Starta.one
To book through Vagaro, clients find your salon on the marketplace (next to your competitors), create a Vagaro account, select service and time. With Starta.one they just message on Telegram: 'book me for Friday at 4pm' — done.
Vagaro has a wide feature set, but its add-on pricing model means you pay extra for forms ($10/mo), text marketing ($20/mo), website builder ($20/mo), payroll ($34/mo + $5/employee), and more. Real cost for most salons: $100–150/mo. No free plan, no operational AI.
Starta.one includes all features in one plan, adds a built-in AI assistant, and offers a genuinely free Lite plan.
| Feature | Starta | Vagaro |
|---|---|---|
| How clients book | | |
| How you manage your business | | |
| Telegram bot for clients | | |
| Online booking | | |
| Calendar & scheduling | | |
| CRM / client database | | |
| AI assistant | | |
| P&L reports | | |
| Loyalty program | | |
| SMS notifications | | |
| Salary management | | |
| Inventory | | |
| Mobile app | | |
| Add-on pricing | | |
| Custom branding | | |
| Free plan | | |
Starta.one Lite — free, unlimited bookings
Starta.one Pro — from €6.29/mo for one specialist or €10.79/mo for up to 5 staff (annual billing), +€1.26/mo per additional
$30/mo for 1 calendar, +$10/mo per additional. Add-ons: forms +$10/mo, text marketing +$20/mo, website builder +$20/mo, payroll +$34/mo + $5/employee
No free plan — 30-day trial only. Payment processing: 2.2–3.5% per transaction. 'Free' card reader requires a 12-month commitment ($100–140 cancellation fee). Real-world cost for most salons: $100–150/mo.
Vagaro's $30/mo starting price is misleading — real costs with essential add-ons reach $100–150/mo for most salons. Starta.one Lite is genuinely free, and Pro starts from €6.29/mo for one specialist or €10.79/mo for up to 5 staff — all features included.
It sees who hasn't visited in months and reaches out first — with a relevant offer. Vagaro shows data in reports, but the action is up to you.
Vagaro has sales reports but no P&L. Starta.one's AI analyses your business weekly: where revenue dipped, which staff slot is underutilised, which clients are about to churn.
Vagaro is a complex interface with dozens of paid add-ons. Tell AI about your business — it builds your services, schedule, and booking page in minutes.
Send any request to the chat — AI executes it in seconds. Like Telegram, except your business listens.
Vagaro has a wide feature set but splits everything into $10–20/mo add-ons — real costs reach $100–150/mo.
Starta.one includes all features in one plan, adds a full AI assistant (which Vagaro lacks), offers a genuinely free Lite plan, and keeps your clients yours without marketplace ads for competitors.
Starta.one Pro — from €6.29/mo for one specialist or €10.79/mo for up to 5 staff (annual billing), +€1.26/mo per additional, all features included. Lite — free.
Vagaro: $30/mo for 1 calendar + essential add-ons (forms, text marketing, website, payroll) — real-world costs are typically $100–150/mo.
Vagaro has limited AI — content generation for service descriptions, marketing copy, and a basic chatbot.
Starta.one has a full AI assistant: sets up the system from a description of your business, optimises scheduling, reactivates inactive clients, runs weekly business analyses and gives recommendations.
Switching is free. Note that Vagaro has limited data export — appointment exports require contacting support, and billing data cannot be exported. Import your client database and describe your business to the AI — it recreates the rest in minutes.
All features in one plan (no $10–20/mo per module), full AI automation, genuinely free Starta.one Lite, no hardware lock-in with 12-month contracts, booking page with your logo and style with no extra fees. Clients book directly in Telegram — not through the Vagaro marketplace.