Elara vs Vagaro for class and session studios
By Elara team · Published
Priced per location, with every feature included.
Vagaro combines appointment calendars, classes, retail and a consumer marketplace (V1, V3). Elara is built around a timetable of scheduled classes and sessions, for Pilates studios, gyms that run classes, and sauna, contrast therapy and bathhouse studios: shared places and private bookings of one session, memberships and credit packs, and kept waiver versions. A business led by appointments, such as a salon, a spa or a massage practice, fits Vagaro better, because Elara has no menu of services with open appointment slots.
This comparison uses Vagaro's own help center, read on October 21, 2026. Vagaro is a trademark of its owner. Elara is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Vagaro. Most of the Vagaro pages we cite apply to every Vagaro business; where a page covers only the US or Canada, the cell says so.
Side by side
| Decision | Elara | Vagaro |
|---|---|---|
| Payment processors | Stripe or Square, connected from the studio's own account. (E6) | Vagaro runs its own card processing in the US and Canada. Checkout can also track payments taken through other processors. (V2, V6, V3) |
| Appointments | No menu of services with open appointment slots. A one-to-one session is a session with one place and an instructor. (E1) | Appointments and classes. (V3) |
| Shared places and private booking | Capacity per session. When private booking is turned on for the session, a private booking is offered only while the session has no other bookings; once booked privately, nobody else can book a place. There is no room record. (E1) | A class has a capacity, and a room can be set up as a resource so it is not double booked. The pages we read do not say whether a private booking stops public bookings in a class, or the reverse. Ask Vagaro to show a private booking of a class that already has public bookings. (V7, V8) |
| Waivers for each guest | Every version a customer signs is kept, and changing a waiver's text or file asks everyone who signed it to accept the new version. Friends booked into shared places sign before they can be checked in. Guests on a private booking do not sign: the booker enters their names, and the staff roster shows only how many are coming. (E2, E9) | The Forms add-on takes electronic signatures, and a form can be required before booking. By default a customer who has filled it out is not asked again; Vagaro can ask at every booking, or let a form expire so customers sign it again. The pages we read do not say whether editing a form asks people to sign again, or whether each attendee booked by someone else signs. Ask Vagaro to show both. (V1, V4, V5) |
| Memberships, packs and gift cards | Monthly, yearly and fixed-term plans, credit packs that can be limited to the session categories you choose, and gift cards. (E3) | Memberships, packages and gift cards. (V3) |
| Front desk | Products and plans sold at the front desk, with a connected Stripe or Square card reader. (E4) | Retail checkout with a cash drawer, receipt printer and barcode scanner. In the US, card options include Vagaro's card reader, PayPro Mini and Tap to Phone; in Canada, Vagaro names the WisePad 3 Mobile reader. (V3, V2, V9) |
| Marketplace | No marketplace of its own, and no connection to one. (E10) | A listing on the Vagaro Marketplace. (V1) |
| Several locations | Each session belongs to one location and runs in that location's own time zone. Plans, waivers, customers and the payment account are shared across the studio; reports filter by location, and staff roles can be limited to their locations for sessions, reservations, reports and shifts, while customers, sales and the POS stay studio-wide. (E7, E8) | Multi-Location adds locations to one account, which can share customers, gift cards, packages, memberships and points between them, with reports across locations. Ask Vagaro to show staff permissions across two locations. (V3, V10) |
| Moving data | Imports from Kenko and Mindbody. Elara cannot read Vagaro data. (E5) | Customer imports, and a Premium Import from other booking software, run by Vagaro's team, covering contacts, inventory, future appointments, notes, services, memberships and packages. Ask whether members' recurring payments and saved cards move across, or must be set up again. (V11, V3) |
Vagaro's help center, all read on October 21, 2026:
- V1: Plans and premium features
- V2: US card processing
- V3: Features included in the base subscription
- V4: Require a form before booking or buying
- V5: Set an expiration date for a form
- V6: Canada card processing
- V7: Schedule a class or workshop
- V8: Add resources to services and classes
- V9: Get started with card processing
- V10: Reports for multi-location businesses
- V11: Import your customer list
Elara's help pages, checked against the product code on October 21, 2026: Sessions and Booking settings (E1), Waivers (E2), Memberships (E3), Point of Sale (E4), Migration Center (E5), Payments (E6), Business settings, including location time zones (E7), Reports and Admins and roles (E8), Bring-a-friend and Attendance (E9), Settings, which lists every Settings destination (E10).
Where Vagaro is the better fit
Choose Vagaro when appointment calendars, services, retail and its marketplace matter as much as classes. Its Premium Import can also cover a move from software Elara cannot read (V3, V11).
Where Elara is the better fit
Choose Elara when your main sale is a place in a class or session, or a private booking of one, and you want payments to run through the Stripe or Square account your studio owns. Elara keeps every waiver version a customer signs and asks for a changed waiver to be signed again; ask Vagaro to show its forms doing the same, using the test below.
Test one booking in both
Ask each vendor to run the same booking. Open an eight-place class and sell two places, then try to book it privately. Book three friends into a class, make each one sign the waiver, then change the waiver before the class and try to check them in. If you run more than one location, ask to see a member's plan used at both. The Vagaro pages we read leave the private booking and the waiver steps open, so these are the ones to watch.
Ask about your own timetable
Elara is sold by quote; ask for one. Bring your real schedule, and ask both vendors to show the open cells above before you move any customer data.
The Pilates studios, gyms and sauna studios pages explain how Elara runs each. For another alternative, read Elara vs Mindbody.