The short answer
- Choose Maravoa if you want a low entry price, a client book designed to move with you, detailed color history, and a clear path from booth renter to one-person shop or salon team.
- Choose GlossGenius if a polished client-facing brand, built-in marketing, automation, and a more established all-in-one independent-business experience are your priorities.
- Price check: Maravoa starts at $19/month, or $21/month with a dedicated texting number. GlossGenius Standard was $28/month when verified Jul 23, 2026.
- Important tradeoff: GlossGenius offers broader branding and marketing polish. Maravoa puts more emphasis on professional-owned records and flexible account paths.
The detailed comparison below covers individual and team pricing, texting, payments, cancellation, portability, and the features included at each tier.
How Maravoa and GlossGenius differ
GlossGenius and Maravoa both serve independent beauty professionals, but their pricing tells different stories. GlossGenius starts with a polished all-in-one plan and adds team, automation, and analytics depth at higher tiers. Maravoa starts with three ways for one professional to join, then moves into flat team bands. For a one-person business, that individual ladder is the clearest place to begin. Prices below are US prices verified in July 2026.
Pricing for one professional
Maravoa prices an individual by how they sign up, not by where they work.
Maravoa
- Owner-sponsored professional: $0 to the professional. When a Maravoa salon owner invites them into a sponsored seat, the salon's team plan covers access.
- Stylist: $19/month for a self-signed account. A dedicated texting number is an optional $2/month add-on.
- Solo: $29/month. Texting is included with booking, recurring appointments, client management, per-client color cards that keep each formula, developer, processing time, technique notes, and before-and-after photos on a color history timeline, payments and checkout, reports, gift cards, inventory, income and expense tools, and tax-ready exports.
Solo adds the fuller one-person business surface beyond Stylist: inventory, income and expense management, gift cards, retail checkout, and broader reporting tools.
GlossGenius
GlossGenius publishes monthly and annual billing options as of July 2026:
- Standard: $28 month to month, or $288 billed annually (shown as $24/month). It includes a customizable booking website, deposits, point of sale, inventory, packages and memberships, unlimited appointment notifications, email marketing, and text marketing.
- Gold: $56 month to month, or $576 billed annually (shown as $48/month). GlossGenius positions it for solo businesses and teams under 10 and adds forms and waivers, Google Booking and Reviews, waitlists, time tracking, room and resource management, and 500 monthly marketing-text credits.
- Platinum: $168 month to month, or $1,776 billed annually (shown as $148/month). It is positioned for teams of 10 or more and adds unlimited team members, team goals and analytics, customizable commissions, advanced reporting, and 2,500 monthly marketing-text credits.
GlossGenius also publishes clinical plans for medspas. Those are different products and are not used in the worked comparison here.
Team pricing shape
Maravoa's team plans use flat bands:
Maravoa Studio — $59/month
One location with up to five working professionals. Team access is included, so invited professionals do not each pay a second Maravoa subscription.
Maravoa Salon — $119/month
One location with up to ten working professionals. Teams above ten contact Maravoa for assisted pricing.
GlossGenius teams
GlossGenius says Gold supports teams under 10 at $56 month to month, while Platinum is designed for teams of 10 or more at $168 month to month and includes unlimited team members. Its pricing page also says each location is charged the plan price. Payroll is a separate $40/month add-on plus $6 per seat.
That is not a simple per-person comparison. A small team should price the features it actually needs: Gold is close to Maravoa Studio's sticker price, while Platinum and payroll change the total for a larger or more operations-heavy team.
Texting and marketing
Maravoa includes texting on Solo at $29/month. A self-signed Stylist account is $19/month with an optional dedicated number for $2/month. An owner-invited professional in a Maravoa salon can use a sponsored seat at $0 to them.
GlossGenius separates unlimited appointment notifications from marketing-text credits. Its help center says Standard receives 100 marketing credits once at signup, with no recurring monthly credits; Gold receives 500 per month; and Platinum receives 2,500 per month. Unused included credits do not roll over.
GlossGenius publishes additional marketing-credit bundles: 100 for $4.99, 250 for $7.99, or 500 for $11.99. Purchased credits roll over. That metering applies to marketing campaigns, not appointment reminders and confirmations.
For a professional who mainly needs booking messages and a dedicated client-texting number, Maravoa's $21 Stylist configuration is the smaller entry point. For someone who wants designed email campaigns, review management, social templates, and a larger marketing suite in one product, GlossGenius has the broader published marketing surface.
Payments and money
Both products have card-processing costs separate from the software subscription. Compare each complete processing quote for the way clients actually pay rather than itemizing only one side.
GlossGenius publishes one flat processing structure across its plans and includes point of sale, deposits, card on file, split payments, tap to pay, payouts, gift cards, invoices, memberships, and card-reader support. Maravoa connects checkout to the professional's own Stripe payout account and ledger.
GlossGenius is the clearer fit when a professional wants a vendor-provided card-reader ecosystem and one published processing structure. Maravoa is designed around keeping the professional's own payout account and business records attached to them.
Portability and cancellation
Maravoa keeps the professional's client history attached to their account and supports tax-ready CSV export. Individual plans do not require a long-term software contract.
GlossGenius says multi-location service has no contracts, and its help center says subscriptions can be changed or canceled through Settings. Annual billing is paid up front; its help article says a switch from annual to monthly does not automatically refund the unused annual balance, though support may review a refund request.
GlossGenius documents exports before cancellation. Historical business data is available through downloadable or emailed reports, and support can help with data that is not available in standard reports. GlossGenius warns that pausing removes login access while paused and advises exporting important information before cancellation or deletion.
What you'd actually pay
Here is the individual-led comparison for one professional with texting, using public prices verified in July 2026. Card-processing costs are excluded on both sides.
Maravoa Stylist — $21/month
$19 for a self-signed Stylist account plus $2 for a dedicated texting number. It covers the professional's client list, schedule, services and prices, checkout to their Stripe account, and revenue and Schedule C export. If a Maravoa owner sponsors the professional instead, the seat costs that professional $0.
Maravoa Solo — $29/month
Texting is included. Solo adds inventory, income and expense management, reports and tax export, gift cards, and retail checkout to the Stylist foundation.
GlossGenius Standard — $28/month
Month-to-month billing includes a custom booking website, point of sale, deposits, inventory, packages and memberships, appointment notifications, email marketing, and text marketing. Standard receives 100 marketing-text credits at signup but no recurring monthly marketing-credit balance. Annual billing is $288 up front.
GlossGenius Gold — $56/month
For recurring marketing-text credits and the broader growth toolkit, Gold includes 500 credits per month plus forms, waitlists, Google Booking and Reviews, time tracking, and resource management. Annual billing is $576 up front.
The sticker-price comparison is close at the basic solo level. The useful decision is whether the professional prefers Maravoa's smaller $21 texting entry or GlossGenius Standard's wider packaged website, POS, and marketing surface at $28.
Built for the Chair
Built with working stylists to make your Tuesday at 2 p.m. easier.
Maravoa is shaped around the work at the chair, and around who owns it.
- The portable book. A professional's clients, color history, and revenue records belong to them: an owner-invited professional works on a $0 sponsored seat inside a Maravoa salon, priced by how they sign up rather than where they work, and their book stays theirs.
- Color card timeline. Every client has a color card that keeps the formula, developer, processing time, technique notes, and before-and-after photos on one color history timeline.
- Recurring appointments in seconds. A standing appointment can be set to repeat, so a regular's future visits are scheduled together.
- Rebooking at checkout. Checkout prompts booking the client's next appointment in the same motion as taking payment.
- Texting included. Two-way client texting is included in the price, with a dedicated per-salon number.
- Owner money tools. A month-close profit-and-loss view in plain language, and refunds that can be undone.
Where GlossGenius is better
GlossGenius is stronger where presentation, packaged marketing, and a unified payment ecosystem matter more than the smallest possible entry price.
- Booking-site design: every plan includes a customizable website, service catalog, portfolio imagery, team profiles, deposits, and login-free client booking.
- Marketing suite: GlossGenius combines unlimited email marketing, marketing templates, social content, review management, client-discovery tools, and metered text campaigns. Gold and Platinum include recurring monthly text credits.
- Payment hardware and processing: GlossGenius sells its own first-party card readers and tap-to-pay hardware and publishes a single integrated processing structure, an in-house payment stack rather than a bring-your-own-processor model.
- Team growth tools: Gold adds time tracking, resources, forms, waitlists, and commission reporting. Platinum adds unlimited team members, goals, scorecards, customizable commissions, and advanced analytics.
- Multi-location operation: GlossGenius publishes unified client history, cross-location scheduling and permissions, location-specific menus, and business-wide and per-location reporting, with each location charged its plan price.
A professional who wants their booking site, marketing, reviews, payments, and visual brand packaged together may reasonably choose GlossGenius. Maravoa's advantage is the lower individual entry ladder and a portability model centered on the professional.
Common questions
Which individual Maravoa path applies to me?
It depends on how you join. An owner-invited sponsored professional pays $0 for their seat in a Maravoa salon. A professional signing up independently can choose Stylist at $19/month and add a dedicated texting number for $2/month. A one-person shop can choose Solo at $29/month with texting and the broader inventory, money, gift-card, retail, and reporting tools.
Is GlossGenius cheaper than Maravoa for one professional?
GlossGenius Standard is $28 month to month or $288 billed annually. Maravoa is $21/month for a self-signed Stylist account with a dedicated number or $29/month for Solo; a sponsored professional pays $0 themselves. The better value depends on whether the smaller Maravoa entry or GlossGenius's packaged booking-site, POS, and marketing features matter more.
Does GlossGenius include text marketing?
Yes, but the recurring allowance varies. Standard gets 100 marketing credits once at signup and no recurring monthly balance. Gold includes 500 per month and Platinum includes 2,500. Extra bundles are sold separately. Appointment reminders and confirmations are not limited by the marketing-credit balance.
What does Maravoa Solo add beyond Stylist?
Solo includes texting and adds inventory, income and expense management, reports and tax export, gift cards, and retail checkout to the Stylist foundation of clients, scheduling, recurring appointments, services, prices, per-client color cards with before-and-after photos, checkout, and revenue records.
Which product is better for a polished client-facing brand?
GlossGenius has the stronger published design and marketing package: customizable booking sites, portfolio imagery, templates, reviews, email campaigns, social content, and integrated payment hardware. Maravoa is the better fit when the priority is a smaller entry price and a professional-owned book that travels with them.