11 Best Salon Appointment Scheduling Software in 2026, Compared

Square Appointments is the cheapest online booking for a salon already on Square: the Free plan costs $0, covers one location, and includes a booking website, unlimited staff calendars, automated reminders, deposits and invoices. Processing is the only bill, at 2.6% + 15c in person and 3.3% + 30c online. Plus costs $49 a month per location and adds no-show fees, multi-staff booking, a waitlist, classes and Google Calendar sync; Premium costs $149 and adds room and chair booking and phone support.

The trade-off is that Square sells you the register, not the discovery. There is no marketplace sending new clients, and no-show fees and cancellation policies sit on Plus. Buy it when you already take Square payments and want one system for bookings and the till; buy Vagaro or Booksy when you need a marketplace to fill empty chairs.

GlossGenius is the design-led pick: booking pages look like a beauty brand, not a form, and clients can book in under 30 seconds without an account or an app download. Standard costs $28 a month, or $24 billed annually, and covers online booking, a booking website, client and inventory management, payments and email marketing. Gold costs $56 a month for teams up to 9 staff; Platinum is $168.

The selling point is pricing clarity: one subscription and a flat 2.6% card rate, with no commission on new clients and no add-on catalog. The limits are geography and team size — GlossGenius serves the US only, and Standard covers just 2 users, so a third stylist moves you to Gold. Choose it when booking is part of your brand; choose Vagaro for a marketplace or a lower per-staff price.

Vagaro has been the workhorse of American salons for years: online booking, POS, client management, email and text marketing, payroll and reporting in one subscription. The base plan costs $30 a month for one bookable calendar, with a $23.99 introductory rate for the first six months, and each extra calendar costs $10 a month. After seven paid calendars, extra staff cost nothing more.

The ceiling sets Vagaro apart from per-staff rivals: a 7-chair salon pays about $90 a month for the base plan, where Booksy would charge $150. The catch is the add-on catalog — deposits need a $10-a-month shopping-cart feature, text reminders need an SMS plan, and a realistic 4-person salon lands near $94 to $150 a month before processing. Pick Vagaro when the team is growing and you want the bill to stop growing with it.

Fresha's pitch is simple: powerful salon software for very little money, plus a marketplace of millions of consumers looking for appointments. The Independent plan costs $19.95 a month for one bookable team member, and Team costs $14.95 per member a month, covering booking, POS, client records and marketing.

The fine print is the commission. When the marketplace sends you a new client, it takes 20% of that client's first booking, with a $6 minimum, and the old free plan ended in 2026 — after a 7-day trial you pay either way. Import your existing client list before going live, or regulars who rebook through the marketplace can cost you commission. Choose Fresha when discovery is worth 20% of a first visit; choose Square or GlossGenius when it is not.

Booksy pairs a full salon toolkit with the biggest consumer marketplace here: about 40 million users search its app for beauty services. The price is $29.99 a month plus tax for the first user, with $20 a month for each additional team member, and every feature is included — online booking, POS, client and calendar management, no-show protection, gift cards, memberships and reporting. In-person card processing runs 2.49% + 10c.

The trade-off is the per-person meter. A solo stylist pays $29.99, a three-person salon pays $69.99 and a five-person salon pays $109.99, all before processing and any Boost fees — Boost is optional and takes 30% of a new client's first visit, capped at $100. Booksy suits salons still acquiring clients; Vagaro suits salons whose book is already full and who want the bill to stop climbing.

Goldie is the phone-first pick, built for solo beauty pros who run the business from an app rather than a desk. The Starter plan is free and covers 20 appointments a month for one user, with scheduling, reminders, online booking and client management. Pro costs $19.99 a month, or $199.99 a year, and adds unlimited appointments, no-show protection, automated reminders and 500 SMS credits a month.

The free plan is genuinely usable, but 20 appointments a month is a low ceiling — a full book needs Pro within weeks. Pro Plus costs $39.99 a month and adds multiple users and calendars for a small team. There is no marketplace and no commission, so every client comes from your own marketing. Choose Goldie when you work alone and book from your phone; choose GlossGenius for a fuller desktop toolkit.

Setmore is the rare scheduler whose free plan is a working product rather than a sample: up to four users get unlimited appointments, a booking page, payments, email reminders, Reserve with Google and round-the-clock support, all for $0. Pro costs $12 per user a month billed monthly, or $5 billed annually, and adds text reminders, two-way sync, deposits and the API.

The catch is the per-user meter and the thin feature set. A four-person team pays $48 a month on monthly billing, with no waitlist, packages, memberships or AI. Setmore's own pages disagree on the monthly Pro price — the pricing page shows $12, the FAQ $9 — so confirm it at checkout. Choose Setmore when the budget is $0 and the job is simply taking bookings; choose Vagaro or GlossGenius for marketing and retail in the same system.

Acuity Scheduling, now Squarespace Scheduling, is the general-purpose scheduler here, for bookings that are complicated. Starter costs $20 a month, or $16 billed annually, for one calendar, with unlimited appointments, intake forms, payment collection through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo, email reminders and timezone conversion. Standard costs $34 a month for up to 6 calendars and adds text reminders, packages and memberships.

The strength is control: intake forms, packages, classes and group bookings are deeper here than in any salon-specific tool, and Premium at $69 a month adds a HIPAA agreement. The weakness is that Acuity is not a salon system — no built-in POS, no retail, no marketplace and no free plan. Choose Acuity when you sell packages and take payment at booking; choose GlossGenius or Vagaro when the till and marketing matter as much as the calendar.

Mindbody is the biggest name in wellness software, and the one your clients may already have on their phone. Starter is published as starting at $99 a month per location, covering booking, payments, a branded booking widget, a business website, an app listing and basic reporting, with unlimited staff logins. The higher tiers are quoted through sales, with owners reporting roughly $259 to $499 a month.

The value is the marketplace: Mindbody genuinely sends bookings at a scale no other tool here matches, but it takes a 20% cut, capped at $30, on each new client it delivers. The risks are the sales process and the contract — no tier price is published, and plans typically run 12 to 24 months. Choose Mindbody for several locations and discovery at scale; choose Boulevard for a published price and no marketplace commission.

Boulevard is the premium pick, built for established salons and medspas that treat the booking experience as part of the brand. Essentials costs $159 a month, or $143 billed annually, for one location and up to 5 providers, with 250 texts, 1,000 email blasts and 50 GB storage. Premier is $325 a month and Prestige $455, with support on every plan.

The pitch is control without commission: no marketplace, so clients book on your site with no rival salon beside your listing, and tiered commissions and booth-renter payouts are handled cleanly. The price is the objection — $159 a month is the dearest entry, forms cost $65 a month, and a sixth provider jumps you to Premier. Choose Boulevard when the client experience is worth the premium; choose Vagaro when $159 a month is more than booking software should cost.

Mangomint charges one simple formula: $120 a month per location plus $10 a month per user, so a solo stylist pays $130 and a 10-person salon pays $220. Everything is included — Express Booking, a waiting room, memberships, deposits and reporting — with no contracts and no add-on catalog. Card processing runs 2.45% + 15c in person.

The draw is speed: booking, checkout and rebooking take fewer clicks than on any rival here, and booth renters can take payments into their own accounts while commissions run in the same system. The catch is the per-user meter — every profile counts, front desk included — and phone, payroll and marketing are paid add-ons. Choose Mangomint when the team is growing and the front desk needs to move fast; choose Boulevard when the client experience matters more than the workflow.