The salon + barbershop incumbent.Here’s a side-by-side, straight-shooter comparison of Aaptly and Vagaro— what each tool is actually for, where each wins, and where you’re better off staying where you are.
Aaptly is for shops that want a modern growth OS — AI receptionist, deposits by default, and an analytics pipeline that actually tells them where clients come from.
Vagaro is for shops that want a proven, full-featured scheduler and are fine paying per-booking fees on top of a base subscription.
Vagaro is one of the biggest scheduling platforms in the salon, barbershop, and small-spa space — broad, feature-rich, and built for independent shops. It's a decent default if you're happy with its pace of innovation and payment fees. For shops that care about AI-driven capture, deposit discipline, or clean first-party analytics, the ceiling hits fast.
Green = supported out of the box. Dash = partial / requires add-ons or workarounds. Red = not supported. We’re using the most recent public information on Vagaro— if you see something out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.
| Capability | Aaptly | Vagaro |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | ||
24/7 AI voice receptionist Answers, books, takes deposits — no human needed | ||
Conversion-tuned website builder | ||
Embeddable lead-capture forms | ||
Google Business Profile sync | ||
| Convert | ||
Online booking with live availability | ||
Deposits required at booking Note: Vagaro supports deposits but the flow is manual and per-service | ||
HIPAA-aware consent + intake forms | ||
Dynamic pricing per service / provider | ||
First-party visitor intelligence | ||
| Manage | ||
Multi-provider calendar | ||
Multi-location with shared data | ||
Unified inbox (SMS + email + chat) | ||
Unified client records + history | ||
Stripe Connect — you keep payment fees Note: Vagaro processes payments on their own rails, taking a cut on top | ||
| Grow | ||
SMS reminders with reply capture | ||
Automated rebooking engine Note: Basic win-back campaigns, but no segmented rebooking engine | ||
Review + referral automation | ||
Memberships / packages | ||
| Platform | ||
Flat subscription — no per-booking fees Note: Per-booking and per-transaction fees on top of base | ||
Public API + webhooks | ||
Flat. No per-booking fees. Stripe fees flow straight to Stripe on your connected account.
Base subscription per calendar + marketplace fees, add-ons, and credit-card processing spread across their own rails.
For a 3-chair shop doing 300 bookings/month, Aaptly Growth typically ends up $20–80/month cheaper than Vagaro once all add-ons are priced in — and you keep more of each transaction.
“We were on Vagaro for four years. The moment Aaptly booked our first after-hours call without a human, we knew. Twelve bookings in the first week — all with deposits — that we would have missed before.”
We handle the Vagaro-to-Aaptly migration end-to-end. Export your Vagaro data, and our onboarding team imports clients, appointments, custom fields, and payment history within 48 hours. We configure your deposit policy, AI receptionist script, and rebooking cadences on a live call. Most salons are fully live on Aaptly within a week, with zero client-facing disruption.
Plan the migration with usYes. We migrate clients, upcoming appointments, appointment history, custom intake fields, and payment history from Vagaro. A dedicated onboarding manager runs the migration — most shops are fully cut over within 3–5 business days.
No. Clients log in with the same email they used on Vagaro, get a one-tap magic link, and pick up exactly where they left off — same history, same payment methods (re-collected on first visit), same preferences.
Marketplace bookings are usually 2–6% of total bookings for established shops. We'll help you stand up Google Business Profile, local SEO, and paid search to more than replace that volume inside the first 60 days.
For most 2–6 chair shops, yes — once Vagaro's per-booking and credit-card fees are included. We'll run a real side-by-side on a demo call using your last 90 days of volume.
Be direct with us on your demo. If there's a specific Vagaro feature you rely on we can't match today, we'll tell you honestly whether we have it on the roadmap or whether Vagaro is the better choice for you.
Drop your email — we'll send a 2-minute walkthrough showing how Aaptly compares on the things that matter, plus a custom ROI estimate for your shop. No sales call unless you ask.
Free. No card. One email, unsubscribe anytime.
20-minute demo. We’ll load your services, pricing, and client list from Vagaro and show you the Aaptly setup — configured live.