Vagaro is one of the most used booking platforms for salons, spas, barbershops and studios. Its pricing page is clear: $30 a month for one bookable calendar and $10 for each extra calendar, with a lower rate for the first six months. The catch is the shape of the bill rather than the number. Every stylist you add is another $10 a month, payments run through Vagaro's own merchant services, and the booking page lives on Vagaro's domain. If your business runs on WordPress, a booking plugin replaces the per-calendar bill with one flat licence and puts the whole flow on your own site.
This guide compares seven alternatives: four WordPress plugins we installed and booked on a clean site in October 2026, and three hosted tools for businesses that want to stay off WordPress. Vagaro's prices were read on its pricing page on 26 October 2026. Plugin prices come from each vendor's own pricing page, read on 25 and 26 October 2026. Several vendors had autumn sales running, so the regular price is given next to the sale price wherever the page showed both.
Short answer. Booknetic is the most complete Vagaro alternative for a WordPress site. It covers staff, locations, packages, gift cards, loyalty, deposits, a booking waiting list for full slots , reminders and ten payment gateways on one flat licence per site, with no per-calendar pricing. Amelia suits salons that also sell classes and events. LatePoint is the best value if you want every feature on the cheapest plan, and Bookly has the largest free install base. Square Appointments, Fresha and GlossGenius are the hosted picks for businesses that do not run WordPress.
Why people leave Vagaro
These are the terms as shown on Vagaro's pricing page on 26 October 2026. Vagaro is a complete front-desk system with a marketplace, and the list of what every plan includes is long. The reasons to leave are the pricing unit and the hosted model rather than missing features.
Per-calendar pricing. One bookable calendar costs $30 a month and each extra calendar $10. The page's own selector shows $80 a month for six calendars, and the price keeps climbing at seven or more. A plugin licensed per site has no calendar count.The intro rate ends. The $23.99 rate for one calendar, and $73.99 for six, is marked "exclusive rate for the first 6 months" with "exclusions apply". After that the bill returns to the full price.Payments through Vagaro. The free card reader is tied to signing up for Vagaro Merchant Services, and the pricing page does not list the processing rates. There is no Stripe, PayPal or local gateway option.The booking page is Vagaro's. Customers book on Vagaro, Instagram, Facebook and Apple Maps or through a widget. The flow, the branding and the client records stay on Vagaro, and on WordPress you embed a widget rather than own the page.Monthly billing only. There is no yearly or lifetime option, so the subscription never ends. Cancelling is free, which is a point in Vagaro's favour.
The alternatives at a glance
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1. Booknetic: the whole front desk on your own WordPress site
Booknetic is built for the same businesses Vagaro targets: salons, spas, barbershops, nail studios, med spas, clinics and multi-location chains. The booking page runs inside your WordPress site on your own domain and theme. Customers walk through location, staff, service, extras, date and time, their details, a cart with the price and a coupon field, and a confirmation. Staff and locations are unlimited on every plan, and the licence is per site rather than per calendar.
The feature list covers what Vagaro bundles into every plan. Deposits, no-show protection through card on file, a waiting list, multi-staff and multi-location booking and resources such as chairs and rooms are in the plan list. So are booking packages in WordPress , gift cards, coupons, loyalty, recurring appointments and custom appointment statuses. Reminders and follow-ups run through a workflow engine by email, SMS, WhatsApp and Telegram. Ten payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal and Square, two-way Google calendar sync and Booknetic's Outlook Calendar sync , invoices and taxes, a customer panel, reports and user roles are there too.
Type WordPress plugin; customers book on your own domain
Free version Yes, from booknetic.com, with limits and a branding bar
Yearly plans Basic $45 ($89 regular), Standard $99 ($199), Premium $149 ($399), Elite $299 ($599)
Lifetime plans Basic $99 ($199 regular), Standard $239 ($399), Premium $599 ($799), Elite $699 ($1,599)
Staff and locations Unlimited on every plan; licensed per site
Payments Local payment on Basic; Stripe, PayPal and WooCommerce from Standard; all 10 gateways, Square included, on Elite
Marketplace None; no listing fee and no commission on new clients
Guarantee 14-day money-back guarantee
Booknetic, Amelia, LatePoint and Bookly were installed on a clean WordPress site and booked end to end in October 2026. Their pros and cons come from that real install. The three hosted tools come from vendor pages and public reviews.
One flat price per site. A six-chair salon pays $99 a year on Standard ($199 regular), where Vagaro charges $960 a year for six calendars after the intro period.
No processor lock-in: keep Square, Stripe, PayPal or a local gateway, and switch at any time.
Packages, gift cards, loyalty, deposits, a waiting list and resources are in the plan list, matching Vagaro's bundle without the monthly bill.
Reminders by email, SMS and Telegram through a workflow engine, with your own SMS provider account, plus Booknetic's WhatsApp notifications on the same workflows.
No consumer marketplace and no point of sale hardware; Vagaro's card readers and marketplace listing have no equivalent here.
No recurring membership billing; Booknetic sells packages and recurring appointments instead of monthly memberships.
Basic covers local payment and one domain; Stripe, PayPal, calendar sync and the mobile app start on Standard.
Best for: salons, spas, barbershops and clinics on WordPress that want to stop paying per calendar and own the booking page and the client list. See the Booknetic pricing page for the full plan matrix and the free version.
2. Amelia: appointments and events, with a free Lite version
Amelia is the closest plugin to Booknetic in scope and adds event booking with tickets, which suits salons that run classes, workshops or open days. The free Lite version on WordPress.org covers appointments with Square payments. Starter at $49 a year covers one domain with coupons, service extras, group appointments and the mobile app. Standard at $99 adds other payment methods, unlimited locations, recurring appointments, deposits, calendar sync and invoices. Pro and Elite add packages, resources, a cart, a waiting list, event tickets and the REST API.
Free version Amelia Lite on wp.org: 90,000 active installs, 4.6/5 from 791 ratings; Square payments included
Starter $49 a year, one domain; Square payments only, no calendar sync or deposits
Standard $99 a year, one domain; multiple payment methods, unlimited locations, recurring, deposits, calendar sync
Pro and Elite Pro $199 a year ($329 regular) for five domains; Elite $399 ($599) for unlimited domains; packages, resources, cart, waiting list, REST API
Guarantee 15-day money-back guarantee; lifetime licences available
Updated Version 2.4.13 on 22 October 2026, tested up to WordPress 7.1
Square payments on the free Lite plan, so a Vagaro user who moves to Square keeps a familiar checkout.
Events with tickets and a waiting list next to appointments, which Vagaro handles through classes only.
Polished admin and a mobile app on every paid plan.
Packages, resources and the waiting list need Pro at $199 a year ($329 regular).
In our test the booking page loaded about 5 MB of assets, the heaviest of the four plugins.
Service durations are tied to the global slot step, so a 45-minute service needs a 15-minute step across the site.
Best for: a salon or studio that books appointments and sells event or class tickets from the same WordPress site.
3. LatePoint: every feature on the cheapest plan
LatePoint sells one feature set and prices it by the number of sites. Starter covers one site, Scale five and Agency a hundred. The free plugin on WordPress.org already takes Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay payments with unlimited appointments and agents. Every paid plan adds Square, Mollie and other gateways, group bookings, event registration and SMS, email and WhatsApp reminders. It also adds workflows, multi-staff and multi-location management, two-way Google, Outlook and Apple calendar sync, Zoom and Google Meet links, coupons and packages.
Free version On wp.org: 100,000 active installs, 4.9/5 from 105 ratings; Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay payments
Starter $69 a year on the sale shown, $99 regular; one site, all features
Scale and Agency Scale $125 a year ($249 regular) for five sites; Agency $250 ($499) for a hundred
Payments on paid plans Square, Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Mollie, Mercado Pago, Braintree, Paystack and WooCommerce Payments
Guarantee 14-day money-back guarantee; lifetime licences available; renewals at full price
Updated Version 5.7.5 on 16 October 2026, tested up to WordPress 7.1
No feature gating: the $69 Starter plan has the same features as Agency, including Square payments, packages and WhatsApp reminders.
The most generous free plugin here, with payments on the free plan.
Two-way sync with Google, Outlook and Apple calendars on every paid plan.
In our test a priced service could not be booked until a gateway or "allow paying locally" was switched on, which is off by default.
The sale price and the regular price appear on the same pricing page with different figures, so check the checkout total.
A smaller company than Vagaro or Amelia, with support through tickets and a Discord community.
Best for: a small salon or barbershop that wants Square payments, packages and reminders on the cheapest paid plan.
4. Bookly: the largest free install base and WhatsApp notifications
Bookly has been on WordPress.org since 2014 and sits on 60,000 active installs. The free version covers the booking form, the calendar and email notifications, but online payments, unlimited staff and services and calendar sync need a paid plan. Bookly moved from separate add-ons to bundled yearly plans. Pro covers one site with unlimited staff, Google Calendar sync and local payments. Business adds Stripe and PayPal, deposits, group and recurring booking and Outlook sync. Ultimate adds multi-location, packages, a waiting list and events. Notifications go out by email, SMS and WhatsApp, and SMS credits are bought on top.
Free version On wp.org: 60,000 active installs, 4.4/5 from 586 ratings; no online payments, limited staff and services
Pro $39 a year on the sale shown, $99 regular; one site, unlimited staff and services, Google Calendar sync, Zoom and Meet; local payments only
Business $69 a year ($129 regular); Stripe and PayPal, deposits, group and recurring booking, Outlook sync, custom fields, coupons
Ultimate $159 a year ($199 regular); multi-location, packages, waiting list, events, custom statuses
Ultimate $159 a year ($199 regular); every paid feature
Payments Local payment on Pro; Stripe and PayPal from Business; Authorize.Net, 2Checkout and PayU on Ultimate; no Square
Updated Version 28.6 on 13 October 2026, tested up to WordPress 7.1
Unlimited staff on the $39 Pro plan, the cheapest paid plan in this list, where Vagaro charges $10 per calendar.
WhatsApp and SMS notifications built in.
Chain, collaborative and compound services for multi-step treatments such as colour and cut.
No Square gateway, so a Vagaro user who wants Square should look at Booknetic, Amelia or LatePoint instead.
In our test the plugin loaded about 1.2 MB on every page of the site, not only the booking page, and called a geolocation service from the visitor's browser.
Renewals are at the regular price, so the yearly cost rises after the first year.
Best for: a salon or clinic that wants a well-known plugin with WhatsApp reminders and a low first-year price.
5. Square Appointments: free booking for Square sellers
Square Appointments is the hosted tool most often weighed against Vagaro by US salons, and the one with a free plan. Free covers one location with unlimited staff calendars, an online booking site and reminders. Square earns from processing fees instead: 2.6% plus 15 cents in person and 3.3% plus 30 cents online on Free. Plus adds no-show fees, a cancellation policy, multi-staff booking and a waitlist. Premium adds resource management and reporting for large salons.
Free $0 per location; unlimited staff calendars, online booking, reminders
Plus $49 per location a month; no-show fees, waitlist, multi-staff booking, lower processing fees
Premium $149 per location a month; resource management, future bookings report
Processing fees 2.6% plus 15 cents in person and 3.3% plus 30 cents online on Free
Trial 30 days on Plus and Premium
Ratings 3.6/5 on Trustpilot from 7,509 reviews for Square as a whole
A free plan with unlimited staff calendars, where Vagaro charges $10 per calendar from the second one.
Booking, checkout, invoices and inventory in one account for salons that sell products too.
Deposits and no-show fees are tied to the card on file.
You have to process payments through Square, so the free plan costs a share of every sale.
No consumer marketplace, so the new-client discovery Vagaro offers is missing.
Plus is priced per location, so a second site doubles the bill. Our Square Appointments alternatives for WordPress guide covers the plugin route.
Best for: a salon or barbershop that already takes payments on Square and wants booking at no extra monthly cost.
6. Fresha: a salon marketplace priced per team member
Fresha is the most direct hosted rival to Vagaro in the salon and spa category, with a consumer marketplace of its own. It sells an Independent plan for a one-person business and a Team plan priced per bookable team member, both with a 7-day trial, and an Enterprise tier for businesses with more than 20 team members. Fresha shows the price in the local currency of the country you browse from, so the figures differ by market and are not repeated here. Payments run through Fresha, and the pricing page lists a one-time fee for brand-new clients who discover the business through the marketplace, without stating the amount.
Independent One team member and one calendar column; price shown per country; 7-day trial
Team Priced per bookable team member a month; unlimited team members; 7-day trial
Enterprise Custom rates for businesses with more than 20 team members
Marketplace fee One-time fee on brand-new clients who find you through the Fresha marketplace; amount not shown on the pricing page
Add-ons Reports, a website, loyalty, an AI concierge and a data connector sold per location or per team member
Ratings 4.8/5 on Trustpilot from 7,516 reviews
The highest Trustpilot score of any tool in this list, by a wide margin.
A marketplace listing, like Vagaro's, plus booking buttons for Instagram, Facebook and Google.
Per-team-member pricing with unlimited members on Team, which can beat Vagaro's per-calendar bill for small teams depending on the local price.
Prices vary by country and are only visible on the pricing page for your region, which makes comparison across markets hard.
A marketplace fee on new clients and add-ons priced per location sit on top of the subscription.
Still a hosted page with its own processor. Our Fresha alternatives guide covers the options in more depth. Pros and cons here come from the pricing page and public reviews, not from a paid account.
Best for: a salon or spa that wants a marketplace and a per-member plan, and is happy to check the local price on fresha.com.
7. GlossGenius: one flat plan for a solo stylist or a small team
GlossGenius is built for beauty and wellness professionals and sells three flat plans rather than a per-calendar price. Standard is for a business just starting out, Gold for up to nine staff and Platinum for teams of ten or more. Every plan includes a booking website, calendar, point of sale, payouts, invoices, inventory and staff management, with waitlist, resources, gift cards, memberships and packages on Gold and above. Card processing is the same on every plan: 2.4% plus 15 cents for tap, dip or swipe and 2.9% plus 30 cents for online invoicing. There are no contracts, and each extra location is charged the plan price with a 15% discount.
Standard $24 a month billed yearly, $28 monthly; essentials for a business just starting out
Gold $48 a month billed yearly, $56 monthly; for up to 9 staff; waitlist, memberships, packages, gift cards
Platinum $148 a month billed yearly, $168 monthly; for teams of 10 or more
Processing 2.4% plus 15 cents in person, 2.9% plus 30 cents for online invoicing; instant payouts 1.8% extra
Locations Each extra location at the plan price with a 15% discount; no contracts, free data transfer
Trial Free trial without a card
A flat plan instead of a per-calendar bill: Gold at $48 a month covers up to nine staff, where Vagaro charges $80 for six calendars.
Processing rates are printed on the pricing page, which Vagaro's is not.
Yearly billing with a discount, no contracts and free data transfer.
No consumer marketplace, so new-client discovery has to come from your own marketing.
Payments run through GlossGenius only, with a 1.8% fee for instant payouts.
Too few Trustpilot reviews to judge support, and still a hosted page. Pros and cons here come from the pricing page and public reviews, not from a paid account.
Best for: a solo stylist or a salon of up to nine staff that wants one predictable monthly plan with point of sale.
Vagaro vs Square Appointments vs Fresha
These are the three hosted names a salon owner weighs most often. The table shows how each one charges, as read on their pricing pages on 25 and 26 October 2026.
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For a shop that already runs on Square hardware, Square Appointments is the cheapest of the three. For a salon that wants marketplace clients, Vagaro and Fresha both offer it, with Fresha charging a fee on the new clients it brings. None of the three puts the booking page on your own site. Our guides to Acuity vs Square Appointments and Mindbody alternatives cover the other hosted names salons search for.
What a six-chair salon pays per year
The table assumes one location, six stylists with their own calendars, reminders and online payment. Prices are yearly totals from the vendor pages read on 25 and 26 October 2026, with the regular price in brackets where a sale was shown.
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Moving from Vagaro to a WordPress plugin
Vagaro bills monthly and cancels without fees, so the move can happen between two billing dates.
Export your clients. Download the client list with contact details and notes from Vagaro's reports, and import the CSV into the plugin.Rebuild the menu. Create services with lengths and prices, add staff, chairs, rooms and locations, and set working hours and breaks.Connect a gateway. Add Square, Stripe, PayPal or a local gateway, and set deposits or full prepayment per service.Move the memberships and packages. Let active Vagaro memberships run to their renewal date, then sell packages, gift cards and recurring appointments through the plugin.Replace the booking links. Put the plugin's booking page on your site and point the links in your Google Business Profile, Instagram bio and Facebook page at it.Switch reminders on and cancel. Set email, SMS or WhatsApp reminders and a follow-up, then cancel Vagaro once its last bookings have passed.
Which Vagaro alternative should you pick?
A salon, spa or barbershop on WordPress : Booknetic. Unlimited staff and locations, packages, gift cards, loyalty, deposits and reminders on one flat licence.Appointments plus classes and events on one site : Amelia, with Pro for packages and the waiting list.Every feature on the cheapest paid plan, Square included : LatePoint Starter at $69 ($99 regular).The lowest first-year price with unlimited staff : Bookly Pro at $39 ($99 regular).A shop that already runs on Square : Square Appointments Free.A hosted marketplace with a per-member plan : Fresha, after checking the price for your country.One flat hosted plan for up to nine staff : GlossGenius Gold at $48 a month billed yearly.
Other names you will meet in this search are Booksy, Mindbody, Zenoti and Acuity Scheduling. Booksy lists $29.99 a month plus $20 a month per extra staff member and a 30% fee, capped at $100, on the first visit of a client who comes through its Boost marketing. Our guides to Zenoti alternatives , Acuity Scheduling alternatives and the best salon and spa booking plugins for WordPress cover the rest.
How these tools were checked Vagaro's prices, the six-month intro rate and the list of included features were read on vagaro.com/pro/pricing on 26 October 2026 with the US country setting. Booknetic, Amelia, LatePoint and Bookly were installed on a clean WordPress site and booked end to end in October 2026. Their install counts, ratings and version dates come from the WordPress.org plugin API. Plugin prices were read on each vendor's own pricing page on 25 and 26 October 2026, with the regular price given next to any sale price shown. Square Appointments facts come from squareup.com and Trustpilot on 25 October 2026. Fresha's plan structure comes from fresha.com/pricing and GlossGenius's prices from glossgenius.com/pricing, both read on 26 October 2026. We did not run paid accounts for the three hosted tools.
FAQ
What is the best Vagaro alternative for WordPress? Booknetic. It runs the booking page on your own site with unlimited staff and locations, packages, gift cards, loyalty, deposits, a waiting list, reminders and ten payment gateways. The licence is flat, from $45 a year ($89 regular) or $99 lifetime, with no per-calendar pricing. Amelia, LatePoint and Bookly are the other plugins worth a look, depending on budget and features.
How much does Vagaro cost? $30 a month for one bookable calendar and $10 a month for each extra calendar, so $80 a month for six. The pricing page shows $23.99 for one calendar and $73.99 for six as an exclusive rate for the first six months. Payments run through Vagaro Merchant Services, and the pricing page does not list the processing rates. All of this was read on 26 October 2026.
Is Vagaro free? No. There is a free trial and a free card reader when you sign up for Vagaro Merchant Services. The software itself starts at $30 a month for one calendar, or $23.99 for the first six months. Square Appointments has a free plan for one location, and the WordPress plugins in this list have free versions.
Vagaro or Square Appointments? Square Appointments if you already take payments on Square: its Free plan has unlimited staff calendars and you pay processing fees only. Vagaro if you want a marketplace listing, point of sale hardware and memberships in one subscription, at $30 a month plus $10 per extra calendar. Neither puts the booking page on your own site.
Vagaro or Fresha? Both run a marketplace and both charge per person, Vagaro per bookable calendar and Fresha per team member. Fresha's price is shown per country on its pricing page, and it adds a one-time fee on brand-new marketplace clients. Fresha has the higher Trustpilot score, 4.8 against 3.5, from a similar number of reviews.
Does Vagaro work with WordPress? Only as an embedded booking widget or button. The booking flow, the client records and the branding stay on Vagaro. A plugin such as Booknetic runs the whole flow inside WordPress with its own client database.
Can Booknetic replace Vagaro completely? For booking, staff, locations, packages, gift cards, loyalty, deposits, reminders and payments, yes, and the client list moves over by CSV. Booknetic has no consumer marketplace, no card reader of its own and no monthly membership billing, so a salon that depends on marketplace clients or hardware checkout should weigh that first.
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