Best Salon Marketing Software Tools for 2026

Last Updated on March 26, 2026 by Ewen Finser

The best salon marketing software tools in 2026 combine booking, CRM, and automated marketing into a single platform, helping salons increase their client retention, streamline communication, and grow revenue without adding complexity.

Software tools can go a long way toward helping you attract, retain, and rebook clients. The best salon marketing tools will let you create automated campaigns, perform client data tracking, and support you with built-in communication tools. For most salons, the right tool will depend on your growth stage and client experience strategy. If you’re looking for advanced automation and premium branding, Boulevard or Phorest are strong choices. If you want flexibility and affordability, Vagaro or Mangomint are easy to adopt. Medical spas, meanwhile, will benefit from AestheticsPro due to its compliance and consultation features.

The key features to look for include:

• Automated email and SMS campaigns for retention
• Client segmentation and targeted promotions
• Online booking integrated with marketing workflows
• Memberships, packages, and upsell tools
• Reporting dashboards for tracking retention and revenue

Best Salon Marketing Software Tools I’m Comparing

Here are the salon marketing platforms covered in this guide, along with what each is best known for:

• Boulevard — Best for premium client experience and advanced automation
• Mangomint — Best for clean UX and flexible scaling
• Vagaro — Best for affordability and small teams
• AestheticsPro — Best for med spas and HIPAA-compliant marketing
• Phorest — Best for retention-focused marketing and client growth tools

#1: Phorest

Phorest is a beauty salon software that’s designed to help encourage business growth and streamline appointment setting. They’ve been around since 2002 and service the UK, Ireland, and the US.

Features

• POS
• Digital consultations
• Email Marketing
• Dedicated business advisor

Availability

• U.S., UK, Ireland

Price

Phorest uses custom pricing based on your salon size, features, and region, so you won’t see flat rates listed publicly. However, most salons can expect:

• Estimated range: ~$100–$400+/month depending on plan and team size
• Tiered plans: Starter → Grow → Ultimate → Elite
• What’s included: booking, POS, CRM, marketing automation, and client retention tools
• Add-ons: branded apps, advanced marketing (Ads Manager), memberships, and 2-way SMS

Phorest is positioned as a premium, all-in-one system, and pricing reflects that, especially if you opt into higher-tier marketing and growth features.

Automations

• Auto-booking
• Automatic services in order
• Check-in
• Marketing campaigns

What Stands Out:

Video Consultations and business advisors.

Video Consultations

Phorest has an option for video consultations. I recognize that this is not necessarily considered a marketing tool at face value but I absolutely love this for overall marketing and client relationships for salons for two main reasons:

1. It is an easy revenue stream that is convenient and reliable.
2. It is a great way to market services more effectively and upsell additional services or products.

For example:

When I worked at a salon one of the biggest issues we had related to new clients who tried to book an appointment online or over the phone and they told us what they thought they wanted but it was really hard to gauge exactly what services would be required and how long the appointment would take for their overall goal.

One client, for example, booked an appointment for root touch up, hair color, highlights, and haircut.

However, what she really needed was a color correction, because she was trying to transition from bleach blonde with her natural dark brown roots showing to a light brown with highlights.

She told us that she had long hair in the notes, but until we got our hands on it we genuinely weren’t certain just how long or how thick her hair turned out to be (spoiler: SO LONG and SO THICK).

She worked full time and that was the only day she could get off for her appointment so she didn’t have any availability to stop by before her appointment for us to just see what her hair looked like and figure out what we needed to do.

If we had had Phorest at that time, we could have scheduled a video consultation beforehand which would have at least let us see what her hair looked like and provide a more in-depth discussion to help manage her expectations. Because without that video consultation, everyone was frustrated. The customer was frustrated that she needed to book a second appointment for us to apply the highlights and root smudge because it ended up taking far longer than expected given the color correction that she actually needed.

So, again, while this company does have a marketing suite, I think one of the best marketing components they have is the virtual consultation.

Business Advisors

Another thing I really like about this particular software is you get a dedicated business advisor as well as a local support team and they are there to help you grow your business so if you are worried about certain marketing efforts, you can turn to this dedicated business advisor to get input based on your needs.

Best for:

Salons that have time and interest in managing video consultations as an additional Revenue stream and marketing platform to upscale services and manage client expectations.

#2: AestheticsPro

AestheticsPro is a HIPAA-compliant cloud software to handle client management, telemedicine, and scheduling for med spas and salons.

Features

• AP Marketing solutions
• Payment processing
• Telemedicine
• Booking platform

Availability

• Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the US

Price

AestheticsPro starts at a lower base price but scales depending on features and med spa needs:

• Starting price: ~$160/month
• Typical range: $160–$300+/month depending on plan
• What’s included: scheduling, EMR/charting, telemedicine, and marketing tools
• Key factor: pricing increases with advanced medical/compliance features

This makes it a mid-range option, especially strong for med spas that need HIPAA-compliant workflows alongside marketing tools.

Automations

• Auto-booking
• Check-in
• Marketing campaigns

What Stands Out:

Touchpoint marketing.

As a salon, marketing to specific customers based on behaviors and preferences is a big key to success. That’s why I love the touchpoints aspect of AestheticsPro software. All of your campaigns whether they are e-blasts, newsletters, triggered emails, or drip campaigns can be customized based on certain triggers and touch points specific to your customers.

I really love the Touchpoints aspect to AestheticsPro marketing as a salon because you are more likely to engage customers in discounts, promos, or appointments that have to do with services they have already shown an interest in. Sending too many marketing emails or campaigns that have to do with services someone has never booked and may genuinely never book just comes off as an annoyance.

What makes the touchpoints marketing component so great?

With this you can automatically send each customer specific campaign content based on things like:

1. How they have engaged with your company in the past
2. What the services are they have booked or looked at on your website
3. What social media channels they prefer

AestheticsPro is great for the templates it has too, and the improved visibility with integrations on social media. It is geared more toward medical spas though, with HIPAA cloud based compliance, so while it might have features you don’t need as a salon, it is still something to consider if marketing is an important part of your goals.

Best for:

Marketing HIPAA-compliant services and followup products on an individualized level.

#3: Vagaro

Vagaro is a cloud-based platform for salons that handles marketing, booking, payment processing, and more. They have been around since 2009 and offer a mobile app and desktop management feature.

Features

• POS
• Inventory
• Form generation
• Email Marketing

Availability

• U.S. and select international markets

Price

Vagaro has a transparent and affordable pricing model, based on staff size:

• Starting price: $30/month (1 provider)
• Scaling: increases per staff member, capped at ~$85/month for 7+ providers
• Included: booking, POS, CRM, email/SMS marketing, and automation
• Extras: certain marketing tools, listings, or add-ons may cost extra

This makes Vagaro one of the most cost-efficient options, especially for solo stylists or small teams.

Automations

• Auto-booking
• Marketing campaigns

What Stands Out:

AI edits and save-for-later options for marketing campaigns

AI Edits with Vagaro

Vagaro offers built-in AI tools for campaign writing and optimization associated with your marketing options. With this function you can choose to let the AI capabilities edit the content for your marketing campaigns based on different tones like:

1. Professional
2. Trendy
3. Casual
4. Motivational

You can see in the example below that I wanted to create a promo for 20% off a chemical peel and change the wording to be a bit trendier and It produced a different result for me:

Save Time and Schedule Later with Vagaro

Vagaro lets you create campaigns that you save for later, or schedule for social media pages like Facebook. This can save your organization a lot of time and money by being able to create campaigns when you have the time and come back to them to send when you are ready or create them when you have the time and schedule them to be sent automatically.

Best for:

Smaller salons or independent stylists who need lower monthly costs with a la carte options for marketing campaigns.

#4: Boulevard

Boulevard is a premium salon and spa management platform that combines booking, client management, and built-in marketing tools into a single system, designed to help growing businesses streamline operations and deliver a more polished client experience.

Features

• POS
• Inventory
• Email Marketing
• Booking and messaging platform

Availability

• U.S. only

Price

Boulevard is a premium platform with higher starting costs:

• Starting price: ~$158–$175/month
• Typical range: $175–$400+/month depending on business size and features
• Included: booking, POS, client management, and built-in marketing automation
• Pricing model: scales with business complexity and customization

Boulevard can be best thought of as a high-end, experience-focused platform, with pricing to match.

Automations

• Auto-booking
• Automatic services in order
• Check-in
• Marketing campaigns

What Stands Out:

Automated campaigns like rescuing lost clients, with custom inclusion/exclusion features

Rescue Lost Clients with Boulevard

Boulevard offers several automated campaigns that you can set up to trigger after respective parameters have been met. For example, if you want to fill a slow day you can set an automated campaign to trigger when availability reaches 30% or higher.

One of the campaigns I like the most for salon marketing though, is the option to rescue lost clients. This has several templates from which to choose and you can edit the content within that template and then trigger it to send via email or text blast once clients have gone more than, let’s say, 180 days without booking an appointment.

Boulevard is unique with the data it serves for all of the marketing campaigns you create. Much like the other competitors, Boulevard lets you alter the groups who receive some of your marketing campaigns, selecting people who, for example, have booked appointments with the service you are targeting, with the employee you are supporting, and other facets.

It also lets you exclude specific groups.

Beyond that though, Boulevard makes for a more actionable marketing software for medical spas because it indicates at the bottom of each campaign you create the estimated participants that you will target if you are using your current customer database, which you can see in the image below.

Best for:

Scaling businesses looking for everything in one place, without hidden fees

#5: Mangomint

Mangomint is a salon booking and management software solution. They combine marketing components with booking, schedule management, payments, and more with a clean interface.

Features

• Intelligent waitlists which automatically fill open spots, empty time slots, or cancellations
• Payments routing
• Gamified UI

Availability

• Primarily U.S. and Canada

Price

Mangomint uses a flat-tier pricing structure based on features and team size:

• Essentials: $165/month (up to ~10 providers)
• Standard: $245/month (up to ~20 providers)
• Unlimited: $375/month (unlimited providers)

Add-ons (important):

• Marketing credits (pay-as-you-go)
• Two-way messaging (~$75/month)
• Forms/charting (~$50/month)

Mangomint sits in the mid-to-premium range, with predictable base pricing but optional add-ons that can increase total cost.

Automations

• Smart booking
• Customer check-in option with a front-facing display
• Waiting room option
• Wait list options to fill vacancies

What Stands Out:

Marketing restrictions and data management

Mangomint Restrictions

One of the things I like about the marketing options for Mangomint has to do with restrictions.

1. Offers only get applied during checkout with a staff member
2. Offers get applied with online booking using an offer code
3. Offers get applied automatically

This is something you don’t see with every marketing software out there but it’s very useful for salons that might want to control how that offer is applied, allowing customers the additional benefit of something like forwarding a code to a friend or family which not only gives the friend or family the available discount but gives the customer who forwarded the code originally something like 5% off their next visit if the friend or family uses that code.

More importantly, being able to control or restrict how offers are redeemed can provide valuable insight into the strategic efficacy of various marketing campaigns.

Best for:

Salons that want more of an app-based software solution rather than desktop usage

Summing Up

Each of these marketing software tools offer something great for salons and the best one is going to be based on your individual needs:

1. Boulevard is a strong fit for an all-inclusive cost that goes beyond marketing campaigns and includes things like report generation and an easy-to-use interface for managing client appointments.
2. Vagaro works well for those who want a customer facing marketing platform where they can showcase their business and generate revenue from things like last minute appointments or daily deals.
3. Mangomint is ideal for restricting your campaigns, creating things that you know are best for individual clients based on previous interactions.
4. Phorest is well suited for those who want to offer video consultations as a form of marketing, especially salons that want to manage customer expectations and upsell services in the most effective way possible.
5. AestheticsPro is ideal for salons that want the ability to similarly schedule video consultations but also manage customized marketing campaigns based on preferred channels and history of service appointments.