If you've shopped for pet sitting software, you've seen the pattern: the price that looked reasonable for a solo operator quietly doubles the moment you hire help. Per-seat pricing is the industry norm — and it's a documented pain point in review after review.
The per-seat math
Let's use real, published numbers (accurate as of mid-2026 — always verify with the vendor, because these change):
- Time To Pet charges $40/month for a Team plan plus $16 per active user. A three-person team pays around $72/month — every month, forever.
- MoeGo bills mobile groomers per van and salons per location. A two-van mobile operation on the Growth tier pays $198/month, because the advertised $99 is per van, not per business.
- Gingr and other facility tools scale into the $199–299/month range for multi-location operators.
The pattern is the same everywhere: the tax is on your growth. The moment your business succeeds — a second sitter, a second van, a third groomer — your software bill jumps. Reviewers of these tools say it explicitly: per-staff pricing makes costs climb quickly as a team grows, and it feels expensive for solo operators and larger companies alike.
The second-hire trigger
Here's the thing about the per-seat model: it doesn't bite when you sign up. It bites at exactly the moment you're doing something right.
Hiring your first employee is already a leap — wages, insurance, scheduling complexity. Discovering that your software bill also just jumped 50–100% is the kind of small, insulting cost that sours an exciting milestone. We've heard versions of this story repeatedly from small pet care businesses evaluating tools.
Our approach: flat rates
PetAmigo charges a simple flat rate:
- Free for Circles — pet owners coordinating care with friends and family pay nothing, ever.
- Solo Sitter — $19/month — one professional account, unlimited clients, scheduling, visit logs, and invoicing. Open to sitters, groomers, walkers, trainers, and every other pet care business type.
- Agency — $49/month — 3 seats included, plus client invites, live chat on every booking, and client invoicing. Adding your second and third staff member costs $0 extra.
No per-seat fees. No per-van fees. No SMS caps engineered to push you up a tier.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Pricing structure is a business decision, not just a number. A flat ladder means:
- You can hire when the work demands it, not when the software bill allows it.
- Your costs are predictable, which matters when you're pricing your services and planning a year ahead.
- You're not paying a growing tax on success.
If you're comparing tools, we keep an honest, regularly updated breakdown of what the major pet sitting software platforms actually cost — including the per-seat math most pricing pages don't show you. And if you want to see the flat-rate plans directly, they're here.