Looking for better, cheaper alternatives to Boulevard Salon and Spa software in 2024?
Look no further. We’ve got you covered.
Today, we’ll take a look at Boulevard and its best alternatives so you can make the right choice for your next salon or spa management software.
Boulevard, founded in 2016, is part of the new wave of beauty and wellness software.
Their robust feature set is tailored to high-end salons, spas, med spas, barbershops, and other wellness businesses that want a premium experience for their clients and themselves.
If you’re the kind of business owner who wants comprehensive data management and marketing tools to grow your clientele and brand presence in your area, Boulevard might be a great option for you.
But there are a handful of reasons I might not recommend Boulevard for your business in particular.
We had a lot to say about Boulevard in our full review, so if you want the full details of our experience testing it out, check that article out.
But for the sake of today’s look at the best alternatives to Boulevard, I’ll share the areas where competitors one-up this mobile-first management software and where Boulevard shines.
There are good reasons why you may want to consider the handful of alternatives I’ll share with you today. I’ll summarize some of the most important ones and give an overview of each alternative below.
Let’s dive in!
Why Consider a Boulevard Alternative?
Some of the reasons you may want to choose an alternative to Boulevard are:
- You need a mobile app you can rely on: Based on user multiple user reviews, the overall sentiment of both the iOS and Android apps is that they currently offer a buggy experience, lack some polish in the user interface (UI), and the backlog of feature requests is moving slowly.
- It’s expensive: Boulevard’s monthly costs easily creep into the $450-and-up range if you want to take advantage of its best features. While Boulevard does offer less expensive plans, those plans lack the more advanced features that make it an attractive choice in the first place. At the high entry price point, there are several other options that make a better choice for smaller businesses with less staff and simpler operations.
- Setting up services and schedules is tedious and fiddly: Boulevard’s higher-tier plans are aimed at owners with larger teams and successful businesses, yet the process of setting up even a few staff members with permissions, assigning them schedules, and enabling them to perform services is tedious and frustrating.
As with any system, there are pros and cons of Boulevard. Let’s dive into my top recommended alternatives.
Boulevard Alternatives
We’ll start with a quick summary of my recommended Boulevard alternatives. Following this, I’ll dive into each one in a bit more depth.
Mangomint
Read my detailed Boulevard vs. Mangomint comparison
Who is it for
The highest-rated software for salons & spas. Designed for businesses with a team who want the best design experience, smart automations, and the flexibility to integrate with other systems.
Note
Assumes you run a business with a mid-size team and have activated the more common add-ons. What you will pay will be lower or higher than this. See the separate section about pricing for full details.
$245 per month
Supported countries
U.S. and Canada
Note
The overall score considers ease of use, customer service, features, user ratings, and cost. Scores are determined solely by our editorial team.
GlossGenius
Read my detailed GlossGenius vs. Boulevard comparison
Who is it for
For independent professionals who want to start accepting payments and get appointment scheduling, a website and marketing up fast without compromising on the experience of their brand
Note
Assumes you run a business with a mid-size team and have activated the more common add-ons. What you will pay will be lower or higher than this. See the separate section about pricing for full details.
$48 per month
Supported countries
U.S.
Note
The overall score considers ease of use, customer service, features, user ratings, and cost. Scores are determined solely by our editorial team.
Square Appointments
Read my detailed Square vs. Boulevard comparison
Who is it for
For solopreneurs or small teams in any type of local service business (salon, spa, fitness, repair, cleaning, and professional services) who want access to Square’s broad range of products.
Note
Assumes you run a business with a mid-size team and have activated the more common add-ons. What you will pay will be lower or higher than this. See the separate section about pricing for full details.
$45 per month
Supported countries
U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK.
Note
The overall score considers ease of use, customer service, features, user ratings, and cost. Scores are determined solely by our editorial team.
Fresha
Read my detailed Boulevard vs. Fresha comparison
Who is it for
For the independent professional or business on a budget that want to avoid subscription fees and a big technical learning curve.
Note
Assumes you run a business with a mid-size team and have activated the more common add-ons. What you will pay will be lower or higher than this. See the separate section about pricing for full details.
$80 per month
Supported countries
Available in 22 languages in over 120 countries worldwide
Note
The overall score considers ease of use, customer service, features, user ratings, and cost. Scores are determined solely by our editorial team.
Vagaro
Read my detailed Vagaro vs. Boulevard comparison
Who is it for
For cost conscious solopreneurs or smaller teams who are looking for an all-in-one software, with a lot of features, to support their salon, spa, or fitness business.
Note
Assumes you run a business with a mid-size team and have activated the more common add-ons. What you will pay will be lower or higher than this. See the separate section about pricing for full details.
$120 per month
Supported countries
U.S., Canada, Australia, and the UK
Note
The overall score considers ease of use, customer service, features, user ratings, and cost. Scores are determined solely by our editorial team.
Alternative #1: Mangomint | The Highest Rated Sofware for Salons and Spas
While Boulevard entices upscale salons and spas with an aura of sophistication and an array of tools designed for the luxury market, Mangomint impresses with its razor-sharp focus on creating a seamless, intuitive experience.
Mangomint is purpose-built for salons and spas with teams, offering deeper, more advanced features designed for collaborative environments and clever innovations on classic features to make your day-to-day more efficient.
It stands out for its speed, reliability, and the thoughtful placement of every element in its interface, which appeals to businesses that place a high value on efficiency and design.
Mangomint is the fastest and most well-designed platform currently available on the market.
With their newly expanded feature set, they’ve brought email marketing tools, making them a formidable feature-for-feature competitor to Boulevard.
Mangomint even one-ups Boulevard at its own game when it comes to client data management, incorporating all touchpoints with each client (every email, text, picture, appointment, and transaction) into a convenient timeline that lives right in the client profile.
Boulevard, like most salon and spa software suites, only offers the ability to export payroll reports into separate third-party payroll processing software. Mangomint has a major leg-up over Boulevard here, offering fully integrated payroll processing for multiple compensation types and unlimited payroll runs.
Mangomint At a Glance
Overall score
Mangomint is the most modern and well-designed salon and spa software platform in the United States & Canada.
It’s the platform with the most buzz around right now that beats all competitors on user review websites.
Every little detail of this software has been designed to perfection – making it incredibly intuitive and easy to use. It also offers intelligent automations that reduces time spent managing your appointments and business operations.
Mangomint’s vision is to make salon software invisible—so smart and easy to use that it essentially disappears into your day-to-day operations. And boy, is this software a pleasure to use for both you and your clients, which is why it is now, in 2023, my #1 recommendation.
Pros and Cons
- Modern, easy-to-use, interface
- Smart automations that help cut down on time spent managing business operations
- Open data ownership and no contracts (you’re not locked into anything)
- Can integrate with any other platform that allow for integrations
- Highest-rated customer service on the market
- Not for solopreneurs. Only teams.
- Higher entry-level price than most other salon & spa software
- Only available in the United States & Canada
Alternative #2: GlossGenius | The Easy-to-Use Alternative for Independent Professionals
If you’re a solo business owner who cares about aesthetics and ease of use, consider GlossGenius. Their mobile-first approach and stellar app design are miles ahead of Boulevard in terms of mobile functionality and user experience.
Since GlossGenius is a mobile-focused salon software, you can handle the majority of business functions directly in the mobile app, but the flipside of this is that you have fewer features overall in comparison to Boulevard.
In our experience, GlossGenius‘ feature set is most likely more than adequate if you are a solo business owner. And the headaches saved with its much more well-designed app make GlossGenius an easy recommendation.
Boulevard is considerably more expensive for single service providers, so if you’re on a budget and want to run your business easily from your phone, give GlossGenius a look.
GlossGenius At a Glance
Overall score
GlossGenius is an all-in-one appointment, payment, and marketing app for salon and spa professionals in the USA.
It offers rich support for independent professionals. Teams can also use the app but it’s primarily designed for solopreneurs.
Here you manage your total business out of an easy-to-use, beautifully designed, mobile app.
In my opinion, it’s the design and premium beauty experience that GlossGenius delivers that makes this tool truly unique. You can even adapt the design of their credit card reader to fit your brand.
Pros and Cons
- Interface design that signals beauty (and not tech)
- Intuitive features that are easy-to-use
- Professional looking website in just a few clicks
- Integrated payments with beautiful hardware
- Affordable and transparent flat fee pricing
- Limited flexibility (you need to follow pre-defined standards)
- Can only be managed via app (only calendar can be accessed in web browser)
- No booking widget to integrate on existing website (need to link to your GlossGenius website)
Alternative #3: Square Appointments | The Complete POS & Appointment Software with a Subscription-Free Plan for Individuals
Square Appointments, and Square’s offer as a whole, makes a compelling counter to Boulevard’s software.
Square Appointments offers a user-friendly experience with essential tools for managing inventory, reports, and client information. It’s an ideal choice for small businesses or individuals due to its free plan for single users and its compatibility across various devices, including a free app.
Boulevard, on the other hand, focuses more on simplicity through a clean desktop app experience designed for high-end salons and spas. Features are straightforward to use without a significant learning curve, but the level of customization available in the menu system and via reports may be daunting for those who are not tech-savvy.
Square offers a subscription-free option, making it far more attractive for the solopreneur or small team on a budget.
Because aspects of Square’s ecosystem are distributed across multiple apps, you may need to connect several apps to integrate all the functions you want to use for your business.
This can be seen as a pro or a con. On one hand, you can choose to use only the apps you need. On the other, there is potentially more work required in the setup process because every tool you need is not necessarily bundled into the base application.
Square Appointments At a Glance
Overall score
Square Appointments is a cloud-based appointment scheduling software for salons, spas and really any other local service businesses.
It integrates with the full suite of local business solutions from Square which makes it one of the most complete business management solutions on the market.
At the same time, it is free for individuals and has therefore quickly become one of the most popular platforms for one-person businesses like beauty booth renters and individual professionals.
Pros and Cons
- Free for individuals
- Well-designed, easy to use, interface
- Integration with the full suite of Square applications for endless possibilities
- Robust core business management (inventory, reports, and client data)
- Limited flexibility when designing online booking page, booking widget, e-mails and other aspects that you may want to adapt
- It gets a bit expensive for the growing team that expands with more locations
Alternative #4: Zenoti | The Enterprise Software for Large Salon Chains
Zenoti was only a couple of years earlier to the salon and spa software world than Boulevard, but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at it.
Despite being released not long before Boulevard, Zenoti feels much more like a Mindbody contemporary. Its design features are utilitarian and decidedly early 2000s in feel and aesthetic.
That’s not to say it’s bad.
Zenoti offers an incredibly broad suite of features and showcases some of the most in-depth reporting and settings customization options of any salon and spa software on the market. They rival Boulevard in many respects when it comes to client data management and marketing capabilities.
It’s really important to note that Zenoti is more focused on the enterprise market of chain and franchise service businesses, whereas Boulevard doesn’t cater specifically to those businesses, even if it does support them well.
While both software options offer comparable reporting and data management capabilities to help scale your business and market more effectively, Zenoti may actually come in at a lower price point, depending on the features you choose to package together and your number of locations.
Zenoti At a Glance
Overall score
Zenoti has existed in some form since 2010, when it was initially founded as ManageMySpa, officially becoming Zenoti in 2015.
Zenoti’s features build on the blueprint established by businesses like Booker and Mindbody, and expand the customizability and capability of those features with control over even the most minute details. The level of detail in data and reporting is a step ahead of some of the other big-name competitors in the industry, and its reputation management features are rather impressive.
That said, Zenoti also falls prey to some of the same mistakes that veteran salon software companies like Mindbody and Booker are still making.
Booker, Mindbody, and Zenoti all suffer from the uglies of bad, outdated user interface design, sporting plain, drab menu systems that tuck away important features in layers of nested menus and strip out crucial information (such as icon labels) you need to find the tools you need at a moment’s notice.
Likewise, Zenoti doesn’t list their fees online, hiding their monthly pricing behind a demo/sales call just as Mindbody does.
Pros and Cons
- Can integrate with a large number of third-party applications via an open API
- Integrated payments through Zenoti Payments
- Custom reports
- Help center and Zenoti University (training) available
- No free trial
- Pricing is not transparent + high starting cost (minimum $300)
- Mobile app has low-to-mixed ratings
- Requires a 12-month contract
Alternative #5: Vagaro | The Feature-rich and Affordable Salon Software
Vagaro needs to be mentioned in the alternative comparison conversation. It is similarly rich in features and has an established client marketplace that Boulevard simply does not offer.
The client acquisition opportunities offered by the marketplace are highly valuable, especially if your area is not overly saturated by other businesses competing with you on the platform.
Vagaro has the advantage over Boulevard when it comes to payroll, featuring an all-in-one integrated payroll processing feature that allows you to pay your staff and cut checks via their partnership with Gusto.
The software also offers a website builder, a feature Boulevard does not. Both apps have the option to embed an online booking widget on your existing website.
Vagaro is much more favorably priced than Boulevard, and considering the broad feature set and client acquisition opportunities, it makes a lot more sense for smaller businesses looking to grow quickly.
Vagaro is available in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. Boulevard is currently only available in the US.
Vagaro At a Glance
Overall score
Vagaro, headquartered in the US, is one of the most popular salon software options. It is a complete system for salons, spas, barbershops, health, and fitness businesses.
It’s one of the most feature-rich platforms on the market and comes with POS, online appointment scheduling, email/SMS marketing, credit card processing, subscription payments, video streaming, website builder, eCommerce, payroll, hardware, and advanced business reporting just to name a few.
Despite the large amount of built-in features, it’s one of the cheapest platforms on the market. So if you want to spend as little as possible for as much as possible, Vagaro could be the right platform for you.
Pros and Cons
- Rich in features
- Affordable price
- Client marketplace that could help you attract more new clients
- Integrations with other software (QuickBook, Xerox, Facebook, Zoom)
- Pages could load faster, and you may find some glitches as you use it
- Clients need to create a Vagaro account when booking, which some find annoying
- There is a slight learning curve in the beginning, as a lot of features
Choosing the Best Boulevard Alternative
I hope this list was helpful in determining if any of these Boulevard alternatives are a better fit for you.
If it’s a better price-to-performance ratio you’re looking for, Mangomint offers the best features and support for businesses with more than a couple of stylists or estheticians.
If you run a new or growing salon or spa, are on a budget, and want access to a large client marketplace, Vagaro is the clear choice.
If you’re looking for a great no-monthly-cost option as a solopreneur, GlossGenius is likely your best option, but you should also consider Square Appointments.
If you run a chain or franchise business and need support for multiple locations with complex management needs, consider Zenoti for its stellar reporting and marketing tools.
Still unsure which software is the best for you? That’s OK! We’ve reviewed a whole bunch more.
Check out our list of the best salon software in 2024 right now and see how each competitor stacks up in our in-depth comparisons!
