12 Best Booking Software in 2026: Pricing, Features and Pros & Cons

Square Appointments is the only genuinely free plan in this list that covers a whole team, and the natural pick for a business that already takes cards through Square. Free costs $0 for one location and includes a booking website, unlimited staff calendars, text and email reminders, deposits, prepayments and invoices. Booking, payments and POS live in one Square account, so there is no separate processor to set up.

The free plan's gaps are the tools that protect revenue: no-show fees, the waitlist, classes and Google Calendar sync all need Plus at $49 a month per location, and Premium at $149 adds resource management for rooms and chairs. Card processing runs 2.6% plus $0.15 in person on Free. Start on Square when the business already runs on it.

Setmore is the rare scheduler whose free plan is a working product rather than a sample. Four users get a booking page, unlimited appointments, payments through Square, Stripe and PayPal, and email reminders for $0, with no time limit. Pro costs $5 a user a month billed annually, or $12 billed monthly, and adds SMS reminders, two-way calendar sync, recurring appointments, deposits and the API.

The catch is the free plan's one-way calendar sync: it can only read your calendar, not write to it, so double bookings are a real risk until you pay for Pro. There are also no packages, memberships or waitlist features, and every staff calendar counts as a user. Pick Setmore when the team is small and the budget is zero.

Calendly is the default booking link for meetings, and it earns that spot with simplicity: one link, one calendar, and clients pick a time without the email back-and-forth. The free plan costs $0 and covers one event type and one calendar connection. Standard costs $12 a seat a month billed monthly, or $10 billed annually, and removes the event-type cap, connects up to six calendars and adds group events, payments and automated reminders.

The limits are scope and seat pricing. Calendly books meetings — it has no POS, no client records, no packages and no marketplace, so a salon or clinic needs a fuller tool. And the per-seat price adds up: five people on Standard pay $60 a month billed monthly. Choose Calendly when the job is meetings, not services.

Acuity Scheduling — now Squarespace Scheduling — is the solid general-purpose pick for service businesses that take payments. Starter costs $20 a month billed monthly, or $16 billed annually, for one calendar with unlimited appointments, intake forms, payment processing through Stripe and Square, and email confirmations. Pricing is flat by calendar count, not per user, so extra staff sharing one calendar cost nothing.

The gaps are reminders and scale. SMS reminders need Growing at $34 a month billed monthly, and Starter's single calendar means a four-person team pays $34, not $20. There is no free plan, only a 7-day trial, and no marketplace to bring new clients. Pick Acuity when payments and intake forms matter more than discovery.

SimplyBook.me is the cheapest paid plan in this list, and it is priced by booking volume rather than by headcount. Basic costs €11.90 a month billed annually, or €13.90 billed monthly, and covers five providers, 100 bookings a month, three custom features, payments, deposits and a ready-made booking website. The free plan includes a booking website, email reminders and 50 bookings a month for one provider.

The booking cap is the thing to watch: a busy month over 100 bookings means upgrading to Standard at €24.90 a month billed annually or buying extra bookings. Prices are in euros, so US buyers pay the exchange rate, and removing the SimplyBook.me footer needs Premium. Choose SimplyBook.me when the team is small and the booking volume is steady.

Fresha is the cheapest way into salon software, and the marketplace is the reason to pick it. Independent costs $19.95 a month for one bookable team member and covers online booking, POS, client management, memberships, packages and gift cards. Team pricing drops to $14.95 a month per bookable team member, so a four-person team pays $59.80 a month.

The catch is that Fresha is no longer free, despite what older roundups still say: the subscription-free era ended in 2025. On top of the subscription, Fresha takes a 20% commission on new clients found through its marketplace, with a $6 minimum, and phone support costs $14.95 a month extra on Independent. Pick Fresha when the business is small and wants new clients to find it.

Vagaro is the best fit for most salons because it packs the whole job into the cheapest full subscription here. One bookable calendar costs $30 a month and covers online booking, client records, POS, payment processing and email marketing, plus a marketplace listing. The price grows by $10 a month per extra calendar and caps at $85 a month for seven or more.

The trade-off is the add-on shelf. Text marketing, the website builder and the branded app each cost extra, so a salon that wants all three pays well above the headline price. The $23.99 rate is also an introductory price for the first six months; the list price is $30. Buy Vagaro for the most complete toolkit at the lowest monthly price; buy Fresha when the budget is tighter.

Booksy sells one plan and nothing else: $29.99 a month plus tax for the first user, with every feature included from day one — online booking, client and staff management, scheduling, marketing tools, no-show protection, POS and a marketplace listing. There is no higher tier to unlock and no long-term contract. The marketplace is the draw: tens of millions of users search for beauty services inside the Booksy app.

The price to watch is headcount. Each extra team member costs $20 a month, so a four-person salon pays $89.99 a month, not $29.99. Optional Boost, which pushes the salon higher in marketplace results, charges 30% of a new client's first visit, between $10 and $100, when switched on. Pick Booksy when new-client discovery matters most.

Goldie — formerly Appointfix — is the mobile-first pick for solo beauty professionals. Starter is free and covers 20 appointments a month with online booking, reminder templates and client management. Pro costs $19.99 a month, or $199.99 a year, and adds unlimited appointments, no-show protection, appointment deposits, automated reminders and 500 free SMS credits a month.

The limits are scale and discovery. Starter's 20-appointment cap runs out fast for a busy provider, there is no free trial of the paid plans, and Pro covers one calendar — teams need Pro Plus at $39.99 a month. There is no consumer marketplace either. Choose Goldie when one person runs the diary from a phone.

Appointy is the workhorse pick for service businesses with several staff or locations. The free plan covers one staff member, five services and 100 appointments a month, with website integration and automated reminders. Growth costs $29.99 a month billed monthly, or $19.99 billed annually, and adds payments through Stripe, PayPal and Authorize.net, two-way Google Calendar sync and SMS reminders.

The price to watch is headcount: extra team members cost extra on the paid plans, and removing Appointy's branding needs Enterprise at $79.99 a month billed annually. Recurring bookings are not on the free plan, and the interface feels dated next to the newer tools here. Pick Appointy when the business spans time zones or locations.

Mindbody is the pick when the business is really a wellness studio that sells classes and memberships. Starter costs $99 a month per location and covers scheduling, POS, online payments, unlimited users and branded website widgets, plus a listing in the Mindbody consumer app. Class scheduling, packages and passes are the core of the product, not an add-on, and the reporting runs deep.

The weaknesses are price transparency and the review record. Mindbody publishes only a starting floor, the higher tiers need a sales quote, and some captures of the page show a $79 floor rather than $99, so confirm the quote before signing. Mindbody also carries the lowest G2 score in this list at 3.7 out of 5, with reviewers citing price rises and billing friction. Choose Mindbody for classes and memberships.

Boulevard is the premium pick in this list, built for salons and spas where the booking experience is part of the service. Essentials costs $159 a month for one location with up to 5 providers, or $143 a month billed annually, and covers online booking, Precision Scheduling, POS, basic reporting and text reminders. Precision Scheduling handles multi-service bookings cleanly, and the client-facing pages are the most polished here.

The price is the obvious barrier: $159 a month is the highest entry price here, with no free plan and no free trial, and Forms cost $65 a month extra on Essentials or Premier. The $143 annual figure is shown as a limited-time offer for new customers, so confirm the rate at checkout. Choose Boulevard when the business is premium or multi-location.