Yes. Every major salon and medspa booking platform bills for things the advertised plan price doesn't include. Four categories move the bill most: card processing (roughly 2.3% to 3.5% of every card transaction, usually plus a per-transaction fee), marketplace commission (Mindbody takes 20% of a new app-delivered client's first purchase, capped at $30), paid add-ons for marketing, forms, or a branded app, and exit costs such as Mindbody's paid data export service, whose price Mindbody doesn't publish.
What counts as a hidden fee in booking software?
On this page, a hidden fee is any recurring or one-time booking software charge that changes what you pay and doesn't appear next to the plan price. Card processing is the largest by dollars, and most owners expect some version of it. The charges that catch owners are marketplace commission on new clients, features billed as separate add-ons, prices that only come from a sales call, and costs that appear only when they try to leave.
What hidden fees do Mindbody, Zenoti, Boulevard, Vagaro, and GlossGenius charge?
Each platform below charges something outside the base subscription. Mindbody's higher tiers, branded app, and AI Concierge add-on are quote-based, and its paid data export service has an unpublished fee. Zenoti charges a one-time set-up fee per location, amount unpublished. Boulevard's Forms add-on starts at $65/month on salon Essentials and Premier. Vagaro sells a long list of add-ons. GlossGenius puts charting only on its $168 and $298 medspa plans. Get every line in writing.
Mindbody
- Plans above Starter: Starter starts at $79/month per location, the only price Mindbody publishes. Accelerate and Ultimate are quote-based.
- Marketplace (app) fee: 20% of a new client's first purchase when the Mindbody app delivers that client, capped at $30. Existing clients and every later booking through the app are commission-free.
- AI Concierge and branded app: AI Concierge is an add-on on Accelerate and included in Ultimate; the branded app is an add-on on Accelerate and Ultimate. Mindbody publishes neither price.
- Processing: a negotiated rate plus $0.10 to $0.30 per transaction. Mindbody doesn't publish the percentage.
- Data export service: an added fee when you leave, amount not published by Mindbody (migration vendors report around $499). Free self-serve CSV exports are available before you cancel.
Support is not an extra here: 24/7 phone, chat, and email support is included on every Mindbody plan, and Technical Account Management is sold separately at unpublished prices. Full breakdown: what Mindbody costs.
Zenoti
- Pricing: Zenoti doesn't publish prices; every plan is quoted. Capterra lists a $300/month starting price.
- Set-up: a one-time, non-refundable set-up fee for each new location, per Zenoti's terms. The amount isn't published.
- Texts and calls: billed on usage, with optional base packs. One reviewer reports 5,000 texts for $180.
- Add-on modules: quoted separately; prices not published.
- Contract term: standard terms auto-renew for one-year terms unless you give 60 days' notice. No early termination fee schedule is published; if Zenoti terminates for non-payment, the rest of the term's fees come due.
Full breakdown: Zenoti's real cost.
Boulevard
- Forms add-on: from $65/month per location on Salon & Spa Essentials and Premier. Forms are included on Salon Prestige, and every Aesthetics (medspa) plan includes forms, charting, and photo markup.
- ePrescribe: $45 per prescriber.
- QuickBooks: $45/month per location.
- Texts and email: texts are billed per message at an unpublished rate; email blasts beyond the plan allotment cost $0.01 each.
- Processing: starts at 2.65%, or 1% for the business with Boulevard Offset, which passes a 3% card fee to clients.
- No marketplace commission. Boulevard doesn't run a consumer booking app that takes a cut.
Grove is a Boulevard referral partner. Here's how that works, and why we list its add-ons the same way we list everyone else's.
Vagaro
- Base and calendars: $30/month for one location and one calendar (new customers get $23.99/month for the first six months), plus $10/month for each additional calendar, up to seven licenses.
- Add-ons: a long list of separately priced add-ons, including text marketing from $20/month, Forms at $10/month, and a branded app, currently $100/month.
- E-Prescribe: $40 per doctor plus $5 per medical assistant, per month.
- Marketplace: a standard Vagaro Marketplace listing carries no commission. Opt-in promotions (Daily Deals, Fill My Books) charge 20% on a new client's booking and 5% on a returning client's.
- Vera and Daily Deals change: Owners on Reddit report that on July 1, 2026, Vagaro replaced Get Featured ($10/month) with an AI assistant, Vera, priced $10 to $89.99 a month by calendar count, and that Daily Deals, previously free, now carry a 5% to 20% booking fee. They report getting one day's notice. One owner said Vera's dashboard credited about $7,000 in bookings while the business account showed under $2,000, and turned it off.
Full comparison: Vagaro vs Boulevard.
GlossGenius
- Processing: GlossGenius's published rates are 2.4% + 15¢ in person and 2.9% + 30¢ on invoices (announced October 2026), the same on every plan. The card-on-file and keyed rate isn't published on its pricing page.
- Charting: charting, photo markup, and medical director sign-off are only on the Practice Essentials ($168/month) and Practice Advanced ($298/month) plans. HIPAA coverage with a BAA is a free add-on from the $56 Gold plan up.
Full comparison: GlossGenius vs Boulevard.
How does Mindbody's marketplace commission work?
Mindbody's app fee is narrower than its reputation. It applies only when the Mindbody consumer app delivers a client who is new to your business: 20% of that client's first purchase, capped at $30. Existing clients, tracked referral links, and every later booking are commission-free. A $100 first purchase costs $20; a $200 first purchase costs $30, the cap.
That makes it a one-time acquisition cost of at most $30 per new client. Ten new app clients in a month costs at most $300. Whether that's worth paying depends on what a new client is worth to your business. The full math is here.
What should you ask a booking software vendor before you sign?
Five questions expose most booking software fees before a contract is signed: the card-not-present processing rate and volume tier, whether any booking path charges commission, whether HIPAA-compliant charting is included or billed separately, what the quoted support tier covers and what the next tier costs, and the contract term, early termination fee, and data export cost.
- What's my processing rate on card-not-present transactions, and what volume tier am I quoted at?
- Does any booking path charge commission, and on which clients?
- Is HIPAA-compliant charting included in this tier, or is it a separate line item?
- What does the support tier I'm being quoted include, and what does the next one cost?
- What's the contract term, the early termination fee, and the cost to export my data if I leave?
To turn the answers into one monthly number, use the eight-line-item method.
Is card processing a hidden fee?
It's the largest cost outside the subscription, roughly 2.3% to 3.5% of every card transaction, and it rarely appears on a pricing page because it depends on your revenue. Most owners expect it. The rate is where the surprise sits: card-not-present payments and lower volume tiers often cost more than the "starting at" rate you were quoted.
Does Boulevard have hidden fees?
Boulevard's add-ons outside the base plan include the Forms add-on, from $65/month per location on salon Essentials and Premier (included on salon Prestige and every Aesthetics plan), ePrescribe at $45 per prescriber, and QuickBooks at $45/month. Texts are billed per message at an unpublished rate. Boulevard charges no marketplace commission. Grove is a Boulevard referral partner, which is disclosed on our about page.
Do I have to pay to get my data back when I leave?
Not always. Mindbody's free self-serve CSV exports cover client contact info, purchase history, memberships, and visit records. Its paid data export service, for larger volumes, costs an added fee Mindbody doesn't publish; migration vendors report around $499. Our guide on exporting Mindbody data covers both routes. Run the free exports before you send cancellation notice.