Vagaro is a great multi-modality platform for salons, spas, and fitness businesses. We are studio software built specifically for personal training. Every plan includes unlimited clients.
Vagaro is one of the most popular salon-and-fitness booking platforms in the US. Hair salons, nail studios, spas, yoga studios, and personal training studios all use it. The strength is breadth: booking, POS, retail inventory, gift cards, marketing automation, classes, memberships, all in one place.
For a personal training studio, that breadth is also the limit. Vagaro does not model session packages with FIFO drawdown across overlapping contracts, does not track trainer commissions and payouts, and Vagaro Pay holds your merchant account. We are narrower and deeper. PT-specific. Built around the calendar, the package, and the trainer-client relationship.
Vagaro has real strengths if you run a multi-modality business. We have real strengths if you run only personal training. Honest split.
| My Training Studio | Vagaro | |
|---|---|---|
| Booking and Scheduling | ||
| 1-on-1 in-person session booking | First-class | Yes |
| Trainer availability and conflict detection | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring weekly sessions from contract | Auto-generated | Manual |
| Side-by-side per-trainer day view | Yes | Limited |
| Session Packages and Contracts | ||
| Session packages with balance tracking | Automatic | As "Series" |
| FIFO drawdown across overlapping packages | Yes | No |
| Contract-to-schedule linking | Yes | No |
| Sessions-remaining alerts | Yes | No |
| Studio Operations | ||
| Trainer commission tracking | Yes | Basic |
| Trainer payouts | Yes | No |
| Retention reports out of the box | Yes | Add-on |
| Vagaro's Core Strengths | ||
| Retail / POS / inventory | Not our focus | Yes |
| Gift cards and packages-as-products | Limited | Yes |
| Marketing automation (email + text campaigns) | No | Yes |
| Multi-modality (salon + spa + fitness combined) | PT only | Yes |
| Group class / drop-in scheduling | Limited | Yes |
| Payments | ||
| You own the merchant account | Your Stripe | Vagaro Pay is the merchant |
| Recurring billing rate | 2.9% + $0.30 | ~2.75% + $0.10 |
| Take payment data with you if you leave | Yes | No |
| Pricing Model | ||
| Unlimited clients on every plan | Yes | Pricing scales by calendar/staff |
Three things Vagaro treats as Series, add-ons, or doesn't model. We treat them as core.
| Trainer | Sessions | Revenue | Commission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coach Dan | 42 | $3,150 | $945 |
| Coach Lia | 28 | $2,100 | $630 |
| Coach Marc | 18 | $1,350 | $405 |
| Total commission | $1,980 | ||
| Client | Sessions | Months | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah Mitchell | 148 | 14 | Active |
| Lisa Kim | 87 | 11 | Active |
| Mike Rodriguez | 62 | 6 | Active |
| Tom Watson | 34 | 3 | Inactive |
Vagaro starts cheap and scales by calendar count. We are flat per-studio with unlimited clients on every plan.
| Your business | My Training Studio | Vagaro |
|---|---|---|
| Solo trainer (1 calendar) | $50/mo | ~$30/mo |
| 3 trainers | $199/mo | ~$50/mo + add-ons |
| 5 trainers | $199/mo | ~$70/mo + add-ons |
| POS / retail / inventory | Not offered | ~$10 to $25/mo add-on |
| Marketing campaigns (email/text) | Not offered | ~$10 to $30/mo add-on |
| Per-client fees | $0 | $0 |
| Session packages, FIFO, commissions, payouts | All included | Not modeled, or partial |
Vagaro tier and add-on prices are approximate, change, and depend on which modules you turn on. Check vagaro.com for current rates. The pattern: Vagaro grows by calendars and modules, we are flat per-studio.
Vagaro can run a personal training studio, and many do use it. The strength is breadth: it bundles booking, POS, retail, gift cards, marketing automation, and class scheduling into one platform. For a multi-modality business that mixes PT with salon, spa, or group fitness, that breadth is genuinely valuable. For a studio that only runs personal training, the per-PT primitives (session packages with FIFO drawdown, contract-to-schedule linking, trainer commissions and payouts) are weaker or missing. My Training Studio is built around those.
Vagaro starts cheaper at the entry tier (around $30/mo for 1 calendar/staff) and scales by adding calendars and modules. A 5-trainer studio runs roughly $70/mo before add-ons, plus separate fees for POS (~$10-$25/mo), marketing (~$10-$30/mo), and others. My Training Studio is $50/mo for solo trainers and $199/mo for up to 5 trainers, flat, with unlimited clients on every plan. Vagaro often wins on sticker price for a tiny studio. MTS wins on what your business actually needs once you sell session packages, hire trainers, or want commission payouts.
Vagaro models session packages as "Series" — a fixed number of sessions a client buys upfront. It tracks the count down as sessions are consumed. What it does not model: FIFO drawdown across overlapping Series (where a new package starts before the old one is fully used), contract-to-schedule linking (so booked sessions auto-deduct from the package), or sessions-remaining alerts before a client runs out. My Training Studio treats those as core features because they are how an in-person studio actually bills.
No. Vagaro processes payments through Vagaro Pay, where Vagaro Inc. is the merchant of record. You cannot connect your own Stripe account. Funds flow through Vagaro to your bank, and your client payment data is locked to the Vagaro ecosystem. With My Training Studio, you connect your own Stripe account and your business is the merchant of record. Your data, your dispute relationships, your funds.
FIFO drawdown across overlapping session packages, contract-to-schedule linking so attendance auto-deducts, sessions-remaining alerts before clients run out, trainer commission tracking with one-click payouts, retention reports out of the box (no marketing add-on required), and unlimited clients on every plan with no calendar-based pricing creep. Plus: you own your Stripe account.