GroomSpark vs DaySmart Pet: the $29 plan is not the price
DaySmart Pet starts at $29/mo for one user with the website as an add-on. What a three-groomer shop actually pays, against $99 flat. Prices checked 2026-09-01.
If you run payroll through your grooming software, or you need inventory counts and a QuickBooks Online sync, buy DaySmart Pet. We do not have any of those things. Not a lighter version, not a workaround. They are absent.
DaySmart has the widest published feature ladder of any vendor in this category, and the back office is where that shows up: payroll, a time clock, sliding-scale commission with exceptions and overtime rules, inventory, gift cards, expense tracking, multi-ticket checkout, digital forms. If your shop has employees on commission and a bookkeeper who asks questions, that list is worth more than anything below.
Still reading? Then you are probably one to five groomers, you do your books in a spreadsheet or hand them to someone once a quarter, and your actual problem is that people cannot find you.
Prices checked 2026-09-01, from DaySmart's own live pricing page.
The difference in one line
DaySmart sells a $29 plan and a $15 website add-on. We sell one $99 plan with the website in it, built for your business, on your domain.
That sounds like an argument about bundling. It is really an argument about what the website is for. A $15/mo template builder is a place to put your hours and your phone number. It is not the thing that makes a stranger at 9pm choose you over the shop two miles away with the same five-star average and a Wix page from 2019. Your site is the only sales asset you own outright, and $15 a month tells you exactly how much product thinking went into it.
Comparison
| GroomSpark | DaySmart Pet | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $99 flat | $29 to $199 by tier, top tier not published |
| Staff seats | Unlimited | 1, then 3, then 3, then 6 |
| Website | Included, built for your business | $15/mo template builder add-on |
| Own domain | Yes | Yes, on the add-on |
| Text allowance | No meter | 500 to 5,000/mo by tier |
| Text overage rate | No overage | Not published |
| Two-way texting | Included | Bundled at $149 tier and up, otherwise not published |
| Reputation tools | Included | $49/mo, bundled at $149 tier and up |
| Payroll and time clock | No | Yes |
| Inventory | No | Yes |
| QuickBooks Online | No | Yes, Premium |
| Boarding and daycare | No | $25/mo each |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days, no card |
Where DaySmart Pet is genuinely better
The back office. Payroll and a time clock inside the same tool that runs your book means one system knows both what a groomer did and what you owe them. Their commission engine handles sliding scales with per-service exceptions and overtime rules, which is more than most shops need and exactly right for the ones that do. We have none of this.
The QuickBooks Online sync is the single most common thing people ask us for that we cannot do. If your bookkeeper has an opinion about your software, this is usually the opinion.
They also do inventory and retail. Shampoo, bows, take-home product, gift cards, multi-ticket checkout. If retail is a real revenue line for you rather than a shelf by the register, they have the tooling and we do not. Boarding and daycare calendars are $25/mo each, and we do not do overnight or daycare at any price.
A cheap solo tier that is not a trap. $29 for one user with 500 texts a month is real. It is the lowest honest entry price here, and I will come back to it in the price math because it beats us outright for some people.
They have also been selling grooming software since it was called 123Pet. That is a decade-plus of support infrastructure and a company that is not going to disappear on you.
Where we are better
Seats are not rationed. DaySmart counts heads: one on Basic, three on Deluxe and Deluxe Growth, six on Premium. That cap is what drives most upgrades, and it drives them for reasons that have nothing to do with features. A three-groomer shop cannot use the $29 plan. A shop with four groomers plus a front-desk person cannot use anything below Premium at $199, even if the only thing they wanted was a calendar. We charge $99 whether you are one person or nine.
Texting is not metered on our side. No allowance, no overage line on your invoice in December, and two-way included. DaySmart publishes the allowance for each tier and then stops. What a message costs past 500 on Basic is not on the page, which means you cannot budget for a busy month without calling somebody.
You also cannot buy two-way texting on Basic or Deluxe at any published price at all. Both Two-Way Texting and Text Marketing are contact-for-pricing add-ons, bundled only once you reach Deluxe Growth at $149. The cheap tiers are one-way tiers. You can tell a client their dog is ready, and if they text back, that message goes somewhere you are not looking.
The website is the product, not an upsell. Yours is built before you pay, with your services, your photos, your city, your pricing, and booking inside the pages rather than behind a separate link. Structured data, per-page meta, a real sitemap, semantic markup, all correct on day one. Most grooming sites get that wrong, which makes it the cheapest advantage in this category and the one nobody bothers with. There is more on what that actually means in what a grooming website that books people should do.
And there is one number. $99. Not $29 that becomes $164 the third time you add something.
The price math
This is where the comparison actually lives, because DaySmart's ladder is long and the headline is at the very bottom of it.
Two things move the price before you add anything. First, every tier has a cheaper rate if you run payments through DaySmart, and the discount is not flat: it is $10 on Basic and $20 on every tier above. Second, the seat cap moves you up whether or not you wanted the features attached.
| Tier | With payments | Without | Users | Texts/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29 | $39 | 1 | 500 |
| Deluxe | $69 | $89 | 3 | 1,000 |
| Deluxe Growth | $149 | $169 | 3 | 1,000 |
| Premium | $199 | $219 | 6 | 2,500 |
| Premium Growth | Not published | Not published | Unlimited | 5,000 |
The solo groomer, where DaySmart wins
One person, one chair, 500 texts a month is plenty, no website because your Instagram does the work, one-way reminders are fine. That is Basic at $29 with their payments, $39 without.
We are $99. They beat us by $70 a month, $840 a year, and there is no clever framing that makes that not true. If that description is you, buy DaySmart. Come back when you hire someone or when you get tired of sending people to a link in a bio.
The three-groomer shop that wants texting and a site
Now add the two things most growing shops want: clients who can text you back, and a website on your own domain.
Two-way texting is what breaks the ladder. It is not sold at a published price below Deluxe Growth, so the path to it is Deluxe Growth at $149 with payments, $169 without. Add the website at $15. That is $164 a month for three users, or $184 if you decline their card processing.
We are $99 flat with unlimited seats, two-way texting included, website included. That is $65 a month less for three groomers, and the gap widens the moment you hire a fourth, because a fourth groomer plus a front desk pushes DaySmart to Premium at $199 plus the $15 site, which is $214.
One thing worth crediting: Reputation Management, normally $49/mo, comes bundled at Deluxe Growth and above. So the $164 figure is not stripped down. It includes review tooling. It is a fair comparison and it is still $65 more than us.
The shop that boards
Add $25/mo for a daycare calendar and $25/mo for boarding. We do not sell either at any price, so this is not a scenario where you should be reading a comparison with us in it.
What neither of us publishes
DaySmart's payment processing rate is not on the pricing page. What is there is a promise to match your current fees. Premium Growth has no published price either. If you are heading for either of those, get a written quote before you compare anything, and read how to think about grooming software pricing first so you know which questions to ask.
How to decide
Answer these honestly and the decision makes itself.
Do you run payroll or need a QuickBooks sync? Buy DaySmart. This is not close and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Are you one person who does not need two-way texting or a website? Buy DaySmart Basic at $29 and put the $70 into anything else.
Is your problem that the phone does not ring enough, and do you have more than one person on the schedule? That is the case we are built for, and the math above is the case.
Both trials are 14 days with no card, which is unusual in this category and means the cheapest way to settle this is to run both for a fortnight. Load ten real clients into each, book a real appointment, then send a real reminder and watch what happens when the client texts back.
If you want the wider field rather than this one matchup, the buyer's guide to grooming software covers everyone with prices from each vendor's own page, and the evaluation checklist is the framework behind the questions above.
Prices checked 2026-09-01 against daysmart.com/pet/pricing. Anything marked not published sits behind a contact-sales wall, and we will not guess at it.
Common questions
Is DaySmart Pet really $29 a month?
Yes, and it is the cheapest honest entry price in this category. It buys one user, 500 texts a month, no two-way texting, and no website. It also assumes you run payments through DaySmart; without their processing the same tier is $39. If you are solo and none of those limits bite, $29 is a genuinely good deal and better than ours.
How many staff can use DaySmart Pet?
One on Basic, three on Deluxe, three on Deluxe Growth, six on Premium, and unlimited on Premium Growth, whose price is not published. The seat cap is the thing that forces most upgrades. A shop with four groomers and a front desk cannot use anything below Premium at $199. GroomSpark does not count seats at all.
Can I get two-way texting on DaySmart Pet's cheaper plans?
Not at any published price. Two-Way Texting and Text Marketing are both contact-for-pricing add-ons that come bundled starting at Deluxe Growth, which is $149 a month with payments. On Basic and Deluxe you would have to call and ask what it costs. GroomSpark includes two-way texting on the only plan we sell.
Does DaySmart Pet include a website?
No. The website is a $15/mo add-on listed against every tier including Premium, and it is a template builder you fill in yourself. GroomSpark builds the site for your business and includes it in the $99, on your own domain, with booking in the pages rather than on a separate link.
Does GroomSpark sync with QuickBooks?
No, and that is a real gap. If your bookkeeper needs the sync, DaySmart has QuickBooks Online and we do not. Same answer for payroll, inventory, and a time clock. Those are not on our roadmap for this year.
What happens if I go over the text allowance?
DaySmart does not publish an overage rate. The allowance per tier is stated, from 500 texts a month on Basic up to 5,000 on Premium Growth, and the pricing page stops there. Ask them directly before you plan around it. GroomSpark does not meter texting, so there is no allowance and no overage line.
Do both companies offer a free trial?
Yes. DaySmart gives you 14 days with no card, and the trial includes everything in the Deluxe tier. GroomSpark gives you 14 days with no card as well. Neither of us has an advantage here and you should try both.