Salon & Beauty Booking Software

Salon software sits at an awkward intersection: it is a calendar, a till, a client database, a marketing tool and, increasingly, a marketplace that sells your availability to strangers for a cut. That last part is why so many salons, barbershops, nail studios and aesthetic clinics end up switching platforms — not because the calendar stopped working, but because the pricing model changed underneath them. This section covers how the tools are actually priced, which ones fit which kind of business, and how to move between them without losing the client history you spent years building.

The recurring theme across everything here is that advertised subscription prices tell you very little. A platform at $15 a month with a 20% marketplace commission can cost a busy studio far more than a platform at $30 flat. A free tier that charges for data export is not free at the moment you want to leave. The useful comparison is always total cost under your real booking mix, and that is the lens applied throughout.

Pricing, commissions and platform switching

Most people arrive at this topic while trying to escape a specific bill. Fresha's shift to paid subscriptions in November 2025 was the biggest recent example, and it turned a large population of salons into reluctant software shoppers overnight. If that is where you are, start with our breakdown of Fresha's real pricing, its marketplace fees, and how to leave without losing your clients — it works through the commission arithmetic on a realistic booking mix and covers the export-before-you-cancel sequence that trips people up.

The same questions recur with Treatwell, Planity, Acuity and Booksy: what is the commission, what does the marketplace actually deliver, and what happens to your data when you go. Commission-free and flat-rate platforms exist across every price point, but "no commission" is only an advantage if the marketplace was not bringing you business in the first place.

Choosing by the shape of your business

A booking tool that suits a mobile lash tech will frustrate a six-chair salon, and both would be lost inside software built for a twelve-location group. The variables that matter most are staff count, whether you take payment in person, whether you need clinical or treatment notes, and how much of your new business comes from search rather than referral.

The operational layer: reminders, deposits and reviews

Booking software earns its cost between appointments rather than during them. No-shows, empty gaps and clients who drift away after one visit cost far more than any subscription, and the features that address them — automated reminders, deposit collection, cancellation policies, follow-up messages and review requests — are what separate a calendar from a business tool.

These are also the features most often locked behind an upgrade tier or sold as add-ons, which is worth knowing before you compare headline prices. A plan that looks cheap until you add SMS reminders and deposits is not cheap.

Common questions before you switch

This section is growing article by article. Each new piece covers one platform, one vertical or one operational decision in depth, and is linked here as it lands.