Key Takeaway
Med spa apps in 2026 fall into four pricing buckets: per-location or per-seat platforms (Boulevard, Vagaro, Mindbody, roughly $99 to $700 per month per location plus add-ons), custom development ($40,000 to $150,000 upfront plus ongoing maintenance), DIY no-code tools ($30 to $200 per month plus a lot of your team's time), and done-for-you operators like Rehost (flat $950 to $2,500 per month for the whole group, priced by total active users). For a 2-to-6 location group, the variable that decides the cost is whether you pay per door or by total members. Per-location and per-seat fees compound every time you open a room or hire an injector. Flat monthly-active-user pricing does not.
Every multi-location med spa owner asks the same first question when they look at a patient app: what does this actually cost? Most vendors answer with "starting at" pricing and the real number behind a sales call. This guide gives you the straight figures across all four models, then walks the math that actually matters once you run more than one location in LA. The single biggest cost driver is not the feature list. It is the pricing structure, because per-location and per-seat fees quietly multiply across your group while a flat fee does not.
The Four Pricing Models for Med Spa Apps
Almost every option you will look at falls into one of four buckets. Each makes a different trade between upfront cost, monthly fees, how much work lands on your team, and whether you own the patient relationship or rent it.
1. Per-Location and Per-Seat Platforms (Boulevard, Vagaro, Mindbody)
These are the names you hear first because most med spas already run one for booking and point of sale. You get a mature scheduling and member-management system, branded lightly with your logo, billed by location or by staff seat.
Real pricing as of 2026 (approximate):
- Boulevard: the Premier tier runs around $293 per month per location. The med-spa Prestige bundle is reported around $410 per month per location, before texting and add-ons.
- Mindbody: typically $99 to $699 per month per location depending on tier, plus a marketplace cut of around 20% on bookings that come through their app. We lay the full structure out on our Rehost vs Mindbody comparison.
- Vagaro: starts low for a single chair but is billed per bookable staff member, so a group with several injectors and estheticians sees the number climb as you hire. The per-stylist math is broken out on our Rehost vs Vagaro comparison.
Hidden costs nobody puts on the quote: texting and email marketing are usually metered add-ons, a branded patient app is often a separate line item on top of the base subscription, and processing or marketplace cuts stack underneath everything. The bigger problem for a group is structural. Each location runs its own subscription, so the patient who gets Botox in Pasadena and a facial in Santa Monica becomes two records, and memberships do not reconcile cleanly across sites.
Best for: single-location spas, or groups that genuinely only need shared booking and can live with a fragmented patient book and a per-door bill.
2. Custom Development Shops
You hire an agency or a freelance team to build a one-off app. The output is yours. So is the maintenance.
Real pricing as of 2026 (approximate):
- Upfront build: $40,000 to $150,000. A basic booking and membership app sits at the low end. Add unified cross-location patient records, membership reconciliation, intake forms, and loyalty, and you are at the high end.
- Ongoing maintenance: typically $500 to $2,500 per month for hosting, OS-update compatibility, security patches, and bug fixes.
- Store fees: $99 per year (Apple) plus a $25 one-time fee (Google) on top.
Hidden costs nobody mentions: when iOS or Android ships a new version each year, your maintenance bill spikes for compatibility work. If your developer moves on, picking up an unfamiliar codebase runs $150 to $300 per hour. And a lot of "custom" builds quietly use the same off-the-shelf components anyway, so you pay custom prices for templated work.
Best for: groups with truly unusual workflows and a leadership team prepared to own software for the long haul.
3. DIY No-Code Tools (Glide, Adalo, Bubble)
You build the app yourself on a no-code platform. Lowest sticker price, highest opportunity cost.
Real pricing as of 2026 (approximate):
- Platform fees: $30 to $200 per month for the tool itself.
- Time: 80 to 200 hours of staff time for the first build, then several hours a month of upkeep.
- Store accounts: $99 per year plus $25 one-time, plus the developer-account paperwork and review back-and-forth that a non-technical staffer usually cannot navigate.
Hidden costs nobody mentions: no-code apps tend to hit performance and reliability ceilings as your patient base grows, push notifications are inconsistent, and Apple frequently rejects no-code apps for lacking substantive functionality. For a medical-adjacent business handling patient intake, the security and compliance burden also lands entirely on you.
Best for: a single owner testing whether an app is worth doing at all, with the technical curiosity to absorb the learning curve.
4. Done-For-You Operators (Rehost)
You pay one flat monthly fee. The operator builds, hosts, monitors, and runs everything. Your team never logs into a dashboard. You send a message and the change ships.
Rehost Business pricing in 2026:
- $950 per month up to 2,000 monthly active users, $1,500 per month up to 10,000, and $2,500 per month up to 50,000. Flat for the whole group, billed by total active members, not per location and not per seat. No setup fee, month to month.
- What is included: a custom-branded native iOS and Android app plus website, online booking, membership and loyalty that reconcile across every location, HIPAA-adjacent intake, one unified patient record across sites, and the operating work to keep it all running. Website in under a week, app in about two weeks.
- What you own: the App Store and Google Play accounts, the domain, the code, and the patient data, all in your business's name, portable if you ever cancel.
Hidden costs nobody mentions: there genuinely are not surprise fees here. Payment processing goes to your processor, not to us, and we do not take a cut. The trade is configurability. You cannot log in and rebuild a workflow yourself. You tell us what to change and we change it. For most owners running a group, that is the right trade.
Best for: 2-to-6 location groups that want a real branded experience and unified patient data without their team becoming part-time software administrators. See the full breakdown on our multi-location med spa page.
Side-by-Side: How the Four Models Compare
Before the multi-location math, here is the quick read on each model at a glance. The right-hand columns are where a group feels the difference.
| Model | Typical cost | How it scales with locations | Work on your team | Unified patient record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per-location platform (Boulevard, Mindbody, Vagaro) | ~$99 to $700/mo per location + add-ons | Bill repeats per door or per seat | Your staff administers it | No, records fragment per site |
| Custom development | $40K to $150K upfront + $500 to $2,500/mo | Flat once built, but you own upkeep | Heavy, you manage the dev relationship | Yes, if you pay to build it |
| DIY no-code | $30 to $200/mo + 80 to 200 hrs of staff time | Flat fee, but breaks at scale | Very heavy, you build and maintain it | Only if you engineer it yourself |
| Done-for-you (Rehost) | $950 to $2,500/mo, whole group | Flat by total active members, not per door | None, the operator runs it | Yes, across every location |
Multi-Location Math: Where the Models Diverge
Single-location pricing makes every model look reasonable. The group math is where they separate. Consider a four-location LA med spa group with roughly 8,000 active patients across all sites. Here is the three-year picture.
| Model | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-Year Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boulevard Prestige (~$410/mo x 4) + branded app add-on | ~$23,500 | ~$23,500 | ~$23,500 | ~$70,500 |
| Mindbody (~$500/mo x 4) + marketplace cut | ~$24,000+ | ~$24,000+ | ~$24,000+ | ~$72,000+ |
| Custom dev (~$90K upfront + $1.5K/mo) | ~$108,000 | ~$18,000 | ~$18,000 | ~$144,000 |
| Rehost ($1,500/mo, up to 10K MAU, whole group) | $18,000 | $18,000 | $18,000 | $54,000 |
The custom build is brutal in year one, then settles. The per-location platforms stay flat but high, and they get worse, not better, every time you open a fifth or sixth room, because the subscription repeats per door. The done-for-you fee is the only one that does not move when you add a location, as long as your total active members stay within the tier. That is the whole point of pricing by active members instead of per door. You can see the live tiers on the pricing page.
What Actually Matters Operationally
Cost is one input. What your group gets for it is the other. The things that materially move retention and revenue in a med spa group:
- One patient record across every location. Treatment history, banked units, and memberships in a single profile, so the injector at the second site sees the first visit. Fragmented per-location records cost you reactivation revenue and create clinical blind spots.
- Membership that follows the member. Memberships are the retention engine in aesthetics, and they break first at scale. Credits, banked units, and tier benefits need to redeem at any location and reconcile centrally, or members churn when they cannot use what they paid for.
- HIPAA-adjacent intake done right. Patient intake and history are sensitive. Whoever builds the app owns the responsibility for handling that data properly, which is a heavy lift to carry yourself on a DIY tool.
- Group-level visibility. Leadership should compare membership adoption, retention, and rebooking across locations in one view, not export from four separate dashboards.
- Real ownership. Your App Store listing, developer accounts, domain, code, and patient data should sit in your business's name. If the platform owns them, your relationship with your patients is rented.
Switching Off a Per-Location Platform Without the Drama
Most groups reading this are not starting from zero. You are already paying for Boulevard, Mindbody, or Vagaro across several sites, and the worry is not the new app, it is the migration. The honest answer: moving patient records, memberships, and booking history is the part people fear, and it is also the part a done-for-you operator handles so your front desk does not. You keep running on your current platform until the new one is live, then cut over. We walk through exactly how that handoff works, what carries over, and what your team has to do (very little) on our switching guide. The point of leaving a per-door platform is not just the lower bill. It is that your patient data stops fragmenting the day you stop adding new per-location subscriptions.
How to Decide
The right model is rarely about size alone. It comes down to three operational realities:
- How many locations will you run in 18 months? If the answer is 1 and likely to stay 1, a per-location platform can work. If it is 2 or more and climbing, the per-door math compounds and done-for-you or custom usually wins.
- Does your team have time to administer software? Be honest. If the answer is no, eliminate the models that require ongoing administration and look at done-for-you.
- How much do unified patient data and brand matter? If you can live with separate per-site records and a lightly skinned app, a platform is fine. If you want one branded experience and one patient record across the group, you need custom or done-for-you.
FAQ
How much does a med spa app cost per month in 2026?
For a single location, expect roughly $99 to $700 per month on a per-location platform like Boulevard, Mindbody, or Vagaro, plus add-ons for texting and a branded app. For a multi-location group, a flat done-for-you fee runs $950 to $2,500 per month for the entire group depending on total active patients, with no per-location surcharge.
How much does Boulevard cost for a med spa?
As of 2026, Boulevard's Premier tier is around $293 per month per location, and the med-spa Prestige bundle is reported around $410 per month per location, before texting and add-ons. Because it is billed per location, a four-room group pays that line item four times.
Why is per-location pricing more expensive for a group than a flat fee?
Per-location and per-seat fees repeat every time you open a room or hire an injector, so your software bill grows with your footprint even though you are not getting a better app. A flat fee billed by total active patients across the whole group means opening a fifth location does not add a fifth subscription. Past a few locations, the per-door math typically crosses the flat fee. The trade-off math is laid out on our Rehost vs Mindbody comparison.
Can patients use one membership across all of our locations?
On most per-location platforms this is the part that breaks first, because each site runs its own subscription and database. On a done-for-you model with a unified membership layer, tiers, credits, and banked units redeem at any location and reconcile centrally, so a member can book wherever she happens to be that week.
What happens to our app and patient data if we cancel?
Ask this before signing anything. With Rehost, your App Store and Google Play accounts, domain, code, and patient data are all in your business's name and portable on cancel, with no exit fee. On many per-location platforms, your data is exportable but the app shell, branding, and marketplace relationship stay with the vendor.
The Bottom Line
If you run one location and your team has time to administer software, a per-location platform like Boulevard or Mindbody will do the job. Expect $99 to $700 per month plus add-ons, and accept that your patient book lives inside their system. The moment you run two or more locations, both the math and the operational reality shift. Per-location fees compound, your patient records fragment, and your memberships stop following the member.
Custom development still makes sense for groups with genuinely unique workflows and a leadership team ready to own software for years, but that is rarer than agencies will admit. For most LA med spa groups, the real choice is between renting per-door software that taxes your growth and contracting a done-for-you operator that does not. Rehost builds and runs one branded app, website, and membership platform for the whole group, with one patient record across every location, priced by total active members at $950 to $2,500 per month and owned in your name. Adding a sixth room does not add a sixth bill.
If you want to run your own location count, patient count, and current software spend against the numbers above, see the pricing, read the switching guide if you are leaving a per-location platform, or book a call from our med spa page, and we will tell you which model actually fits, even when it is not us.