waivers.tattoo vs Smartwaiver: what a tattoo shop actually pays

Smartwaiver is the biggest name in digital waivers, and it is not built for tattoo shops. It is built for rafting companies, trampoline parks, gyms, and you. That shows up in 2 places: what you pay, and what the form asks your client. Here is what the two pricing pages said on 2026-09-10.

I make one of these two products, so read the numbers rather than me. Every figure below is on the vendor's own page, linked where I state it.

What each one costs

Smartwaiver bills by how many waivers you collect in a month. Their page puts it plainly next to the cheapest tier: "Up to 100 signed waivers per month." Here is the whole ladder.

Ours is $50 a year per shop, or $5 a month. Unlimited signed waivers. Unlimited artists. Nothing we sell counts either one.

So the cheapest way onto Smartwaiver costs $194 for a year and caps you at 100 waivers a month. 2 artists at 3 clients a day pass 100 in about 3 weeks. That is the $55 plan, $561 for the year, and it caps you at 300.

The meter is the real difference

A per-month cap does something to a shop that a flat price does not. It puts a small price on each signature, and it puts a small voice at the counter in the last week of a busy month. The walk-in at 7pm on the 28th is the one you are deciding about, and that is the exact client whose signature you most want on file.

That is also the client an inspector asks about. We do not count your waivers, and the reason is that number 101 in a month is worth more to you than the first 100, not less.

Smartwaiver also sells a storage plan for the months you are not collecting: "If your business won’t be collecting waivers for a period of time, you can switch to our Storage Plan for just $7 per month." That is $84 a year to keep a filing cabinet you already filled. Read it on their pricing page and decide what it is worth to you.

What the form asks

This is the part price comparisons skip, and for a tattoo shop it matters more than the money.

Smartwaiver's feature list includes "Unlimited waiver templates," which is the honest description of a generic tool: you build the form. You decide what a consent form in your state has to say, you write the health questions, you keep it current when the rule changes, and you find out whether you got it right when an inspector reads it.

Ours ships knowing. The form asks the questions your state's rule requires, because we read all 51 sets of rules and wrote them into the form. Oregon is the plainest example: its rule reaches things a generic liability template never asks about, so a shop in Oregon gets those questions and a shop in Florida does not. Every state has its own page with the rule and the citation next to it.

The rest of what the form does at the counter, without anyone setting it up: it speaks Spanish, it fills the client's address as they type it, it photographs the ID, and it prints the consent in the language the client actually read.

This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Your local health department has the final word. Ask them, and bring your records.

What you own either way

Both products give you the signed waiver and let you get your records out. Ours emails the signed waiver to the shop the moment the client finishes, puts them on your client list, and exports the whole list as a CSV whenever you want it, including the day you leave.

Switching

Your QR code changes and nothing else about your counter does. Your clients scan a code, fill the form on their own phone, and sign. There is no app for them to install and no iPad for you to hand over, charge or wipe down.

Keep collecting on Smartwaiver until the day your new code goes on the counter, export your history from them, and start. The first waivers are free, and we ask for a card once you have seen it work on a real Saturday. Start your shop and put the code out this week.