Comparison
Vagaro is a US-headquartered booking and POS platform with a strong feature set — but its pricing model layers a monthly subscription on top of per-transaction processing fees and per-staff add-ons. Trimsy is Australian-built with a flat AUD subscription, zero per-transaction Trimsy fees, and bring-your-own card processor.
Pricing and features checked against Vagaro's public pages on 24 September 2026.
For Australian salons that want the depth of a Vagaro-style platform without American processing fees and add-on creep.
Every row is checked against their own published pricing and feature pages, not a summary of them.
| TrimsyAU-built — fixed monthly fee, 0% per-booking commission | VagaroUS-based subscription + per-transaction fees | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | AUD $24.99 (1 staff) or $49.99 (3) — extra seats $7/mo | From A$45/mo for one bookable calendar, rising with each calendar, plus add-ons |
| Per-booking commission | 0% — always | 0% on bookings (but processing fees apply per transaction) |
| Card-processing fee | Stripe or Square charge their own card rate (~1.7%–2.2% AU); Trimsy adds nothing on top | 2.2% – 3.5% Vagaro processing on top of subscription |
| Card processor | Your choice — Stripe Connect or Square Terminal | Vagaro-owned processor only (limited alternatives) |
| Walk-in queue + kiosk | Yes — kiosk + digital queue board | Limited (check-in app only, no queue display) |
| Multi-location | Growth plan, no per-location surcharge | Per-location pricing — scales fast for chains |
| SMS reminders | Per-tenant Twilio at-cost | Bundled credits, then per-message overage |
| Country focus | Built for Australia (AUD, GST, AU support hours) | US-focused (USD, US support, AU customers pay FX) |
| Customer ownership | Your data, exportable any time | Yours, but card-on-file is locked to Vagaro processor |
| Learning curve | Onboarding wizard, most setups in <1 hour | Deep platform — significant configuration to fully exploit |
Where Trimsy is the better fit
Where Vagaro is
Not directly — Vagaro has 0% commission on bookings. The catch is per-transaction processing fees (~2.2% – 3.5%) on every card payment, layered on top of the monthly subscription. With Trimsy you connect your own Stripe or Square account and pay only the processor's standard rate — Trimsy never adds a percentage on top.
For most Australian businesses, yes — once you factor in FX, per-staff add-ons, per-location surcharges, and processing fees. Vagaro's headline subscription looks competitive, but the bundled fees stack up. Trimsy's entry plan is $24.99 AUD/mo with no processing markup.
Yes. Vagaro exports your client list, services, and historical bookings as CSVs. Trimsy's onboarding wizard imports them. Recurring appointments and active future bookings need to be manually re-created — we can help during a free 30-minute onboarding call.
Trimsy supports product items and barcode POS for retail-alongside-service businesses, plus gift cards and promo codes. Vagaro's retail-only feature set (purchase orders, supplier management, deep inventory analytics) is stronger if retail is more than 30% of your revenue.
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