DaySmart Pet Review

DaySmart Pet is an affordably-tiered, all-in-one platform for grooming salons, mobile groomers, kennels, and boarding/daycare operations — scheduling, integrated payments, marketing, and staff payroll/commissions in one product. A client books a groom through 24/7 online booking, automated reminders cut the no-show rate, the groomer works the appointment, and the card on file is charged (with Apple/Google Pay support) at checkout, while the back office handles payroll and commissions. Its draw is a genuinely low $29/mo entry price and a real 14-day no-card trial — both rare in a niche where so many competitors are quote-only.

Disambiguation: DaySmart Pet was formerly branded 123Pet (login still lives at 123petsoftware.com and the mobile app is still "123Pet Groom Software"), and it's now part of the DaySmart family of vertical business apps. It is a grooming/boarding business tool, not a veterinary clinical system — that's the separate DaySmart Vet product.

What Is DaySmart Pet #

DaySmart Pet is a cloud-based (SaaS) management platform for pet-grooming and boarding businesses, with native iOS and Android apps. The core loop is grooming-first: online booking and automated reminders bring the appointment in, digital intake forms capture what's needed, integrated payments run checkout, and marketing tools (text/email, reputation management) bring clients back. On top of that sits real staff management — scheduling, payroll, commissions, and time clocks — which is unusually deep for a tool at this price point. The homepage claims it's "trusted by over 5,000 groomers."

It sells to solo groomers through small-to-mid grooming shops and high-volume salons, with boarding/daycare available as add-on calendars rather than a native core — a signal that the product is grooming-first with boarding bolted on.

Features #

Online Booking & Scheduling #

Digital appointment booking with 24/7 online booking, automated reminders, and digital forms — the front of the grooming funnel that reduces phone tag and no-shows.

Point of Sale & Payments #

Chip/swipe/tap card processing plus Apple Pay and Google Pay, deposit collection, and invoice automation through DaySmart's own integrated payments. Notably, tier pricing is lower "with payments," i.e. when you use DaySmart Payments.

Automated Reminders & Marketing (SMS) #

Text and email marketing, two-way texting, and reputation management with review requests. Two-way texting and text marketing are add-ons ("contact for pricing"), so budget for the text-credit cost on top of the base tier.

Client & Pet Records #

Client and pet profiles anchor the system, with 50+ reports and mobile-app access for running the business on the go.

Grooming Ticket & Staff Management #

Employee scheduling, payroll, commissions (including sliding-scale commission, commission exceptions, and overtime rules on the top tier), and time clocks — a deeper staff/payroll story than most grooming tools ship.

Boarding/Daycare Reservations #

Dedicated daycare and boarding calendars are available as a $25/month add-on each — usable, but an add-on rather than native to the base plan.

How a Grooming Day Runs on DaySmart Pet #

The pieces connect around the appointment. A client books a groom through 24/7 online booking and fills out a digital intake form; an automated reminder goes out ahead of time to hold the slot. When the dog arrives, the groomer works from the pet profile, and at checkout DaySmart's integrated payments run the card — chip, tap, Apple Pay, or Google Pay — with a deposit collectable up front for higher-value services. Afterward, reputation management can prompt a happy client for a review, and text/email marketing brings them back for the next appointment. Behind the counter, the same system handles employee scheduling, time clocks, and commission payout, so a salon owner isn't running payroll in a separate tool. The catch, honestly, is that several of those revenue steps — text marketing, reputation requests, a website — live behind add-ons, so the connected day you actually want costs more than the $29 headline.

Pricing #

DaySmart Pet publishes monthly tiers in USD. Prices are lower "with payments" (using DaySmart's integrated processing):

Add-ons: Website Builder $15/mo; Reputation Management $49/mo; Daycare/Boarding calendars $25/mo each; text marketing and two-way texting "contact for pricing." There's a genuine 14-day free trial (no credit card) that includes nearly all features at the Deluxe level. The honest read on cost: the headline is $29, but the features most salons actually want — text marketing, reputation management, a website, boarding calendars — are paid add-ons, so the effective monthly bill climbs well above the entry tier.

Who It's For (and Who It Isn't) #

DaySmart Pet fits solo groomers and small-to-mid grooming shops that want an all-in-one at a low entry price with real payroll/commission depth, and are comfortable adding calendars for light boarding/daycare. The 14-day no-card trial makes it easy to try before switching.

It is a weaker fit for a boarding- or daycare-first facility whose day is built on kennel runs and vaccination compliance — a facility-native platform like Gingr or PetExec maps to that better. Growing teams should also watch the low seat caps (1 user on Basic, 3 on Deluxe), and anyone leaning on text marketing should price the add-ons before committing.

Is It Legit and Worth It? #

DaySmart Pet is a legitimate, established product with a large user base — but it's the lowest-rated of the tools in this comparison, so the honest picture matters. Its Capterra rating sits at 4.1/5 across 184 reviews, meaningfully below grooming rivals like MoeGo, and G2 sentiment is lower and thinner still (around 4.0 across ~35 reviews). It earns its place on price and breadth, not on top-of-class polish.

The recurring cons are consistent. Cost creep is the big one: the features that make the product genuinely useful — text marketing, reputation management, website builder, boarding/daycare calendars — are paid add-ons on top of the tier, so the real monthly cost runs well above the $29 headline. Reviewers report cost concerns and some missing capabilities (for example, text-to-pay). Unlimited users and advanced commission/expense tools are gated to the quote-only Premium Growth tier, and the lower-tier seat caps can force upgrades as a team grows. The product is grooming-first, so boarding/daycare feels bolted on. None of that makes it a bad tool — but at 4.1/184 it's a value pick with real trade-offs, not a category leader.

Alternatives #

• MoeGo — the higher-rated grooming-first choice, strong for mobile vans and no-show protection.
• Gingr — the all-in-one pick if boarding/daycare is your core business.
• Time To Pet — the tool for in-home dog walking and pet sitting.
• PetExec — a mature multi-service facility suite (note: closed to new customers under Togetherwork).

See the full pet grooming software category for the complete comparison.

Login & Support #

Businesses log in through DaySmart Pet on the web and its native iOS/Android apps; the legacy 123Pet login still lives at 123petsoftware.com. Support runs through DaySmart's help resources and support team. Reviewers' sentiment on support is more mixed than at higher-rated rivals, so weigh onboarding support when you evaluate.