11 Best Booking Software for Salons in 2026, Compared
Compare the 11 best booking software for salons on price, free plans, marketplace fees and no-show tools, with every price checked November 7, 2026.
Shamim Mia, Founder, SerpAstraLast verified November 7, 202615 min readWe compare pricing pages, documentation and public reviews. We never accept payment for rankings.
Key takeaways
- Vagaro is the best fit for most salons at $30 a month; Fresha follows at $19.95 with the biggest client marketplace, and Square Appointments is free for solo operators already using Square.
- The subscription is the smallest part of the bill: Fresha takes 20% of a new marketplace client's first booking and Booksy Boost takes 30%, so marketplace fees usually cost more than the monthly plan.
- The single most important buying factor is how the price scales with your team: per-staff pricing punishes growth, per-location pricing rewards it, and per-calendar pricing sits in between.
- Only Square Appointments and SimplyBook.me offer genuinely free plans; every other tool here is a paid plan or a trial, and no-show protection usually needs a paid tier.
On this page
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vagaro | Small salons that want the most features per dollar, from booking and POS to marketing, without paying per staff member | $30/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| Fresha | Solo stylists and small salons that want new clients to find them through a large booking marketplace | $19.95/mo | No (7-day trial) |
| GlossGenius | Solo beauty professionals and small teams that want a polished booking site, payments and marketing in one plan | $28/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Booksy | Salons that want new clients to discover them in a beauty marketplace used by 40 million consumers | $29.99/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Square Appointments | Salons already running Square for payments or retail that want booking in the same system | Free; Plus $49/mo | Yes (free) |
| SimplyBook.me | Budget-conscious salons that want a free start and pay only for the bookings they take | €11.90/mo | Yes (free) |
| Acuity Scheduling | Solo stylists and small teams that want reliable booking, intake forms and packages without salon extras | $20/mo | No (7-day trial) |
| Mangomint | Growing salons with 2 to 10 staff that want premium design and heavy automation | $130/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Boulevard | Premium salons and spas where the client experience and checkout matter as much as the booking | $159/mo | No (demo only) |
| Meevo | Established salons and spas that want deep reporting, goal setting and payroll in one system | $169/mo | No (demo only) |
| Zenoti | Salon and spa chains, franchises and high-volume multi-location groups | Custom quote | No (demo only) |
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Request a listingThe best booking software for salons
Vagaro
Best for: Small salons that want the most features per dollar, from booking and POS to marketing, without paying per staff member
Vagaro is the value pick in this list because one $30-a-month plan covers the whole job: online booking, a calendar, client records, point of sale, email marketing and a marketplace listing. The pricing model is the reason it wins on value: you pay per bookable calendar, not per staff member, so one calendar costs $30 a month, a second adds $10, and the bill caps at $85 a month once you pass seven calendars.
The catch is the promotional rate. New customers see $23.99 a month for the first six months, then the price rises to the $30 list rate, and text marketing and other add-ons sit on top. Reviewers also report occasional outages. Buy Vagaro when you want the most features for the least money; buy Fresha or GlossGenius when the marketplace or the polish matters more.
What we like
- One $30/month plan covers booking, POS, client records, email marketing and a marketplace listing
- Priced per bookable calendar, not per staff member, so a stylist with one chair pays the same as a stylist with three
- The largest review base in this list, with 4.7 out of 5 on Capterra across more than 3,600 reviews
- A 30-day free trial, the longest here, with no card required to start
Watch out for
- A $23.99/month promotional rate for the first 6 months rises to the $30 list price, and add-ons such as text marketing cost extra
- Reviewers report occasional outages during busy hours and a dated interface in places
- No free plan, and the marketplace takes a cut of bookings it sends you
Fresha
Best for: Solo stylists and small salons that want new clients to find them through a large booking marketplace
Fresha wins the headline-price contest and loses the total-cost contest for busy salons. The subscription is the cheapest here at $19.95 a month for a solo operator, or $14.95 per team member on the Team plan, and card processing at 2.19% plus $0.20 is among the lowest rates in this list. Behind it sits a marketplace used by more than 130,000 salons, spas and barbershops.
The real price is the 20% commission on the first booking of every new client the marketplace sends you, with a $6 minimum. A salon gaining 20 new marketplace clients a month at an $80 ticket pays about $320 in commissions on top of the subscription. Buy Fresha when you need new clients more than cost predictability; buy Vagaro when the total monthly bill matters more.
What we like
- The lowest monthly subscription in this list at $19.95 for a solo operator
- A marketplace used by more than 130,000 salons, spas and barbershops that sends new clients to your chair
- Card processing at 2.19% plus $0.20, among the lowest rates here
- Free data migration and no setup fees when you move from another tool
Watch out for
- The old free plan has ended, so every salon now pays a monthly subscription after the 7-day trial
- A 20% commission on the first booking of every new marketplace client, with a $6 minimum, can dwarf the subscription
- Only 3 reviews on G2, so the 4.2 out of 5 score is too thin to lean on
GlossGenius
Best for: Solo beauty professionals and small teams that want a polished booking site, payments and marketing in one plan
GlossGenius is built for beauty and wellness, and it shows: the booking website looks like it was designed for a salon, not adapted from a generic scheduler, and payments, point of sale, inventory, packages, memberships and marketing all sit in the one subscription. Standard costs $28 a month billed monthly, or $24 a month billed annually, and card processing is a flat 2.4% plus $0.15 in person on every plan.
The limits are geography and tiers. GlossGenius is US-only, so salons anywhere else cannot use it, and the features that make it sing for teams — forms and waivers, the automated waitlist, Google booking — wait for Gold at $48 a month, while teams over 9 staff need Platinum at $148. Buy it when you are a US solo pro or small team that wants the prettiest booking experience here.
What we like
- A polished, salon-built booking website with payments, POS, inventory and marketing in one subscription
- Flat 2.4% plus $0.15 in-person card processing on every plan, with no per-transaction surprises
- The highest G2 score here at 4.9 out of 5, and 4.8 out of 5 on Capterra across 351 reviews
- Free migration help moves your client list and services from your old tool
Watch out for
- US-only, so salons outside the United States cannot use it at all
- Gold at $48 a month is needed for forms, waitlists and Google booking, and Platinum at $148 for teams over 9 staff
- No free plan, and the 14-day trial is the shortest path to a paid subscription
Booksy
Best for: Salons that want new clients to discover them in a beauty marketplace used by 40 million consumers
Booksy keeps its pricing simple: one plan, everything included, at $29.99 a month for the first staff member plus $20 a month for each extra team member. There is no feature-limited entry tier and no premium tier to upgrade into — booking, point of sale, client records, no-show protection, gift cards, memberships and marketing all come in the one price, with 2,000 marketing texts a month included.
The marketplace is the reason to buy it and the cost to watch. Booksy says 40 million consumers use its app to find beauty services, and the optional Boost feature pushes your salon higher in that marketplace for 30% of a new client's first visit, capped at $100. With Boost off, you pay no commission at all. Buy Booksy when discovery matters more than the lowest subscription.
What we like
- One plan with everything included: booking, POS, client records, no-show protection and marketing
- A consumer marketplace of 40 million users that puts your salon in front of people searching nearby
- 2,000 marketing texts a month included, and no contract, so you can cancel any month
- Rated 4.4 out of 5 on Capterra across 480 reviews, with ease of use at 4.4
Watch out for
- Optional Boost charges 30% of a new client's first visit, capped at $100, which adds up fast for a busy salon
- No annual discount, so the $29.99 a month never drops no matter how long you stay
- No free plan, and the per-staff pricing makes a five-person salon cost $109.99 a month
Square Appointments
Best for: Salons already running Square for payments or retail that want booking in the same system
Square Appointments is the natural pick for salons already in the Square world, where one system covers bookings, payments, the till and inventory. The free plan genuinely works for a solo operator: a booking website, unlimited staff calendars, automated text and email reminders, deposits and invoices for $0 a month. Billing per location rather than per staff member keeps team costs sane as you grow.
The free tier's limits define the upgrade path. Once you need no-show fees, waitlists, cancellation policies, classes or email marketing, Plus at $49 a month per location is the landing spot, and Premium at $149 adds resource scheduling for rooms and chairs. Buy Square Appointments when you already run Square; buy Vagaro or GlossGenius when you want a salon specialist.
What we like
- The only genuinely free plan here, with online booking, calendar sync and reminders at $0
- Priced per location, not per staff member, so a growing team costs the same as a solo operator
- One system for bookings, payments, POS and inventory, with Square hardware your staff already knows
- Rated 4.5 out of 5 on Capterra across 263 reviews
Watch out for
- No-show fees, waitlists, classes and Google Calendar sync all need Plus at $49 a month per location
- Card processing is the dearest here on the free plan at 2.6% plus $0.15 in person
- A general-purpose scheduler, not a salon specialist, so salon marketing and memberships are thinner
SimplyBook.me
Best for: Budget-conscious salons that want a free start and pay only for the bookings they take
SimplyBook.me is the budget pick because the pricing follows your booking volume, not your headcount. The free plan covers 50 bookings a month with one custom feature, Basic costs €11.90 a month billed annually (€13.90 billed monthly) for 100 bookings and three custom features, and Standard costs €24.90 a month billed annually (€29.90 billed monthly) for 500 bookings. More than 60 optional features, from deposits and tips to client login, switch on one at a time.
The trade-offs are currency and polish. Prices are in euros, so the dollar cost moves with the exchange rate, and the interface looks dated next to GlossGenius or Mangomint. A salon taking more than 50 bookings a month outgrows the free plan fast. Buy SimplyBook.me when the budget is tight and you take fewer than a hundred bookings a month.
What we like
- A real free plan with 50 bookings a month, and the cheapest paid plan here at €11.90 a month
- More than 60 optional features, from deposits to client login, so you switch on only what you need
- Rated 4.6 out of 5 on Capterra across 1,293 reviews, the largest review count after Acuity
- Works worldwide, unlike the US-only tools in this list
Watch out for
- Priced in euros, so the dollar cost moves with the exchange rate, and support is not US-based
- The free plan allows only 1 custom feature, so payments or deposits need the paid Basic plan
- The interface looks dated next to GlossGenius or Mangomint, and scaling past 500 bookings needs the €29.90 Standard plan
Acuity Scheduling
Best for: Solo stylists and small teams that want reliable booking, intake forms and packages without salon extras
Acuity Scheduling, now Squarespace Scheduling, is the generalist in this list: it does booking well and does not try to run the whole salon. Starter costs $20 a month billed monthly, or $16 a month billed annually, for one calendar, with payments through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo and custom intake forms. Standard costs $27 a month on annual billing for up to six calendars, and adds text reminders, packages, memberships and gift certificates.
What you give up is everything salon-specific. There is no built-in point of sale, no inventory, no salon marketing suite and no client marketplace, so a salon that wants those buys them elsewhere. Buy Acuity when booking, forms and packages are the job and you already have the rest covered; buy Vagaro when you want one tool for the whole salon.
What we like
- The most-reviewed scheduler here, with 4.8 out of 5 on Capterra across 5,745 reviews
- Priced by calendars, not per staff member, so a six-calendar team pays $27 a month on annual billing
- Intake forms, packages, memberships, gift certificates and classes all included from the Standard plan
- Owned by Squarespace, so it pairs cleanly with a Squarespace salon website
Watch out for
- No free plan, only a 7-day trial, and text reminders start on Standard at $27 a month
- No built-in POS, inventory or salon marketing, so it needs other tools for the rest of the job
- No marketplace, so it brings no new clients to your chair
Mangomint
Best for: Growing salons with 2 to 10 staff that want premium design and heavy automation
Mangomint is the pick for salons that have outgrown the cheap tools and want the nicest product to run the day on. Pricing is $120 a month per location plus $10 a month per user — $130 a month for one location with one user — with no setup fees and no contracts, and the automations — rebooking nudges, waitlists, client messaging — are the reason reviewers rate it the highest here.
The price is the whole argument against it: $130 a month is more than four times Vagaro, and the forms and charting module costs $50 a month extra, with messaging and payroll as paid add-ons too. Buy Mangomint when you have three or more staff and the front desk is eating your day; stay on Vagaro or GlossGenius while you are still small.
What we like
- The highest-rated tool here: 4.9 out of 5 on G2 and 5.0 out of 5 on Capterra
- Priced per location plus per user, so one location with one user costs $130 a month
- Strong automations for rebooking, waitlists and client messaging, with no setup fees and no contracts
- Free data import moves your clients and services from your old tool
Watch out for
- At $130 a month it costs more than four times Vagaro, which prices out solo stylists
- Forms and charting cost $50 a month extra, and messaging and payroll are paid add-ons too
- No free plan, and the 14-day trial is short for a tool this deep
Boulevard
Best for: Premium salons and spas where the client experience and checkout matter as much as the booking
Boulevard is the platform you graduate to when the client experience is the product. Essentials costs $159 a month ($143 with annual billing) per location, with Premier at about $293 and Prestige at about $410. The booking flow, self-check-in, messaging, memberships and a checkout built for tips all feel designed together, and the multi-location reporting suits groups with several sites.
Two things to check before you sign: Boulevard does not publish every tier price on its own site, so the figures here come from third-party listings of its published rates, and payment processing runs only through Boulevard. The 12-month minimum contract locks you in for a year. Buy Boulevard when your salon charges premium prices and the experience must match them.
What we like
- The most polished client experience here, from self-check-in to a checkout built for tips and memberships
- Precision scheduling, client messaging and memberships included, with strong multi-location reporting
- Rated 4.6 out of 5 on Capterra across 390 reviews and 4.4 out of 5 on G2
- Annual billing cuts Essentials to $143 a month per location
Watch out for
- Boulevard does not publish every tier price on its own site, so confirm the current rate before you sign
- Payment processing runs only through Boulevard, so you cannot shop for a cheaper processor
- US-only, and the 12-month minimum contract locks you in for a year
Meevo
Best for: Established salons and spas that want deep reporting, goal setting and payroll in one system
Meevo, the cloud platform from Millennium Systems International, is built for established salons that run on numbers: deep reporting, goal tracking, commission structures, payroll and inventory in one system. The Lite tier costs about $169 a month for up to 5 professionals, with higher tiers running to $529 a month for unlimited professionals. It also serves cosmetology schools and med spas, which few tools here do.
The buying process is the weak point. Meevo does not publish prices on its own site, so the figures here come from third-party listings and you must confirm them with the vendor, and no free trial is published — only a demo on request. Buy Meevo when your salon is established enough to need goal tracking and payroll in the same login.
What we like
- Deep reporting, goal tracking and commission tools that smaller tools do not offer
- Built for salons, spas, med spas and cosmetology schools, with payroll and inventory included
- Rated 4.4 out of 5 on Capterra across 277 reviews, with customer service at 4.6
- A long track record: the platform behind Millennium, used by salon groups for decades
Watch out for
- Meevo does not publish prices on its own site, so the $169 figure comes from third-party listings — confirm it with the vendor
- No free trial published, and the interface looks dated next to Mangomint or Boulevard
- The price climbs fast: higher tiers run to $529 a month for unlimited professionals
Zenoti
Best for: Salon and spa chains, franchises and high-volume multi-location groups
Zenoti is the chain operator's platform: centralized reporting, policy enforcement across locations, inventory transfers and franchise controls that the small-business tools cannot touch. Pricing is quote-only, with user-reported figures clustering around $225 to $400 a month per location, and the Growth, Hypergrowth and Complete tiers add AI reception, reputation management and marketing automation as you go up.
Everything about the buying process is enterprise: quote-only pricing, a 2- to 4-month implementation, setup fees that small businesses report at $2,000 to $5,000, and a 12-month contract. Per-location pricing plus marketing credits and add-ons can move the bill well above the entry quote. Buy Zenoti when you run five or more locations; buy Mangomint or Boulevard while you run one or two.
What we like
- Built for scale: centralized reporting, franchise controls and inventory transfers across locations
- AI receptionist, reputation management and marketing automation on higher tiers
- Rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 across 324 reviews, the strongest enterprise score here
- HIPAA-compliant workflows with a BAA option, so med spa groups can use it
Watch out for
- No published pricing, so you must request a quote, and implementation typically takes 2 to 4 months
- Setup fees and add-ons such as AI chatbots and two-way texting can push the bill well above the entry quote
- Overkill for a single location: the depth and the 12-month contract suit chains, not solo salons
The best booking software for salons does two jobs at once: it fills the chairs with online bookings, reminders and deposits, and it runs the business behind the chair with payments, client records and marketing. We ranked the eleven tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a small US salon with one to five staff — starting with the best-value all-rounders and ending with the enterprise platforms, and every price was checked on November 7, 2026.
How to choose the best booking software for salons
- Count how the price scales. Booksy charges $20 a month per extra staff member, Fresha charges $14.95 per team member, Vagaro charges $10 per extra calendar, and Square Appointments charges per location. The model that fits a solo stylist can punish a five-person salon.
- Price the marketplace, not just the subscription. Fresha takes 20% of a new marketplace client's first booking and Booksy Boost takes 30%. A salon gaining 20 new marketplace clients a month at an $80 ticket pays $320 to $480 in commissions — far more than the subscription.
- Check no-show protection. Deposits, card-on-file and cancellation fees cut empty chairs, but they sit on paid tiers: Square Appointments needs Plus at $49 a month, and Fresha's deposits need a paid plan too.
- Decide whether you need a full management platform. Booking-only tools like Acuity and SimplyBook.me are cheaper, but they have no point of sale, inventory or payroll. Vagaro, Meevo and Zenoti run the whole salon.
- Check where the tool works. GlossGenius and Boulevard are US-only. If your salon is anywhere else, they are not an option at any price.
Booking software is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the salon also needs to be found online, our local SEO service covers the visibility side — and before you publish new service pages, run your titles through the free local business schema generator so Google shows your salon correctly in search.
Whatever you shortlist, try it with real bookings before you pay. The free plans and trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine week — your services, your prices, your clients — and that week tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that clients can book without calling you, and that the reminders actually cut no-shows. Every tool here offers a trial or a free plan, so there is no reason to buy before your clients have booked through it.
Booking software for salons pricing: what you will actually pay
Take a five-person salon that takes about 400 bookings a month. On list prices, the subscription costs $0 on Square Appointments Free, €11.90 on SimplyBook.me Basic, $19.95 on Fresha Independent, $20 on Acuity Starter, $30 on Vagaro, $28 on GlossGenius Standard, $29.99 on Booksy, $130 on Mangomint, $169 on Meevo Lite and $159 on Boulevard Essentials. Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real: Fresha Independent covers one team member, so five staff on the Team plan costs $74.75 a month, and Booksy charges $20 per extra member, so five staff costs $109.99 a month.
Over a year, that is $0 on Square Appointments Free, about $119 on SimplyBook.me Basic, $240 on Acuity Starter billed annually, $300 on Vagaro, $288 on GlossGenius Standard billed annually, $359.88 on Booksy, $897 on Fresha Team, $1,319.88 on Booksy for five staff, $1,980 on Mangomint Essentials, $2,028 on Meevo Lite and $2,112 on Boulevard Essentials. The same five people and the same 400 bookings cost $0 a year at the cheap end and $2,112 at the dear end — a $2,112 gap that comes entirely from the pricing model, not from features.
Three costs sit outside every number above. First, card processing: 2.19% to 2.6% of every card payment, plus $0.15 to $0.30 per transaction, depending on the plan. Second, marketplace commissions: 20% of a new client's first booking on Fresha and 30% on Booksy Boost, which can add hundreds of dollars a month for a growing salon. Third, add-ons: text marketing, forms and charting, messaging and payroll are paid extras on most tools here. If you run a spa rather than a hair salon, the booking needs differ too — see our guide to the best spa booking software.
Annual billing cuts the bill on most tools here: GlossGenius Standard drops from $336 to $288 a year, Acuity Starter from $240 to $192, and Boulevard Essentials from about $2,112 to about $1,896. Vagaro, Booksy, Fresha and Square Appointments publish no annual discount, so the monthly figure is the whole story. One more cost to check before you commit: a second location is a second subscription on the per-location tools — Square Appointments, Boulevard and Zenoti all charge per location, so a salon with two sites pays double whatever the chart shows.
Know the difference: booking software vs salon management software
The confusion in this category is between a tool that takes appointments and a tool that runs the salon. Booking software does the calendar: online booking, reminders, deposits and rescheduling. Salon management software adds the rest of the business on top: point of sale, inventory, payroll, memberships, marketing and reporting. A tool can be excellent at one and weak at the other, and the price usually tells you which job it was built for.
Acuity Scheduling and SimplyBook.me are booking-first: they take appointments well and cheaply, but they have no point of sale, no inventory and no payroll, so a salon that wants those buys them elsewhere. Vagaro, Meevo, Mangomint, Boulevard and Zenoti are management platforms: booking is one module among many, and the price reflects the whole system. GlossGenius, Booksy, Fresha and Square Appointments sit in the middle, with booking plus payments and some marketing, but thinner payroll and reporting than the management platforms.
A second, quieter confusion is between a booking tool and a marketplace. Fresha and Booksy are both, and the marketplace is where the money goes: the subscription buys the software, while the commission buys the new client. A salon whose chair is already full from repeat clients pays that commission for nothing. If your clients come from Instagram, Google or word of mouth, a cheaper tool without a marketplace keeps more of each booking.
Quick comparison: tool type by need
| Buyer | Best pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Most salons, best value | Vagaro | Most features per dollar, from $30/month, priced per calendar |
| Solo stylist who needs new clients | Fresha | Cheapest subscription at $19.95/month, plus the biggest marketplace |
| US solo pro who wants polish | GlossGenius | Salon-built booking site and payments, from $28/month |
| Salon already on Square | Square Appointments | Free plan at $0, priced per location, one system for bookings and till |
| Smallest budget | SimplyBook.me | Free plan with 50 bookings a month, Basic is €11.90/month |
| Growing team that wants premium | Mangomint | Highest-rated tool here, $130/month for one location |
| Chain or franchise | Zenoti | Built for multi-location groups, priced by custom quote |
Mistakes to avoid
- Budgeting on the subscription alone. The monthly fee is the smallest part of the bill for a busy salon: marketplace commissions of 20% to 30% on new clients and card processing of about 2.5% on every payment usually cost more than the plan itself.
- Buying on the free plan, then finding the features cost extra. Square Appointments Free has no no-show fees or waitlist, and SimplyBook.me Free allows only one custom feature. If you need deposits or payments, count the paid plan in the price from day one.
- Ignoring the pricing model that bites first. A tool can be cheap and still be the wrong buy: Booksy at $29.99 is no bargain once five staff cost $109.99 a month, and Fresha at $19.95 is no bargain once five team members cost $74.75.
- Paying for a marketplace you do not need. Fresha and Booksy charge 20% to 30% of a new client's first visit. If your chair is already full from repeat clients, that commission buys you nothing.
- Forgetting the second location. If you run two salons, you pay for two subscriptions on every per-location tool here. Price the second site before you commit to a tool for the first.
How we chose
We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 7, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one, and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer — a small US salon with one to five staff — not by brand size. Three prices could not be read directly from the vendor's own page, so they are third-party-reported from fresh crawls of the vendors' own pages and review listings, and are marked as such here: Fresha's $19.95 subscription, which multiple October and November 2026 crawls of its pricing page confirm; Boulevard's $159 Essentials tier, because Boulevard does not publish every tier price on its own site; and Meevo's $169 Lite tier, because Meevo publishes no prices at all. Zenoti publishes no starting price, so it is listed as a custom quote. Ratings come from G2 or Capterra pages surfaced on November 7, 2026. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.
What to do next
Start with the free plan or trial of your top pick and run one real week of bookings through it. Check that clients can book without calling you, that reminders cut no-shows, and that the card rate on your busiest day matches what the pricing page promised. If the bookings are sorted but new customers are not finding you, our local SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare options in our guide to the best medspa software. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.
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Get a free audit→Sources we checked (22)
- Vagaro pricing — vagaro.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Fresha pricing — fresha.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- GlossGenius pricing — glossgenius.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Booksy pricing — biz.booksy.com/en-us/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Square Appointments pricing — squareup.com/us/en/appointments/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- SimplyBook.me pricing — simplybook.me/en/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Acuity Scheduling pricing — acuityscheduling.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Mangomint pricing — mangomint.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Boulevard pricing — joinblvd.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Meevo pricing — meevo.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Zenoti pricing — zenoti.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Vagaro reviews — g2.com/products/vagaro/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Fresha reviews — g2.com/products/fresha/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- GlossGenius reviews — g2.com/products/glossgenius/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Booksy reviews — capterra.com/p/142741/Booksy/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Square Appointments reviews — capterra.com/p/170263/Square-Appointments/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- SimplyBook.me reviews — capterra.com/p/140086/SimplyBook-me/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Acuity Scheduling reviews — g2.com/products/acuity-scheduling/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Mangomint reviews — g2.com/products/mangomint/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Boulevard reviews — g2.com/products/boulevard-labs-inc-boulevard/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Meevo reviews — capterra.com/p/172058/Meevo-2/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Zenoti reviews — g2.com/products/zenoti/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
Shamim
Founder of SerpAstra
A full-stack SEO and digital marketer who spends most days on Local SEO for dental practices, AI search visibility and lead generation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best booking software for salons?
Vagaro is the best fit for most salons: the most features per dollar at $30 a month, with booking, POS, marketing and a marketplace in one plan. Fresha is the better pick when new-client discovery matters most, and GlossGenius is the better pick for US solo professionals who want the most polished booking site.
How much does salon booking software cost?
Entry prices run from $0 to $159 a month. Square Appointments and SimplyBook.me have free plans, and the first paid plans cost €11.90 to $29.99 a month. A five-person salon typically pays $30 to $159 a month for the subscription alone, before card processing and marketplace commissions.
Is Fresha really free?
No, not anymore. The old free plan has ended: Independent now costs $19.95 a month for a solo operator, or $14.95 per team member on the Team plan, after a 7-day trial. The bigger cost is the 20% commission on the first booking of every new client who finds you through the Fresha marketplace.
What is the difference between salon booking software and salon management software?
Booking software takes appointments: the calendar, online booking and reminders. Salon management software adds the rest of the business: point of sale, inventory, payroll, marketing and reporting. Most tools in this list do both, but Acuity and SimplyBook.me are booking-first, while Zenoti, Meevo and Vagaro are full management platforms.
Do I need a marketplace like Fresha or Booksy?
Only if you need new clients more than you need cost predictability. Fresha and Booksy put your salon in front of people searching nearby, but they charge 20% and 30% of a new client's first visit. If your chair is already full from repeat clients, a cheaper tool without a marketplace keeps more of each booking.
Can I switch salon booking software later?
Yes, but plan the move for a quiet week. Export your client list, service menu, prices and appointment history from the old tool, then import them into the new one and test online booking before going live. Fresha, GlossGenius and Mangomint all offer free data migration, which removes the hardest part of the move.
Which salon booking software has a free plan?
Two tools in this list: Square Appointments, with a genuinely free plan for solo operators, and SimplyBook.me, with a free plan covering 50 bookings a month. Every other tool offers a free trial of 7 to 30 days instead. Fresha's old free plan ended, so it no longer belongs in the free group.
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