If you're looking this up, you've probably already made the decision. You know Mindbody wasn't built for how a salon actually runs — the color appointments, the processing blocks, the clients who book through your Instagram and still get charged to a marketplace you pay 20% on. This is a roundup of what else is out there, graded against the things that actually matter. For the fuller picture of who Grove works with, start here.
Color management, multi-service booking, client ownership, and real all-in cost at 4–6 chairs. Not base prices.
| Criterion | Boulevard | Vagaro | GlossGenius | Square Appts | Booksy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color appointment management | ✓ Native per-stylist | ~ Manual setup | ✗ Basic only | ✗ None | ✗ None |
| Multi-service booking | ✓ Native stacking | ~ Workable | ✗ Limited | ✗ None | ~ Basic |
| Branded booking | ✓ Your site | ~ Vagaro app | ✓ Custom page | ~ Basic widget | ✗ Booksy app |
| Support included | ✓ All plans | ~ Ticket/chat | ✓ Responsive | ✗ Self-serve only | |
| All-in cost at 4–6 chairs | $300–600/mo | $200–400/mo | Not designed for this scale | Free–$80/mo | $30–50/mo + 30% commission |
| Marketplace commission | $0 — no marketplace | Small marketplace | None | None | 30% on app bookings |
Boulevard handles color appointment management the way salons actually work. Processing blocks per stylist, configurable per service type — the 45-minute processing block between the color application and the rinse is a real time slot in the schedule, not something your front desk manages manually in a second calendar. Multi-service stacking is native. A cut-and-color with a 30-minute dry time is built the same way the appointment actually runs.
Support is included without a separate tier. When a booking breaks on a Saturday morning, you're not waiting 90 minutes on an AI chat tree. Operators who switched from Mindbody consistently name this as the thing they didn't expect to notice as much as they do.
The tradeoffs: the consumer-facing mobile app is smaller than Mindbody's — if the Mindbody marketplace is still actively building your book, you'll feel its absence. Onboarding quality varies by account team; ask specifically about your onboarding lead before you commit. And if you run group classes alongside appointments, Boulevard wasn't built for that. See the full Mindbody vs Boulevard breakdown for the complete cost and feature comparison.
Vagaro is where a lot of Mindbody exits land, and it's not a bad choice. Broad feature set, reasonable pricing, solid scheduling infrastructure. The platform has been around long enough that most salon software workflows are covered — gift cards, memberships, online booking, marketing tools.
The limitations are real but not dramatic. Color appointment management still requires manual setup — you'll have workarounds, just fewer than on Mindbody. Booking routes through Vagaro's consumer app rather than your own site, which means your clients are one search away from the salon next door. Support comes via ticket and chat, not a dedicated account team.
At $200–400 all-in versus Mindbody's $800–1,200, the cost case is clear. For owners whose primary motivation is escaping Mindbody's pricing rather than gaining salon-specific scheduling features, Vagaro is a reasonable landing spot.
GlossGenius is beautifully designed and genuinely right for independent stylists. The interface is clean, the booking page is branded, the price is flat at $48/month. For a solo operator running a full book, there's a lot to like.
The ceiling is real, and it arrives fast. GlossGenius was built for one person — the scheduling logic, the reporting, the service configuration — and you feel it the moment you add a second provider. Per-stylist color timing isn't configurable. Multi-service stacking isn't native. Provider-level reporting is minimal.
A 4-chair salon that switches to GlossGenius because it's simple will spend the next year workarounding limitations that didn't exist on Mindbody either. It's the right answer if you're one stylist with a full book and you want something that just works. It's not the right answer if you're running a team.
Square Appointments works if you need something operational by next week. The setup is fast, the price is low, and if you're a new salon taking your first bookings, nothing in this list gets you going faster.
It doesn't work for an established salon. There is no color appointment management — processing time is a manual block, not a configurable service attribute. Multi-service appointments don't stack. Provider-level reporting is minimal. When something breaks, there's no live support to call.
Square is a starting point, not a destination. If you've been on Mindbody for five years and you're looking for something better, Square will feel like a step backward in every direction except price.
Booksy is a discovery engine. The marketplace brings new clients, which matters when you're building your book. For a stylist who's new to a market and needs exposure, that has real value.
The commission is 30% on all marketplace bookings — higher than Mindbody's 20%. And the same tension applies: after you've built a loyal book, you're paying a third of your revenue on clients who rebook through the app because it's the easiest way they know to reach you. The platform has a direct incentive to keep that path open.
If you're leaving Mindbody because of the marketplace conflict, Booksy replicates that conflict at a higher commission rate. If you're in early acquisition and the marketplace is the point, Booksy is worth evaluating. Most established salons looking for a Mindbody alternative are past the stage where Booksy makes sense.
For the full breakdown of what each question actually means in practice, see the salon owner FAQ.
Your client records, appointment history, gift card balances, and active packages transfer. Mindbody charges $499 to export this data — it's called a "data export service fee" and it shows up in the contract. It's a real cost, but it's one-time, and most salons recover it inside two months on a lower all-in plan.
The data transfers. The disruption is in the booking link — your Mindbody link goes dark on go-live day. A week of advance communication through email, text, and your Instagram bio handles the vast majority of it. The clients who don't get notified are the ones who call confused the first week. That's not data loss — it's a communication gap, and an avoidable one.
Boulevard is available month-to-month. No $499 exit fee. Your client data is yours — exportable, no holdback. The fear of getting into the same situation with a different platform is real, and the answer is to check the contract terms before you sign. Boulevard's are notably different from Mindbody's.
The right platform depends on how your salon actually runs — how many providers, how your book is built, what's been frustrating you, what you can't afford to disrupt. Answer 8 questions and the assessment gives you a recommendation on the spot. Sometimes it's Boulevard. Sometimes it's something else. Sometimes it's stay and negotiate.
Grove only gets paid when a business switches through us — which is exactly why we'll tell you if the timing isn't right, or if a different platform is the better fit for your setup.
No email required. Results appear on the page in about 30 seconds.
Want to talk it through instead? Start with the assessment and you'll see the option to book a 20-min call after.