Type "Vagaro vs. Aesthetic Record" into a search bar and you'll get a feature checklist. Patient portal: checked, for both. Audit trail: checked, for both. What you won't get is the one sentence that actually matters: these two tools are usually answering different questions. One is a salon-and-wellness booking tool people outgrow once injectables start carrying the practice. The other gets chosen for its charting. Ranking them against each other on a checklist misses the actual question, which is what job you need the software to do first.
The real split isn't Vagaro vs. Aesthetic Record — it's CRM vs. EMR
A CRM handles the business and the relationship: scheduling, payments, marketing, reporting, client communication. An EMR handles the clinical record: treatment notes, dosages, consent, photo documentation. Most independent medspas live in between. They need enough clinical depth to hold up a chart — but not the weight of a hospital EMR built for a practice that writes prescriptions.
That's the actual comparison hiding underneath "Vagaro vs. Aesthetic Record." One tool people reach for when they need booking and business tooling. The other, when they need a chart. Few independent medspas cleanly need only one.
What an injectable-driven practice actually needs on one record
An injectable-driven practice holding PHI needs e-signed consent — versioned, tied to a timestamp and a device or IP, so there's no ambiguity about which document a client actually signed. It needs dosage and lot-number tracking on the chart itself, not in a separate log somebody has to cross-reference. It needs before/after photos attached to that same client record.
And it needs all of that living alongside scheduling, payments, memberships, and marketing. A rebooking prompt or a win-back text shouldn't require pulling data out of two systems that don't talk to each other.
This is where Lumè sits — and where it doesn't
Lumè was built for independent and small multi-location medspas sitting in that gap — solo injectors, single-location practices, small groups adding a second or third room. It is not built for a large enterprise chain; that's Zenoti's lane, not ours.
The idea is seven jobs on one client record: scheduling, charting, e-signed consent, payments, memberships, marketing, and an AI SMS booking agent, all against the same client. Not a chart in one tool and a client list in another. The AI SMS agent is included in the Pro tier at $249/month, alongside the full CRM.
Compliance should be the floor, not a feature you buy up to
A Business Associate Agreement is included in the standard contract at every tier, not reserved for an upper plan. Tenant data is isolated at the database level, every PHI read writes to an append-only audit log, and data is encrypted in transit and at rest. We frame this as defensible, not as a guarantee — no vendor should promise you compliance outright.
But if compliance is a paid upgrade, the base product doesn't have it. HIPAA and a BAA should be the floor at every tier, not something you chase after your practice has already grown into the risk.
The expensive mistake: buying up or down a size
Buying up or down a size is the most common mistake practices make choosing a CRM, and it's the most expensive one. A tool that's too light on clinical depth is fine — until a client disputes a consent version, or a provider needs to check what lot number went into a treatment six weeks back. A tool that's too narrow on business tooling is fine — until you're manually exporting a client list into a separate marketing platform every month, and your win-backs are running a week behind your actual lapsed-client list.
Compare total cost, not the sticker
Medspa CRMs run anywhere from about $100 a month for a bare single-location starter to $600 or more for a multi-location plan with AI and marketing folded in. That range alone tells you the sticker isn't the number that matters. A texting add-on alone can run $400 to $600 a month before you've added a single other tool. The real number to compare is what it costs to run two or three systems that don't share a client record — not the first price you see. Check pricing with that full math in mind.
Build the shortlist, then judge it on your own workflow
Most top-10 medspa CRM lists are advertising. Placement correlates with referral fees, not fit. Use a comparison like this one to build a shortlist, then set the ranking aside and judge each option against your own chart, your own booking volume, your own providers.