The short answer

GlossGenius is the better choice for a solo professional who wants a polished client-facing brand, a packaged booking site, and marketing and payments handled in one first-party system. Maravoa is the better choice when the priorities are a lower 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.

  • Audience. Both serve independent beauty professionals. GlossGenius leads with presentation and packaged marketing; Maravoa leads with professional-owned records and flexible account paths.
  • Pricing. Maravoa starts at $19/month, or $21/month with a dedicated texting number, and Solo is $29/month. GlossGenius Standard is $28/month, or $24/month billed annually.
  • Payments. GlossGenius publishes a flat 2.6% processing rate and sells its own card readers. Maravoa sends checkout to the professional's own Stripe account, so the payout account and business records stay attached to them.
  • Growth path. Maravoa moves into flat team bands at $59 for up to five and $119 for up to ten. GlossGenius moves up through Gold at $56/month and Platinum at $168/month, and charges each location its plan price.

The detailed comparison below covers audience, 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.

GlossGenius prices below were checked against GlossGenius's own public pricing page on Sep 1, 2026.

Audience: brand and marketing versus record ownership

GlossGenius packages the client-facing surface. Every plan includes a customizable booking website, service catalog, portfolio imagery, team profiles, deposits and login-free client booking, and the higher tiers add forms, waitlists, reviews and analytics. A professional who wants their booking site, marketing, reviews, payments and visual brand to arrive together is buying a package.

Maravoa packages the record. The client book, color history and revenue records are attached to the professional, an owner can sponsor a seat without taking ownership of that book, and the same account works whether the professional is a booth renter, a one-person shop or part of a salon team. A professional who expects to move at some point is buying portability.

Pricing and fees

Maravoa: three paths for one professional

Maravoa prices an individual by how they sign up, not by where they work.

  • 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 plans

As checked on Sep 1, 2026, GlossGenius publishes monthly and annual billing:

  • Standard: $28/month, or $24/month billed annually. It includes a customizable booking website, deposits, point of sale, inventory, packages and memberships, appointment reminders and confirmations, email marketing and text marketing.
  • Gold: $56/month, or $48/month billed annually. GlossGenius positions it for solo businesses and smaller teams and adds forms and waivers, Google Booking and Reviews, waitlists, time tracking, and room and resource management.
  • Platinum: $168/month, or $148/month billed annually. It is positioned for larger teams and adds unlimited team members, team goals and analytics, customizable commissions and advanced reporting.

GlossGenius also publishes clinical plans for medspas. Those are different products and are not used in the worked comparison here.

Maravoa team bands

  • 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.
  • Salon: $119/month. One location with up to ten working professionals. Teams above ten contact Maravoa for assisted pricing.

GlossGenius's pricing page says each location is charged the plan price. 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 changes the total for a larger or more operations-heavy team.

Features and day-to-day operations

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 appointment reminders and confirmations from marketing text credits, and each plan includes a stated allowance of marketing text credits. Its published per-tier credit allowances have moved recently and this comparison does not restate a figure it cannot currently verify, so check the credit allowance on the GlossGenius pricing page for the plan you are considering, and ask whether the allowance is granted once at signup or renews monthly, whether unused credits roll over, and what additional credits cost. That answer changes the running cost for anyone who sends campaigns.

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

GlossGenius publishes a flat 2.6% processing rate across its plans, states that there are no Tap to Pay, card-on-file or manual-entry fees, and offers instant payouts for an additional 1.8% fee. It includes point of sale, deposits, card on file, split payments, Tap to Pay, payouts, gift cards, invoices, memberships and card reader support, and it sells its own first-party hardware.

Maravoa connects checkout to the professional's own Stripe payout account and ledger. Stripe's processing charges are separate from the Maravoa subscription, so compare the complete quote for the way clients actually pay rather than itemizing only one side.

GlossGenius is the clearer fit when a professional wants a vendor-provided card reader ecosystem and one published processing rate. Maravoa is designed around keeping the professional's own payout account and business records attached to them.

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.

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 would actually pay

Here is the individual-led comparison for one professional with texting. Card processing costs are excluded on both sides.

Maravoa Stylist at $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 at $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 at $28/month

Month-to-month billing includes a custom booking website, point of sale, deposits, inventory, packages and memberships, appointment reminders and confirmations, email marketing and text marketing. Annual billing brings it to $24/month, paid up front.

GlossGenius Gold at $56/month

For the broader growth toolkit, Gold adds forms, waitlists, Google Booking and Reviews, time tracking and resource management. Annual billing brings it to $48/month, paid 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, point of sale and marketing surface at $28.

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 email marketing, marketing templates, social content, review management, client discovery tools and metered text campaigns.
  • Payment hardware and processing: GlossGenius sells its own first-party card readers and tap-to-pay hardware and publishes a flat 2.6% processing rate, an in-house payment stack rather than a bring-your-own-processor model.
  • Team growth tools: Gold adds time tracking, resources, forms and waitlists. Platinum adds unlimited team members, goals, 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, or $24/month billed annually. Maravoa is $21/month for a self-signed Stylist account with a dedicated number, or $29/month for Solo, and a sponsored professional pays $0 themselves. The better value depends on whether the smaller Maravoa entry or GlossGenius's packaged booking site, point of sale and marketing features matter more.

Does GlossGenius include text marketing?

Yes. Each plan includes a stated allowance of marketing text credits, separate from appointment reminders and confirmations, and additional credits are sold separately. The published allowances have changed recently, so confirm the current figure for your plan on the GlossGenius pricing page and ask whether it renews monthly.

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.

Try the live Maravoa demo or create an account.