What booking software does well
In short
A booking product gives a med spa a working front desk quickly: online booking, reminders, cards on file, packages and memberships, and forms, kept running by the vendor. Building all of that from nothing would cost far more than years of the subscription.
The four products named here all sell to this trade. Vagaro lists forms and SOAP notes among its features, Boulevard has forms and charts with an add-on for prescriptions, and GlossGenius sells plans for med spas and aesthetics practices apart from its beauty plans. Mindbody includes branded booking widgets for your website on its first plan.
Several of them also put you in front of new people. Vagaro includes a free listing on its marketplace, and Mindbody lists your business on its app, which it says has more than three million active users.
For a practice that is opening, or one still on paper and phone calls, that is the right place to begin. Nothing here argues for skipping it.
What the fees are tied to
In short
Each product ties its fee to something different: the location, the calendar, the plan, or a new client it sends you. Read which one before you compare prices, because the same practice can be cheap on one and costly on another.
Vagaro charges by the location and then for each bookable calendar you add, up to seven; past seven, more employees cost nothing extra. Boulevard prices its salon and spa plans by the location each month and lists separate plans for med spas. Mindbody also prices by the location, and says it does not charge by the user.
GlossGenius sells flat monthly plans, with a custom booking website among the features of its first plan. Its pricing page lists a flat card rate, which matters as much as the plan price for a practice with a high average sale.
Marketplaces have their own terms. Mindbody says a listing on its app is free, and that when the app delivers a client you would not otherwise have had, it takes a fee of 20 percent, with a cap, on that first purchase only.
| What the fee is tied to | Worth knowing | |
|---|---|---|
| Vagaro | The location, then each bookable calendar up to seven | A free listing on its marketplace is included |
| Boulevard | The plan, by the location each month on its salon and spa plans | Separate plans for med spas |
| Mindbody | The plan, by the location each month, with no charge by the user | A fee on the first purchase of a client its app delivers |
| GlossGenius | A flat monthly plan | Separate plans for med spas, a booking website included |
| Your own booking site | A build price, then hosting at cost | Your domain, your accounts, and upkeep that is yours to arrange |
Swipe sideways to see every column
Where your own booking site earns its price
In short
Your own booking site earns its price when the first visit is a consultation, not a slot, and you want the request, the deposit and the follow-up to run your way, on your own domain, with the client list in your own accounts.
A med spa rarely sells a first appointment the way a salon sells a haircut. The new client has a concern, wants to know who they will see and what it costs, and often needs a consultation before anything is booked. A site built for that asks the right questions, takes a deposit under the policy the practice has set, and sends the request to the desk with everything attached.
It does not have to replace the booking product. The common shape is a site of your own in front and the product behind it: the site wins the client and takes the request, then hands the confirmed appointment to the calendar your staff already use. Our Growth site includes a hook so each request lands in the tool you run on. Taking bookings and deposits on the site itself, or a portal where clients sign in, is app work: it holds payments and an account for each client, which costs more than pages do.
Treatment notes and signed forms are a different matter from a booking page, and belong in a system made to hold them. This guide is about software choices, not medical or legal advice; ask your own counsel what rules apply to your practice.
What this means for a small business
In short
Start on a booking product, and keep your domain, your website and your client list where you can reach them. Build your own booking site when the product's page stops matching how your consultations really go.
Whichever product you choose, send people to a booking page on your own domain instead of handing out the address of your page on the vendor's site. If you change products later, the address your clients know does not change with it.
Ask each vendor how you would take your client list with you, and try the export once while you are still on a trial. Then write down, for a month, every booking that had to be fixed by phone. If that list is short, the product is doing its job. If it is long, it is the brief for a booking site of your own.