10 Best Software for Beauty Salons in 2026, Compared

Square Appointments is the cheapest way into proper salon software because the entry price is genuinely $0. The free plan covers one location with online booking, a booking website, client management and email reminders, and it plugs straight into Square POS, so services and retail share one checkout. Card processing runs 2.6% + 15c in person and 3.3% + 30c online on the free plan, which is the real cost until you upgrade.

Plus costs $49 a month per location and is the plan most salons actually need: it adds no-show fees, multi-staff booking, a waitlist, classes and packages, and Google Calendar sync. Premium costs $149 and adds resource booking for rooms and chairs, plus advanced reporting. Pick Square Appointments when you already take payments through Square, or when a free plan that actually works matters more than a marketplace.

Fresha is the low-subscription option with a catch you must model before you buy. Independent costs $19.95 a month for one bookable team member, and Team costs $14.95 a month per member, with online booking, a calendar, client records, POS and marketing tools included. The free-forever plan ended, so every account now pays a subscription after a 7-day trial.

The real cost is the marketplace. When Fresha's marketplace sends you a brand-new client, it takes a 20% commission on that client's first booking, with a $6 minimum, on top of card processing at 2.29% + 20c in person. Returning clients you booked directly cost nothing in commission. Choose Fresha when you need new clients more than you need cost predictability, and import your existing client list first so regulars are not counted as marketplace finds.

GlossGenius is the most polished booking experience in this list. Standard costs $24 a month billed annually, or $28 month to month, and covers a customizable booking website, online booking, payments, client management and marketing. Clients book in under 30 seconds without downloading an app or creating an account, and deposits, reminders and a waitlist are included.

The trade-offs are scope and geography. Standard covers up to 2 users, so a third stylist means Gold at $48 a month billed annually, and the platform is US only — salons elsewhere cannot use it at all. There is no marketplace and no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Pick GlossGenius when the booking page itself is the marketing, and your clients mostly come from Instagram, Google or word of mouth rather than a marketplace.

Vagaro is the workhorse of this list: online booking, a client marketplace, POS, inventory, loyalty and marketing in one subscription that stops growing once the team gets big. The base plan costs $30 a month for one bookable calendar, with an introductory $23.99 a month for the first six months, and each extra calendar costs $10 a month. Once you pass seven calendars the bill caps at about $85 a month.

The catches are the add-ons. Text marketing, intake forms and the website builder each cost extra, and a realistic four-person salon lands near $94 to $150 a month before processing once those are switched on. Choose Vagaro when the salon has three to seven chairs and you want one ceiling on the subscription instead of a bill that grows with every hire.

Booksy sells simplicity: one plan, every feature, no tiers to compare. Booksy Biz costs $29.99 a month for the first user plus $20 a month for each additional team member, and that single price covers unlimited bookings, online booking, client and calendar management, marketing, gift cards, memberships, forms and waivers. The trial lasts 14 days and needs no credit card, and billing is month to month with no contract.

The cost driver is headcount. A three-person salon pays $69.99 a month and a five-person salon pays $109.99, before card processing at 2.49% + 10c in person, so Booksy gets expensive past five chairs. The optional Boost promotion takes 30% of a new client's first visit, up to $100. Pick Booksy when you want every feature from day one and a large consumer marketplace finding new clients for you.

Acuity Scheduling, now sold as Squarespace Scheduling, is the booking-only option in this list — and for a solo stylist that is a strength, not a gap. Starter costs $20 a month billed monthly, or $16 billed annually, and covers one calendar with unlimited appointments and services, online payments, email reminders, custom intake forms and automatic time-zone conversion. Payments run through Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo.

What you do not get is anything salon-specific: no POS, no inventory, no memberships and no marketplace. SMS reminders, packages and memberships need Standard at $27 a month billed annually, and a second calendar forces the same upgrade. Choose Acuity Scheduling when booking and payment at the time of booking are the whole job, and you would rather pay $16 a month than $30 for salon features you will never open.

Mindbody is the enterprise answer in this list, and it prices like one. Starter costs $79 a month per location and covers online booking, payments, POS, basic reporting, website widgets and a listing on the Mindbody app, with unlimited staff users on every plan. the higher tiers are quote-only, so the true cost above Starter is unknown until a sales call.

The marketplace is the reason to pay the premium: millions of monthly shoppers browse the Mindbody app, and memberships and contracts are the deepest here. The cost is the commission — 20% of a new app-delivered client's first purchase, capped at $30 — plus contracts that typically run 12 to 24 months. Pick Mindbody when the salon is established, runs memberships, or plans a second location, and skip it for a single chair.

Mangomint is the front-desk efficiency play: one plan, no tiers, and the fastest booking flow in this category. The price is $120 a month per location plus $10 a month per user, so one location and one user costs $130 a month. That single plan includes online booking, Express Booking for multi-service appointments, client records, POS, memberships, forms, charting and reporting, with unlimited text and email confirmations.

The $130 entry rules out solo operators, and the add-ons add up: Phone costs $70 a month per line, Marketing starts at $30, and Payroll at $50 plus $8 per worker, so a team's real stack can pass $250 a month. There is no contract, and onboarding and data transfer are included. Choose Mangomint when the salon has two to twenty staff and the front desk, not the subscription, is the bottleneck.

Boulevard is the premium pick for established salons that live on color and multi-service appointments. Essentials costs $159 a month billed monthly, or $143 billed annually, for one location with up to five providers, and covers online booking, Precision Scheduling, POS, text reminders and basic reporting. Precision Scheduling fits color processing and back-to-back services without double-booking the chair.

The extras are where the bill grows: Forms cost $65 a month on Essentials, inventory needs Premier at $325 a month, and twelve-month agreements are standard. On the plus side there is no marketplace, so clients book on your own site and never see competing salons, and tiered commissions pay booth renters straight to their own accounts. Pick Boulevard when the salon is established, has three to five providers, and checkout splits matter as much as booking.

Zenoti is enterprise software for salon and spa chains, and it should be judged as one. It publishes no prices at all: every plan is a custom quote based on business size, number of locations and features, with third-party reports putting single locations near $225 to $400 a month. The Growth tier covers online booking, memberships and loyalty, automated marketing, POS and reporting, with AI receptionist and reputation tools on the higher tiers.

Buying Zenoti means buying an implementation project: reported setup fees run from $1,000 to $5,000, contracts are typically annual, and the platform is built around multi-location dashboards, franchise support and cross-center redemption. That depth is the point for a chain and pure overhead for a single salon. Choose Zenoti only when the business already runs several locations and needs one system across all of them.