Memberships help you build long-term customer loyalty by offering recurring access to discounts on your services, classes, and products. When a customer purchases a membership, they receive a percentage-based or cash discount on each participating item every time they book or buy. Unlike packages, which bundle a set number of services or products for a one-time purchase, memberships give customers ongoing savings across multiple visits over a recurring billing period.
You can configure each membership to fit your business model: set a charge frequency, limit the number of discounted visits per item, offer an introductory price, and allow the membership to auto-renew at the end of each billing period. If a membership includes a visit limit for a specific item, the discount no longer applies once that limit is reached, and the full price is charged for any additional purchases during that billing period.
Depending on your settings, customers can buy your memberships in-house, in the Vagaro Check-In app, on your Vagaro Listing Page, and on your MySite. A customer can hold more than one membership at a time, as long as each membership is a different type and each is renewed before it expires.
Prerequisites: This feature is available for all Vagaro businesses on the web, tablet, Pay Desk, and PayPro. Credit Card Processing is required to set up auto-renewing memberships.
Before you start, decide what type of loyalty benefit you want to offer your customers. You might create a membership that provides discounts on specific services or classes, a membership focused on product savings, or a combination of services and classes with add-ons. Having a clear goal in mind will help you configure the settings in the steps that follow.
To create your membership:
Move on to step two to add your membership details and configure settings.
Configure the following settings for your membership. Fields marked as optional can be updated at any time by editing the membership after it has been saved.
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Membership Name: Enter a name for the membership. Choose a name that clearly describes what the membership includes, such as "VIP Service Pass" or "Monthly Product Bundle," so customers can easily identify it when purchasing online or in-house.
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Description: Enter a description for the membership. Include the services, classes, or products covered, the type and amount of discount offered, any visit limits, and any other perks or restrictions. A clear, detailed description helps customers understand the value of the membership before they purchase it.
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Price: Enter the cost of the membership. This is the amount the customer is charged when they purchase the membership. If Price (with Tax) is enabled, the pre-tax price will be automatically calculated and shown.
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Tax: Optionally, select a tax rate to apply to the purchase of the membership. Tax rates are configured in your Taxes & Checkout settings. If your business does not charge tax on membership purchases, you can leave this field blank.
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Price (with Tax): Enter the total price of the membership with tax included. Vagaro will automatically calculate and display the pre-tax Price. To show or hide this field, go to the Taxes & Checkout screen and toggle the Included Tax in Online Pricing setting.
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Reward Points: Optionally, if your business has a loyalty rewards program, enter the number of points customers will earn when they purchase this membership. Awarding points for membership purchases encourages customers to stay engaged with your loyalty program and return more frequently.
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Charge Frequency: Select how often customers are charged to keep the membership active. Options typically include weekly, monthly, or annually. This setting also controls how often the membership auto-renews if Auto Renew is enabled. Choose a frequency that aligns with the billing cycle you want customers to commit to.
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Auto Renew: Toggle this on to automatically charge and renew the membership at the end of each billing period. With auto-renewal, customers keep their benefits without having to manually repurchase, which reduces lapsed memberships and provides your business with more predictable recurring revenue. When enabled, configure the following sub-settings:
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Charge Frequency: Specify how often the membership automatically renews.
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Auto Renew Limit: Optionally, set a maximum number of times the membership can auto-renew. Leave this blank to allow the membership to renew indefinitely.
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Carry Balance Forward: Toggle this on to roll over any unused visits or unpurchased product discounts to the next billing period, so customers do not lose benefits they have not yet used.
This setting requires Credit Card Processing to be active for your business.
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Discount Initial Payments: Toggle this on to offer a lower introductory price for the first purchase or for a set number of billing cycles, after which the full price is charged. This is useful for attracting new members with a trial rate before the standard price takes effect. Enter the Discount as a monetary amount ($/£) or a percentage (%), and optionally enter the number of Billing Cycles the discount applies to. If no billing cycle limit is set, the discounted rate applies to the first payment only.
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Show Membership Online: Toggle this on to display the membership on your Vagaro Listing Page and booking widget, so customers can discover and purchase the membership on their own without contacting your business directly. You can also enable Suggest as Upsell When Booking a Participating Service or Class to prompt customers to add the membership to their cart when they book a service or class that is included in the membership.
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Allow Membership Discount on top of Daily Deals: Toggle this on to allow the membership discount to stack on top of any existing Daily Deal discounts for services, classes, or products. Be aware that combining both discounts can result in a significantly reduced price. Review your pricing carefully before enabling this option.
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Allow Membership Discount on top of Other Discounts: Toggle this on to allow the membership discount to stack on top of promo code discounts, both in-house and on your Vagaro Listing Page. This lets members receive additional savings when your business runs promotions, which can help reward loyal customers during special events or sales.
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Allow Membership to be Shared with Family & Friends: Toggle this on to let customers share their membership benefits with people in their Family or Friends list in Vagaro. This can help attract new clients through referrals and adds extra value for existing members who want to bring people with them. Configure the following sub-settings:
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Relationship: Specify the type of relationship between the member and the people they can share the membership with, such as family members or friends.
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Maximum Number of Family & Friends: Enter the maximum number of people from the customer's Family or Friends lists who can also use this membership. You can allow up to 10 additional users per membership.
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After configuring the membership settings, add the services, classes, add-ons, or products that members will receive discounts on. Each item can have its own discount amount and visit limit, giving you full control over what members receive and how often they can use their benefits. You can add services and classes together on the same tab. Products are added separately on their own tab.
To add services, classes, and add-ons to a membership:
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Scroll to the bottom of the screen, go to the Services/Classes/Add-Ons tab, and select Add.
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In the Select Services or Classes or Add-Ons popup, select the items to include in the membership, then select Add.
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Enter the Discount amount for each item. You can enter the discount as a percentage, a fixed cash amount, or free.
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Enter the Visits limit for each item. The visits limit controls how many times the discount can be applied per billing period (if Auto Renew is on). To allow unlimited discounted visits, select the visits box for that item, then select Unlimited.
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Optionally, select Mass Edit to apply the same discount or visit limit to multiple items at once. This is useful when you have a large list of items and want to set consistent values across all of them quickly.
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Optionally, select the checkboxes for any items you want to remove, select Delete, and confirm to remove those items from the membership.
To add products to a membership:
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Scroll to the bottom of the screen, go to the Products tab, and select Add Product.
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In the popup, select the products to include in the membership, then select Add.
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Enter the Discount amount for each product as a percentage, a fixed cash amount, or free.
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Enter the Visits limit for each product. This controls how many times the discount can be applied to that product per billing period (if Auto Renew is on). To allow unlimited discounted purchases, select the visits box for that item, then select Unlimited.
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Optionally, select Mass Edit to apply the same discount or visit limit to multiple products at once.
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Optionally, select the checkboxes for any products you want to remove, select Delete, and confirm to remove those products from the membership.
Grouping allows you to combine multiple items onto a single line so they share a discount and a visit limit, rather than tracking each item individually. This is useful when you want members to use a set number of visits across a collection of services or products instead of having separate limits for each one. For example, you can group three massage services together and allow five total visits across all three, rather than five visits per service.
There are two grouping options. Group Items combines items so they share both the same discount and the same visit pool. Group Visits combines items so they share a visit pool but can each have a different individual discount amount. Services, classes, and add-ons can only be grouped with each other. Products can only be grouped with other products.
To group services, classes, and add-ons:
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After adding your items, select the checkbox for each item you want to include in the group.
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Select how you want to group the items:
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Group Items: Combines the selected items so they share the same discount amount and draw from the same visit pool. Use this when you want all items in the group to be treated as interchangeable and equally discounted.
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Group Visits: Combines the selected items so they share a single visit pool, but each item can still have its own discount amount. Use this when different items offer different levels of savings but should count toward the same total visit limit.
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Enter the Discount amount for the group.
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Enter the Visits limit for the group. To allow unlimited visits across all items in the group, select the visits box for the group and select Unlimited.
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To ungroup items and display them individually again, select the group's checkbox, select Ungroup Visits or Ungroup Items, then select Ungroup in the confirmation popup. Each item will appear on its own line with the discount and visit values that were set for the group.
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To delete a group entirely, select the group's checkbox, select Delete, and confirm the deletion. This removes all items in the group from the membership.
To group products:
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After adding your products, select the checkbox for each product you want to include in the group.
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Select how you want to group the products:
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Group Items: Combines the selected products so they share the same discount amount and draw from the same purchase limit pool.
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Group Visits: Combines the selected products so they share a purchase limit pool, but each product can still have its own discount amount.
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Enter the Discount amount for the group.
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Enter the Visits limit for the group. To allow unlimited discounted purchases across all products in the group, select the visits box for the group and select Unlimited.
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To ungroup products and display them individually again, select the group's checkbox, select Ungroup Visits or Ungroup Items, then select Ungroup in the confirmation popup. Each product will appear on its own line with the discount and visit values from the group.
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To delete a group entirely, select the group's checkbox, select Delete, and confirm the deletion.
After completing all the membership settings and adding your items, save the membership to make it active in your system. Once saved, the membership will appear in your memberships list and can be sold to customers right away if Show Membership Online is enabled, or manually assigned in-house by a staff member.
To save the membership:
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Select Save.
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If you did not enable any discount settings, a popup will appear asking whether you want to save the membership without a discount. Select Yes to save without a discount, or select No to go back and configure a discount. A membership without discounts can still be useful if customers purchase it as proof of belonging to a group or club that your business hosts.
After saving, the membership appears in your list under Settings > Memberships. You can edit, duplicate, or delete it at any time from that screen.
If you want to create a new membership that is similar to an existing one, you can duplicate the existing membership and modify the copy instead of building a new one from scratch. This is especially helpful when you offer multiple membership tiers, such as a standard and a premium version, that share most of the same settings but differ in price, visit limits, or which items are included.
To duplicate a membership:
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Select Settings
→ .
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In the list of memberships, select the Action
menu for the membership you want to copy, then select Duplicate. A copy of the membership will be created with all the same settings and items.
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Update the name, price, items, discounts, visit limits, and any other settings for the new membership to reflect the differences from the original.
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Select Save to create the new membership.
You can export or print a list of all the memberships your business currently offers. Exporting is useful for record-keeping, sharing membership details with staff, or reviewing your catalog outside of Vagaro. Printing gives you a physical copy for front-desk reference or display purposes.
To export or print your list of memberships:
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Select Settings
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To export the list, select the Download
icon in the top-right corner. The list downloads as an Excel file that includes the name, price, and key settings for each of your memberships.
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To print the list, select the Print
icon in the top-right corner. Your browser's print dialog will open, where you can select a printer or save the list as a PDF.
Comments
10 comments
Will memberships be able to be checked out and not repeat as long as the ‘Auto-Renew’ option is not selected? I.e. I set up a process to add a one-time Points addition since we use that for memberships, but don't want our memberships on this specific option to continually renew.
Hi Jake, as long as you do not turn on Auto-renew, a membership will not renew on the customer's end. You can then manually charge the customer for a new membership in-person or online whenever they want to renew.
Thanks.
How do you set a service discount as a dollar amount instead of a percentage? I don't see that as an option.
Hi Laura, memberships can only give a percentage-based discount, not a dollar amount.
Thanks, Jamie
If I choose to not put auto renew, and the customer has leftover visits at the end of the renewal period will those expire on the renewal date?
Hi Jonathan,
If you choose not to renew the customer’s membership, they won’t have a renewal date. However, I may be misunderstanding your question.
If auto-renew is turned on, the visits will expire at the end of the renewal period unless the Carry Balance Forward option is enabled in your membership settings.
Is there a way to add dollar amount credits to membership monthly in addition to percentage discounts?
Hi Heidi, there isn't currently an option to do this. If you'd like to see this feature added to Vagaro, I recommend submitting a feature request to our product team:
https://support.vagaro.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021060374
Thanks, Jamie
What happens if a client books more classes than their membership allows within the monthly membership period? Ex: Client membership is for 8 classes during the month of August and they book 9 classes. Will they be charged for the extra class by the system settings? Second question, is there a setting that prevents the client from booking more than their membership credits allow?
Hi Regina, yes, the customer will be allowed to book those appointments even if it's over the visit limit you set. To avoid this, I recommend charging a deposit for bookings. When a deposit is required, a visit is used, so there's no way customers can book over the limit.
Here's an article that covers the steps:
https://support.vagaro.com/hc/en-us/articles/17733255383707
Thanks, Jamie
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