Salon Studio vs Vagaro
Salon Studio is white-label booking software at $50/month flat on your own domain, while Vagaro is a feature-rich salon platform from $30/month per bookable calendar whose bookings run through the Vagaro marketplace and app.
Vagaro is one of the most established names in salon software, and its feature list is genuinely enormous. The trade-off is the model: your salon becomes a listing on Vagaro's platform, alongside every other salon on it. Salon Studio takes the opposite approach — fewer bells and whistles, but everything carries your name on your domain. Here is the honest version of how they differ.
At a glance
Price
Vagaro
From $30/mo for 1 bookable calendar; scales with each additional calendar (as of June 2026)
Salon Studio
$50/mo flat — unlimited staff and calendars
Free trial
Vagaro
30 days (excludes daily deals and email & text marketing)
Salon Studio
14 days, full access, no credit card required
Where clients book
Vagaro
On Vagaro's platform — vagaro.com and the Vagaro app
Salon Studio
On your own website at your own domain
Marketplace exposure
Vagaro
Your listing lives on the Vagaro marketplace, where clients can browse other salons
Salon Studio
No marketplace — your site only ever shows your salon
White-label branding
Vagaro
No — the booking experience carries Vagaro's brand
Salon Studio
Yes — clients never see the Salon Studio name
Paid add-ons
Vagaro
Email & text marketing and several products (Forms, MySite, Branded App) are priced beyond the base plan
Salon Studio
None — one plan, everything included
Card payment processing
Vagaro
Optional Vagaro Merchant Services; the free card reader offer requires a 12-month processing commitment ($150 early-cancellation fee)
Salon Studio
Optional — your own Stripe account at Stripe's rates (2.9% + 30¢ online as of June 2026); we add 0%
Multi-service booking
Vagaro
Varies — check vagaro.com for current support
Salon Studio
Yes — clients book several services in one flow, auto-sequenced and conflict-checked
Analytics & reporting
Vagaro
Available; varies by plan
Salon Studio
Included — revenue, top services, staff performance, and top clients
Client data ownership
Vagaro
Your clients book through Vagaro's platform and app
Salon Studio
Yours — direct relationship, export anytime
| Feature | Vagaro | Salon Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | From $30/mo for 1 bookable calendar; scales with each additional calendar (as of June 2026) | $50/mo flat — unlimited staff and calendars |
| Free trial | 30 days (excludes daily deals and email & text marketing) | 14 days, full access, no credit card required |
| Where clients book | On Vagaro's platform — vagaro.com and the Vagaro app | On your own website at your own domain |
| Marketplace exposure | Your listing lives on the Vagaro marketplace, where clients can browse other salons | No marketplace — your site only ever shows your salon |
| White-label branding | No — the booking experience carries Vagaro's brand | Yes — clients never see the Salon Studio name |
| Paid add-ons | Email & text marketing and several products (Forms, MySite, Branded App) are priced beyond the base plan | None — one plan, everything included |
| Card payment processing | Optional Vagaro Merchant Services; the free card reader offer requires a 12-month processing commitment ($150 early-cancellation fee) | Optional — your own Stripe account at Stripe's rates (2.9% + 30¢ online as of June 2026); we add 0% |
| Multi-service booking | Varies — check vagaro.com for current support | Yes — clients book several services in one flow, auto-sequenced and conflict-checked |
| Analytics & reporting | Available; varies by plan | Included — revenue, top services, staff performance, and top clients |
| Client data ownership | Your clients book through Vagaro's platform and app | Yours — direct relationship, export anytime |
Vagaro pricing and terms as of June 2026, from vagaro.com — check their pricing calculator for your team size and current promotions.
Choose Vagaro if…
- You want the broadest feature set in the category — POS, inventory, memberships, packages, forms, and more under one roof.
- You value the Vagaro marketplace as a discovery channel — and Vagaro states the revenue from marketplace bookings is yours.
- Your clients already use the Vagaro app and you'd benefit from being where they book.
- You're a solo stylist and the $30/month single-calendar plan covers what you need.
Choose Salon Studio if…
- You want your own website at your own domain — not a listing on someone else's marketplace next to your competitors.
- You want one flat $50/month price that doesn't grow with your team or require add-ons.
- You want clients to book with your salon directly, with the relationship and the client list belonging to you.
- You want optional payments through your own Stripe account at Stripe's standard rates with 0% markup from us, or none at all.
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The real cost: per-calendar pricing and add-ons
Vagaro's advertised $30/month covers one bookable calendar — every additional stylist who takes bookings raises the subscription, and Vagaro's own pricing calculator quotes the rate for your team size. Email and text marketing is sold separately (it's even excluded from the free trial), as are products like Forms, the MySite website builder, and a branded app. None of that makes Vagaro a bad deal — solo stylists in particular may pay less than with us — but the sticker price and the real monthly bill are usually different numbers. Salon Studio is one number: $50/month, unlimited staff, every feature included, and your website and domain are part of the plan rather than an add-on.
Who gets the Google ranking you earn?
The Vagaro marketplace is one discovery channel; Google is the bigger one. When someone searches "balayage in your town," the page that ranks is a domain — and with a Vagaro listing, that domain is vagaro.com. Every booking, review, and visit strengthens the platform's search presence, which it uses to rank for salons generally, including the ones near you. A Salon Studio site flips that: SEO and structured data are built in, the pages live at your own domain, and the ranking they earn belongs to your salon and compounds year over year. A client who finds you through Google costs nothing — no commission, no per-booking fee, and no account on anyone else's platform.
The marketplace question
The Vagaro marketplace cuts both ways. It can send new clients your way, and Vagaro says marketplace revenue is yours to keep. But it also means the place your clients go to book you is a directory that lists other salons — you earned the client, and the platform gets the relationship and the repeat-booking habit. With Salon Studio, booking happens at your own domain, your client list is yours to export at any time, and nobody else's business appears anywhere near your brand. If marketplace discovery is paying for itself, keep it — plenty of salons run a listing for reach and their own site for loyalty. Just make sure the loyalty part belongs to you.
Frequently asked questions
Is Salon Studio cheaper than Vagaro?
Not always — for a solo stylist, Vagaro's $30/month single-calendar plan is cheaper than Salon Studio's $50/month. The math flips for teams: Vagaro's price scales with each additional bookable calendar and several features are sold separately, while Salon Studio stays $50/month flat with unlimited staff and everything included.
Does Vagaro show my clients other salons?
Vagaro listings live on the Vagaro marketplace, a consumer directory where clients search and browse businesses in their area — including other salons near you. Salon Studio has no marketplace: your booking site is yours alone and never displays another business.
Do I have to use Vagaro's payment processing?
No — Vagaro's processing is optional, though some offers come with strings: as of June 2026, the free card reader requires processing with Vagaro Merchant Services for at least 12 months, with a $150 early-cancellation fee. Salon Studio payments are also optional, through your own Stripe account at Stripe's standard rates (2.9% + 30¢ per online card payment as of June 2026), and we add 0% on top — your in-person payments never touch us at all.
How do I get new clients without the Vagaro marketplace?
Through search. Salon Studio sites ship with SEO and structured data built in, on your own domain — so searches like "balayage in your town" can land directly on your booking site, and your Google Business Profile can link straight to it. A client who finds you on Google costs nothing and books without a third-party account. The search ranking those pages earn accrues to your domain, not to a platform's.
How do I move from Vagaro to Salon Studio?
Export your client list from Vagaro so you have your own copy, then set up your services, staff, and hours in Salon Studio — you can be up and running the same day. Your 14-day free trial gives full access, so you can run both side by side while you switch.
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Last updated June 11, 2026. This page is published by Salon Studio. Competitor pricing and features change — we verify claims against each company's public pages and date them. Spot something inaccurate? Email chris@klowd.software and we'll fix it.