automated communication with customers. Great calendar. Easy to update appointments. Easy to track customer history.

Cons

Using Vagaro has met and exceeded expectations. Have not run into anything I don't like.

Pros

Vagaro makes scheduling super easy!! I am always happier when I see a business accepts Vagaro and, organizationally, we are happiest when people schedule with us through it

Cons

Nothing negative to say about Vagaro at all. It has never let us down

Pros

Ease of use, no double bookings, no need for phone calls. I appreciate the security of my information.

Cons

I have never encountered any issues to cause me to dislike Vagaro.

Pros

Vagaro’s best feature is its all-in-one platform for booking, and payments. The automated reminders help reduce the chances of missing an appointment/booking.

Cons

My least favourite thing is that the pricing for Vagaro can be a bit high, especially for smaller businesses.

Pros

The simplicity of the app, its pretty straight forward.

Cons

POS System, not in love with the current fee structure

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

Lots of services are available in one place, the options are great, cost is very low, you get lots of discounts, interfaces are great.

Cons

You might experience slowness in Vagaro at times and this is not due to internet. it could be because of the servers but this is rate to happen.

Alternatives Considered

TrueCoach and Weave

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

Vagaro membership cost is much better, the support is better and it has more services.

Switched From

WellnessLiving

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Both systems did not have the requirements, not easy to learn how to go around, calendars do not sync. easily.

Pros

Vagaro fits our needs for our spray tanning and teeth whitening business. Very user friendly and improvements are always being made. Customer service is excellent.

Cons

On a few rare occasions over the past 4 years that Vagaro has gone down during business hours, it completely disables our business. Can't see the calendar or check out clients.

Alternatives Considered

Helios Salon Software

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

In 2019, we opened a second location and we needed software that would support multiple locations.

Switched From

Helios Salon Software

Pros

Ease of use, the price, it's very functional for my small business. The online booking and forms make it well worth the money and you can use the add ons that work for you.

Cons

If someone has the same phone number as someone else or there is already the same email in the system Vagaro doesn't allow you to duplicate. This is hard because I see children also and they are under their parents email. I also don't like how it can log you out in the middle of updating inventory.

Pros

The Vagaro Software is very easy to use and has a video tutorial option for anything you aren't sure about as well as customer service persons on hand. After reviewing and researching multiple programs I decided to give Vagaro a try because they have excellent reviews, extensive options for all areas of business that allows for growth, reports to follow sales patterns, customization for services and sales, free software for credit card charges when you sign up for services and so much more. Best of all, it won't break the bank and they continuously offer suggestions on how to increase sales and bring in more clients.

Cons

There aren't really any cons that I haven't been able to get help with via tutorial videos. If anything, there are so many options that I haven't learned everything the system can do after nearly 6 months. I feel like the system lags sometimes, but I cannot say for sure if it's the system or my connections.

Alternatives Considered

Workplace from Meta, Booker and Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

Easier and more creative marketing options, expansion options, better value

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Ease of scheduling, rescheduling, canceling without having to contact us, ability to customize the system for my business, flexibility in booking, adding and removing services, ease of payment processing and collection of deposit for services.

Pros

I love that the software is able to customized to my salon company needs. I love the email and text message marketing. I am still learning the program and all the add on services available. This month my 2 favorite features have been the invoice capability to be able to sell products to our clients while shut down for 30 days and then the ability to email & text clients of the current status of the salon closure.

Cons

Reports are either not as detailed as I need or trying to pull collected information. For example, I wish I could pull a list of new clients who visited our company last month. I also wish I could mas tag a group of clients like tag all customers who bought "Color and haircut" or a specific product. Ability to mass tag would give my more marketing power as I listed in what I love most about the software.

Alternatives Considered

Envision Salon & Spa and Meevo

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

Envision Cloud does not have a protected IP at it's lowest tier price!

Switched From

Envision Salon & Spa

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

The biggest reason was the low cost and the protected IP.

Pros

This system is the easiest I have used and has the most features for a decent price. Has most of the things I need and clients always comment on how super easy the online booking system is. Needless to say we get a lot of clients booking online
The mobile part of the system is the easiest I have used and you can do so much from your phone

Cons

A few things need to be customisable such as the text message system especially in Australia.
Probably needs text message marketing options as well.
It could be a little easier to add services to existing services. You currently have to pretend to checkout the client and add the service there. It's easy to delete or alter services on an existing booking but not to add the service.

Alternatives Considered

Timely

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

It had the most features of any products I had previously used and each update just makes it better and better

Switched From

Simple Salon

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

More features and easier to use

Pros

It's user friendly, for both the studio and client. Being small business owner, the cost of services is saving me so much. Wish I would have made the switch long ago. I like that we have different options for packages an d services.

Cons

Wish there was an easier way to checkout a clients for multiple days. Often times when I back to reconcile accounts, it would be nice to do one client and reconcile with a drop box check-out in one place for multiple days.

Pros

It's easy to use, customer service is always available and helpful (even if they can't solve your request right away, they get back to you), our customers LOVE the ease of the program, and it's actually affordable!

Cons

I do wish you could check people in to a class and if someone didn't show, it would register as like 7/8 in the class count after checkout so we could see the "realtime" class attendance.

Alternatives Considered

ABC Glofox and Mindbody

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

Vagaro has superior customer service, intuitive system use, MUCH better user-interface, and overall an excellent staff and customer experience! Our clients were SO happy when we switched back to Vagaro :)

Switched From

Mindbody

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Affordability, customer service, and better product.

Pros

I have been using Vagaro for well over twelve years. They have come so far in the features they offer. What I think is pretty amazing is their ability to respond and implement user feature requests. All of their features are user friendly and the support chats are easy to use and provide answers to solve any issues or questions you have.

Cons

There are a few fine details in the email marketing campaigns that need to be updates such as customizing the automations a bit more. In particular, I'd like automated emails to go our every year to my clients rather than the option maxing out at six months. Other than that, we still love Vagaro.

Alternatives Considered

Boulevard, Acuity Scheduling, Squarespace and GlossGenius

Reasons for Choosing Vagaro

The system we were using was cumbersome, outdated and didn't meet our needs at all or where we were headed as a company.

Reasons for Switching to Vagaro

Their conversion process was rediculous their features weren't as good and their prices for better features weren't worth it.

Pros

The POS system seems to work okay, for the most part. Appt setting also seems to work okay.

Cons

Integration with QuickBooks is a joke!! It has not worked for the entire 1.5 years we have been with Vagaro, regardless of the number of emails, texts, chats, phone calls I have had with support and the amount of data and information I have provided to them in order to address the issue and prove that the integration is not functioning properly. We cannot trust any of the data coming from Vagaro as it simply does not match their own information!! We have paid the $30/mo integration fees for months and months, yet Vagaro has never provided us with data that appears to be even close to accurate in any stretch of the imagination! My suggestion? Look for another platform if you intend to use QuickBooks for your accounting integration platform. If you are using another platform, I would strongly suggest that you investigate the capabilities and do your homework and seek out user reviews before selecting Vagaro for anything other than a straight POS and appointment management system.

Pros

Vagaro is bette price than competitors and has a pretty up to date UI. It makes online reservation reasonably which is a must when trying to attract millennials. It tries to bring everything in house which could create opportunities for tighter integration. There is some hope that the software will improve as there is a lot of low hanging fruit and their CEO/Head of product has a clear strategy on how to take on the market. Support can be pleasant and responsive if you encounter the right staff. They have a lot of advanced features (though they are missing a lot of polish an finesse-- see below)

Cons

Some of the ui is non intuitive but with creative searching of the support site you can find the answer. It's better if you can get someone to handhold you through the process--- and that's a big if. Software is missing some pretty basic features:
1/ Unable to link directly to a service provider, class, workshop, package, etc. It makes it very difficult to promote these things via ads or social media
2/ E-mails lack calendar reminder attachment for people to add to their calendar
3/ Lack of a list for classes/workshops. Older populations have difficulty finding or seeing the search bar for the classes.
4/ Lacking HIPAA support despite having SOAP note support
5/ Inability to customize new client email, appointment reminders etc.
6/ Inability to run new client discounts.
7/ Inability to actually see how the customers will actually interact with the platform as documentation / demo is woefully inadequate.
8/ Workshops feature is pretty haphazardly put together. It's just a class that runs over a series of dates. No options for early bird pricing. No options for custom dates. You're better off handling workshops through eventbrite or eventbee.
9/ Inability to provide detailed feed back such as this. I'm a customer who's paying _despite_ their shortcomings. I may have even conducted more user testing on Vagaro than the employees. They seem content in having their dirty laundry aired in a public medium.

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

The calendar is easy and self explanatory. It seems easy to use Even for people with no computer experience . If you're still using pencil and paper , this is way better than that . Probably a great product for both renters. Clients like notification system.

Cons

If you've used any other salon softwares that are in a high performance category as far as reporting and/or user experience this will not suit your needs . It is very rudimentary in its performance . It does not allow for any customization in reports or in applications .
Many features are archaic and need updating. The feature to logout users after a certain amount of time can't recognize the difference between idle and not idle so it will log you out and lose your work in the middle of a session . The "marketing" section is mediocre at best . IF you've already been running a computerized operation for 5 yrs or more, you will find the software completely inefficient . It does not save your work if you're in the middle of procedures when it logs out . It cannot tell the difference between tasks in progress and idleness . If you leave the program wide-open and it doesn't log anybody out automatically, then your separate users have no recognition within the system, Unless they individually and manually log themselves in-and-out every time . SO MANY SILLY TIME WASTING things that MUST be done manually every session. Yuck.

Pros

Cost of the service compared to others on the market, such as MindBody.

Cons

Vagaro Support is the worst I've ever worked with. We have been working on getting our small business on Vagaro's platform since April. It is now Aug, & we are still not up and running. Everything we are doing is Out-of-the-Box. No customization. However, support has not been able to complete our import, so we've been paying a monthly fee since April for a service we cannot use. They are horrible at responding to requests for status updates. I'll email support multiple times and they don't respond for weeks, if at all. The only time I can make any headway on our import is if I work on it myself, or when I start calling them daily (sometimes 2x/day). Then we make a little progress only to begin the cycle again a few days later with me being ghosted. If you're looking to use Vagaro for your business, don't. We are at the point where we are willing to take the sunk cost on the money & significant amount of time we have put into this and start over with one of Vagaro's competitors, such as MindBody.

Alternatives Considered

Mindbody