Vagaro

Pros

The ease of use. Checking out a client and knowing that they have a receipt of the breakdown of services and next appointments emailed to them..Yes!!! Also never having to call to confirm! that is a sure fire way of determining your income​ in advance. Also when I know I'm going to be off for any​ time​ different than my regular time, I can send out a mass email and everyone can get on the schedule either before or after I'm​ back. They LOVE this!..

Cons

I really have no complaints. been with them since the very beginning and they have only listened and worked with me on my wishes and ideas. They are constantly​ solving​ my questions and wishes.

Pros

I love how easy the setup is. Vagaro walks you through every part of the software so you know exactly what to do and how to use it. Additional features are more advance. Love the build in marketing features and how easy it was to link to my personal website.

Cons

cost of additional features. started at $25/ month now to get everything I need I was close to what I was paying for other software companies. However, the customer service is far better.

Pros

Inexpensive, easy to set up, basic appt booking and packages available

Cons

Pkg use is not based on value, rather on total paid divided by # used
Monthly subscription is not user friendly, 6 month subscription should ONLY renew every 6 months vs each month which confuses customer

Emails should NOT be sent for every change to calendaring as sometimes rebooking, re re booking is needed and even though during rebooking I can select NOT to send to customer, Vagaro sends ANYWAY based on customer being signed up to ever receive email/text/sms. To compensate, the work around is customer are NEVER set up to receive emails or text or SMS and all confirmations are done manually via NON AUTOMATED text

Package totals cannot be modified after purchase. Ex: Owner policy is late cancel (48 hr notice required) or no show is full charge to customer. If client cancels same day and another client wants that appt time, both have to be booked on the same day at the same time in order to reduce package by 1 for no show client and charge package (or credit card) for client that really came and used that time slot. Although the user interface is titled modify # of remaining in package, the change DOES NOT change number remaining it changes total of package and thus all appts are repriced by the software, confusing both the accountant and the customer

No reporting or "view" of client visits and charges from client account
Owner has to go to a separate function called reports, run transaction report (memorize when the client was at the shop..eg last 6 months) AND the repo

Pros

Easy to use

Looks great

Cons

Confirmations text do not work half the time.

Services seem to go missing.

The program doesn't always send of the confirmation texts.

Clients click the confirmation link on their end... but does not show up on the computer.

Sometimes when booking a client.. the program will book the client every single day throughout the whole schedule to the end of time... the only way to fix it.. is to reboot the program.

Occasionally the program will send out text after text to the same clients notifying them that they have an appointment. One of my clients received 14 text right after another. Talk about being a pain in the butt.

The Do Not Notify client tab does not work. When changing a clients appointment around... there is a choice to notify the client or do not notify client. This function dos not work. It always notifies the client either way.

When choosing to No Show a client.. it shows up the almost the same color as the booking color, very difficult to see the difference. It should be a totally different color not associated with the booking color. The Red and Orange is almost the same shade. Maybe No shows should have a black strip.. just a suggestion.

Beware that Vagaro fees are in USD funds.. NOT CANADIAN.

FYI... Since the last June update, I have had to contact customer support DAILY! sometimes twice a day! UGH''''

Vagaro seems to go offline a few times a month, such an inconvenience.

Their updates are done in the middle of a work day. =(

Pros

I love that I don't have to be a slave to my phone. I don't have to go back and forth with clients, "how bout this time? or this time? or this time?" they can just get online and see all my openings!
I don't (often) have to leave my clients in the middle of appointments to book another one. When i'm off/busy i set my work phone to driving mode, directing my clients to book online.
The reminder texts are a God Sent according to my clients and compliments very well the ability to set my clients up on a rotating schedule which is also very convenient!
Oh, and the dashboard is a great tool to track busy times, slow times and number of clients, repeat clients and if they're booking online or not

Cons

I don't know if this is already a feature or something I need to do on my end through my phone but it'd be very useful if i got some sort of sound notification, a ding of some sort, when someone booked online so i would be aware of it when i'm super busy and think I know my schedule and end up telling a walk-in to come back when I think I have a gap in my day but it's been filled online.
I do wish there was a way I could make certain appointments only available during certain times for services that I share a room with another stylist.
And not that it happens often (maybe 3 times in 3 years) but when the site is down.... i feel totally lost, like a have no control over my life, I don't know when my next appointment is, who they are or what they're having done! it's awful. but it never lasts more than an hour or two I don't think.