Phorest vs Inspire by STX (fka STX Cloud)
Looking for a better alternative to Inspire by STX?
Make the switch from Inspire by STX to Phorest to get the management and marketing tools you need to keep your clients coming back again and again.
Here’s exactly what Phorest can offer you that Inspire by STX can’t.
STX Inspire
Supercharge your marketing
Boost direct bookings
Easier management
Protect your salon
Top-class support team
Top reasons why Phorest is a better choice than Inspire by STX for your salon
Read in more detail exactly what Phorest can offer you that Inspire by STX can’t.
REASON #1 Supercharge your marketing
Unrivaled campaign creation tools
Put your own stamp on your marketing emails. The Phorest marketing email editor includes tried and tested templates for all occasions and promotions; a library of stock photos that are free to use; and an image editor tool to make them your own.
Fallback SMS
Most salons only have email addresses for 30% of their clients. Don’t put all that effort into beautiful marketing promotions, only to miss 70% of your clients! Phorest is the only salon software with a Fallback SMS feature that lets you send a link to your promotion, via SMS, to clients that do not have a valid email address on their client card.
See marketing ROI right to the register
Because our marketing, management and reporting tools are integrated, you can see the impact of your marketing spend all the way to the register - see how much revenue your campaigns brought in, and even what services and products your clients were prompted to buy.
Online Reputation Manager
Phorest has a built-in online reputation manager, helping you get hundreds of 5 star reviews on Google, Facebook and Yelp by prompting your best reviewers to share their comments online in one click. Let your online reputation generate referrals for you while you sleep.
Sell retail products online
Sell retail products online at any time of the day or night and make money while your salon is closed! Your Integrated Online Store requires no web adjustment or dev time - just select which products you want to sell online and let your customers start to purchase!
REASON #2 Boost direct bookings
Free SMS to clients overdue to rebook
Machine learning in Phorest recognises when your clients are overdue to rebook their usual services, and you can send an SMS to them, free of charge, to remind them to make that booking asap.
Automated rebooking feature
Taking that one step further, if you don’t want to remember to hit send on that campaign to your overdue clients each day, you can use the automated rebooking feature to automatically send that reminder SMS for you.
Video consultations
Protect your staff and your clients by minimising close contact, but keep revenue coming into your salon with video consultations. Confirmations, reminders and video links are automatically created and sent to clients and staff. Just login and chat!
REASON #3 Make management easier
Software designed ONLY for the salon industry
Other software, like Inspire by STX, is designed to manage many different types of businesses that take bookings - including gyms, personal trainers, legal and healthcare practices and car shops. This often means their features are stretched to be ‘one size fits all’, often taking away from their usability in a salon. Phorest is designed ONLY for salon and spa businesses, so our features are made specifically for you.
Stock take app
Take the chore out of stock takes with our iPhone and Android app – just scan the barcode with your phone’s camera, enter your stock count, and you’re done!
Before & after image portfolio
Store your before and after pictures, safe in the cloud, attached to the relevant client card, and easily search and share pictures straight to social media from the app.
Integrated Tipping Made Easy
With PhorestTips, tipping is fully integrated into your PhorestPay card machine, creating a seamless, cashless experience for clients and staff. Clients can effortlessly add a tip during checkout, and the amount is delivered directly to your staff’s bank accounts – no need for separate apps or third-party integrations. It’s a streamlined solution to reduce manual cash handling, ensuring your team gets paid quickly and accurately. Phorest keeps everything integrated simplifying tipping for everyone involved.
REASON #4 Protect your salon
Multiple no-show alerts
Unreliable clients can leave you with empty timeslots and cost valuable revenue. Phorest automatically adds a note to client records when a client doesn’t show for an appointment, and you’ll get a ‘multiple no-show’ alert when they try to book with you over the phone. This allows you to turn them away, or request they book online with a deposit, allowing you to capture their payment details and charge a no-show fee should it happen again.
REASON #5 Support second to none
Renowned support team
Our clients can’t say enough good things about our excellent support team. 'Seirbhís go hiontach' (excellence in service) is a driving mantra here at Phorest. Just check out what they’re saying about us below.
Dedicated Salon Success Manager to help you increase salon revenue
With many other salon software providers you’ll get an account manager to help you get set up, but once you’re up and running you won’t hear from them again. With Phorest you’ll be assigned a Salon Success Manager to make sure you’re getting the most from your software, assisting with marketing campaigns, and supporting you to keep growing your business and increasing your revenue.
Don’t take our word for it
Read what some of our happy clients are saying about us on review sites like Capterra, Google, GetApp and Facebook.
Ready to switch from Inspire by STX to Phorest?
Talk to us about how Phorest can help manage, market and grow your salon.
Switching to Phorest is easy because we are here to help in any way
Easy Migration
All our plans include tailored system set up for your salon or clinic. We’ll import your clients, staff, services, products and more for you. Our migration specialists have years of experience in safely migrating client record information from most other salon or clinic software.
Free Training for Life
We’ll set you and your team up with comprehensive onboarding training; and you can book additional online training sessions with us for as long as you like. New staff starting in the future? No problem, we’ll get them trained up too at no extra cost.
Top Class Support Team
Our friendly support team is on call or chat, and they’re renowned for going above and beyond to answer your questions, big or small, as quickly as they can. ‘Seirbhís go hiontach’ (excellence in service) is a driving mantra here at Phorest.
“We have successfully migrated many salons from Inspire (fka STX Cloud) to Phorest. The team and I will help to make the process as simple as possible for you, bringing across your client information and history, appointments, gift cards, staff, services and more. If there’s anything we can’t migrate for you, our onboarding team will guide you through our simple input process, so you can make the transition with zero downtime at your salon.”
Shane Kelly, Data Migration Specialist
at Phorest Salon Software
