Best Mindbody Software Alternatives for Salons and Spas

Last Updated on May 22, 2025 by Ewen Finser

Mindbody has a lot to offer, particularly when it comes to managing classes, which makes it a great option for fitness companies. That said, there are plenty of reasons why you might need something else, particularly given the staffing or services you offer.

Why You Might Need Mindbody Alternatives

One of the biggest drives behind Mindbody’s success is the front facing client platform. This part of the app lets users search for classes, instructors, and facilities that are offering things like swimming lessons, boxing classes, Tai chi, yoga, or any number of health classes and services in their area.

So, our MedSpa used it for a short time to try and better promote our float tank services, especially for athletes who were looking for a service after a day or week of demanding performance.

And while this was great for filling that one service, we didn’t really get to make the most of the key features that encourage better profit, because we were offering a single service rather than a class and a lot of Mindbody’s profit-boosting-ability comes from things like class passes and last minute deals to help fill empty classes.

The biggest pros were the following:

• Great marketplace app where you can display your services/classes to front-end users who want to book classes or instructors near them
• Options for class passes, which drive additional income by filling empty class slots at the last minute
• Better pricing for multi-class passes

The biggest cons though, that eventually forced us to consider another platform were:

• Not enough internal offerings for full time booking and payment processing
• A basic interface that wasn’t as intuitive as we wanted
• A need for simplified front desk features

As a salon or spa with individual services as opposed to larger class based options, there are many other Mindbody software alternatives that can better serve your needs.

The Software Alternatives I’m Reviewing

For spas and salons in particular there are a lot of great alternatives and I’m going to look at them side by side to see when you should consider which as a replacement.

• Vagaro
• Boulevard
• Mangomint
• Fresha

Best Alternative

Up front, my favorite alternative for salons and spas is Boulevard. It looks similar to Vagaro and offers features not unlike Mangomint, but when it comes down to brass tacks, the layout and interface of Boulevard is unbeatable. Vagaro isn’t as smooth, nor are the font choices as appealing and Mangomint looks like an anime Easter bunny’s bedroom.

The Best Mindbody Software Alternatives for Salons and Spas: How Each Addresses a Mindbody Pain Point

#1: Booking Options

So technically, Mindbody can be used to book sessions for things like massages, acupuncture, and other spa or salon related services, but it’s almost like wearing extra socks to fit into a shoe that’s too big; you know deep down there or better options.

If you are running a salon or a spa or you rent a chair in a salon and you want something that has more direct options for booking without the emphasis on marketing for classes, consider these:

• Boulevard: Boulevard is a B2B tool that works less like a front-facing marketplace and more like an internal control mechanism for bookings and calendar management functions. You can field phone calls for bookings, have customers book with integrated buttons on your website or social media, and control communication/AI reminders/calendar functions for those appointments within the platform.
• Mangomint: Mangomint has similar booking offerings with automated client communication and confirmations to reduce no-shows and cancellations. It also boasts an intelligent waitlist. The system matches new openings (from a cancellation, a reschedule, or a change) to available clients who have been on a waitlist.
• Fresha: Fresha works a lot like Mindbody; it offers a website/app where potential customers can search for treatments or locations. If your company is listed, that makes it easy to book appointments, with a focus more on hair and styling, barbering, massage, and nails.
• Vagaro: Vagaro has a front-facing marketplace like Fresha, where you can choose to have your spa or salon listed and in exchange increase bookings, but it comes at an extra cost. Otherwise, you can still manage internal bookings and clients can be easily directed to a booking option from your social media pages or website.

If you run a salon or spa and want a comprehensive booking service with a front-facing marketplace, Fresha or Vagaro are better but if you want a B2B tool to help manage client data, booking, and marketing, I would pick Boulevard.

#2: Front Desk Options

As mentioned, one of the reasons we ended up leaving Mindbody was the lack of front desk options. It served its purpose really well as a place for us to market our services and better connect with people who booked online through that app, but it didn’t really help us save on the administrative costs and time of front desk tasks.

If you have a smaller operation and you are looking to relegate more of your front desk operations to your platform, consider the following alternatives:

• Boulevard: Boulevard has everything you need to manage with a full-time or part-time front desk staff member. There is a simple communication tool within the platform where AI features send reminders and marketing promotions to your customers and then you, as the salon or spa, can respond to any inquiries, text messages, or emails from one place and use the built-in phone line option to handle phone based bookings.
• Mangomint: Mangomint is a highly competitive tie for first place, almost replacing the need for a front desk staffer entirely. When it comes to front desk accessibility they have the waiting room feature where guests can check themselves in on a front-facing tablet and see who else is in line ahead of them.
• Vagaro: Vagaro is a close second place with its customization options for the customer-facing screen. If you invest in an iPad to work with Vagaro, you can set up a display for check-in and contact list payments after a service. They don’t have a traditional phone line option for client communication or appointment booking, but they have an AI chatbot to help reduce some of the front desk tasks.
• Fresha: Fresha doesn’t have front desk features, but it offers online booking and access to key information for staff.

If it weren’t for the fact that Vagaro required you to use an ipad, it would be much higher on my rankings, but if you are trying to save on your front desk costs and time requirements, I would pick Mangomint or Boulevard. Fresha doesn’t make the list here except in booking support.

#3: User Interface

Mindbody has a functional, easy-to-use interface but it is a huge let down when you compare it to the front-facing interface for customers looking to book; the front-facing part is incredibly well done, probably the best I’ve seen for health-related booking marketplaces. However, none of that panache crosses into the backend.

As the salon or spa, you get a pretty mundane backdrop against which to handle bookings and manage your calendar. The setup has a menu of options along the left side with next to no color, and a lot of empty space.

• Boulevard: Boulevard has the most well-designed interface I’ve seen to date. It has a simple black header with light grey backdrop for the key areas you might need, like messages and calendar. The most important parts are easily identifiable with pops of color, like the dark purple “New appointment” button or the “Payment” button. With the calendar, each staffer has a unique color, which is used to shade their respective icon photo too, for a quick and easy glance at who is booked, when.
• Mangomint: Mangomint has an intuitive design that is intentionally uncluttered. The calendar, for example, uses three colors and grey to indicate the state of appointments, making it easy for a stylist or esthetician to take a quick glance and see what’s coming up. That said, it is highly gamified too, looking less professional than Boulevard or Vagaro.
• Vagaro: Vagaro has a very, very similar design to Boulevard; a single colored backdrop for the header with the main sections and then a lot of easy color pop to indicate important things like booking appointments or processing payments. It looks a little more animated, with a slightly thicker text font and more use of colors and side menus.
• Fresha: Fresha uses the left side bar for your main menu items. It, like Boulevard, has a black background with dark grey, but instead of words like “Calendar” or “Messages” it has icons. The coloring for the calendar is a lot like Mangomint; limited use of four main colors, but each designated for different staffers.

As an independent stylist looking only for easy booking support without a lot of fuss and frill, Mangomint is a nice option, with a single-screen calendar and checkout feature. This makes it easy to check out a customer with a pop-up screen while still keeping an eye on what appointments you have coming up.

If you want style and ease without the headache of the anime bedroom colors, Boulevard or Vagaro are equally as appealing.

#4: Marketing and Business Building Capabilities

Mindbody offers a marketing suite, and the most appealing aspect to it is the front or customer facing marketplace where you can market your company and services, but the layout and other options may not be enough.

• Boulevard: Boulevard has a lot of marketing and business building capabilities. When you use their interface you’ll find a lot of options in the marketing section that tie into customized blast campaigns or automated campaigns beyond the simple scheduling reminders including things like retrieving lost customers who haven’t booked appointments in more than 180 days, promoting loyalty programs, membership packages, and discounts.
• Mangomint: Mangomint has marketing campaigns that are subdivided into basic offers or promotions. One of the things they don’t have to offer is a loyalty program so at least, your company has to find a way to work around that with individual client offerings.
• Vagaro: Vagaro has limited marketing options as far as templates are concerned, but they have a marketplace for marketing daily deals, which is comparable to Mindbody but geared more toward salons and spas looking to fill last minute deals or slow days.
• Fresha: Fresha uses features like multi channel blasts and retargeting blasts. The first of these helps you send the same type of blast campaign across multiple channels not just text or email but also social media channels while the second helps you resend campaigns that haven’t been opened by your customer base.

If you are looking for a Mindbody alternative that helps you grow your business through last minute Marketing in a customer facing marketplace Vagaro is best. If your goal is better campaigns that reach a wider array of customers and have integration for other marketing channels like social media pages, Boulevard is my go-to.

Summing Up

You have a lot of good alternatives as a salon or spa if you want to move away from Mindbody. While I love Mindbody, it works more effectively for health and fitness companies offering classes and looking to market those classes on a front-facing platform.

So if you want to keep the business-growth-benefits of a front-facing marketplace so customers can find your services, consider Vagaro or Fresha. If you want a tool that improves your internal client data management and bookings concurrently with an easy interface, go with Boulevard.