In this video, I break down the best salon booking software with built-in marketing tools so you can grow your salon, scale your client base, and strengthen your marketing strategy. I compare MindBody, Vagaro, GlossGenius, Fresha, and Boulevard, focusing on the specific marketing features that help salons attract new clients and keep them coming back.
I start with MindBody, a platform built for health and beauty businesses like hair salons and lash salons. One of its biggest strengths is the MindBody app, where over 2.88 million consumers search for services. Listing your salon there helps new clients discover your services and book instantly. I also highlight ClassPass as an acquisition tool for attracting new customers through reservations or prepaid bundles, along with promotions, marketplace visibility, and personalized post-appointment communication using pre-built templates.
Next, I dive into Vagaro, which has a strong marketplace on its app and website. Clients can search by service or location, view reviews, business hours, amenities (even things like beer and wine), payment options, and message or call the business instantly. Vagaro also provides a website builder, daily deals, the ability to invite existing customers, email and text marketing, social media integrations with Yelp, Instagram, and Facebook, and optional paid features to get your salon featured in the marketplace.
Then I explore GlossGenius, which integrates with Google reviews, offers email and text updates, and lets you create personalized marketing campaigns. It includes text message blasts based on past appointments, booking via Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, and Google, and the ability to request Google reviews right after a service. Plus, it includes social media templates and an AI marketing assistant to help create campaigns.
After that, I look at Fresha, which functions as a salon marketplace with international reach. Clients can search by treatment, location, and date, and while it claims over 1 billion appointments booked, the marketplace isn’t as large or dense in specific areas compared to Vagaro. It does connect immediately to your calendar, but overall has fewer local options despite being more global.
Finally, I jump into Boulevard, which offers blast campaigns, SMS and email blasts, and powerful automated campaigns. These include last-minute opening alerts (triggered when availability hits around 50%), reminders for clients who haven’t visited recently, birthday messages, and slow-day fillers. I also walk through building a text campaign based on services received, appointment status, purchases, location, or even specific employees. I show how to edit messages, change seasonal promos like Mother’s Day, preview audience size, check pricing, and schedule campaigns. Boulevard also includes automated reminders, communication tools, booking reminders, and detailed reporting—although it doesn’t offer a marketplace like MindBody, Vagaro, or Fresha.
If you want to compare the strengths of each platform—from marketplace visibility to automated SMS marketing—this video gives you a full breakdown of what each software offers to help your salon grow.
