GoHighLevel, HubSpot and Zoho CRM ranked for med spas and aesthetics clinics: the one that texts the consult lead in a minute and fills the no-show slot, the free one that tracks enquiries and books consults, and the cheapest per seat for a multi-location group with a front desk.
A med spa's revenue problem is a calendar problem twice over. The first is the consult: someone requests one, and the clinic that replies in minutes books it while the clinic that replies tomorrow does not. The second is the return visit: neurotoxin wears off in three to four months, a laser package has sessions left, a membership renews, and the patient who is not reminded books somewhere else or not at all. The practice management system holds the chart; none of the three picks here replaces it. What they do is the follow-up before and after the chair, and the right one depends on how much of that you want automated and what you pay per seat. Prices are monthly billing at the time of verification (2026-09-09).
How to choose
Decide where the money leaks. If consult requests come from ads, Instagram and Google and the front desk answers when it can, the tool must text back automatically and fill the calendar without a human, and only one pick here does that on its own plan. If the clinic is small and the leak is enquiries lost in an inbox, a free pipeline with consult booking is enough to stop it. If you run several locations with a call team and a manager who wants a process enforced, price per seat and pipeline-per-location matter more than any single feature. Then check the data line: treatment details stay in the practice system, the CRM holds names, dates and consent, and texting needs recorded opt-in. The general CRM buying criteria apply on top, and the lead follow-up guide shows the sequence before you pay for one.
The picks in depth
GoHighLevel is the pick for a clinic whose revenue depends on booking and rebooking. Starter is $97 a month ($80.83 annual) with unlimited users and contacts, and it bundles two-way SMS, missed-call text-back, voice, email, calendars with reminders, pipelines, review requests and a website and funnel builder. The aesthetics workflow it runs well: a consult request lands from the website or an ad, a text goes out in under a minute with a booking link, the consult gets a confirmation and a reminder, a no-show gets a rebooking text the same hour, the treated patient gets a review request that evening, and a filler client enters a twelve-week reminder sequence. The costs are the price for a tiny clinic, telecom and AI usage billed per message and minute on top, a dense interface that needs a snapshot or a consultant, agency complexity a single clinic will not use, and HIPAA compliance only on the Enterprise tier, which is why treatment notes stay out of it. Choose GoHighLevel if you run ads or Instagram to consults, or if no-shows and lapsed clients are the leak. Skip it as a one-room clinic that books by phone; GoHighLevel alternatives lists the cheaper way and the GoHighLevel pricing guide reads the real bill.
HubSpot is the free start. The free CRM covers 2 users and 1,000 contacts with a deal pipeline you can rename to enquiry, consult booked, treated and rebooked, meeting scheduling that books the consult and creates the contact, email templates and sequences for the follow-up, and a mobile app for the treatment room. Starter is $20 per seat monthly, or $7 per seat on the annual promotion for new customers, with no annual contract. SMS needs a paid hub, marketing contacts are priced separately, and the jump to Professional is $100 per seat plus a mandatory $1,500 onboarding fee. Choose HubSpot if you are one clinic with a front desk that emails and calls, and the goal is that no enquiry sits unanswered. Pair it with the practice system for everything clinical; GoHighLevel vs HubSpot marks the point where the texting bundle becomes cheaper than seats.
Zoho CRM is the value pick for a group. It is free for up to 3 users with contact and deal basics and simple workflows. Standard is $20 per user monthly ($14 annual) with multiple pipelines, one per location, mass email, forecasting and custom modules for treatments and packages. Professional at $35 ($23 annual) adds blueprints, which enforce a consult-to-treatment-to-rebook process step by step so a new coordinator cannot skip the consent or the deposit, plus inventory for retail product. The costs are a dated interface, settings scattered across screens, customisation that takes admin time, and the soft lock-in of getting the best value only by adopting more Zoho apps. Choose Zoho CRM if you have three or more locations, a call team and a manager who will do the setup; at $14 a seat on annual billing it is the cheapest credible CRM for a team. Skip it if nobody will configure it; the best CRM for small business page ranks the easier options, and GoHighLevel vs Zoho CRM prices the two at one seat and ten.
What to avoid
Do not put treatment notes, photos or medical history in the CRM; that is the practice system's job and the compliance line you do not want to cross. Do not text without recorded consent; TCPA penalties are per message and an aesthetics list is exactly the kind that gets reported. Do not send the review request to a patient who complained at checkout; route it only to visits marked happy. Do not run the treatment-cycle reminders from a spreadsheet next to the CRM; put the next-due date on the contact and let the tool remind you. And do not buy the multi-location tool for one clinic; the setup time is the real cost and a single room pays it for nothing.
When not to buy
If you book fewer than twenty consults a month and the front desk answers every enquiry within the hour, the practice system's reminders and a shared inbox will hold. Buy the CRM the month a consult request goes unanswered overnight, or the month you notice how many filler clients did not come back at four months. If your bottleneck is the chart and the checkout rather than the lead, you need practice management software first; the CRM comes after. For the booking side on its own, the scheduling software for small business page covers the calendar tools, and the best CRM for insurance agents page is the closest sister guide for a business that lives on a renewal calendar.