Turbo Link vs Vagaro for salons
Vagaro starts cheap and adds on. Turbo Link is one price with everything included. Here is what each actually costs a working salon.
Vagaro’s headline price is hard to beat: $23.99 a month for the first six months, read from vagaro.com/pro/pricing on September 2, 2026. The catch is that number is promotional, the regular rate is $30 a month, and Vagaro’s real strength, a marketplace with millions of potential clients, is also the thing a lot of salons do not actually want. Turbo Link is a flat $29 a month with no promotional window and no marketplace.
Pricing, side by side
| Turbo Link Solo | Vagaro Single Location | |
|---|---|---|
| Price, billed annually | $29/month | Not applicable, monthly only |
| Price, promotional | Not applicable | $23.99/month, first 6 months |
| Price, regular | $29/month | $30/month |
| Card processing | 2.9% + 15 cents | Not published on pricing page |
| Free trial | Not applicable | 30 days, excludes email/text marketing and branded app |
| Marketplace listing | None | Included, free |
| Client texts | Included in plan | 1,000 free emails/month; text marketing appears to be separate |
Figures read from vagaro.com/pro/pricing on September 2, 2026. Where a number was not on that page, it is marked unverified rather than guessed.
The real comparison is not the promo month, it is month seven onward, when Vagaro settles to $30 and a salon that wants text marketing or a branded app on top of the base plan is paying for those separately. Turbo Link’s $29 does not change after any promotional period because there is not one.
What Vagaro does better
Vagaro has scale that Turbo Link does not try to match:
- The marketplace itself. A free listing that puts a salon in front of people already searching Vagaro, plus booking widgets on Instagram, Facebook, and Apple Maps, is genuine discovery Turbo Link does not offer.
- 1,000 free emails a month. That is built into the base plan, not an add-on.
- A long feature list at one entry price. Loyalty programs, SOAP notes, daily deals, and inventory tracking are all listed as included on the single-location plan.
If a salon’s growth plan depends on strangers finding them through a marketplace search rather than through their own marketing, Vagaro’s reach is worth the tradeoff.
What Turbo Link does that avoids the add-on stack
Vagaro’s page lists a long feature set at one price, but the practical experience for many salons is that text marketing, a branded app, and extra staff logins get quoted separately once you are signing up. Turbo Link’s structure is different:
- One price, nothing bolted on later. Solo at $29 a month includes the client book, booking, payments, the pro app, and a client portal. There is no second call to unlock texting.
- No marketplace exposure. A client who books with a salon on Turbo Link searched for that salon, not a category page listing five competitors.
- A human, not a support ticket. Real person support, plus Done For You website builds from $349 and managed marketing from $149 a month if a salon wants the work handled for them.
- Client book built to flag automatically. Due-to-rebook, gone-quiet at ten weeks, and birthday surfacing happen without configuring a marketing campaign.
Which one fits
A salon chasing new-client volume from a big directory, and comfortable adding text and app add-ons as needed, will find real value in Vagaro’s reach. A salon that wants one number on the invoice every month, its own domain, and no marketplace listing next to the salon down the street will fit Turbo Link’s flat $29.
Compare website cost specifically at how much does a salon website cost, or see the full salon feature set at for salons. Full pricing: the pricing page. Talk to a person: get a demo.
Questions people ask
Is Vagaro's $23.99 a month the real price?
It is a promotional rate for the first six months, read from vagaro.com/pro/pricing on September 2, 2026. The regular single-location price is $30 a month. Text marketing, email beyond the free 1,000 a month, and a branded app are separate add-ons with their own cost, which was not published on the pricing page at the time this was written.
Does Vagaro really list my business on a marketplace?
Yes. Vagaro includes a free listing on the Vagaro Marketplace and online booking through Vagaro, Instagram, Facebook, and Apple Maps. That marketplace listing puts your salon in front of people searching Vagaro generally, but it also puts you next to every other salon on Vagaro in the same search.
Which one has lower card processing?
Vagaro's per-transaction rate was not published on the fetched pricing page, so it is unverified here. Turbo Link charges 2.9 percent plus 15 cents. Check Vagaro's current merchant services terms directly before comparing on this point.
Does Turbo Link have a marketplace like Vagaro?
No. Turbo Link never lists a salon in a shared directory next to competitors. Every booking on Turbo Link comes through the salon's own site and its own domain.
What happens to add-ons if I switch from Vagaro to Turbo Link?
You stop paying for them, because they are already included. Text bundles, client book, and the booking widget are part of the one Turbo Link price. See /help/switching-from-another-tool for the full list of what changes.