Let's be blunt: most pet grooming software is overpriced. Not because the features aren't useful, but because the pricing was set by software companies chasing enterprise margins — not by someone who actually runs a grooming business and knows what $125/month means when your average groom brings in $80.
At Animal Friends Pet Care, we've been grooming dogs in Panama City for over 11 years. We built Animal Friends OS because we couldn't find software that was both affordable AND complete. Here's what $45/month actually includes — and how it stacks up against what others charge.
What $45/Month Gets You with Animal Friends OS
Every feature listed below is included in the flat $45/month price. No tiers. No add-on fees. No "contact us for pricing" games:
- Grooming calendar with drag-and-drop scheduling and recurring appointments
- Boarding calendar with kennel grid and availability view
- Daycare check-in/check-out with headcount tracking
- Obedience training session scheduler
- Full client and pet CRM — breed, coat type, temperament, aggression flags, grooming notes, vaccination tracking with auto-expiry alerts
- Automated SMS appointment reminders — reduces no-shows by 40-60%
- Online booking page your clients can use 24/7
- Staff scheduling, timeclock, and role-based permissions
- Invoice generation and payment tracking
- Reports — revenue, appointments, client retention, staff productivity
- Multi-location support if you expand
- Use YOUR own payment processor — Stripe, Square, Clover, whatever you already have
- Mobile-friendly — works on any phone, tablet, or computer
What Competitors Charge for the Same Features
Here's the reality of what other platforms cost when you actually add up everything you need:
- Gingr: Starts around $125/month for basic. Add SMS reminders, online booking, and additional users — you're looking at $175-$225/month.
- MoeGo: Competitive base pricing but pushes you toward their payment processor, which takes a percentage of every transaction. Over a year, that adds up to hundreds in extra fees.
- DaySmart Pet: Mid-range base but SMS, online booking, and reporting are add-ons. Full-featured setup runs $150-$200/month.
- PetExec: Starts around $150/month. Good for large daycares but overkill (and overpriced) for grooming shops.
- ProPet: $100-$180/month range depending on features. Annual contracts on some plans.
The average pet care operator paying for a "full featured" software setup spends $150-$200/month. At $45/month, Animal Friends OS saves you $1,260-$1,860/year. That's a new grooming table, a professional-grade dryer, or two months of an employee's health insurance contribution.
Why Is It So Much Cheaper?
Fair question. Here's the honest answer:
- No venture capital investors to pay back — this was built by an operator, for operators
- No 50-person sales team with quotas — you sign up online, no demo required
- No payment processing middleman — we don't take a cut of your transactions
- No feature tiers designed to push you into a more expensive plan
- Lower overhead = lower price. We don't need $200/month from you to be profitable.
The "Cheap Software" Concern
Some people worry that affordable means low quality. That's fair — you get what you pay for in most industries. But software isn't one of them. The cost of running cloud software doesn't scale linearly with features. A $200/month product doesn't cost 4x more to operate than a $45/month product. The price difference is margin, not quality.
Animal Friends OS runs on the same cloud infrastructure that powers major SaaS companies. Your data is encrypted, backed up daily, and available 99.9% of the time. The software was built by someone who uses it every single day in a real grooming business — if something breaks, I notice before you do.
What $45/Month Does NOT Get You
In the interest of honesty — here's what we don't include:
- Built-in payment processing — you use your own merchant account (this is a feature, not a limitation)
- A dedicated account manager who calls you monthly — we have email and chat support instead
- White-label mobile app with your brand in the App Store — your clients use the responsive web app instead
- Enterprise features like API access, custom integrations, or SSO — if you need those, you're probably a 20+ location chain and should use enterprise software
If those matter to you, a more expensive platform might be the right fit. But for 90% of grooming businesses — 1-5 locations, 2-15 staff, $10K-$100K/month in revenue — $45/month covers everything you need without the bloat you don't.
Try It Free for 14 Days
No credit card required. No sales call. No contract. Sign up, import your clients, and see if it fits. If it doesn't, you've lost nothing but a few minutes.