Leaving AestheticsPro?  A Buyer’s Guide to 4 Med Spa Software Alternatives

A med spa owner recently shared that she was thinking of leaving AestheticsPro after a few years. The problem wasn’t that the software was bad. It served her small med spa well when she was starting out. But it was becoming clear that her business was outgrowing what AestheticsPro provided. 

I wrote this detailed guide to compare four strong AestheticsPro alternatives, looking at some top areas that matter when making the switch: 

• Clinical workflow 
• Client experience
• Business operations
• Unique features that set these apart from each other

Let’s dive in, so you can decide whether you need different clinical capabilities, a better client-facing experience, or just a more balanced system for your evolving practice.

What Should You Look for When Leaving AestheticsPro?

What’s actually driving your consideration to leave? AestheticsPro is heavily focused on medical aesthetics on the clinical side of things.

But a med spa is also a retail business, a service business, and, ultimately, a relationship business. Your clients interact with your software platform before they ever come in your door. Most importantly, your platform speaks to their very first impression of your practice, and you know what they say about first impressions. 

Your staff’s experience with it matters too. They operate the front and back office, manage schedules and reports, interact with client documentation, and facilitate daily operations like retail and accounting. 

All of this makes your software much more than just an electronic charting tool.

When evaluating an AestheticsPro alternative, consider these three areas:

• Clinical workflow: How well does the platform handle documentation, forms, treatment records, photos, and compliance-related items?
• Client experience: How easy and polished is it for non-techy clients to discover, book, communicate, and manage their relationship with you online?
• Business operations: Does the software connect scheduling, payments, client management, marketing, and reporting? Or will you be piecing together multiple systems?

With these priorities in mind, four platforms deserve your attention: Pabau, Phorest, Vagaro, and Boulevard. Let’s look at where each of these is a strong alternative for you. 

Pabau: Clinical Depth With Business Growth Built In

I’m listing Pabau first here because it’s probably one of the most direct AestheticsPro alternatives here, at least when it comes to medical aesthetics charting and treatment management. 

Pabau Clinical Workflow

This is where Pabau really competes.

From the client profile, staff can interact with the treatment history, images, notes, products, and consent forms. Injection plotting allows treatment points to be mapped in the client record. Before-and-after images are integrated into the profile and shareable anytime. 

If you originally chose AestheticsPro for detailed clinical documentation, Pabau is worth a serious look for this reason. Pabau offers strong clinical features specifically designed for medical-aesthetics practices. The clinical and business end functionality can create a steeper learning curve for teams that want something very simple.

Pabau Client Experience

Pabau tries to extend beyond the traditional EMR functionalities. Clients can log in to the desktop site to book or reschedule online, pay deposits, see their loyalty program, view packages, and see treatment information. 

The client’s journey is connected from booking to the clinical records they can interact with. But if your primary goal is for your client to have an exceptionally polished, luxury booking experience, you may want to compare the actual client-facing experience closely with platforms like Boulevard to see if it’s strong enough. 

Pabau Business Operations

Pabau connects their clinical and scheduling functions with their lead management, marketing, reporting, inventory, and staff management at multiple locations. 

What Makes Pabau Stand Out: 

What makes Pabau unique from the rest is Pabau Scribe. This AI tool listens in and documents your clinical notes in real time. 

Pabau is best for a clinically focused med spa that wants to move away from AestheticsPro without giving up substantial medical functionality. Pabau is not the best option for an owner who’s looking for a slick, modern client platform. 

Phorest: Client Experience Built Into a Strong Clinical Base

Phorest’s strength lies in a well-rounded management platform and a customizable client app as an add-on. It’s best suited for businesses looking for solid tools for everyday use, including an emphasis on smart scheduling and loyalty perks. 

Phorest is an interesting alternative to AestheticsPro as it sits between traditional clinical software and premium spa management software. It combines HIPAA-compliant charting with a marketing suite, CRM, reporting, and an app for client online booking and engagement.

Clinical Workflow

Phorest delivers advanced charting for salons, spas, and med spas. It also features treatment plans with face mapping, photo markup, before-and-after images, and digital consultation forms. Their system keeps client records and documentation connected in one platform. Phorest’s strength lies in their all-in-one CRM with EMR tendencies, with strong clinical documentation built in.

The downside is that they are not insurance-heavy nor hospital-adjacent. Compare your most frequently performed treatments during the demo period, if your med spa does highly specialized clinical work.

Client Experience

One of Phorest’s strongest areas is its awareness of the client experience. 

It has a branding-optional booking app for clients on the go. Clients can manage their services and treatment schedule. They can also add images to their profile for their practitioner to view and interact with.

Phorest has personalized marketing and a strong loyalty program focus, which emphasizes retention during and between appointments. They have a strong combination of CRM, marketing, online tools, and loyalty perks. 

But a smaller practice may find that it’s more software than they need for the price. For a surgical med spa practice, owners may want to evaluate the strength of this platform and the tools that are most important to them.  

Business Operations

Reporting issues are one of the major reasons owners start looking elsewhere. Phorest has a real strength in customized reports for revenue, staff performance, retention, and other helpful operational metrics. Multiple locations aren’t a problem for Phorest. 

What Makes Phorest Stand Out: 

What makes Phorest an outlier on this list is its branded app and their embrace of video consultations. These tools put your med spa in your clients’ pocket, making their online experience more efficient and user-friendly.

Phorest is best for a practice that is more client-experience forward than AestheticsPro. They’re perhaps a bit less medically focused, but on the other hand, the client experience and marketing suite make up for that. If you’re a med spa that wants to move away from AestheticsPro without giving up digital forms, client face mapping and images – then you may be attracted to Phorest. Phorest is not best for an owner who’s looking for a fully functional EMR package with hospital-adjacent functionality. 

Vagaro: Broad Functionality and Flexibility

Rather than positioning itself as primarily a clinical system, Vagaro takes a different approach to med spas. Handling everything from med spas to salons and exercise facilities with classes, Vagaro is a broad-spectrum business management platform that has expanded into the med spa space and made big improvements along the way.

Its medical spa offerings include HIPAA-compliant charting, client records, SOAP notes, before and after images, e-forms, consent management, and e-prescribing to partner pharmacies. I can personally speak to Vagaro being generally a great all-in-one, as I’ve used it in the past in my massage and spa businesses.

Clinical Workflow

Vagaro has tools for injectables, fillers, and laser treatments. Vagaro boasts a broad all-in-one platform that combines med spa clinical tools with the everyday business functions needed to run and grow a practice. 

Since it now provides a more robust med spa platform, Vagaro gives smaller practices access to clinical documentation while also covering many everyday business operations on desktop and a handy mobile app. The marketing and practice management tools keep you on one platform. 

For a highly clinically minded or hospital-adjacent practice, owners should compare the depth and efficiency of Vagaro’s charting workflow against a medical aesthetics-focused platform. 

Client Experience

Vagaro is a workhorse in the self-care space. It has a branded app for both clinics and clients. From personal experience, our clients love the online scheduling in the app and control of their own profile management. For a practice that wants scheduling, payments, and business management under one roof without a clinically heavy, hospital-approved focus, Vagaro’s broad reach may be attractive. Vagaro is flexible, broad, and adaptable to a spectrum of client services with their pro and client apps. Clients generally like its broad features too. 

Your clients will not have access to features like treatment plans and before-and-after photos directly from their login, in case that’s a deal breaker for you. 

Business Operations

It provides a pretty wide range of tools for scheduling, customer management, forms, and marketing, and they’re all on the same app. Like most systems, some tools are not available on the app itself, and you’ll need the desktop app to access the full functionality, such as certain reports and administrative functions. 

What Makes Vagaro Stand Out:

Its breadth may be more of a standout to those looking for an all-in-one business management system with a solid med spa edition. Vagaro is best for a smaller or growing med spa that needs broad business functionality, and not a deep clinical workflow. Vagaro is not best for owners who need the client to view their own treatment data. Much of that documentation is primarily designed for staff, not clients. 

Boulevard: The Client Experience Leader

Boulevard is probably the most interesting alternative here, being beyond an EMR offering clients a customized, luxurious experience. If the reason you’re leaving AestheticsPro has less to do with needing more clinical software, and more to do with staff and clients experiencing a true accelerated modern experience, Boulevard is worth a look. 

Boulevard historically built its strong reputation with premium service businesses. It has increased its med spa capabilities significantly to include photo markup, Dr sign-off, and e-Prescribe so that your clients feel the thoroughness of their med spa experience with you. 

Clinical Workflow

They have increased traction in the med spa space with built-in clinical functionality on a platform with a bigger philosophy of client experience. They’re leaders in creating seamless workflows for client management, staffing, and multi-location connectivity of forms and data. While Boulevard has made huge strides in their clinical med spa offerings, a practice that requires highly specialized medical charting may need to test their workflows before switching. 

Client Experience

Boulevard takes the cake when it comes to an amazing client experience. 

Clients love the self-booking and account management overlay that they can access on a med spa’s site, social media, and retail platform. This results in clients staying on your platform longer, increasing chances of bookings and sales alike. Boulevard has Precision Scheduling, which optimizes the client’s visit experience.

It’s the first impression that matters way before they step in your door. This is one of the strongest choices to provide med spa clients with a polished, modern, and brand-forward client experience from booking to checkout. 

However, highly clinical practices should look closely at the clinical side of things. If your clients rely regularly on needing to see their own treatment and clinical information, evaluate that first. 

Business Operations

Boulevard connects the entire client booking experience and back office, with smooth integrations for business management, med spa charting, forms, and retail. That can eliminate some of the disconnect between the clinical side and client experience side that other platforms have. 

What Makes Boulevard Stand Out:

Boulevard treats booking as part of your brand. A med spa owner may be pleasantly surprised by how much Boulevard is designed around special aspects of what the client sees and experiences. Boulevard is best if you’re a med spa owner who wants staff and clients to experience a seamless front desk and mobile journey from booking to treatment plan to checkout. They deliver robust HIPAA-compliance, POS, and CRM tools that you’ll find essential if you want to grow your brand. Boulevard is not best if you’re a med spa owner whose practice centers on full-scale surgical procedures or deeply complex, multi-stage medical EMR tracking.

So, How Do You Choose Among These?

Remember, feature checklists are just that. You still need to dive a bit deeper to actually experience a demo period with your favorites in this buyer’s guide. 

My suggestion would be to choose two finalists. Take one typical, complex client case and demo the client and staff journey for these stages:

• Booking
• Intake
• Consent
• Consultation, in person or by video
• Treatment
• Charting
• Photos
• Checkout
• Follow-up

I’ve learned after decades in the self-care industry that client experience matters a great deal, so consider:

• Is booking intuitive – or clunky and repetitive?
• Can the client easily manage an appointment change?
• Does the experience feel like an extension of your brand?

Final Thoughts: Let Me Make This Choice Even Easier…

If the next stage of your journey is about creating a modern branded experience to grow with, alongside solid med spa workability, Boulevard becomes a particularly interesting alternative to AestheticsPro. For a hospital-adjacent practice, Pabau may be a good transition without fancy client features. For a growth-focused practice balancing care with retention, Phorest deserves your attention. And for broad functionality without deep clinical features, Vagaro may be enough. 

Whichever platforms you explore in this buyer’s guide, take stock first of what your future goals are, how many locations you’ll have, and how large your staff will become. The specialties you’ll focus on providing will be key. Look into the future, design your growth around it, and choose your next software wisely.