In recent years, there has been a rise in customers using online booking software to book appointments and prepay for services. Booking software is efficient, and convenient, helps increase revenue, improves customer satisfaction, and helps you save time. It has helped owners save time by not having to schedule appointments on behalf of clients. Additionally, it helps businesses avoid double bookings by not allowing customers to book appointments in time slots that are already filled. Lastly, customers prefer online booking and even seek out businesses that offer scheduling software that allows them to prepay for your services. 

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It's easy to see that online booking software has numerous advantages! Check out different scheduling software to see which is right for you. 

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Client Management:

Vagaro and Booksy both provide centralized client information with client cards on file and allow you to maintain client profiles and histories on their databases. Both also provide automatic notifications and reminders of client appointments and activities. Booksy additionally provides the option to import old clients and invite new ones onto the booking software. Yet, Vagaro’s customer management features include tagging so you can add keywords to customer profiles to identify them and designate them to specific profiles, patient charts that are essential to assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients, and verified customer management. Also, starting at $10 a month you can purchase Vagaro Drive to securely store photos and files relating to your clients for future reference.

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Brand Management:

Brand management on Booksy allows you to create a customizable services menu, showcase your portfolio, and display individual staff profiles and your online business profile. Yet, Vagaro offers email marketing with 1,000 free custom emails to send each month. Additionally, for an additional $10 a month, Vagaro Marketplace will feature you so you get noticed by new local clients. Also, Vagaro offers a branded app, for an additional $200 a month to amplify your brand using a custom app that clients can book from. 

Appointments:

Booking appointments online is made easy with Booksy and Vagaro. Vagaro and Booksy offer Streamlined booking and can be integrated with Google, Instagram, Facebook, and more. In addition, Booksy offers an easy-to-use customer app and streamlined booking with add-ons and combo Services. Yet, Vagaro has a Check-In App ($10/mo) as a self-service platform allowing clients to check in for classes, book future appointments, and purchase memberships. Vagaro’s calendar offers customizable features that allow you to manage time off, holidays, lunch breaks, and special meetings while maximizing customer service. Vagaro’s appointment-schedule app allows you to see the details of appointments or classes with their dates, durations, type of services, and the employees providing the services.

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Business Management:

When it comes to business management, Vagaro offers a vast range of premium features to help with business management. For $10 a month, you can create custom forms, surveys, and waivers that you can send to customers or require at the time of booking. You can also send customers digital form links, keep track of electronic signatures, and select templates to build forms that fit your business needs. For $10 a month, you can expand your sales with an online store where clients can purchase, 24/7, directly from the Facebook account, vagaro website, and online. For $10 a month, you can use Vagaro’s website builder to design a custom booking page for your business. On the other hand, Booksy has availability and booking management along with the option to include multiple locations. Booksy offers staff management, performance metrics, and inventory management, and allows you to manage shifts, commissions, and tips. Booksy also offers the ability to provide clients with documentation with custom forms. 

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Payment Processing:

Booksy has a streamlined checkout process keeping clients’ cards on file and setting cancellation policies with auto-charges. On the other hand, Vagaro’s payment processing includes a free credit card reader and will help your business process payments with a processing fee of 2.2%. Both software provides the option for contactless payments, and prepayments and will auto-charge no-shows.

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Marketing Tools:

Booksy enables you to market to clients with Boost which gives you the option to create email and social media templates, promotions, and message blasts, and collect/share customer reviews. Yet, Vagaro offers a variety of marketing tools including a free marketplace so you can list unlimited daily deals and bookings. On Vagaro, you can create your Custom Booking Page that allows you to choose templates and easily add your own branded images and content. Through Vagaro’s Daily Deals, you can promote discounts. Vagaro allows you to offer perks and loyalty programs that can increase your online bookings and ensure clients' return. Additionally, you can add up to 3 images in Vagaro’s Portfolio to showcase your services and promote your business to attract new online customers. For $20 a month, Vagaro will help you set up text campaigns. This Text Marketing Feature allows you to send one-time text marketing campaigns to customers. You can also send Automated Messages, including recurring birthdays, lost customers, before the visit, and follow-up or thank you marketing campaign

Target Market:

Booksy is geared towards a large audience including hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, skin care, eyebrows and lashes, massage, makeup artists, day spas, braids & locs, tattoo shops, personal trainers, chiropractics, and aesthetic medicine.

Vagaro is for small businesses and sole proprietors including barbershops, chiropractors, dance studios, martial arts, medical spas, physical therapy, salons and spas, yoga/pilates studios, and many more

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Pricing:

Booksy’s pricing starts at $29.99/mo with an additional $20/mo for each staff member. Additionally, Booksy requires a one-time commission fee per new client. Boost from Booksy helps attract new customers by marketing your skills in an attempt to keep your calendar full at no monthly fee. 

At Vagaro, the profits are all yours. They take $0 for your online booking & all revenue you make from the Vagaro Marketplace. You keep all the money you make from any online booking and there are no fees for new customers acquired. Vagaro's pricing is simply based on the number of users at your business that will be using Vagaro for their booking and what premium features are required for your business including text marking, branded app, website builder, creating forms/surveys, and more. Additionally, there are no long-term contracts so you aren’t locked in forever. Finally, there are no contract fees, cancellation fees, setup fees, signup fees, or PCI compliance fees. Here's an outline of Vagaro’s pricing structure: 1 user: $25/mo, 2 users: $35/mo, 3 users: $45/mo, 4 users: $55/mo, 5 users: $65/mo, 6 users: $75/mo, 7+ users: $85/mo.

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Regardless of which platform you choose, you’ll still need your phone calls answered and Lovage is the best choice! Lovage works with both Booksy and Vagaro.