Lilo vs. Vagaro: Which Salon Software Is Right for You in 2026?

Lilo vs. Vagaro: which fits your business?

Lilo and Vagaro solve the same job two different ways: Lilo includes its whole suite at a flat price, and Vagaro gives you a deep catalog you assemble from a base subscription plus paid add-ons. For most independents and small salons, the included-everything shape costs less and stays simpler. For a business that leans on a consumer marketplace or wants a specific Vagaro module, the catalog can win.

Vagaro is a mature, widely used platform with a long track record across salon, spa, fitness, and wellness, and that breadth is real. We are not going to pretend otherwise. Where the two part ways is structure. The rest of this guide goes feature by feature so you can decide on your own numbers. If you want a second head-to-head, see Lilo vs. Square Appointments.

What does Vagaro do well?

Vagaro's standout advantage is discovery. The Vagaro Marketplace is a large two-sided booking directory that can send genuinely new clients to your chair, a network effect most competitors, Lilo included, do not have. A free marketplace listing is part of the base plan, with an optional Get Featured boost (reported at $10/month) to rank higher in local searches. The trade-off worth knowing: a marketplace is a two-way street, so the same directory that surfaces you to new clients also puts competing shops one tap away from the clients already looking for you.

Its catalog is also wide after years of building: scheduling, POS, memberships, packages, loyalty, a website builder, payroll, live-stream classes, a branded app, and more than a dozen modular add-ons under one vendor. For a studio that runs classes or a multi-service business spanning beauty and fitness, that range is a legitimate draw. Vagaro also bundles loyalty, memberships, and packages into the base subscription, plus 1,000 marketing emails a month, which is more than many base plans give you out of the box.

How does the pricing actually work?

Vagaro prices per bookable calendar; Lilo prices flat. That single difference drives most of the cost gap.

A single Vagaro calendar ("Just Me") is $30/month, promoted at $23.99. Each additional staff calendar is $10/month for calendars 2 through 7, and the staff fee caps after the seventh paid user, so a large team levels off around $90/month for calendars. Lilo takes a different path: $20/month flat for a solo booth renter, or Pro from $59/month with unlimited team members at one location and $49/month per additional location.

Then come the add-ons, which is where the sticker price and the real price diverge. This is the heart of the comparison.

Verified June 2026Lilo is listed by its own publisher; verify Vagaro figures at vagaro.com and in the in-app add-on marketplace.

Feature	Vagaro	Lilo Booth
Monthly price	$30/mo (promo $23.99) per calendar; +$10/mo each calendar 2-7	$20/mo flat, full suite included; Pro from $59/mo
Vagaro prices per calendar and sells many tools as add-ons; Lilo is one flat price with the suite included.
Payments & hardware	~2.75% in person; free EMV reader, Pay Desk POS bundles	2.50% + $0.30 in person; Stripe Terminal readers + Tap to Pay
Both run on serious hardware: Lilo on Stripe Terminal smart readers + Tap to Pay; Vagaro's first-party Pay Desk counter bundles are broader.
Online booking page / website	Booking included; website (MySite) add-on $20/mo	Branded Lilo Site on a heylilo.me subdomain (Booth); booking page + embed widget on both
Marketing tools	Email 1,000/mo free; SMS marketing add-on from $20/mo	Email marketing + automations included; SMS via a $10/mo number
Loyalty & memberships	Included (loyalty, memberships, packages)	Included (loyalty, memberships, packages, referrals)
Both bundle loyalty and memberships; Lilo also folds in the marketing and forms Vagaro sells separately.
Beauty / industry tools	Forms add-on $10/mo; broad multi-vertical catalog	Color formulas, intake/consent, backbar (included)
Mobile app	Day-to-day ops on the Vagaro Pro app; the full email-campaign builder, the MySite website/forms builder, and deep setup are web-centric	Full parity, run the entire business from the iOS/Android app
Built-in AI	No (not AI-native)	Natural-language Lilo AI, included
HIPAA	Not stated in our sources	Available via signed BAA

What is included versus an add-on?

This is the line that decides it for most buyers. Vagaro's base plan covers scheduling, calendars, POS checkout, loyalty, memberships, packages, advanced reporting, a free marketplace listing, and 1,000 emails a month. Plenty to run on. But many revenue-driving tools sit on top as separate line items.

Vagaro's reported US add-on prices include Forms at $10/month, the MySite website builder at $20/month, SMS/text marketing from $20/month, an online store at $10/month, a Check-In app at $10/month, Vagaro Drive storage at $10/month, Live Stream at $10/month, QuickBooks at $10/month, Xero at $30/month, Data Lake at $40/month, Payroll at $34/month plus $5 per employee, and a branded app at $100/month. Email marketing above 1,000 sends a month moves to paid volume tiers.

Lilo Booth includes its suite at one flat price: a branded website (booking page plus gallery and testimonials), automated reminders, email marketing with automations (SMS via a $10/mo dedicated number), digital intake and consent forms, loyalty, memberships, referrals, backbar inventory, photo galleries, and advanced reporting. That branded website (Lilo Sites) is hosted on a heylilo.me subdomain. So with Lilo, the plan price is close to the all-in price, where Vagaro's all-in depends on which modules you switch on.

Which has the beauty and industry tools you use day to day?

Both cover the universal parts of an appointment business; the gap is in the specialized records and what they cost. For a colorist, lash artist, or injector, the daily work is the formula card, the patch-test date, the allergy flag, the signed consent form, the backbar product used per service.

Lilo builds those in on every plan: color formula and service notes, allergy and sensitivity flags, a medical/health profile, digital intake and consent forms, photo galleries with consent tracking, and backbar inventory tracked per service. Vagaro covers this ground too, but its intake, consent, and SOAP forms live behind the Forms add-on at $10/month. Vagaro's counterweight is multi-vertical depth: class booking, live-stream sessions, and membership tooling that fit studios and wellness businesses, not just salons.

If you host booth renters, Lilo lets you invite them to affiliate and see aggregated floor metrics like utilization and revenue trends without touching their private client data. That is a specific fit for the small salon that rents chairs as well as employing staff.

How do payments and hardware compare?

Both run on serious payments hardware. Lilo processes through Stripe and supports Stripe Terminal smart readers plus contactless Tap to Pay on the phone. Vagaro includes a free EMV/contactless reader when you enroll in its merchant services and sells front-desk Pay Desk POS bundles in three tiers, reported around $149, $503, and $622; one thing to know going in: a $150 early-cancellation fee applies if you stop processing with Vagaro before 12 months.

Lilo's rates are flat on every plan: 2.90% + $0.30 online, 2.50% + $0.30 in person, and 3.30% + $0.30 for manual card entry, with no per-booking commission and no Lilo markup. Contactless Tap to Pay works directly on your phone (a $0.10 charge per Tap to Pay authorization), and Stripe Terminal smart readers are supported for a counter setup. Square processing is listed as coming soon.

The honest read: if you want a staffed front desk with terminals and counter hardware, Vagaro's PayPro ecosystem is more complete. If you work from your phone at the chair and want one flat rate, Lilo is simpler. Run both against your real transaction mix, and re-confirm current rates and hardware prices before you commit.

What about the AI assistant?

Lilo is AI-native; Vagaro's strength lies elsewhere. Lilo AI is built into every plan and queries your real business data in plain English. Ask which regulars have not rebooked in 60 days, where revenue is trending this quarter, or to draft a client text in your tone, and it returns the list, the chart, or the message instantly, with no report-building. It also suggests slots to fill empty chairs and drafts replies to client inquiries. Your data stays siloed and is never used to train the AI.

Vagaro's advantage is breadth and its marketplace, not an always-on assistant that reads your numbers for you. If natural-language insights and drafted outreach fit how you work, that difference is concrete. If you would rather have a large discovery directory and a wide module catalog, that is where Vagaro pulls ahead. Pick the one that matches the work in front of you, not the longer feature list.

So which should you choose?

Choose Vagaro if its consumer marketplace is a meaningful source of new clients, you run classes or a multi-vertical business, you want a staffed POS with terminal hardware, or you specifically want one of its modules like the branded app or payroll and are fine assembling features as separate line items. It is a proven platform with genuine breadth.

Choose Lilo if you want flat pricing with the whole suite included, beauty-specific records built in, Stripe payments (Stripe Terminal readers + phone Tap to Pay), HIPAA available via a signed BAA, and an AI assistant that actually reads your business data. As one honest caveat: Lilo has no consumer marketplace, so it will not surface you to strangers browsing a directory the way Vagaro can. If you do switch, plan the move so you keep your history intact; here is how to switch without losing data, and Lilo offers free migration from Vagaro with no exit fees. You can see Lilo's plans and what is included on the pricing page. Both are fair tools; the deciding question is whether you want everything bundled at a flat price or a broad catalog you build up module by module.