Most salon owners who come to Grove have been on Mindbody for years. They know something isn't working. They're not sure if Boulevard is better, or whether a switch this big is survivable when you have a full book, a team, and clients who are actively booking. That's what this page is for.
Boulevard is the better choice than Mindbody for a salon with 3+ chairs and a loyal book. Boulevard publishes a price for every plan except Enterprise: Essentials is $159 a month for up to 5 providers and Premier is $325 at regular price, with color and multi-service booking built in. Mindbody publishes only a $79 starting price; Accelerate and Ultimate are quote-based. Mindbody stays competitive for a salon still in client-acquisition mode whose marketplace bookings bring new business, or one running group classes alongside appointments.
Mindbody publishes one price: plans start at $79 a month per location, and Accelerate and Ultimate are quote-based. Grove estimates a single salon on Accelerate or Ultimate with a branded app pays roughly $260–$800 a month, based on reported quotes, before processing and app fees. Boulevard publishes prices for its standard plans: Essentials is $159 a month for up to 5 providers, Premier $325 and Prestige $455 at regular prices, plus $65 a month for Forms on Essentials or Premier.
Salon owners who contact Grove about leaving Mindbody name three problems most. Color and processing time has to be blocked manually, because Mindbody was built around class schedules and waitlists rather than per-client service timing. The consumer app lists competing salons next to yours. And pricing above the $79 starter plan is quote-based, so owners can't compare costs without a sales call. (For the fuller picture of who Grove works with, start here.)
Blocking time for processing, managing multiple services in a single visit, per-stylist timing that varies by treatment: none of this is native to Mindbody. Every stylist on your team has their own way of building it. That inconsistency costs time and creates double-bookings.
"I've been on Mindbody for 8 years and I still manually block color time in a separate calendar. There's no good answer inside the platform."G2 review, 4-chair salon owner
The Mindbody consumer app brings discovery. It also shows your clients the salon next door. The fee is modest: 20% of a new client's first purchase when the app delivered her, capped at $30, and nothing on existing clients or rebookings. The cost for an established salon is the shelf space. Every client who opens the app to rebook sees your competitors first.
Mindbody publishes one number: plans start at $79 a month per location. Accelerate and Ultimate are quote-based, and the AI Concierge and branded app add-ons carry no published price. Standard terms auto-renew, written notice is due at least 30 days before the term ends, and fixed 12, 24, or 36-month terms can't be cancelled mid-term.
Boulevard comes out ahead of Mindbody in 6 of the 12 salon feature areas below: per-provider service timing, multi-service booking, branded online booking, client ownership, and monthly billing. Both include support, and both charge extra for some marketing. Mindbody leads on its consumer app and class scheduling, and its marketplace brings discovery for 20% of a new client's first purchase, capped at $30.
| Feature area | Mindbody | Boulevard |
|---|---|---|
| Per-client service timing (color, processing) | ✗ Manual workaround required | ✓ Native, configurable per provider |
| Multi-service booking in one appointment | ~ Clunky, requires manual setup | ✓ Built for it, stacked services native |
| Branded online booking | ✗ Routes clients through Mindbody app | ✓ Clients book directly on your site |
| Client ownership | ~ Contested, 2025 Universal Login raised concerns | ✓ Clear, no marketplace, no shared login |
| Support | ✓ 24/7 phone, chat, and email on every plan | ✓ Support included in all plans |
| Marketing and retention tools | ~ Automated campaigns on Ultimate; AI Concierge add-on on Accelerate, price unpublished | ~ Email allotment included; texts billed per message; automated campaigns pay for results |
| Marketplace / discovery | ~ Yes, useful early; 20% of a new client's first purchase, capped at $30 | ~ No marketplace, direct booking only |
| Mobile app (consumer-facing) | ✓ Strong, large user base | ~ Functional, smaller footprint |
| Booking completion rate | Baseline | ✓ Documented 15% increase post-switch |
| Payment processing | Negotiated rate plus $0.10–$0.30 per transaction; percentage not published | From 2.65%, or 1% with Boulevard Offset (clients pay a 3% card fee) |
| Class scheduling infrastructure | ✓ Native, this is what it was built for | ✗ Not available, Boulevard is appointment-only |
| Contract flexibility | ✗ Auto-renewing terms (90-day minimum; 12, 24, or 36 months on order forms); paid export service | ✓ Monthly or annual billing (annual saves 10%) |
Salon owners who switch from Mindbody to Boulevard notice three changes first. Color and multi-service appointments, such as a cut and color with a 45-minute processing block, book natively instead of through a workaround. Every plan price is published, so the bill matches the pricing page. Clients book on the salon's own branded site, with no Mindbody app login and no competing salons listed.
Per-client service timing is configurable per provider. Multi-service stacking (a cut and color with a 45-minute processing block in between) is native, not a workaround. Your front desk builds appointments the way the service runs.
Boulevard publishes prices for its standard plans: Essentials at $159 a month for up to 5 providers ($143 billed annually), Premier at $325 and Prestige at $455 at regular prices. Forms cost $65 a month on Essentials or Premier and come included in Prestige. Mindbody publishes only its $79 starting price, so the comparison starts with a sales call.
Boulevard's booking is branded and direct: clients stay on your site, in your experience. No Mindbody app login. No competing salons surfaced below your listing. For owners who've spent years building a client relationship, this is the part that feels like getting something back.
Boulevard has three weak spots for salons. Its consumer app has a much smaller installed base than Mindbody's, so it won't replace marketplace discovery for a salon still building its book. Text messaging is included only up to a usage threshold, so high-volume reminder campaigns can trigger overages. Onboarding quality varies, so ask about your onboarding lead and the first 60 days. If these outweigh Boulevard's strengths, see the full alternatives roundup.
Mindbody's consumer app has a much larger installed base. If client discovery through a booking marketplace is still a meaningful channel for you (particularly if you're earlier in building your book), that's a real tradeoff. Boulevard's app is functional; it's not a replacement for Mindbody's marketplace traffic.
Boulevard's Essentials and Premier plans include 250 texts a month and Prestige includes 2,500; beyond that, texts are billed per message. High-volume salons with active text reminder campaigns can hit that threshold mid-month. It's not expensive to resolve, but it shows up on your first few bills as an unexpected line item if you haven't accounted for your text volume.
Boulevard's onboarding team is inconsistent. Some implementations are excellent. The account team stays engaged through go-live and beyond. Others move fast and leave gaps. Ask specifically about your onboarding lead and what the first 60 days look like. This is solvable with the right prep, but it's not something to discover after you've already canceled Mindbody.
A salon should stay on Mindbody if its marketplace still drives new business, if group classes run alongside appointments, if it's under 3 years old with fewer than 3 established providers, or if it has enterprise multi-location needs. Boulevard is worth a serious look if the salon's Mindbody bill tops Boulevard's published $159–$455 range, has 3+ providers with a loyal book, has had two or more unresolved support failures in a year, or still manages color time with a workaround.
Not sure which list you're in? The free assessment runs the numbers on your specific setup in about two minutes.
For a salon, the calculation is closer than it is for a medspa. Mindbody's marketplace can still bring new clients, and its app fee applies only to a new client's first purchase (20%, capped at $30). The decision comes down to Boulevard's published pricing and branded booking against Mindbody's marketplace reach. For a medspa, Boulevard is generally the stronger fit. Its Aesthetics plans include HIPAA-compliant charting in the same platform, where Mindbody requires a separate EMR. Neither answer holds if the business runs class-heavy scheduling alongside appointments. Mindbody was built for that, Boulevard wasn't.
See the full breakdown for medspas or wellness studios if neither of those fits your business exactly.
Switching a salon from Mindbody to Boulevard raises three concerns. Mindbody's paid export service costs extra (amount not published), though free CSV exports cover clients, purchases, memberships, and visits. Client data, gift card balances, and packages transfer, but the old Mindbody booking link stops working on go-live day, so give clients a week of notice. Front desk staff need about two weeks of training before go-live. More in the salon owner FAQ.
Mindbody charges an added fee for its data export service. It doesn't publish the amount; migration vendors report around $499. Free self-serve CSV exports of clients, purchases, memberships, and visits are available before you cancel, and the paid service is available up to 30 days after cancellation notice. This is the most common reason owners delay leaving.
Your clients' data (appointment history, gift card balances, active packages) transfers. What requires attention is the booking link update: your old Mindbody link stops working on go-live day. A week of advance communication through email, text, and your Instagram bio handles this. The clients who don't get notified are the ones who call confused the first week.
The hardest 30 days of a platform switch are the ones where your front desk is learning new booking flows while clients are actively scheduling. Boulevard's scheduling UI is designed to be faster to learn than Mindbody (the feedback from operators is consistent on this), but "easier to learn" still requires a dedicated training window. Build in two weeks before go-live.
Answer 8 questions about your business and we'll tell you where you stand: what the move would cost, what it would gain, and whether this is the right time. The assessment runs on this site, takes about 5 minutes, and gives you a straight answer on the other side.
Grove only gets paid when a business switches through us. Which is exactly why we'll tell you if this isn't the right time, or if Boulevard isn't the right platform for your specific 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.