The Ultimate Mindbody Business Review 2025

Our Video Review of Mindbody Business

Mindbody Business Features

The remainder of this article will walk you through a detailed look at the features and tools offered by Mindbody.

The intent of this review is to allow you to experience what it’s actually like for your business as a Mindbody customer and to better understand if the platform offers the tools and support you need to grow and succeed.

You can use the links below to navigate directly to the topics that are most relevant to you.

• Integrations
• Online Booking
• Appointment Calendar
• Client Data Management
• Appointment Notifications
• Two-Way Client Communication
• Email Marketing Tools
• Staff Management
• Business Reports
• Inventory Management
• Memberships & Gift Cards
• Point of Sale (POS) Options
• Mobile Booking App

Integrations can be set up in Mindbody through their branded web tools, or “widgets”. On all plans (except for Starter), branded web tools are included in your subscription fee.

These tools can be used to embed widgets on your business website with a small snippet of code, enabling functionality from your Mindbody website to work on your business website pages.

Several widgets are available, including:

• Registration widget: Allows clients to sign up for a new account with your business directly from your website.
• Prospect widget: The Prospect widget creates an account for the client in Mindbody and marks the client as a prospect. This is commonly used as part of a “Contact us” form when clients are interested in your services but have not yet committed to purchasing.
• Schedule widget: Displays all classes and enrollments (courses) in a single schedule. Clients can book using an existing pass or purchase a new one.
• Enrollment widget: Displays upcoming enrollments (courses). Similar to the Schedule widget, but for enrollments (courses).
• Class List widget: Displays each class separately with its description and schedule. Clients can view the available times for that single class, then book or purchase a pass for the session of their choice.
• Appointment widget: Allows clients to search, purchase, and book/request appointments.
• Staff List widget: Displays your choice of staff members and the public biographies and photos entered on the staff profile screen in your Mindbody software.

Keep in mind that many of these widgets are created with fitness and wellness businesses in mind, so not all of them may be relevant to your salon or spa business.

You can also sync your iCal or Google calendar with the Mindbody calendar so that new appointments booked through the Mindbody app appear on your calendar app of choice.

Marketing Integrations

Mailchimp integration is no longer supported in-app. Since the inclusion of the Mindbody Marketing Suite, third-party marketing integrations like Mailchimp have gone the way of the dodo in Mindbody.

That’s not exactly a surprise – the Marketing Suite is a premium feature bundled in with Accelerate and Ultimate/Ultimate Plus plans, so dangling the carrot $140 above the awkwardly positioned, entry-level, Starter tier tracks as an upsell tactic.

However, you can export your client list using the Mailing Lists report and import the information into Mailchimp. You can also register new clients to Mailchimp using the branded web tools’ registration widget or prospect widget.

For details on third-party POS hardware integration, see the Mindbody Point of Sale (POS) options section.

Mindbody also offers a Partner Store, where approved services and integrations can be set up to add tools and improve the user experience for businesses. Services include marketing tools, consumer networks, website tools, and more.

Custom API integrations can be set up in Mindbody… if you are willing to work with a developer to develop said custom integration and pay for API access ($11 per month per location gets you up to 2000 API requests per day per location).

As we touched on in the section above, if you want to have a custom booking experience on your own website, you can.

To do so, you will need to sign up for and log into Mindbody’s “Branded web tools” to set up the appointment widget.

What is most confusing is that there appears to be no other direct way for your business to offer online booking.

Unlike Booker, there is no Online Booking Settings menu where you can set up your information and generate a simple Book Now button.

From my research and several hours of digging, it appears that online booking is only available through Mindbody’s “Branded web tools”, which are included with Accelerate, Ultimate, and Ultimate Plus plans, but are a paid add-on for the Starter plan.

That means that — to the best of my knowledge after poring over dozens of support pages — online booking is not included with the Mindbody Starter plan.

Mindbody Explore and the Mindbody App

Mindbody offers access to Mindbody Explore: an online marketplace and mobile app where potential clients can discover and book services with businesses in their area.

Owners can list their businesses and services in the Mindbody app, as well as share promotions and other details with users looking for related services.

To create a Mindbody Listing, business owners can navigate to the Marketing tab in their Mindbody account and select the Visit Mindbody App Hub button.

From there, you can create and edit your business listing, confirm your location on Google Maps, upload a logo, and more.

Mindbody’s calendar is simple, utilitarian, and a bit drab. Dressed in a modest and almost militaristic palate of khaki, coal, ash, and parchment, the interface is bland but clear.

In stark contrast, the details of the calendar screen are easy to spot and almost garish, with bright green, teal, orange, and fuschia appointment blocks.

Booking icons (for confirmed, checked-in, same-day appointments, etc.) are underdeveloped, and unless you know what each tiny, esoteric symbol displayed in the top right corner of the appointment means, may be confusing, with their lack of hover-over explanations or tool tips — quality of life features offered by sister-software Booker.

Also, unlike Booker, there is no right-click (or Control-click on Mac) functionality to open a contextual dropdown menu with options to confirm, check-in, check-out, cancel, or edit an appointment. Instead, you can only left-click on the appointment, which both opens the dropdown menu and expands the left pane to show appointment details simultaneously.

Why this feature is oversimplified on Mindbody is unclear, but I much prefer Booker’s approach (separating left click and right click as separate commands), as it is much less disruptive, lets the user be selective about the information they want, and doesn’t provide erroneous menus that you will need to X out of to close.

The calendar features several view options at the top of the schedule screen. You can filter by service category, and service provider, and select what time increments you wish to view the calendar in via a dropdown menu at the top right.

Booking a new appointment can be done by clicking on the time you wish to book, then typing in a client name in the grey pop-out pane to the left of the calendar, in the “Search for client” field under the Book Appointments heading.

I found this booking process to be a little backward, especially compared to the booking process for Booker and other apps in the space. In Mindbody, all the forward momentum seems to happen in the pop-out pane to the left of the calendar rather than on the calendar.

When you click on an open space on the calendar, a pop-out box appears on the calendar with options to edit today’s schedule, edit the weekly schedule, or mark the service provider as unavailable, and the Book Appointments heading appears on the left, where a field appears to search for a client.

All the (booking) action happens outside of the calendar.

Strangely, when you enter a name into the search clients field that is not in the system, you will not be presented with an add new client prompt. To add a new client, you must click in the Find a client field at the top of the screen and then select Add New Client.

Checking out a client can be done from the calendar screen or the Point of Sale screen. When checking out on the calendar, a pop-out window with the list of unpaid services will be listed on the left side, which will need to be added to the order by clicking the Add to Cart button.

Once the service(s) has been added to the cart, you can add products and tip, apply promotions, and take payment via cash, card, check, gift card, or account credit.

Mindbody’s client management tools within the app look a little bit old-school but offer quite a bit of information that can be filtered and searched by almost any criteria.

On the Client Directory screen, you can search by name, email, phone number, city, state, postal code, and ID, among other options.

Likewise, you can filter by client type (child, adult, parent, or senior), gender, membership status, allergies, hair color, and even beverage choice.

From this screen, you can also add a new client and add or remove tags on their account.

Inside a client record, you can view notes, appointment information and transactions, autopsy schedule and history, membership info, contact logs, product purchases, and any client forms that have been saved, among a slew of other client details.

Managing Client Reviews and Feedback

Let’s discuss client review management.

Mindbody provides some genuinely helpful tools for prompting, collecting, and sharing client reviews through its Marketing Suite (on the Ultimate & Ultimate Plus plans only).

With this suite, you can enable settings that automate the relationship management process. For example, you can schedule automatic ratings request emails or texts to be sent to clients shortly after their visit.

Furthermore, you can configure settings that prompt clients to post their feedback to social media sites after submitting their reviews. Additionally, Mindbody can be configured to automatically publish any review with a rating of 4.5 stars or higher to the review widget on your website.

Mindbody also offers the ability to automatically flag reviews with low scores, allowing you to reach out to the client and attempt to address any issues they may have experienced.

In the Marketing Suite, Mindbody customers can set up automated emails and SMS notifications to remind and confirm appointments, send birthday communications, and more.

While some email communications can be customized, you cannot currently edit the content of your SMS communications in Mindbody. This means that you are limited to the prewritten scripts created by Mindbody for all automated SMS communications.

Likewise, text and email communications features are currently limited on some plans, so consult with your representative to verify messaging limitations for the plans you’re considering before committing to the mandatory 12-month contract.

At the time of this review, 2-way appointment confirmations and cancellations are not available on the Starter plan. Below is the breakdown of each Marketing Suite feature included with every subscription package.

Marketing Suite Tools

	Starter	Accelerate		Ultimate		UltimatePlus
		Version 1	Version 2	Version 1	Version 2
Mindbody Marketplace listing – Mindbody app – Mindbody Explore Marketplace	X	X	X	X	X	X
Partner Network listing	X	X	X	X	X	X
Dynamic pricing	X	X	X	X	X	X
Promoted intro offers	X	X	X	X	X	X
Retention Marketing Dashboard emails		X		X
Campaigns			X		X	X
Automations					X	X
Smart lists – Purchase/Visit history segmentation – Marketing interaction segmentation – Referral source segmentation – Satisfaction score segmentation			X		X	X
Trackable phone number					X	X
Fill Last Minute Openings – Targeted offers for unfilled appointments					X	X
Boost campaigns – Short-term promotions (25% off today only!)					X	X
Fill Slow Days – Identify and promote off-peak hours					X	X
Rescue Lost Customers – Targeted offers for lapsed clients					X	X
Reminder to Book Again – Touch base with clients who haven’t visited in awhile					X	X
Limited Time Specials – Incentives for recently active clients who haven’t visited in awhile					X	X
Automated membership upselling (Packages & Memberships)					X	X
Appointment confirmation texts (2-Way)		X	X	X	X	X
Feedback and Reviews					X	X
Net Promoter Score tracking					X	X
Automated referral program					X	X
Review widget for your website					X	X
Custom “send from” email address for outgoing emails					X	X

Mindbody also offers 2-way client communication through its Messenger and Messenger[ai] feature.

Messenger is included in Mindbody’s Ultimate software package, and Messenger[ai] is available as an optional paid add-on Accelerate, Ultimate, and Ultimate Plus packages.

Using the app on mobile is a bit more complicated, though.

Mindbody uses a separate mobile app called Mindbody Messenger (Bowtie) to manage chats and message clients on the go, but the app seemingly is not well-liked by customers.

With a 1.8 star rating (39 reviews) in the Apple App Store, it appears that the mobile Messenger experience is not ready for prime-time.

What’s the difference between Mindbody Messenger and Messenger[ai]?

Let’s start with Messenger[ai].

Messenger[ai] is a messaging platform that allows your clients and staff to communicate, as well as an automated assistant that enables booking, browsing, and buying without the need for staff to get involved.

The AI-powered chatbot is available 24/7 to answer client questions, respond to missed calls, and even process transactions on your site.

The feature uses an AI model that “learns” from your customers and their booking habits and can take that information into account to make better booking decisions over time.

Because it is an AI model, it does require time for its machine-learning algorithm to improve, but theoretically can better assist you the more times a client books.

AI is seemingly creeping into every aspect of business now, and it can genuinely be a good tool to leverage to ease the burden on your front desk, as long as:

1. It actually works
2. Clients don’t find interacting with it unpleasant

I can’t vouch for how truly intelligent Mindbody’s Messenger[ai] feature is, as that would take far longer than the scope of this review would reasonably account for and would cost me many more hundreds (or thousands) of dollars that I simply don’t care to spend on yet another speculative AI tool.

What I can say is that chatbots can be of great use for some business applications, and the growing ubiquity of AI assistants is breaking down the barrier a bit between customers and businesses.

But I still hesitate to incorporate an AI chatbot feature in as personal a business as the salon or spa.

Salon and spa clients form a special connection with their stylists, estheticians, and even the front desk staff, and wedging a chatbot in the middle of that feels a little… impersonal.

Granted, that is going to vary from business to business.

And if that fits your culture, then this might be a great tool for you to increase bookings and field questions after hours.

Mindbody is, first and foremost, a piece of software focused on fitness and wellness businesses, and Messenger[ai] may very well may be a better fit for those business models than it is for a salon or spa.

Now let’s talk about plain old Messenger.

Messenger is a simplified version of the platform that focuses solely on messaging capabilities and cuts out the AI-powered front desk assistant.

This means you can still chat with clients in real time over SMS, but they won’t be able to book or buy anything through this channel.

The missed-call text message that automatically initiates a text conversation is also not included in this version of the feature.

Mindbody’s Marketing Suite includes a modular email builder, which is a similar (if slightly less elegant) feature to the one we covered in our Boulevard Salon Software review and identical to the one offered in Booker.

Like that feature, Mindbody’s Marketing Suite offers a simplified process for creating email campaigns and communications.

In Step 1, you can access a customizable template library where you can load premade or previously made email designs for editing.

Step 2 allows you to access the built-in email editor, where you can drag and drop text, image, and formatting blocks to build your communications easily without the need for coding or HTML experience.

In Step 3, you can name and schedule your email campaign and send it with just a couple of clicks.

Overall, Mindbody’s email marketing suite is less robust than some offerings from competing software suites, but it is functional and allows you to communicate with your opt-in marketing list and create audiences with its tools.

Mindbody enables most staff management features on all plans, but some are unavailable on the Starter plan.

Customizable staff permissions and groups are not available on the Starter package, and neither is Mindbody’s payroll integration.

Employee schedules can be created and managed in the Appointment Availability tab of the Staff menu.

Schedules can be specified by date range (by calendar week), and a regular weekly schedule can be set as well.

The regular schedule is defined by a one-week interval, so more complicated work schedules that involve odd weeks off or monthly variations are not an option in Mindbody currently.

Off-week schedules or more complicated changes will need to be made as they arise by selecting a custom date range and saving a new schedule to it.

Payroll can also be managed in the system (on Accelerate and higher-tier plans only), and Mindbody offers the ability to run a mixed-compensation-model business across commission, booth rental, and hourly pay models.

Reporting is another feature limited by which subscription you choose.

On the starter plan, basic reporting is included. This means you can access standard sales reports such as your daily closeout report, gift cards, and invoices reports, as well as voids and returns.

Basic client and staff reports are also available on the Starter plan.

All plans have access to the analytics dashboard, which breaks down sales figures, online booking metrics, year-over-year sales charts, as well as membership and attendance metrics.

There is also a client acquisition dashboard available that shows booking, sales, new clients, and intro offer metrics in an easily digestible interface.

For more in-depth reporting, you will need to upgrade to the Accelerate or Ultimate/Ultimate Plus plan.

With higher-tier plans, you gain access to useful business insight reporting that can break down metrics like sales by category, product, or service provider, earned revenue, promotion metrics, and more.

To see a full breakdown of each report included by package, see the Which reports do I have access to? support article.

Mindbody offers inventory support for products, purchase orders, and vendors, but your access to these features will be determined by which plan you choose.

As with nearly every other feature, the Starter plan is limited to basic inventory management features, while higher-tier plans get access to advanced inventory tools and reports.

Due to the legacy of Mindbody, there are several generations of plan tiers and app versions, each of which complicates the landscape of features and access to them.

Sifting through the tangled mess of support articles to attempt to simply understand what you get with your plan is a chore and quite a bit more headache-inducing than doing so for Booker, oddly enough.

Perhaps Booker’s simpler system and less fractured web of features makes it easier to account for, or maybe their newer acquisition under the Mindbody umbrella makes for more recent and accurate documentation.

In my attempt to legitimately understand exactly what inventory and reporting options are available with each Mindbody plan, I came across several fragmented support articles, many of which led to deprecated and no-longer-accurate plans and information that only served to further complicate my grasp of the software and point me down deeper rabbit holes.

Unfortunately, this experience was in-fitting with the admittedly overly corporatized and messy experience I had testing Mindbody and Booker and interacting with their sales and support teams.

The fact that finding out basic information about features available to you — such as which inventory options are available to you as a business owner — is a challenge is a disappointment, to say the least.

Mindbody has support for gift cards, packages, and memberships in the software.

Memberships can be created in Mindbody on all pricing tiers and can be sold on your website and in-store.

You can choose whether you wish to allow memberships to be shared between clients, assign benefits, and enable automated membership upselling (on Ultimate & Ultimate Plus only).

You can also specify products, services, and packages that may only be purchased or booked by members via the Membership Settings screen, as well as designate specific member pricing options.

Packages are available in Mindbody on Accelerate, Ultimate, and Ultimate Plus tiers and can be used to bundle multiple services, products, prepaid gift cards, and account credits.

Unlike Booker, a package in Mindbody can include services that will be rendered separately on separate days.

Mindbody Payments POS Hardware Compatibility

Which card reader can you use with Mindbody?

You can use some third-party POS & card reader devices with Mindbody; however, at the time of writing, a full list of compatible hardware is not readily accessible on the Mindbody website or its support pages.

The Mindbody Business app can be used to view and manage the calendar, book appointments, check clients in and out, create services, and more, and is available on iOS and Android.

The app is a bit less full-featured than some of the other, more advanced mobile apps we’ve seen from competitors, and it functions more as a complement to the desktop experience rather than a replacement for it.

Mindbody Mobile App Reviews

Feedback on both the App Store and Google Play Store is mixed — though the aggregate rating of the app is relatively high, even a cursory look through the thousands of reviews will return a sea of largely 1-star ratings, citing slow, buggy, and error message-laden app experiences.

Mindbody Business has a user rating of 4.6/5 stars (with ~22,000 reviews) on the Apple App Store and a rating of 4.5/5 stars on the Google Play Store (with ~3,800 reviews) as of the writing of this article.

NOTE: The Google Play store displays different ratings and review counts on browser and in the Google Play Android app.

On Android, the Google Play Store app lists the rating as 4.1/5 stars with only 184 reviews, which differs from the statistics stated on desktop and listed in the paragraph above.

Many reviewers across both Apple and Android platforms cite the app as glitchy and lament the poor customer support experience they have received. Several reviews echo complaints that it is difficult to get in touch with the Mindbody support team, and many others accuse the sales team of bait-and-switch tactics — overpromising on features that are either not available or don’t function as needed.

A bad review — on its face — should usually be taken with a grain of salt…

Many bad reviews come down to user error, misunderstanding, or negligence on the part of the reviewer.

It’s only when there are many, many reviews that specify the same problems that those issues should be of concern.

In Mindbody’s case, despite the average review score being as high as it is, I struggled to find the overwhelming ratio of five-star reviews in each app store — that is, until I searched back to the mid-2010s.

Once I got as far back as 2016, I started to see more and more and more positive reviews, those mostly positive reviews going as far back as 2014.

It appears that the app experience has either gotten worse over the years or service professionals and business owners have gotten more discerning in what they deem a good professional app experience.

Either way, there is a noticeable dropoff in review scores in the late 2010s and into the 2020s.

As with the majority of salon software mobile booking apps, negative feedback is more prominent on Android, with users citing random crashes, constant error messages, inability to log in, inaccurate appointment schedules, long periods of app downtime, and more.

These same issues are reported several times over the course of many years of reviews, indicating that—unfortunately—these bugs and glitches appear to be long-time known problems that have not received fixes for multiple years in some cases.

More than ever, service professionals rely heavily on their phones to conduct business and manage their schedules. The inability to manage appointments, check out clients, or even log in to the app is not an option for stylists and owners.

To echo my sentiments from the Booker review, for such a big player in the salon and spa software space in 2024, providing such a poor mobile app experience for business owners and service providers is simply unacceptable.

As with the Booker Mobile app, I would like to see Mindbody contribute considerable, dedicated effort to fixing bugs in their app and making meaningful upgrades to Mindbody’s Business’ functionality and stability.

Business owners who pay top dollar for Mindbody’s premium-priced booking and management system deserve a tool that makes their experience in the salon easier rather than adding more work and frustration to their day.