Compare / Vagaro
Vagaro prices by the chair and keeps the client book. Rehost leases you a branded app the business owns.
Vagaro is a capable booking platform: cheap to start at $30/mo, feature-rich, and easy to switch on for a single small salon. The comparison isn't the feature list. It's the shape: a per-staff subscription where the booking app, marketplace, and client records live on Vagaro, versus a custom branded booking app your business owns outright, operated by a team, priced flat by monthly active users instead of by headcount.
Where Vagaro is genuinely the better fit.
For a single small salon or a solo stylist, Vagaro is hard to beat on day one. Thirty dollars a month gets you calendars, online booking, payments, and a marketplace listing that can actually send you new clients. The feature depth (forms, inventory, payroll, memberships, gift cards) is real and broad, and you can be live this afternoon without anyone building anything.
Vagaro's marketplace is also a genuine acquisition channel. People search Vagaro looking for a stylist, and a listing can put you in front of them. A custom owned app doesn't come with that built-in discovery; you bring your own clients to it. If most of your new business arrives through the Vagaro marketplace, that's a reason to stay.
The pricing, side by side.
Vagaro publishes a base rate and charges per added bookable calendar, with most real costs coming from add-ons and processing. The figures below reflect reported Vagaro pricing as of mid-2026; your total varies by staff count and which add-ons you switch on.
| Rehost | Vagaro | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Business from $950/mo, flat by MAU (no per-staff fee) | $30/mo base for 1 staff; ~$10/mo per added calendar (3 staff ~$50, 7 staff ~$90, 10 staff ~$120) |
| What scales the bill | Monthly active users: $950 to 2K, $1,500 to 10K, $2,500 to 50K | Headcount: every stylist you add raises the subscription |
| Contract | Month-to-month, cancel anytime | Month-to-month, but add-ons and processing stack on top |
| Who runs it | Rehost's team operates it; you never log into a builder | Your staff administers the platform and dashboards |
| Fees and add-ons | No setup fee, no platform cut; processor only (Stripe ~2.2%) | Processing 2.75% + $0.15 in-person, 3.5% keyed, +1% on marketplace bookings; branded app, marketing, forms each ~$10–$50/mo extra |
| If you leave | App, domain, App Store account, repo, client data stay in your name | The booking app and client book live in Vagaro; you export a list, not an app |
Vagaro figures come from Vagaro's published rates and third-party pricing reports as of mid-2026; actual totals depend on staff count and add-ons, and most salons pay well above the $30 base once a branded app, marketing, and processing are included. Processor rates apply on both sides; the difference is whether a platform percentage and per-seat fee sit on top.
Four differences that decide it.
- Per-stylist vs per-user math. Vagaro charges for every bookable calendar, so the bill climbs each time you hire. Rehost prices by monthly active users, so a busy ten-chair salon and a quiet one pay by who books, not by how many people are on staff. Growing the team doesn't grow the subscription.
- Who owns the client book. This is the one that bites later. In Vagaro, clients book through Vagaro and the relationship is recorded on Vagaro's platform. When a stylist leaves, the question of whose clients those were gets murky fast. A Rehost app is the business's app: the booking data, the client records, and the processor all sit in the business's name, not a platform's and not an individual's.
- Branded vs platform-branded. Vagaro offers a branded app as a paid add-on, but it's still your salon configured inside Vagaro's product. A Rehost app is built for your salon: your flow, your services, your look, your name in the App Store. It's a custom app you hold, not a skin on a shared platform.
- Run for you, not by you. Vagaro is a tool your front desk operates. Rehost is the team that built your app making changes for you: new services, design tweaks, App Store updates. You ask, it ships. Nobody at the salon learns an admin panel.
Pick Vagaro if.
- You're a solo stylist or single small salon and want to be booking clients today for $30/mo.
- The Vagaro marketplace is a real source of new clients you don't want to give up.
- You want the widest built-in feature set (inventory, payroll, memberships, gift cards) under one login, and you're fine administering it yourself.
Pick Rehost if.
- Your team is growing and you're tired of the bill rising every time you add a chair.
- You want the client book and booking app owned by the business, in its name, so a stylist leaving doesn't take the clients.
- You want a custom branded app operated for you, not a platform your front desk has to run.
- You want flat, predictable MAU-based pricing with no per-transaction platform cut layered on processing.
Common questions.
Is Rehost cheaper than Vagaro?
Not at the smallest size. A solo stylist on Vagaro can run for $30/mo, and Rehost Business starts at $950/mo. The math changes as you add staff and add-ons: Vagaro's per-calendar fees, branded app, marketing, and the marketplace cut stack up, while Rehost stays flat by monthly active users. Past a certain team size and booking volume the flat lease wins, but for a single small salon Vagaro is genuinely cheaper, and we'll say so on the call.
Who owns the client list with each?
With Rehost, the booking app, client records, and payment processor are in the business's name from day one, so the clients belong to the business, not to a platform or an individual stylist. With Vagaro, clients book through Vagaro's platform; you can export a list, but the app and the booking relationship live on Vagaro.
Can Rehost match Vagaro's features?
For the jobs a salon actually runs on (booking, deposits, reminders, payments, memberships, a branded app) yes, built to your flow. Vagaro's catalog is broader, with things like payroll and inventory under one login. The trade is breadth on a shared platform versus a focused custom app the business owns and a team operates.
Do we keep our app if we cancel Rehost?
Yes. The App Store account is in the business's name, the domain sits on your registrar, the code lives in your repo, the booking and client data are yours, and the processor settles to your bank. Cancel and you keep all of it. With a Vagaro cancellation, the app ends with the subscription.
What does the first call with Rehost involve?
Thirty minutes. Bring your current Vagaro bill and staff count. By the end you'll have a side-by-side of per-stylist cost versus flat MAU pricing, and if the lease fits, dashboard access and a kickoff date before you hang up.
Related.
Business
The business stack, from $950/mo
A branded app, website, and customer data, operated for your team.
Questions
Medspa and salon app questions
Booking, deposits, client records, and ownership, answered plainly.
Pricing
All pricing
Business MAU tiers: $950, $1,500, $2,500, published and flat.
Company
What is Rehost?
The model: a software lease with an operating team, not a platform.