STX, now Inspire, has been running salons, spas, and wellness centres for a long time. That history means genuine depth — layered service menus, inventory control, staff structures, and reporting refined over many years of real-world use. It also publishes its pricing openly, which not every platform at this level does. Mako approaches the same businesses from a different direction: financial intelligence as the core feature and a platform that spans wellness, fitness, and service businesses rather than specialising in one.
STX Inspire: Solo at $59/month, Basic at $129/month, Enhanced at $199/month, and Advanced at $259/month, billed monthly. There are also Inspire Solo variants — Solo Enhanced at around $79/month and Solo Advanced at around $99/month. The STX Welcome client app is an add-on at roughly $20/month, and overage on included text messages is charged at about $50 per additional 2,500 messages.
Mako: Pulse is free. Paid plans are Mako Basic at $139/month, Mako Team at $249/month, and Enterprise at $999/month — roughly 20% less on annual billing at $1,334, $2,390, and $9,588 per year. Basic includes 3 team members, Team includes 15, Enterprise is unlimited and includes three locations. Published, month-to-month, no sales call.
STX is cheaper at the bottom — $59 Solo against $139 Mako Basic is a real gap for a one-person operation. They converge in the middle: STX Enhanced at $199 sits between Mako's two tiers, and STX Advanced at $259 lands just above Mako Team at $249, which includes fifteen team members. Check the add-on list on both sides before you compare, because the client app and messaging overages move the STX number.
Established platforms accumulate features because real customers asked for them. STX Inspire can model a complicated wellness centre — multiple service categories, product lines, staff hierarchies, and room resources — and for a business with that complexity, replacing it with something simpler is usually a downgrade.
The question worth asking is what is actually slowing you down. If it is that the software cannot express your operation, depth is the answer. If it is that you cannot tell which services make money, or when cash gets tight, or why clients stop coming back, then more configurability will not help — that is a reporting and financial visibility problem, and Mako Pulse will show you the retention half of it for free.
STX Inspire: Mature and thorough after years of refinement.
Mako: Covers the operational core well; less configurable at the edges.
Edge: STX Inspire.
STX Inspire: $59/month Solo, the cheapest paid entry in this comparison.
Mako: $139/month at Basic; Pulse free for retention benchmarking.
Edge: STX Inspire for solo operators.
STX Inspire: Publishes every tier openly, with add-ons itemised.
Mako: Publishes every tier, plus a free tier and no contract.
Edge: Tied — both do this properly, which is rarer in this category than it should be.
STX Inspire: Extensive operational reporting, generally built during setup.
Mako: P&L, cash flow, LTV, retention, and service profitability from day one.
Edge: Mako.
STX Inspire: Functional and familiar to long-term users; heavier for new staff.
Mako: Modern and quick to learn.
Edge: Mako.
STX Inspire: Strong, with detailed stock and product management.
Mako: Full inventory with low-stock alerts and service-linked usage.
Edge: STX Inspire for granular control.
Pick STX Inspire if:
Pick Mako if:
Your wellness business is a business. Not a hobby, not a side project, not a calendar with a cash register. It deserves software that treats it accordingly. If your platform cannot tell you whether you are financially healthy, it is not doing its job. And in 2026, you have better options.
See Mako in action — no sales call required
Mako is built for independent wellness and spa owners who would rather spend their time on clients than on demo calls. Open the live demo, poke around, and see exactly how scheduling, billing, and financial intelligence come together in one place.
Try the demo: https://app.makocrm.so/demo
Self-serve. Instant access. No forms, no calendars, no "talk to sales."
