LovingBooking vs Vagaro for Salons & Spas: Which Fits Singapore?

Vagaro is one of the best-known platforms built specifically for salons, spas, and wellness businesses. It is deep — booking, point of sale, memberships, marketing, payroll, inventory, and a consumer marketplace all live inside one system. If you are weighing it up against LovingBooking for a Singapore salon or spa, this comparison lays out where each one is stronger so you can decide on facts rather than marketing.

The short version: Vagaro is a heavy, all-in-one business system with a very wide feature list, priced in USD with its own card processing. LovingBooking is a lighter, focused booking tool built for Singapore, with PayNow, one bill for all your businesses, and a single plan whose base price includes 3 people. Which one fits depends mostly on how much system you want to run and how your customers pay.

How Vagaro's pricing works

Vagaro's entry price looks approachable, but the shape matters. It is billed in USD and sold per calendar — roughly, per bookable staff member or resource. On top of the base subscription sit paid add-ons: extras like advanced marketing, custom forms, a branded customer app, and more are each priced separately.

So the cost is not a single flat number. It rises as you add staff calendars, and again as you switch on the add-ons that make the platform feel complete. For a genuine solo operator the base plan can be reasonable; for a growing team that wants the full toolkit, the monthly bill climbs on two axes at once.

Payments are their own line. Vagaro settles card payments through its own integrated processing, which takes a percentage of every transaction. That is normal for an all-in-one, but it is money off the top of every sale.

LovingBooking's pricing model

LovingBooking charges one monthly bill for all your businesses, billed in USD, with the first 3 people included, no paid add-ons and no commission on bookings.

• Free plan: your first 200 bookings, for up to 3 people and 1 location — no credit card required
• Pro plan: US$12 a month or US$120 a year for up to 3 people, then US$12 a month or US$120 a year for each extra person — no limit on bookable staff, locations or bookings, PayNow QR, custom branding, an embeddable widget and a custom booking domain. One bill covers all your businesses. Only people your customers can book count. Team logins without a calendar are free. Eligible new businesses get a 14-day cardless trial with no automatic charge.

The key difference is that your feature choices never add to the price. The first 3 people are included in the US$12 base, and each extra person is US$12 a month. One bill covers all your businesses. Only people your customers can book count. Team logins without a calendar are free. There is no card rail and no booking commission either — the platform never touches the money your customers pay.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Where Vagaro has an advantage

Genuine all-in-one depth

This is Vagaro's real strength. If you want to run your point of sale, retail inventory, staff payroll, memberships, and email marketing from the same place you take bookings, Vagaro does all of it. For a large salon or spa that is effectively a small retail business, that consolidation has real value — one login, one dataset, fewer tools to stitch together.

A consumer marketplace

Vagaro lists your business in its own booking marketplace, where customers browse and book across many businesses. That can send you discovery traffic you would not otherwise get. LovingBooking has no marketplace — it gives you a booking page and widget to put on your own channels, and expects your Instagram, Google profile, and website to be where customers find you.

SMS reminders

Vagaro sends SMS reminders alongside email. LovingBooking currently sends reminders by email only. Email with a reschedule link does most of the no-show-reduction work at no per-message cost, but if your customers genuinely respond better to a text, Vagaro does something here that we do not yet. We would rather say that clearly than bury it.

Where LovingBooking has an advantage

PayNow, the way Singapore actually pays

This is the biggest one for local businesses. Vagaro's payments run through its own card processing, which takes a percentage of every transaction. LovingBooking lets you show your own PayNow QR on the booking page — the customer pays straight into your bank account, uploads a screenshot as proof, and you mark it paid. No platform fee, no card cut. Our guide to accepting PayNow for bookings walks through the setup.

A price that ignores your feature choices

Because LovingBooking does not bill per add-on, turning on features leaves your bill where it was. The first 3 people are included in the US$12 base, and each extra person is US$12 a month. One bill covers all your businesses. Only people your customers can book count. Team logins without a calendar are free. For a growing spa or salon, that predictability is often worth more than a deep feature set you may only half-use. Vagaro's model charges you more precisely as you add people and capabilities.

Lighter to set up and run

Vagaro's depth is also its weight: there is a lot to configure, and a lot you pay for whether or not you use it. LovingBooking does one job — take bookings cleanly — and is designed to be live in an afternoon. For an owner who wants appointments handled without adopting a whole business-operating system, that focus is the point.

Built for Singapore

LovingBooking is built by a Singapore team around how Singapore service businesses run: PayNow on the booking page, GST as a line on the price, and a booking flow made for customers arriving from WhatsApp and Instagram. Small margins matter, and a bill with the first 3 people included and no add-ons is easier to plan around than a per-calendar bill with add-ons.

Which should you choose?

Choose Vagaro if:

• You want a true all-in-one: POS, inventory, payroll, marketing, and booking in one system
• Marketplace discovery traffic matters to you
• SMS reminders are a hard requirement today
• You are comfortable managing — and paying for — a heavier platform

Choose LovingBooking if:

• You want the first 3 people in the base price and no paid add-ons
• You want PayNow payments with no card commission
• You prefer one predictable bill for all your businesses
• You want a focused booking tool that is quick to set up, with an embeddable widget for your site

The bottom line

Vagaro is a powerful, mature platform, and for a salon or spa that genuinely wants to run its whole operation inside one system, its depth is hard to match. But that depth comes with per-calendar pricing, paid add-ons, and card processing fees — and no PayNow. For a Singapore business that mainly needs bookings handled well, wants its customers to pay the local way, and wants one bill for all its businesses as it grows, LovingBooking is the simpler fit.

If you are also weighing other tools, our LovingBooking vs Fresha and LovingBooking vs Setmore comparisons cover the same ground for those platforms.

Try LovingBooking free at lovingbooking.com — no credit card required. Free covers your first 200 bookings, for up to 3 people and 1 location, and Pro is US$12 a month for up to 3 people, then US$12 a month for each extra person, with one bill for all your businesses and free logins for anyone without a calendar.